=( =( One wrong turn because I wasn't thinking led to me trying to figure out where I was so I turned into a parking lot and put the DMV's address into the GPS . I go to leave the parking lot and as I went to take a left turn into traffic I scrapped my car against the asphalt because of a big dip!!! One of those moments where I knew RIGHT before it happened that something bad was about to happen. The GPS to get me back to where I needed to go got me to drive on roads that were torn up because they were laying down new asphalt and rocks kept hitting my car. It was just a bad morning. =( Omg. Not even a month with my car yet and this happens. =( =( =( bad bad bad morning. What can I do and would touch up paint from dealer help or is this too big of a scrape?? Ugh. 3 days from being one month old. Sorry for bad grammar. I am so sad.
sorry about that fmc, bummer. har to tell from the pic, how does it look from eye level about 10' away?
Sorry to hear about this mishap. I think 32k and bisco are on the right track. If this where my car I would try for touch up paint because of the location. Yes, you will always know where to look, but most everyone else will not likely notice. The first ding is always rough, no matter how long I've had the car. iPad ?
Well you all will probably think I'm being dramatic, because you can't see it at eye level looking at the car. It's completely underneath the car so unless you were to sit down on the ground and bend over to look at it, you won't see it. It just messes with me mentally now because I know it's there. =/ I know I can't be the only one this dramatic about my car lol. =/ I just needed to vent and know if there was anything I could do to at least try to make it better. Should I just get touch-up paint from the dealer? Can I use that Dr.ColorChip stuff on this? I know that works really really well for small specks and stuff but wasn't sure how it would go over for something like this. Thanks for all the responses though! I am still bummed.
Oh, no! Definitely too severe for touch-up paint. This is the kind of thing that I worry about with the small tires and low-slung profile. For the benefit of other newbie Prius drivers, was the dip visible enough that you could have avoided if you were taking your time and being extra careful? So sorry that this happened! You must feel ill over it!
Go to home depot and get some krylon spray paint. It's under the car. Mask off the rest of the car so you don't get overspray. And sand it down a little first to even it out. My cars are lowered and they are always scraping. Par for the course for me.
Yup .... sand it down and spray it with Duplicolor ... no big deal ... it was the first time, but most likely won't be the last. REV
Now it is broke in. I whacked one of my doors with a jack handle and removed a patch of clear coat... the day after I got mine! Fortunately because of the wonderful BP, you really can't tell.
I was bothered the first time I scraped the bottom too, but knowing how many more times I was going to do the same thing in the future, I then felt relief LOL
So, if you are going to repeatedly scrape the car, do you need to patch every time? We have an 18-year-old Chrysler LHS that I've repeatedly grounded out on (low-slung). Yet I've never bothered to do anything with that and it has suffered no ill effects. It did however suffer some ill effects when I got too cozy with the side of a wee garage after a snowstorm. What's that part of the Prius made of? The LHS had a lot of plastic trim pieces so I wasn't so worried about those.
Oh that is so tough. I felt terrible when I lost my wheel cover, so I can only imagine how much worse after that kind of damage. I don't know whether Haley Toyota does good body work or not; and matching the BP might be difficult but about ten years ago I had work done on our Camry at Brown's VOLKSWAGEN on Midlothian Tpke (not sure they were VW at the time). The work was superb and I could never see it!
I suppose it would bother me, especially with a new vehicle. But if it's totally underneath the vehicle? And not visible from eye level? Whether it looks "perfect" or not, I'd probably touch it up using touch up paint, to avoid rust or further deteriation, and then I wouldn't worry about it. It doesn't matter how careful you are, the underside of your vehicle is not going to remain pristine. Kind of hard to tell from the pictures...but if it isn't visible from above, or the side of the vehicle, I really wouldn't get too upset. The only reason I'd touch up would be to protect...and then I wouldn't worry about it.
No need to worry about rust, that area is plastic. It's definitely up to you whether it's worth fixing up when it's likely to get scraped again. If it were mine, I'd try not to think about it, especially because it's out of the line of normal sight.
Geesh...you're right...I'm being stupid. So rust isn't even an issue. I'm "uptight" enough, I'd personally probably touch it up anyway... But then I wouldn't worry about it.
I'd just do the touch up even if you can't see it so it's less noticeable when you do duck your head or go under the car for any reason. I have a few of those on the side skirts from misjudging the ramp and going off some curb, but it's black on my black car so no need to touch up.
If it's plastic as several have indicated it is, I wouldn't even bother with it. It WILL happen again, and you'll just be chasing your own tail to keep it pretty in a spot that you can hardly see. I'm certain that you've got more important things to worry about! Come to think of it, with the Prius as low as it is, it would have been silly of Toyota to have made it anything that would be truly damaged by scraping against the pavements. I think their engineers think of such things!
I would be physically ill if this happened to me. Given the amount of damage, and considering that your Prius is new car that cost more than $30,000, check with the dealer to determine the repair cost. Since the damage is under the front bumper, paint match will not be critical. This repair may cost less than $200. It's not what others see when I get a stone chip or bumper damage, it's what I know is there, and that's what bugs the heck out of me. Good luck with making your decision, and sorry about your damage.
if i couldn't see it standing up, i never would have looked in the first place. i'm always scraping those parking spot curbs in front of the car.