Michael Yuan

In a very stupid parking lot accident, I rear-ended our favorite car (sorry Ju) — the Toyota Prius — against a wall. It was a very low-speed accident (less than 5mph). But because of the hatchback design, the tail lights, rear bumper, and back door all have minor damages. As soon as I see it, I know the repair bill will be high with so many parts to replace. But still, I can drive it just fine on the highway. The repair cannot cost more than $2000-$3000, right? Very wrong!

The repair shop told me that the estimated repair cost runs around $8000! I can buy a new car (or two) for that kind of money! Good thing that the insurance pays for that! The costly part is that the bodyshop has to send the car to the Toyota dealer to remove the hybrid battery and store it in a special storage facility. Then, they work on the body. After the body work is done, they send the car back to the dealer to install the battery and re-test all the electronics. Notice that we are not talking about some no-name bodyshops here — we are talking about one of biggest and best bodyshops in the area! Yet, they have no in-house experience to work on a Prius hybrid car.

Is this going to be a problem when the current hybrid car fleet age? When we bought our Prius in 2004, we had to wait for months in order to get one. But now hybrid cars and SUVs are readily available in a variety of popular models. The body shops have to get themselves more prepared!

We love the Prius. It has exceeded all our expectations (reaching 55mpg in normal driving) except for this repair sticker shock (although this is really my stupid mistake). We are planning to buy a second Prius next year (the 100mpg one!). But we really hope the readiness of repair service will improve soon in the future (not that I will have any accident again! knocking the wood …).

Remember the happier days …