Mud Guards

From everything I have read in the forums, mudflaps are not available for the 2010 prius yet and no known date of when available. If your dealer actually gets them in three weeks, you would probably be the first.

 

What terrain are you driving on that you need mud guards?

 

New England roads! Covered with so much sand/salt, pretty much year 'round, that driving here is like putting your car through a sandblaster

 

This may not be important to you but mud flaps lower fuel economy by creating drag under the car. It will not significantly decrease FE but it is a piece in the FE puzzle if they are on the car. If you don't drive for FE...by all means add the mud flaps.

 

I absolutely drive for FE (as I always have), but the drag factor is hardly a significant factor when the vehicle is driven at lower speeds and winter streets coated with sand and salt.

The lack of mudflaps (as an optional accessory) is a significant and inexcusable flaw on the part of Toyota in North America (Canada included).

My other complaint is the poor design and capability of the "all weather" mats.

Cheers;

MSantos

 

As I said, mudflaps on the vehicle will not significantly improve FE but all the little things add up. No mudflaps in addition to EBH, grill block, rear wiper delete, skillful driving, etc, etc, etc all add up to improve FE "significantly." Not to mention, when driving in the winter the mud flaps collect snow, ice, dirt and salt and create even more drag (it's really a preference driver to driver). Other cars have much larger mud flaps and the drag is more in play but the Prius does just fine without them IMO.

 

I'm reasonably sure mudflaps will have some small negative affect on FE. I wouldn't call it 100% without seeing it in a wind tunnel though - sometimes things don't do what the seem like they should in aerodynamics. But either way, being right behind the rotating wheel, it is doubtful the flaps would destroy the airflow there too much more than it already is by the wheel itself. Besides, the Prius mudflaps are tiny - we're not talking about big flapping Yosemite Sam things here. So I agree in principle, and yes, little things absolutely add up; but I think the tradeoff is not unreasonable in this case for a lot of drivers. I mean after all, in the 'little things add up' category, you could also remove the floor mats to save weight, remove the spare tire and get AAA, put full moon wheel covers on, drop 10 lbs of personal body weight on a diet, etc, etc. All might be correct choices for FE, but one has to stop somewhere, right?

 

I too asked for mud flaps right after purchasing my 2010 Prius and was told that they are not available by the dealer. I hope you get yours in the 3 weeks and then I can request them again from my dealer. What are they charging you, if you don't mind my asking?

I don't believe that protecting the car from mud and road tar can be that detrimental to my gas mileage.

 

Matt, I assume that you mean 'decrease' and not 'improve' FE.

 

I'm gonna bet Danny will have them here in the PC Shop as soon as they're available. They may take a wee bit of a bite out of my FE, but I hope to have them installed before it gets too messy around here.

 

Yes..sorry...mudflaps ON the car could decrease FE...thanks!

There certainly is a limit to what a person feels is beneficial to improve FE vs. creature comfort...personal choice for sure. My intent was to point out the mud flaps could add drag to the car (not significant...but perhaps enough to reduce FE...even a little). Just trying to keep "FE" in mind when aesthetic/functional mods are suggested on this site.

 

Provided President Obama signs the Cash for Clunkers bill today, I
should be picking my car up today, with mud guards. The salesman
never said anything about the guards not being available, so I had no
idea other people were having trouble getting them.



-Mark

 

Hi Mark and :welcome:

Congrats on your car! Flaps aren't standard because of the hit on FE - if you're expecting them - make sure they're there - and take a picture of them so we can see!!

 

When they finally are released and available for sale they better get in quite a few - just the pent up demand from this forum will keep their shipping departments busy.

 

Fair enough and I agree... no point in destroying FE for aesthetics... that would defeat the whole point of buying a Prius in the first place!

 

Could you please post a Toyota Part Number for these? If you car is not yet ready, I bet a quick call to your dealer would allow him to get the part # for you to post here, which would help a lot of us out.

Living in Chicago (Road Repair Hell), and being a very messy place to drive in the winter, I would also love to get a set of flaps. I think that my Prius with flaps will still get much better economy than any SUV plowing down the road. ;-)

 

I think mud flaps are going to be my first purchase towards modifying my car. There's some other things I want to do internally for aesthetics but the mud flaps I want because I see all this tar already starting to slowly accumulate on my Prius and I haven't even had it two weeks!