Hey gandyfire,

I think I misread the website. It says that there are 4 vehicles in the Southeast dealerships inventory. Have you tried calling them? I hope this helps!

The only loaded Jasper Pearl in the Southeast has Toyoguard, spoiler, window tint and 18" wheels making it $2979 above the $30,589 in loaded form from the factory. Southeast loves to tack on the options placing the car in the Avalon price range. Its fine if you want all the extras but I am going out on a limb even with the loaded one from the factory.

Wife wants leather with heated seats and that is the only way to get it. I don't really need the moonroof or the NAV but I think I will enjoy the Nav after I get it. The moonroof should help to initally remove the Florida heat in the afternoon too.

I am most likely getting mine from Virginia unless by some miracle one of the two dealers here gets one without all the extras on it. Hope to hear something by sometime in July.

WVGasGuy and Lilarienne - safety features actually play a small part in insurance rates. The deployment or use of safety features such as airbags, safety belt restraints, etc. indicates an accident occured - this still means money out of pocket for the insurance company. They're more interested in prevention.

A large part of the rate is determined by 'repairability' or what it could cost to repair the car in an 'average' accident. The majority of accidents are low impact/high damage accidents. Consider: That 30mph fender bender you just had deployed 7 airbags, crushed your bumper and other car body parts, broke your windows, but didn't total your car. And you pay $90/month for insurance - that's the scenario they hate.

I used to work for American Families Insurance; I constantly received calls with people curious as to why a downgrade from a 1yr old Lexus GS400 to a Toyote Prius bumped up their rates; that's typically why.

There was a client who pulled forward too fast over a curb when parking and it set off the airbags for the driver/passenger (it was a first gen). It cost about $9000 JUST to repair/replace the airbag and console.

However, it can pay to shop around.

_________
"It's not easy being green..." - Kermit the Frog

Going from a 2005 Civic Si to a 2008 TCH saved me $30 every six months. But of course the Si is notoriously expensive to insure because young men like to wrap them around trees.

And ditto to what OmegaOmega said. We were in a *very* minor fender-bender a week ago (not in the TCH, but my wifes Mazda Protege5) -- someone in a Crown Vic pulled out of a parking lot in front of us and we couldn't stop due to wet roads. We hit them with the passenger side front corner going about 5-10 miles per hour (no airbags deployed in either vehicle), but managed to mangle the front bumper cover, give a good twist to the fender, significantly wrinkle the hood, and shatter the headlight assembly. We don't have an estimate yet, but that's *easily* low-to-mid four figures. Another 10 MPH and we probably would have totaled it.

Ryan

http://www.spiffspace.com/blog/2006/...sidelined.html

The above damage totaled $4700 about a year ago!

Of all the things listed on your website there is no mention of the front grill, the most damaged part of them all. To make you feel better I had collision with deer at around 65 miles per hour in my Honda Accord and my bill was around $5000 also. As far as I can see there is nothing about your damage that would be hybrid specific except for inverter radiator, therefore I would think any other car would have similar price tag to get it fix. If you had damage to hybrid components, then you would be talking big bucks, inverter alone is about $7-$8k. As long as you walkaway from it, any car can be fixed or replaced.

Yeah, I guess when I wrote that I was just recalling from memory what the repair guy said the quote included. The whole front bumper cover and grill was replaced, of course.

I was lucky - it was a very small deer (the mother had crossed in front of my just prior to "Bambi" running out there). The damage would have been worse I think if it had been mom (or even dad) that I had hit! I don't think its head was much higher than the hood. In fact, the head/neck/shoulders are what left the dents in the hood.

Oh NO!! Not Bambi .... hehe

The odd thing is that it just bounced off and as far as I know it just got up and ran off to the woods. I have no idea if it survived or not.

And the verdict is... $3700.

On the bright side, we'll finally be rid of the bumper cover that the dealer drilled holes in to mount a promotional license plate (our state doesn't have front plates).

Ryan