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I went to pay for the Prius this morning; it’s finally done!
Front seatbelts (2) - $412
Rear seatbelts (2) - $260
Front door panel - $450
Rear door panel - $660
Add in labor and misc parts, the total was $2148.
Insurance deductable out of my pocket - $500.
Insurance is priceless for cars. Not that I’m quite getting back what I paid in, but with a few claims and not having to come up with $2k right now, it has worked out well.
I was surprised that the repair company hadn’t called, though maybe that was on the agenda today. I called them as we finished at the ortho this morning around 9 and they said it was done.
I just glanced in there, but it looks good. It will be nice to have that back.
So was it worth it? Financially it was for sure. Parts were north of $1500, and the labor wasn’t that much. It was better than the dealer, who wanted $200 per seat belt for the install, but I might have saved $500 off the total cost.
If it affects our insurance, I might regret not paying now and doing it myself, though someone had a good point about accidently setting off the seat belt explosive charge. They mentioned if I did that the front airbags (or sides) could potentially deploy, which wouldn’t be good.
However I don’t really have the time, and I wouldn’t have had a garage this week to do it, so all in all, going with an insurance claim and repair made sense this time.
Posted by Peter Shire on 17 April 2009
Good choice Steve. You can't mess with the safety systems on modern cars. Plus the time and frustration you saved will more than pay for this repair.
Posted by Steve Jones on 17 April 2009
I guess so. Still bothers my DIY sense of self not to have tried :(
Posted by Ken Trock on 6 May 2009
Steve, sorry about the dog getting trapped in there :( There's no way you could miss my dog getting into a car. He'll be barking and whinning the whole time.
I've got nearly 60k on my 2006 Prius. I remember reading how well the hybrid batteries do over time. Wonder when it will time to replace it and how costly it will be.
Ken