Prius vs. Pickup

Wow..... So sorry, but it is good that everyone is OK,, I would agree time to call the insurance company for this, I guess I am not so surprised at the damage. The pickup truck bumpers are very hard..

My husband has an 02 Chevy S-10 pickup and I would NOT want to bump into his rear..

Its good that there was no damage at all to the pickup, he probably just laughed, didn't he,, the only thing that really sucks it that your insurance rates will go up most likely since it was a rear ending and you were at fault.

But if you have not had any accidents beside this one, the rates might not go up too much.

Good luck in getting it fixed quickly, I know it is embarrasing driving around with a banged up car.

I had a minor fender bender in Ireland in March while on vacation, and for 9 days I had to drive around with the front headlight casing busted and the car a bit scraped up,, I was so embarrassed, but I just blamed it on the wild Irish driving over there,, they don't slow down for much of anything

 

I had a Saab hit the back end of my '92 F150 at about the same speed, maybe a little bit faster. I actually had to think for a minute, "hey, did someone just hit me?" The Saab's hood was scrunched in worse than your Prius and I had a tiny, nickel sized dent in my bumper that you wouldn't even notice if it wasn't pointed out. Truck bumpers are strong enough to pull small trailers and consequently are metal and pretty darn strong. The Saab (and you) were lucky the truck didn't have a trailer hitch in....

I have no idea how the guy who hit me didn't see me....in addition to towering over him I had a 25' rowing shell with a big red flag on the stern on the racks that would have been right over his windshield. But we all have those moments! Glad you're OK and I'm sure your Pri will be as good as new soon.

 

Sorry to hear about the crash.

I had a Jetta once do the same to the back of my 01 pathfinder. nothing happened to my car but the whole front end of the VW jetta was bent. even the VW emblum want folded.

What did you do to the muffin? 10 second rule!!

 

The front bumpers (If you'd call them that) on today's cars are pretty flimsy. Take one off and you'll often find they have a Styrofoam piece inside them. Not the kind of thing you'd expect to hold up in an accident. Worst part is the huge size of these "bumpers" they make up a large portion of the front or rear end. They are often made of special plastics and some times require special painting. Not only that but it is time consuming to remove these items, hence the large repair bills.

 

How true. The new bumpers are designed to protect the occupants in a crash, not protect the car from damage. They sacrifice themselves to absorb energy.

Tom

 

Sorry to hear your incident, but our Prius's hood piece is made of Aluminum for weight-saving, not crushing. So don't feel surprised if it looks worst than it seems after even a 5mph hit.

Base on your photos you just need a new Hood and a bumper covered replaced only.
No damage to the Headlight (good news). Though $3200 sounds a bit on the high-side. Can you open the hood and see if the horizontal frame (area behind both headlights and the hood's latch) bent? If not, the repair should be as simple as just replacing these 2 parts only (and Paint match).