Camry HybridDiscussion area for the Toyota Camry Hybrid. Topics of discussion range from fuel economy, safety, modifications, performance all involving Americas favorite family car, the Toyota Camry.
We own a 08 TCH and as luck would have it,at 4000 mi the car was involved in a low speed front end accident. No air bag deployment, no personal injury of any kind.The other car, a mini van sustained $2500 rear end damage. Our TCH just came out of the body repair shop and the bill to the insurance company was $21,177.97. OEM parts included a NEW TRANSMISSION. Why you might ask? Well although the trany was not damaged at all,the wiring harness to the transmission was "NICKED" and guess what? they had to replace the entire unit. It seems Toyota took no steps to protect the harness from such a minor collision, and it is an integral part of the transmission. Makes one wonder why this design was chosen $$$ ??? Although this was the most costly repair,many other front end components suffered major damage or complete failure . When we contacted Toyota they were responsive but not particularly interested in these fact. We love our car and the 35 to 41 MPG but are very very disappointed in Toyota.
I concur. I have called my insurance company recently because of an increase in my premium. Their explanation: Higher than expected average repair costs for this model. When the 2007's came out, they "guessed" at how much it would cost to repair, and based the premiums on that amount. Now that they have had more and more claims, they realized that they "guessed" low, and as a result, have increased premiums.
As for the $21,000 repair bill in your case, it seem extreme, but who knows. How in the heck did you smash the front end enough to "nick" the tranny, but not enough to deploy the airbags?
I concur. I have called my insurance company recently because of an increase in my premium. Their explanation: Higher than expected average repair costs for this model. When the 2007's came out, they "guessed" at how much it would cost to repair, and based the premiums on that amount. Now that they have had more and more claims, they realized that they "guessed" low, and as a result, have increased premiums.
As for the $21,000 repair bill in your case, it seem extreme, but who knows. How in the heck did you smash the front end enough to "nick" the tranny, but not enough to deploy the airbags?
Interesting. I'll have to check insurance rates before I decide which car to buy. Extra insurance premiums can eat into gas savings.
Didn't "nick the trany but the trany wiring harness. This is the term the body shop used. I looked at the harness and there was a small slice on one side. Take a look at how unprotected the harness is.
I also concur. When I traded in a 2007 Honda Ridgeline RTL 4WD truck for the 2008 TCH I expected to see my insurance drop a little or at least stay about the same... That "assumption" was based on most insurance companies charging a higher premium for 4WD versus 2WD vehicles. Plus both vehicles are valued about at about the same amount in the event of a total loss.
I was surprised when my insurance went up about $100 a year. I called my insurance company and they explained the TCH has a very high claims rate, compared to regular Camrys, due to all the expensive hybrid parts being damaged. Taking a look under the hood I have to agree that even a moderate hit in the drivers side front has the potential to be very expensive.....
In the big scheme of life that $100 a year is nothing compared to my savings by doubling my gas mileage from 16MPG in the Ridgeline to 34MPG in the TCH.
Unfortunatly Insurance rates and repair costs are going to skyrocket in the near future. The reason is the technlogy. More and more cars are going to LED and fiberoptics for lighting and communication systems, and as previously stated the high voltage hybrid wiring systems. Even today there really is no such thing as a minor accident.
I traded in my '05 Murano for the '09 TCH. My initial insurance annual premium is up $144. But I'm having a few discounts applied that my broker did not have entered, so it should go down a bit. The increase is not what I expected, but like mentioned before, not going to break the bank vs. gas cost savings.
[quote=supertester;2322532]If the cost to fix the car was $21K , how much was the book value? Was it worth fixing it?[/quote
The car is pretty much fully loaded NAV-XM ,ETC so 21K is well below MSRP. However my whole point in telling this story is to point out, in my opinion, how thoughtless the manufacture was in designing a transmission harness that is so easily damaged.What could have been the replacement of a relatively inexpensive wiring harness resulted in replacement of a perfectly good $5000 transmission ,plus labor. The only sheet metal replaced was the hood and plastic front fascia. The front fenders were fine. The front bumper area was basicly useless in protecting the engine compartment from what was a very low speed collision. The air bags did not deploy. I am sure they would have protected the driver and passengers,but Toyota apparently gave little or no thought to protecting some very expensive engine compartment parts. We all pay the price for this kind of thinking. PS the good news my repair shop did a flawless job!
I concur. I have called my insurance company recently because of an increase in my premium. Their explanation: Higher than expected average repair costs for this model. When the 2007's came out, they "guessed" at how much it would cost to repair, and based the premiums on that amount. Now that they have had more and more claims, they realized that they "guessed" low, and as a result, have increased premiums.
As for the $21,000 repair bill in your case, it seem extreme, but who knows. How in the heck did you smash the front end enough to "nick" the tranny, but not enough to deploy the airbags?
My insurance company doesn't have the same claims experience with the Hybrid at this point, but I suppose they could get more claims in the future and raise premiums then.
At this point, for me, the insurance rates for a TCH is actually cheaper than for a Camry LE. I could get an Accord LX-P or Malibu 2LT for an even lower rate.
I got these quotes today for 6 months of full coverage:
2009 Toyota Camry LE 4 cylinder sedan $618
2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid sedan $587
2009 Toyota Corolla XLE sedan $630
2008 Honda Accord EX-L Navi 4 cylinder sedan $650
2008 Honda Accord LX-P 4 cylinder sedan $560
2008 Nissan Altima Hybrid sedan $650
2008 Chevy Malibu 2LT 4 cylinder sedan $560
My insurance company doesn't have the same claims experience with the Hybrid at this point, but I suppose they could get more claims in the future and raise premiums then.
At this point, for me, the insurance rates for a TCH is actually cheaper than for a Camry LE. I could get an Accord LX-P or Malibu 2LT for an even lower rate.
I got these quotes today for 6 months of full coverage:
2009 Toyota Camry LE 4 cylinder sedan $618
2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid sedan $587
2009 Toyota Corolla XLE sedan $630
2008 Honda Accord EX-L Navi 4 cylinder sedan $650
2008 Honda Accord LX-P 4 cylinder sedan $560
2008 Nissan Altima Hybrid sedan $650
2008 Chevy Malibu 2LT 4 cylinder sedan $560
I checked with the insurance agent again and I found out she got confused and got the LE and Hybrid rates backwards. The Hybrid is $618 and the LE is $587 per 6 months. So $62 per year in gas savings will be lost to increased insurance premiums.
Not to derail this post but. . .
I wish insurance rates were that low here. In Ontario I pay over $2,000/year for an 08 TCH. I have a 10 star rating, discounts for multiple vehicles only 1 (no fault) claim ever and not a single ticket on record. I am not out of the ordinary here, that is the norm. I had a friend with a bad record and sports car that paid $6,000/year for insurance (but he only drove the car for 6 months/year)
Not to derail this post but. . .
I wish insurance rates were that low here. In Ontario I pay over $2,000/year for an 08 TCH. I have a 10 star rating, discounts for multiple vehicles only 1 (no fault) claim ever and not a single ticket on record. I am not out of the ordinary here, that is the norm. I had a friend with a bad record and sports car that paid $6,000/year for insurance (but he only drove the car for 6 months/year)
That bad? crap...
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OEM Cargo Mat, OEM All-Weather Mat, LED ext/int lights, 5000K HID, OEM Fogs, Euro Mudguards
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Beware of repair costs
I called my insurance company and they explained the TCH has a very high claims rate, compared to regular Camrys, due to all the expensive hybrid parts being damaged. Taking a look under the hood I have to agree that even a moderate hit in the drivers side front has the potential to be very expensive.....
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