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Never been more depressed in my life… is anyone selling a Prius?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by HogMedia, Jul 14, 2023.

  1. HogMedia

    HogMedia Junior Member

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    TL;DR Car got totaled. If anyone has advice, or a car they’re selling, I’d love to hear from you. I live in New England and Delaware. But at this point I’ll go anywhere.

    I'm 25 years old, and I bought this car last year after searching for months for the Prius with HUD and sunroof. I consulted with you all and got great advice. It was 15k which is a lot but it was going to be my car for at least five more years. It was the perfect car for what I wanted (being able to travel, save gas money, sleep in it, etc). Last year I took it on a 4500+ mile road trip. I spent the last few months planning and saving up money to go on another massive road trip and then BAM

    I got in a severe front-on collision yesterday that destroyed the Prius and sent me to the hospital briefly. I’ve never been in an accident before and especially not something this severe. It feels like not only are the last few months a waste, but now the entire last year too.

    It took my so long to find a reputable private party who had that type of Prius. Literally everywhere else on the internet is full of used car dealers that I don't trust for a second because they all seem like scammers. Car prices never went down either, if anything they’re even higher.

    So much of what I own was in that car at the time too because I was in the process of moving. I had just published my first comic book, and all the copies are damaged now -- not destroyed at least, but damaged. Other heirlooms as well. Now that it’s totaled, im going to have to drive an hour+ just to get the chance to look at it and grab my stuff.

    This is really the lowest point in my life. Im scared my insurance won’t cover it or anywhere close to the 15k I purchased it for. I’ve already looked all over Facebook, carvana, Craigslist, and there’s not one Prius Four available. Even worse, a lot of dealers list their car as one even though it’s not, muddling my search even more. I'm worried car insurance will look at those cars and judge my price based on that. My summer is gone, my future after is uncertain, I just feel like giving up already and the search only began yesterday.

    I want to post this in 4th gen prius too because I'd be down to replace it with one of those I guess, but I'm not sure if I'd be allowed too.
     

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  2. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    I'm really sorry to hear about the crash. Glad you made it!

    That's a pretty traumatic experience all by itself. It really will get better, but it's going to take a while.

    It is fairly ordinary for insurers to lowball their payouts. That's business for them. You can't take it personally. Understand that you don't have to accept their initial offer.

    One of the trickiest things with older cars is that nobody else values yours as much as you do, by a wide margin, so there's no way to insure it for what you really think it is worth. Been there.

    Hang in there and take it a day at a time!
     
    Louis19 likes this.
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    I see a few primes on line but yeah, they’re expensive
    Looking around myself as my engine is broken.
    50 years of car ownership, I’ve never seen a market like this
     
  4. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    They say the used car market supposed to fall apart here in a few months. I will try to avoid buying right now especially in Massachusetts and places like that cars get ate up there quick No way cars are worth what they're worth than other places.
     
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    I know, been reading about this’collapsing market’ for a while now :rolleyes:
     
  6. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    Who was at fault? If it was the other person, get a lawyer, sue him/her.
    Get enough money to retore your Prius to the condition it was before.
    Your insurance company may total your car, but that doesn't mean it can't be fixed.
    If you don't want to repair it, the sue for a replacement, whatever the cost is.
    There are cars out there, yes, WAY too expensive, but that's why you sue.

    Now, it the wreck was your fault, well, sorry. You could buy the car from the insurance
    company, and pay to have to repaired. If your finances allow for it. You could alway part it out
    and recoup some of your loses toward another Prius.

     
    Mendel Leisk likes this.
  7. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    What happened there?
     
  8. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    I haven't heard anybody talking about the situation like that at all this I heard on the news with some so-called industry analyst and all this other kind of nonsense we will see but up until the other day No I thought this nonsense was going to go on until there's no more cars or whatever because if you look like on the Facebook marketplace and places like that now everything everybody selling has been wrecked bent engines blown and they want 2,000 plus dollars even if it doesn't start work or roll I mean these people are on serious drugs or something in my time growing up you couldn't hardly give away a car that wasn't running You didn't even advertise that nonsense because people would laugh you out of the building and now what's changed people are buying cars that don't run to do what make yard ornaments out of them watching too much of them reality TV shows.
     
  9. Rmay635703

    Rmay635703 Senior Member

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    I didn’t see the thread on that. Can you still drive in EV?

    I bottomed out hard on bad roads during vacation and my car dumped its trans fluid on the driveway

    Not sure about you but The last 3 years have been a hell of quarterly major car damage needing repairs .
     
    bisco likes this.
  10. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    It started running rough under load and has been getting progressively worse.
    Less than 30k on the engine, all I can think is a clogged egr circuit.
    My only theory is that the engine on the plug in runs for such short amounts of time, continually running just the warm up cycle
     
  11. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    Ye
    runs great on ev, still getting 12-14 miles around town.
    I don’t go farther very often so I have been borrowing Mrs b’s hycam when necessary.
    Trying to find her a new hycam and decide what I’m going to replace the pip with.
    M3 is tempting at 20k after trade in and tax credits, but I keep wobbling back and forth.
    I would like to test drive a new prime
     
  12. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Did the air bags go off? <Ok, air bags did activate, that could well make it a write-off.

    What's your insurance; do you have collision/comprehensive?

    Have you contacted the insurer to do an assesment?

    What's the miles on it?

    My 2 cents: it's possibly repairable, I'd guess around $5~7K USD. <Maybe, air bags might tip it to write-off status.
     
  13. Montgomery

    Montgomery Senior Member

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    Hog Media! Hey, hang in there. I can tell you that life will sometime throw you a very hard curve ball. First off, your alive! So you will be able to move forward. Secondly, I agree with Dogman, you don't mention who is at fault? Thirdly, I would get to the yard where your car is at and empty it all asap! Most of us in here have had to live through the experience of being in an accident and having your car towed to the local tow yard.

    You need to get your items out as the tow yards don't seem to care about personal items. As for a car. Unless you can get a settlement (from the insurance company or litigation), it may be worth it to you to get something that you can live with until you get fully on your feet.

    So, not knowing a lot about your situation, I would:

    Get you stuff out of the car
    Focus on getting your comics published
    Use your friends and or family to help you navigate moving forward to getting some type of transportation
    Make it a goal to get another car in the near future that is either the same or better than what you lost.

    I know you are in a dark place now. We all have been there. Just know you will not be in this mess forever. Personally, I would like to see you focus on getting the comics published. Because that my friend, will generate income and with income comes choices.
     
  14. Montgomery

    Montgomery Senior Member

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    Dude, take a look at how others write their responses. It is extremely hard to read yours. Everything is one looooooooooonnnnnng sentence. No paragraphs. Rarely any periods.

    When I do try to read your posts, you generally are posting good stuff, but it literally takes me 10 minutes to read your posts to figure out what you are saying.

    Try breaking up the sentences, just like I have done in this response. This ain't a knock, just a friendly suggestion.
     
    #14 Montgomery, Jul 14, 2023
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2023
  15. flim

    flim Active Member

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    The new Prius Prime might be too fast for you! :p I am not kidding though, the car has so much power
    and I still have it on Eco mode.

    Now you got me worried about my 2012 Plug-in. My EV miles maxed out at 9 EV miles after charging
    and probably add another 2-3 EV miles in real time driving.

    Hopefully, your engine problem is a minor one!
     
    bisco likes this.
  16. bettergolf

    bettergolf Active Member

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    He doesn't care...probably using voice instead of typing. I do voice on texting and you can say "period" at the end of a sentence.....I agree he knows some good stuff but most times I just can't understand what he's saying and my eyes cross when trying to read his posts....so I just don't!
     
    Montgomery likes this.
  17. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    He never responds to editorial comment either, at least not that I've seen. IIRC he did allude once that he's voice-dictating (no surprise). All I can think is he's got trouble typing, forming thoughts, doing anything other than voice-dictated stream-of-consciousness. I'd think if HE tried to read his own texts the light bulb would go on??

    Anyway, I glaze over too, way too laborious to try to sift through his postings.
     
    Montgomery and Louis19 like this.
  18. wr69

    wr69 Member

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    just looking at your pic, that looks moderately costly to repair, but it might not be as bad as you think. with that front end crash, you need to see how badly the engine was impacted. if damage extends only to radiator, and bumper, that's not too bad. also, if the chassis is not bent, you can salvage that. the airbags are costly but maybe you could get some from another totaled prius? If the engine has low miles and is good, i would keep the car, just for the engine; then consider getting another high mileage similar model and forklift the engine into that. also keep other good parts like water pump, battery, struts, suspension, computers, seats, traction battery. you could possibly get a low priced high-mileage same-model and just swap in all your old parts? Granted that would cost something, but you might be satisfied with the result. Also, since car prices are inflated now, dont let insurance low-ball you on a settlement. this is something I'm wondering about: if I (or rather my wife - :) - total my pre-2019-priced prius which was worth $7k, 3 years ago but $11k now, what will the insurance company do? I would fight them if I coudln't buy a similar replacement model for their payout amount.
     
  19. flim

    flim Active Member

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    Sorry about your unfortunate accident! Was that a 2011 Prius or later? The fleet manager who sold me the new Prius sent me a pic last May of a potential customer who totaled his Prius too.

    The guy was supposed to trade it in for a new one. The residual value and payoff from his insurance should be a lot less than if he were to sell the car himself. Just bad luck!

    I had the 2010 Prius with sunroof too and it was also in white. I sold it to my neighbor when the Prius plug-in came out in 2012.

    upload_2023-7-14_17-56-43.jpeg
     
  20. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    I totally understand. It took 8 months for me to find a white pearl hud sunroof with all black inner trim. It was in prestine condition when i purchased it.

    I’ll sell you mine, it does sub 60 MPGs with front and back dash cams. Asking $40,000, hopefully that doesn’t make you anymore depressed.