Yes, Bay, also Gen 2 Prius (#1 target). Luckily, I had insurance to cover both, but still $1k of deductibles and premiums. I also had a shield installed after the first time, as they're supposed to slow down enough to deter most, but alas it was still hit again. Now, I have to garage the car at night by constantly moving home gym equipment, so my life is still somewhat negatively impacted to this day.
Yea, they have the most PM of all cars on the road in the US; Toyota over built them as they were to be the California car and as you know many are still on the road as result of this over-engineering despite this high theft issue.
At least you got to keep yours, I bought mine as a salvage buy-back from it's original owner (2008 with only 72k miles) but it had a check engine light on it (p420/bad cat) since the accident.
I had the bare min liability since I was in Europe at the time and I was thinking of putting it on non-op. I installed a new cat in 2018 I bought from Toyota and drove it when I was in CA since I lived in CO most of the year when I lived in the US. I wanted a shield but most had mixed reviews. I left thinking our neighborhood is mainly family's and with so many at home during covid I'd be safe.
Wrong assumption on my part.
> I also had a shield installed after the first time,
Yeah, not all shields are built equally, some you can't even remove from the chassis after they're installed causing an issue with visual inspections and having automatic fails so they put little peek windows on them in later versions/iterations; hence the parallel economy that sprung over 2020-21 after many years of theft as it became so wide-spread, I was on Prius chat quite a lot those years and it was like every couple of hours you'd see a new member with a 'cat stolen' thread.
> Now, I have to garage the car at night by constantly moving home gym equipment, so my life is still somewhat negatively impacted to this day.
Well, you can always sell it, the premiums on them are so good on one in CA you can probably get something else if it's that much of an issue on you since things are likely to remain that way in the Bay Area.
But I'm guessing like most Prius owners, especially after all this ordeal, you will probably keep it until it dies at this point. When did yours get stolen and when was it replaced, most of 2021 Toyota was out of them [0] and did your insurance cover it with full coverage? What does it cost to insure now after this?
I scrapped mine because the tags were due and I couldn't find a cat without a massive premium and ultimately reporting it would increase insurance on all my cars and bikes and that wasn't worth it in the end.
Stolen summer of 2020 and 1 month ago. I guess I got lucky with supply avoiding 2021. Yes, Geico insurance covered both of them as I had comprehensive for $21 / 6 months, with high $500 deductible (bills were $2.5k and $3k). My rates didn't go up either (truly don't know what Geico actuaries are doing here).
Yes, I could sell it, but ultimately there's no better value until EV's are cheaper in a few years. It's an $8k car with a new battery that will likely go another 120k miles at 43mpg with $5 gas prices...
Did you encounter any research on what the best shield would be? I still haven't re-shielded it.
> Did you encounter any research on what the best shield would be? I still haven't re-shielded it.
Lots, but as you an infer things have hanged sine '21, I think the best thing to do is go bak and read these threads [0], [1] and see what is available that has a peek window so you don't have to take it off when you do visual inspection for your smog test. And how the rattle mods were done, people were stuffing hokey pucks at one point.
Here is an example of what is happening in the bay area as you well know[2].
I wish I had the time to delve into it more, but sine I passed on getting the supply and scrapped my gen 2 it's not really the time-investment to see where an opportunity exists sine Toyota has been able to get more cats on the shelf, albeit it high mark-ups and some delays.
I hope you can keep yours on the road despite this streak of thefts, as they are utilitarian-speaking a solid car.
