My baby got violated!

Well the inevitable happened, some dummy decided to not pay attention on a 1 lane road with a freeway sound blocking device (aka brick wall) on one side, and fences on the other (ie nothing to stare at!) well long story short he slammed on the brakes after I stopped, I looked in the rear view mirror let loose an F-bomb, got smacked, and let loose another few F-bombs. Btw my car is a month old! I dont' even have license plates for it yet!

Well I got all his info etc, and it doesn't look like there's much in the way of damage, replace the bumper etc, but I'm wondering if there are any prius speciality repair places, or places that specialize in hybrids or something in or around San Francisco, because any other car I wouldn't mind as much, but I'm worried that a regular auto-body shop won't know squat about them, and will just fix the body, I want a fine toothed comb over those electricals though to make sure nothing jarred loose, maybe one of the batteries cracked or something I do not know, something I dont want to find out a few years down the road.

So help... any place you could recommend?

Btw I did go to an auto-body shop and they gave me a 1300 estimate, but still I'll be without my baby for a couple days

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daronspicher @ May 8 2006, 03:48 PM) [snapback]251765[/snapback]</div>

Ok, forgive me for not using correct terminology, even a "love tap" feels and sounds loud when it happens to you. It wasn't a simple back up in a parking lot type collision, but a skid into me as he slammed on the brakes (and it was only a 25mph zone too!) I could get a picture but I'll try my hand at describing it instead since it'll take far less time. The bumper has no cracks (visible) in it, basically looks like the back been scraped to hell, some gouges in the bumper though, and the plastic dohicky around the bottom popped off a bit, I looked under and things seemed fine, there was a particular bolt tab that got bent. The hatchback looks fine (there might be *A* scrape, but I didn't look at it with a fine toothed comb). He was in a VW Jetta so I'm guessing he more or less submarined a tad at the end. Eitherway it's a new car that, with the exception of being in the need of a wash, was flawless so I consider what he did was "slam" besides the front of his car looked much worse for the wear, bumper was barely on, grill was smashed in, headlight completely destroyed.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Prianista @ May 8 2006, 05:15 PM) [snapback]251813[/snapback]</div>

I did that and they gave me a card of a Crockett's Premier Auto Body place near the dealer, so I don't know if that was simply a referal or what, but the place I got the estimate looked way to clean to be an autobody place which is good and bad

Yikes, yeah as I mentioned before the damage was minimal, so its far from being a total loss. But I might have someone check over the hybrid system with a fine toothed comb (dealership?) since the other guys insurance is going to pay for everything, I'd really hate to get it all back to new condition and then maybe have a hybrid problem down the road and having Toyota's warranty say that it's not covered anymore because I didn't have it checked out when I got it fixed the first time

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(IsrAmeriPrius @ May 8 2006, 06:14 PM) [snapback]251854[/snapback]</div>

THIS is the stuff I need to know, thanks for this info, something else I can ask.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SW03ES @ May 8 2006, 09:39 PM) [snapback]251980[/snapback]</div>

You would think, but if they determine a paint chip missing from the hatchback or something then they'd need to redo the whole back. I mean I would think that they'd have a barcelona red bumper in stock and not have to paint anything Looking at the estimate though, I'm finding it awfully hard to read, it has "Panel, rear body" "rapair & refinish" but no cost next to that, Cover, rear bumper, part + refinish, abs, rear energy part, spoiler lower rear, part and adding up all the things that have prices next to them, it adds up in the estimate, but I'm wonder why did they even put those other items on the estimate if they don't need to be redone?


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Punkinann @ May 8 2006, 10:00 PM) [snapback]251990[/snapback]</div>

Well I dont kow in the drive home, although I've been told my previous insurance covers that automatically but I do not know if that's a specific part of a plan or what, I do know once I got home the car went into my garage and I even drove my old car around until I got insurance (I got the car on a saturday so waited until monday to get it). Once I got it, I drove over to the insurance place so they can document the car and I drove super careful grandma style over there too

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tmorrowus @ May 8 2006, 10:37 PM) [snapback]252009[/snapback]</div>

Hmmm, yeah I can see that, although the insurance company tends to be a lot more favorable to what you can do when it's someone else's insurance who'll end up really paying the bill (as in my case). But yeah I know what you mean, I've had issues where I've gotten a double flat due to construction workers not properly covering a ditch over a roadway, the company was more than happy to pay for the replacement of the tires but they wanted a copy of my last bill for tires so they can see how many miles I drove then gave me the depreciated value of those tires against it, I was happy (and lucky) since my tires were only a couple thousand miles worth on them. That sucks though about covering a check, only cover what you can see is broken? Well as long as my warranty on the hybrid system doesn't go out I won't mind as much.