Got T-boned today

Yes, that was my impression. 15K, or maybe a little bit more.

 

... well yes, it was advanced before it got sent back to the stone age. One of my earlier conversations with the guru went like this:

While you're at it, how much would it cost to change the color of the car?
That would be an awful lot of work. We would need to remove everything first, all the trim, everything inside the engine compartment, (etc., etc).
OK, just give me a guess. If it's like $3,000 we don't even need to talk about it.
(Reflective pause) $3,000 would be about right.
What about just painting the exterior and skipping everything else?
No, you never want to do that. It would devalue the car.

We agreed that a cheaper shop (like Maaco) would leave everything where it was and use a lot of masking tape with predictable overspray and underspray. I never got around to discussing my color choice: Blizzard Pearl, a premium Toyota color ($400 extra) that requires painting the entire car twice, once with plain white, and then with a semi-transparent metallic coat. I suppose that once the car has been prepped and painted the first time, a second color coat is not nearly as expensive. If I had not been so hesitant about wearing out my welcome, I might have asked him about swapping out the horns for CT200 horns or better, after all, they were totally exposed and it might have been a 10 minute job once they found some replacements.

 

That's a tough question. I like to keep a car until it's 12 or 14 years old., but a Prime with 2x the EV range would be wonderful. The "car affordability calculator" assures me I would not be acting too irresponsibly if I traded up to a new Prime.

 

Thank you for the well-wishes @jerrymildred Today I called my insurance company and asked if I could get money back for having the car laid up in the shop for a month. "Sure, no problem, let's see....oh, you're in Pennsylvania. They have to be notified and they require you to mail your license plate back to them." Nevermind!

 

Got the car back today after 25 days in the shop. Here's the final bill for the other driver's insurance to pay. There are no new pictures of the car because it just looks perfectly normal again. Only the fresh baked paint smell is different.

 

Yep, just checked them again. Let's wait for the next rainstorm. Door edge molding seems to be a millimeter or 2 thicker, I had to look twice to make sure they were closed. It's possible they had to match aftermarket molding. Ask me again after it rains!

 

Door moldings? LoL Well, I DO need to go back and tell them to make the charging light work. Like computer programming, the worst problem won't even show up for six more months.

 

Fixing the charge indicator light was literally a two-minute job while I watched. The guy lifted a little access cover, took out a screw and used his “fork” to unsnap the inside panel and reveal the back of the charging port with orange cables for high voltage, and a little white clip for the charging light. He unplugged it while the car was in 'ready' and reseated it on the theory that it needed some kind of a re-boot. It worked. I thanked them and then drove home six blocks with the "check hybrid system – pull over and park" warning displayed! Not wanting to be a PITA, I plugged in a reader, found P0D59 Proximity Detection Circuit High and cleared the code myself. The display instantly returned to normal.

Now, here’s something: I never paid much attention to the backup camera view, but I don’t remember ever seeing any part of my license plate, or noticing that the back bumper was slanted on the screen. I see the driveway about NINE inches behind the bumper, below the camera. If it's like some other cars, the camera snaps into place without any provision for aiming. I'm curious, is this like the normal view that other generation 3 drivers are seeing?

 

Identical view of the bumper and plate! Thank you for the confirmation.

 

Very nice, and I see you have the same view of your license plate corner.