2012 Prius Four - rear-ended!

Just thought I would gripe. I've been very happy with my 2012 Prius Four with solar roof package that I bought in April. There are a few quirks, mostly about the audio system interface and voice commands, that bug me. But overall I'm happy with the car, and enjoy driving it.

Well, did... last week I was stopped at a red light, the light turned green and BAM, a teenager rear ended me. Rear bumper completely smashed in, and some deformation so that when I opened the hatch to inspect damage, I couldn't close it again. Insurance adjuster (adjustor?) estimated about $3,200 to fix everything. What a pain!

To make it even worse, after making dozens of phone calls and arranging logistics for the repairs (I had driven the car home after the accident), I was getting ready to drive to the shop, and the battery was dead! I called Toyota this morning and a tech told me (which many of you may know), even though I had switched off the dome and cargo area lights, just the fact that the rear hatch was open kept the car's computer active, which will drain the 12V battery in a day or two.

The thing I don't understand is, I got out the jump-starter we bought not too long ago, which was fully charged, connected it to the terminal under the hood per the manual, and... nothing. No sign of life from the car. And the voltmeter on the jump-starter doesn't move at all when I connect the terminal, which indicates to me that the car is not putting any load on the jump-starter battery. Anyone have any ideas? I might try trickle-charging the battery for a day and see if that lets me start the car.

My insurance will pay to tow the car to the shop, but the car is parked in the front of a long garage, and because of the !(#$(# design of the Prius, there's no way to release the wheels to spin freely. So they'll have to jack up the car, put dollies under it, wheel it out of our garage using a tow line, and then put it on a flatbed. I'd rather avoid that wear and tear if I can get the car started to drive it to the shop, but, I'm not sure... I'll try trickle-charging, and maybe try jumping directly at the battery terminals instead of the terminal under the hood. But I can't imagine any fuses were blown, because I drove home from the accident, and then started the car again a few hours later when I moved it. But then 2 days later it was dead.

So much for my beautiful, high-tech new car... now it's a useless lump sitting in our garage. (I know things could have been much worse, we could have been injured, so... I am thankful it wasn't too bad.)

 

thanks for the advice! Yes, their insurance is paying. But like I said above, I was -hoping- to avoid the wear and tear of the car having to be towed. But I think I'm going to give up on playing with the battery myself and just have it towed. I still don't quite understand what's happening - why there's no sign of life when I connect our jump-starter, but also the voltmeter on the jump-started doesn't seem to indicate any load when I connect it. Oh well, I'll let the shop take care of everything.

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm just going to get it towed, and fixed. I'll report back what the problem was in a few days!

 

My car is in the shop. The tow truck driver tried a jump-start first, and it worked immediately. I think the problem is that the point where I connected my negative cable wasn't grounded. I picked a big, heavy metal piece of the engine towards the left side of the engine, pretty much where the manual shows to connect the negative, but somehow that piece must not be grounded. The tow truck driver connected his negative to a shock component on the right side, near the fuse box, and it worked perfectly. Hmm, well, live and learn.

Car is in the shop now, hopefully within ~2 weeks I'll have it back, and back in new condition!

 

Yup! The repair work isn't done yet, but the estimate from the insurance adjuster, after the shop took the rear end apart for him to look at, was just under $4,000. Fortunately the insurance company approved all OEM parts.
One more thing - my unbelievable luck, the very same afternoon I took my Prius to the shop and got a rental car, I walked to the parking lot of my office to head home in the evening and found a huge crack across the windshield of the rental car due to a big, green pine cone falling on it!! So the next day I had to exchange it for a new rental car, and pay the $500 deductible on my insurance. Just amazing...

 

To r3dl4b3l... yeah the rental car company charged me the full $500, but the theory was that after the windshield was repaired and they knew the actual cost, I would get some of it back. In fact I'm hoping to get all of it back, from my credit card company due to their rental car insurance benefit. But, when I rented the car my insurance company was paying $20/day of the cost (since it was a loaner while my car was in the shop), but the credit card will only cover the costs for damage that my insurance doesn't pay if I pay the FULL amount of the rental on my credit card. So I told Enterprise I wanted to change the billing and pay the whole thing and I'll get reimbursed the $20/day from my insurance company later... but they screwed up and left the $20/day credit on my bill. They're working on re-charging it so I pay the whole amount, but it hasn't been resolved yet.

Endless fun!! Anyway, thanks everyone for the replies and sympathy.

 

Yay, I have my car back! The body shop did a fantastic job, I literally can't tell that I was ever hit, looking at the rear end of the car.

 

No, I can't help you, sorry. Superficially it -seemed- like my rear-end damage was pretty bad, but it turned out, although the plastic bumper cover and styrofoam piece underneath was crushed, the metal, structural part of the bumper was barely scratched (the guy at the shop showed it to me, they had to replace it but it just had the tiniest of dents). So in my case I'm sure there was no possibility of damage to the battery, but for you, I don't know.

I'm glad you weren't hurt!

 

Yes, I think you're smart to try to anticipate things like that! Actually there is one thing I just thought of - the body shop told me there's an antenna for the key/remote built into the rear bumper. Mine was broken and had to be replaced, so I'm sure yours will be too.​

​

Oh, and you probably read this near the top of this thread, but since your hatch won't close, your 12V battery is going to die pretty quickly (~1-2 days).​

​

Good luck.​