2006 Prius Totaled by triple A for a stolen and replaced cat.

tail light inspections can be done at CHP offices for free

 

Odd that they totaled it. State Farm did not total mine for the same sort of damage. A little cursory shopping for 2007-2009 Prius had most of them well over $10K as the asking price. I would appeal that decision up the chain within that company, and go in with some prices for used cars comparable to yours as data points. How much did they say they were going to give you for the car? It could be that they are just trying to rip you off for half the value of the car.

 

What deficiencies do you mean?

Susceptibility to cat theft is not a type of issue that would trigger a recall.

 

Reject the offer.. Your car should be worth more than 3500...which is the dealership cost of cat replacement... If they're going to total the car...they need to give you the full car value...

 

It isn't Toyota's fault that the California Air Resources Board hasn't approved aftermarket replacements from any other manufacturers, except Magnaflow.

And that doesn't make it a NHTSA recall issue. This isn't a failure item that will injure or kill people.

NO major company's customer service line is going to transfer regular customer phone calls directly to the CEO.

But the name and general contact information (filtered through staff) is public information. You can easily look it up and try to reach as far up the food chain as you can. Though you will have to decide what level you are really looking for: Plano or Nagoya.

 

It's like "Heads I win; tails you lose."

For years, California owners bragged about their extended C.A.R.B warranty. Now, they complain about their C.A.R.B. requirements.

Ralph Waldo Emerson penned a poem entitled, Compensation,

Basically, there is nothing FREE. Eventually, one pays for everything.

 

CARB does what the legislature orders it to by passing laws. Some of these laws assume the existence of devices which do not exist.

See AB-1345, notorious for banning small gas powered engines:

Bill Text - AB-1346 Air pollution: small off-road engines.

in 43018.11. (a)(2)(E) it requires:

"zero-emission generators"

There actually is a "zero-emission generator" in existence: radioisotope thermoelectric generators. These requires a large chunk of radioactive material, usually plutonium, and are generally only used on spacecraft sent to the outer planets. In theory a hydrogen powered generator would also be zero emission (since water doesn't count). Few people, even in California, think that storing lumps of radioactive materials or tanks of hydrogen is a realistic option for emergency power generation or other portable power needs.

Yes, there are battery based backup power systems, but those are by definition not generators, they are just storage devices.

My pet theory is that the crazy who wrote this legislation was a Stargate fan and so detached from reality that they thought a ZPM is a real thing.

 

I am driving a salvaged value Gen 2 Prius. It was totaled due to a missing/stolen cat but also the overall condition of the car.
It had a couple of dented fenders that are quite easily fixed with a simple can of air. It needed paint due to the clear coat peeling.
The interior was disgustingly filthy. Ya I know 90% of the people think theor interior is clean,,, I see it and cringe. A lot of factors go into totalling a car.
I am a pro detailer and have seen what customers call clean. I put gloves on and a plastic seat cover just to move that "clean" car into my shop. Not saying the OP is in that shape but the adjuster saw something. I have been involved in enough insurance deals to know most see something and classify a car as such.