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.