another one bites the dust

Wow!

This is unbelievable.

Glad you're alright. Hopefully this hasn't scarred you by creating an aversion to trees now. I'm sure it wasn't personal.

I'll be curious to find out how your insurance company handles this. Please keep us posted.

Best of luck going forward.

 

Hmmm that might be a wright off or at least should be. All sorts of untold damage to the suspension and chassis.

The main thing is you're here to tell the tale! You can always get another car and even if your insurance mess you about, at least you're here to grumble about it.

p.s. who's the portly gentleman in the last picture?

 

Condolences Marc (I am hoping insurance covers your car taxes on the new car - no way however). Were you in NoVA for that?

 

Wow! That is like salt in your wounds.

I hope you can recover quickly.

 

That is ugly.
Go see a skin specialist maybe they can give you a shot to help!
Good luck!

 

Wow, don't give up on him yet.

His vehicle might be declared a total loss, but I think he can be saved.

SCH-I535

 

Hope you are able to get your car replaced. glad you are ok, minus the poision oak. I must say your prius has a quiet large carbon foot print now.

 

A real tree hugger experience


iPhone ?

 

You need to throw down a 40 ouncer of Benadryl to take care of that rash/itch.

 

Wow.....good thing is ur alive & didn't get hurt


iPad ?

 

Ugh...I was going to say from your first post Marc that I could not identify the tree from the pic of the leaf on your windshield. I am so glad you were not hurt, but you were hurt! I hope this is the extent of it. Worst case scenario you can take cortisone tablets...I did that once when I got poison ivy just before a business trip.

 

Glad you're okay, at least minus the rash. Calamine lotion for the rash, which will feel awesome when you apply it and it's cold, it's like instant relief, and take some Benadryl.

If it's totaled (which it probably will be, any type of roof smash damage would be expensive to repair because it can distort the fit of everything down below the roof line) should/could you salvage the battery pack? From my experience with cars that have been totaled (2 of the 4 I've had) you can buy them back from the insurance company after they total it for $500. So even if you pay $500 to buy the car back you could either save the battery as a replacement down the road (not sure how that would work as it wouldn't have a regular draw on it) or you could sell it as a used battery pack and double the $500 on it easily. Then you could sell the smashed car to a junk yard which is what would happen to it anyway if you didn't buy it back from the insurance company.

If they salvage it I'd take everything I could off it if you plan on buying another similar model Prius. Floor mats and trunk cover for sure!

 

Really sorry to hear about your bad luck.

I'm not a body guy, but I don't think they're gonna total it. KBB says a 2010 Prius IV in good shape is worth $16,700 to a private party sale. I've had a couple of totalled vehicles in my lifetime, and for both of them the damage had to surpass 70% of the residual value for them to total it. I bet you have a good $5-6K in damage, but I really don't think it's approaching the $12K they'd need to total it.

It wouldn't affect the value as much as you think either. My mother had a major rear-ender that resulted in $5K in damage to her '08 Fusion just last year. They dinged her around 10% for the history showing on the CARFAX report. In most states the insurance company will pay you for the diminished value if you ask. Any competent body shop will have your car repaired such that you'll never know that it was ever in an accident.

The damage is most certainly repairable, and the only variable here is what your car is worth undamaged.

This is what my '08 looked like in June, 2010 when my wife smashed it into the side of a cliff at 40 MPH. It was *barely* totalled. Everything you see there, including the bent frame, could be repaired. I bought the truck back from the insurance company for $9K and put it on a truck westbound to its new owner. Was rebuilt by someone who knew body work and is now back on the road. A good body shop can do some amazing things.

You may walk away from this with some money in your pocket for diminished value and your car as good as new.

 

Here's what I tried to post above: