Helpful Parking Assistant Helpfully Scratches Rim

Living in the city, I have developed super human parallel parking skills. Drive up, eyeball the measurement, back it in using the side mirror and the 6th sense for curb distance. I just tilted up my nose to the Parking Assistant feature in my knobless, CDless, missing 5th seat Prime Advance, because all the other savvy Prius Prime buyers have been circling to swoop up all the Plus and Premiums.

Having paid for it, I tried it out for my kids to giggle at. Not bad. Last week, wife was in the car as we're heading to dinner and I found a prime parking spot (no pun) by the restaurant, so I decided to push the button and show her how it works. It's doing its thing and before it started to straighten out, I noticed that it was going to be much closer to the curb than before... a little too close, so I slowed down just as I felt a little... resistance. That's when I thought "oh sh*t" and ABORTED the operation to park it my damn self. That's when I saw it - a small scratch on the rims and it really bums me. Two weeks old and my first scratch - ugh.

There's a misalignment on the curb and was just enough to scratch me. Maybe I shouldn't have moved as quick while the assistant was doing its thing, but that would mean I would have to blame myself. I'll blame the Prime instead.

Tip: Move slowly during Parking Assist, or.... DON'T USE IT AT ALL!

 

Thanks! These are actually Toyota rims as part of their upgrades. Those upgrade packages you don't really need that bumps up the total price of the car. In my case, the applique and these rims made me feel better about paying extra to get the color I wanted, after negotiating down the cost for the extras. Compared to the stock rims, I think it sticks out just a smidgen more and that might be enough - I think a scratch was inevitable as the curb stuck out just a bit.

For some reason, I find that Prius bumpers always get scratched in the city. Maybe because it's just a smooth bumper with nothing but paint to scratch. An applique would be nice to have back there. It's those darn people that park by feeling/bumping. At least my Prime screams at me when I'm getting too close - too close being like almost 2ft. Good grief...

 

Thanks for the tip! I'll look into a touch-up pen and that color code. I thought it was not really noticeable, but when I was going to drive my friend that evening and it was the first time he was going to see the Prime, he immediately saw it. Yep, I can't not see it myself either. A little silver touch-up should make it harder to see.

I tried it twice over the weekend and it was inconsistent. Once was 2ft from curb and the other getting too close for comfort - both times aborted. I'll try bringing the car to my ideal angle of attack and see how it goes. It'll be learning what the Prime needs for it to work right.

 

He's kind of a car guy, but he also hates Prius. I mean, I did offer my old PiP to him for only $6k first, but he says driving a Prius felt very weird since he's still driving combustion. I did notice small scratches at the dealer and had them all fixed - I wouldn't sign off the visual inspection papers without actually... visually inspecting the car.

 

Even without the curb sticking out a bit on the seam, it was coming in too close to the curb. As u/msagro mentioned, how I position the car before starting the parking assist will affect the outcome. I think I was at a pretty decent angle and distance to the car next to me as I would've parked just fine myself, but it probably had more to do with the speed I was moving. Wasn't terribly fast, but faster than I had tried before.