I'm sure a lot of you folks follow Ebay-for fun,or because you are bargain hunting.
Has anyone noticed how many salvage Prius are on Ebay?There are usually at least 20-25 Prius on Ebay,and their prices go up and down with the price of gas.There will rarely be fewer than 6 Salvage Title Prius on Ebay-why??
The fact that they are salvage is somewhat obscured by the seller headings"like new 2005 Prius" "Low mile 2004 Prius" etc.The description say Salvage in the "spot" for title type,but the actual descriptions are BS."This Prius was in a light front end collision and sustained fender-bumper damage.There was no frame damage.The damage was professionally repaired with genuine Toyota parts,and it drives like new"These descriptions are outright lies of course.Insurance companies don't total $20000 cars(used value if not wrecked) for $2000 worth of bady damage.
My questions;
1)Is the Prius more likely to sustain "totaling" type damage in a wreck than Corolla or Civic?Maybe the frame is particularily light or constructed in a way that makes restoring it to a safe conditon more difficult?.The lower drag shape and the emphasis on weight might play a role in this??
2)Is the Prius not more likely than a comparably sized car to be totaled out,but since it is a "hot car" folks will actually pay waaaay to much for a salvage car.
3)Who is bidding these POS's up to $17000+??The bids are about 70% of what you could buy a new one for.You can still buy a new Prius with side airbags for under $25000 in many areas($2000 over msrp).Who bids on these?Inside bidding?Folks who are so gas mpg conscious that they believe the sellers descriptions??
4)Has anyone here ever bought a salvage vehicle with the intention of using it for a daily driver?How did it work out?
Now for sellers out there,I have no objection to making a $$.I sell stuff on Ebay-mainly as a hobby-motorcycle stuff,SR500 Yamaha stuff-.I do think EBAY should have a special section for Salvage vehicles.The descriptions on these Prius are outright lies-insurance companies aren't stupid-if it is totaled,it is because it is sustained severe-expensive-damage(say 75% of value),or because it can't be repaired to safe condition.The "light damage" description the sellers frequently is a lie!Thanks.Charlie PS I'm not sure how to make Prius plural Priuses??Looks funny.??

Have you looked at other cars? I doubt it's unique. When I was looking at S2000's, I was amazed how many salvate title S2000's were on ebay. I assume if you looked for Chevy Astro's you'd find an alarming number of salvage title Astro's on ebay too.

There are going to be a lot more Hybrids on E-Bay listed as "salvage" or "recovered" when New Orleans and Mississippi are uncovered.

Already a story in the Phoenix paper to watch out for those cars.

A Prius will be worth a fortune broken down into it's parts. Just the MFD is a couple of thousand bought from the dealer.

R2-E2, 2G Prius.
Highway/City/Husband/Wife MPG: 56.5, as of 12/2005, 26K miles

Jac Nasser, Ford President: "We are planning to launch a hybrid version of
this car [P2000] within this year [1998]. We will also make FCEV available in
2004."

Thanks for the replies.
Yes,I checked Accords and Corollas-far fewer- than the Prius.These Prius were being sold as "runners" in great shape,repaired and ready for the hy.They must have been worth more as runners than as parts vehicles,but I would think the battery pack and motors(the little 4 cyl is very efficient by itself) would be worth maybe 3-5 thousand$$.
I am mainly surprised at the bid prices-70% of a new one-and the descriptions(lies).
Right about New Orleans and the gulf coast.I live in metro NO,and my Titan and Pilot will be a lot tougher to sell despite being with me in Flagstaff after the evac-waiting to go home.Hustlers are going to be selling a lot of new looking vehicles from this area.Clever guys can clean them up very well.Thanks.Charlie

I think the insurance companies face a lot more uncertainty about the condition of the hybrid related parts. They are quite costly and there's very little knowledge about them. Many Insights have been totaled with light damage, or even hail damage. The aluminum construction played a part in that but so did having $1000s of hybrid components in unknown condition.

Search for "totalled" on the other two Prius forums and you'll find examples of extra costs relating to hybrids in general.

lars-ss,

The closest Insight owner in my area lost his car to a bit of flooding. It was totaled as soon as his insurance agent learned it was a hybrid. They knew it could potentially be very expensive and didn't want to deal with it. The car was two years old.

Seems like I heard a friend in the car business tell me that any vechicle that has had the air bags deployed would have some indicator on the title (like salvaged). I don't think it has to be "totalled".


Pete

Maybe it's prii (pree-I) as in cactus/cacti.

Shawn

I watch 2001-2003 Prius auctions on ebay (but not the new model). Since mid-Oct 2003, 235 have sold there with clear titles, 67 with salvage titles and repaired, and 20 with salvage titles and not repaired. I don't know if these numbers are unusual for a vehicle population of about 52,000 in the US. These numbers are completed sales, and are far less than the number of Prius offered on ebay.

In the most general terms, "salvage/repaired" classic Prius have sold for about $3000 less than undamaged with the same odometer reading, which IMHO is not much of a discount considering that Toyota warranties do not apply to salvage-title vehicles. The unrepaired Prius average about $5600 (range $2500-$9700), and those prices are not very odometer-dependent.

My only other observation about damaged Prius is that having collected a lot of smashed-car photos (from ebay and elsewhere), they seem to suffer a high proportion of front-end damage, compared to NHTSA statistics for sedans in general. Hence some concern that we may be watching our "mostly for distraction" screens too much. Eyes up, drivers! Every salvage vehicle had at least one person on board, who had at least one very bad day.

DAS

interesting that you find ebay a place to shop for bargains. Yes, you can find some, but it is because it is an item no one is selling and fewer are looking for or some bad misspelling that doesn't come up in the average Joe's search.

eBay, IMHO, is a place to find a fair market value for your item.

I wouldn't buy any car off of eBay without test driving it first. That being said, I have sold a car on eBay in which the other party didn't test drive it.

19,900 miles and (slowly) counting