Got my poor, bashed Prius out of the body shop last Friday. I must say, Pope’s Auto Body of Fairfax, VA, did a genius job on it. When I picked it up it looked and drove like a new car.

I picked it up about 5:30 PM on Friday, drove it straight to my house, and parked it on the street at the curbline in front of my house (in a quiet suburban neighborhood). Didn’t move it overnight at all.

Saturday morning I got up and drove to a supermarket two miles from home. An uneventful trip.

When I got out of the car at the Giant supermarket at looked at the rear of my car, the left side of the rear bumper had been scraped by an inattentive or drunken driver overnight. In front of my own house. By friends/guests of my neighbors who always park right in front of our house, even though there is plenty of curbline in front of their own home.

So my spanking like-new Prius did not spend even 12 hours in that pristine condition.

Well, it’s not a new car anymore. In any event, it drives like a dream. And I will no longer be deferential or courteous to my neighbors’ guests when they park in front of my house.

Categories: prius, hybrid,toyota, car, accident

I’ve never been a real “car person.” Although I grew up in NASCAR country, I never managed to develop the fascination with cars that other guys my age in my community shared.

For a long time I managed without a car. I lived in New York City for almost four years, and a car would have just been in the way. (I car-sat for a friend of mine who parked his van on the street while his band was touring Europe. For just one month. Biggest pain in the ass I had ever experienced.) For eleven years in Nashville and another seven years in the Washington suburbs, our family of four managed with only one car. It was a challenge, but we made it work.

But a year and a quarter ago, we bought a 2005 Toyota Prius, and the Prius became my car to drive. I had been fascinated with the idea of the Prius for a long time, and when my brother got one in 2003, I knew I would have to have one of these cars someday. It’s not only environmentally friendly, it’s also economical. It’s also the “green car” of choice for a lot of celebrities, like Arianna Huffington. And the great surprise is, it’s a fantastic car in general. Roomy, comfortable, and replete with high-tech gadgets.

I’ve taken better care of the Prius than I ever have maintained any car. In the first year I waxed it three times. I’ve never missed a service interval by more than 100 odometer miles.

Last Tuesday, on my way to school after a teacher workday, I was driving in the center lane with the flow of traffic, at about the speed limit. Suddenly a car that was lined up to turn left in the left turn lane jerked in front of me. No warning, no notice, no time to prepare. I stepped on the brakes, jerked the wheel to the right to avoid contact–and the front left corner of my car hit his car so hard it knocked his bumper off.

So my new Prius is no longer new. My car was smashed in pretty badly on the left front corner. The body damage and the wheel alignment will be straightforward fixes–but if anything’s wrong under the hood, I’m worried.

The fire department guys who arrived at the accident scene gingerly lifted the hood of my car and then took a step back. They didn’t know what was safe to touch in one of those gas-electric hybrid cars until I told them. (Answer: don’t touch anything insulated with orange plastic. Orange is the warning color.)

After four or five days of playing tow-truck-telephone-tag, my car is now at the body shop that the Toyota dealership recommended to work on Priuses. What they’ll do with it, I don’t know. I’ll call tomorrow and express my anxiety (as if that’s going to do any good).

The ultimate irony is this: right after my car was towed to a storage lot, I called the car rental agency recommended by my insurance company. They had only one car free–a Dodge Ram 4X4 pickup truck. A huge beast of a car, the anti-Prius. At least they didn’t put me in a Hummer.

Within 24 hours I made them give me a Dodge Neon. I’m now driving around in a reasonable little car–awaiting word on my beloved Prius.

Categories: prius, hybrid,toyota, car, accident