I visably damaged the underside of the front bumper of my brand new 2010 prius! Help!

that depends how big the damage is..same thing happen to my car at the same location but is like 5cm long only so i order a touch up paint at the dealer and maybe buy a wet paper and do it myself. that small damage 'cause 200-300 to repair i called multiple body shops already here in LA and they all want to rip me off so i decided to just do it myself

 

If you can't normally see it, leave it (or cover with touch up paint yourself) for it might happen again.

 

Providing pix would make it easier for folks to see the extent of the damage and provide responses.

 

I would suggest as the other posts to use touch up on the bumper area. It depends on how much is damaged. You can have it factory new again for a couple hundred (200-300) where they will finish and paint it. I had it happen on my 2007 Civic. I drove my new prius today before delivery (Friday 8/21) and was CAREFUL to not hit the parking lot concrete stops. Once you get used to it you should do better. But may want to wait a few weeks until you get the handle on parking and distance to the bumper area...Then get it repaired if it's really annoying. It's done in the Dealer Paint/Body shop.

Good Luck!

 

It's plastic. All those parts are going to get some degree of
banged up over the car's life; I realize it's difficult with
a new one but hopefully from the standpoint of a few years out
you could see yourself saying "yeah, whatever".
.
_H*

 

In my first week, I was often either three feet away from the curb or on top of it (usually the former). I did lightly scrape a high curb, but was moving very slowly and was lucky to back off at first scrape with no visible damage.

After that, I installed a backup-sensor kit wired to my highbeam switch with the sensors on the lower grille. Easy to Google for these under $100. Installed in about 15 minutes with the controller under the hood near the fuse box. One wire to ground, one wire to a highbeam lamp fuse in the box. Ran the display cable into the cabin and put the distance display/beeper in the little space between the steering column and the dash. Now I park 6 inches from the curb everytime.

Good luck with your repair.

 

I found this happening to me so often it wasn't funny. The prius is Really Really low in front, and I am not used to that. All my other cars fit up over most curbs, allowing my car's posterior to get further out of harm's way.

What I have found works well for me is to find a reference point within your interior that from your seating position, indicates about six inches back from the curb. For me, it is the second louver in the left hand AC vent. As long as I line that up with the curb outside as indicated by yellow arrows in picture, no problems. Angle parking is a differnt story.



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I did the same exact thing, had less than 100 miles on it. Pulled into my first angle parking, and heard that horrible noise. Went to the dealer, got a bottle of touch up, had the local body/fender guy do it for $25.00. He did three coats, and it was well worth the $25.00. He said because the rubber was exposed, he put a primer on it, before he painted it.

 

Bummer. I came from a car with an even lower front end than the Prius so I haven't had an issue with this so far. Always a chance I'll lose concentration pulling into a space and crunch. On the positive side plastic doesn't rust so it is strictly cosmetic damage that allows you to ignore it or delay repairing it without risk.