Wife was going to the store. Got in car (RAV4 Hybrid), the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree with warnings, nothing worked, car wouldn't start.

Opened hood to look, it was a total mess. Squirrels had feasted on everything.

Towing company has a flatbed scheduled to pick it tomorrow morning to schlep it to the Toyota dealer where she bought it new and has had all service done.

Rodent damage is covered by comp portion of insurance. We can use any repair facility that we want; insurance company offered a list of suggested repair shops, but everything on the list is a "body and fender" type place -- none of them with specific knowledge of the Hybrid technology, wiring harness replacement, troubleshooting, so we're using Toyota.

Tried for rental car. Insurance company has "preferred rate" with Enterprise; they (insurance) made a reservation for us at a local Enterprise office. Wife called yesterday, got "your call is very important to us, please remain on the line for the next available agent ..." so she remained on the line for well over half hour, agent finally got to her, and "we close in ten minutes."

Called back today, published hours for Sunday are noon to 4:00pm. Called a bit after noon, got recording, not open on Sunday. Called another Enterprise office, "your call is very important to us, please remain on the line for the next available agent ...," agent finally picked up, "Sorry, we don't have any cars available today."

If your call was important, a human would pickup before the third ring.

Good thing it wasn’t your EV or the squirrels would have been crispy critters.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

If your call was important, a human would pickup before the third ring.

Good thing it wasn’t your EV or the squirrels would have been crispy critters.

Call was answered before the third ring, then put on hold for "the next available agent."

Re crispy critters, the RAV4 is a hybrid, so it has a high voltage battery, similar to my EV, nowhere near the storage capacity of the LYRIQ, but more than enough to smoke a squirrel. The high voltage stuff is well protected and harder to get to, so I'm pretty sure that the electrical damage is in the 12-volt system. And there's non-electrical damage as well. For example, the large pad that is glued to cover most of the inside of the hood panel; I guess this is for heat insulation and / or sound deadening. Much of that has been transformed to squirrel shit.

I had a new Morton Building put up last year to keep my truck in and away from the squirrels

The agent that took care of the coverage for the repairs to my EQEV setup the rental for me at Enterprise, you might check with your carrier to see if they can do that for you.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
The agent that took care of the coverage for the repairs to my EQEV setup the rental for me at Enterprise, you might check with your carrier to see if they can do that for you.

Same after my Fiesta was totaled. They set up the Enterprise reservation & the local Enterprise called me about 5 minutes later to confirm it.

Last summer I ended up spending close to 400 dollars getting my truck fixed after a squirrel got into the engine compartment and decided to make it her home as well as snack on a couple wiring harnesses. I ended up trapping/relocating over a dozen squirrels because there was no way to know which one was the culprit. Took about 2 weeks or so but problem solved.

I had that happen about six months after I bought my Camry. Tiny little gap on the bottom of the garage door seal broken off let a rat in my garage. Best I recall it was about $6,000 damage before insurance. My dealership and Enterprise were great.

In Louisiana Squirrel Jambalaya is a thing.

Just out of curiosity, how long was the car sitting for Rocky and family to make their in car dining habits an event?

Really sorry to hear about the damage. Hope you now have a rental and things are moving smoothly.

Years ago I used to make a big batch of squirrel in white wine sauce and take it to deer camp for the Saturday evening meal

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:

Just out of curiosity, how long was the car sitting for Rocky and family to make their in car dining habits an event?

The car is used two or three times / week.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:

Just out of curiosity, how long was the car sitting for Rocky and family to make their in car dining habits an event?

The car is used two or three times / week.

:O

I was kind of hoping you would not the car sits for a week or three without moving. Not being driven every other day.

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:

I was kind of hoping you would not the car sits for a week or three without moving. Not being driven every other day.

We are both retired. Two cars, used for errands, groceries, etc. Not daily, but couple times / week for each of us.

I would suggest you shop for a vehicle that was made prior to about 1990. Because I have seen a lot of posts about the "green" insulation used today being made out of Soy or some other vegetable. What you want is a good old fashioned NOT climate friendly insulation made from Petroleum that tastes bad to critters and is also somewhat toxic.

On a final note I wonder of a class action lawsuit against the tree hugger's over the damage resulting from these misguided "green" initiatives could get some traction. I'm all for preserving our planet but all these greenies fail to consider that the problem is not What we are doing it is HOW MANY OF US THERE ARE. What this world needs is a planet wide limit on reproduction.

Squirrel Story:
At my former residence, a squirrel would show up daily carrying a bagel. Which he would eat on the window sill in front of my cat. That drove the cat nuts. It affected me too, since I wanted to know where in hell the bagel came from, and why must it be eaten in front of the cat? Every day? I never figured it out.

I’m happy to report that one of the dozen feral cats my neighbor harbors actually made itself useful yesterday, by murdering a squirrel that’s been making a nuisance of himself in my yard.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

The agent that took care of the coverage for the repairs to my EQEV setup the rental for me at Enterprise, you might check with your carrier to see if they can do that for you.

The agent set it up, gave me a reservation number, told me to call the Fern Park Enterprise office to arrange to pick up the car. The resulting run-around is documented in the original post in this thread.