Low Clearance Issues?

This has been concerning me as well. My parents have a mountain house, and I've wanted to go up there with some friends, but the issue is that it has a driveway with a very strong incline and a slight dip at the bottom.

A few years back I went up there with a Celica GT-S that has the same listed ground clearance [per Edmunds] as a 2010 Prius, and the Celica was able to climb without scraping, but I just don't want to scrape or bottom out with a new car. Should I even attempt to take my Prius up there ? I have heard that the dip at the bottom's improved recently [someone added asphalt, apparently] and one of our neighbors has a Camry that climbs it [again same listed ground clearance -- if that means anything] but I'm just worried about trying it with my Prius o_o

 

Here is a solution

A. Dont park so close to curb
B. Learn how to drive up a hill by using an angle.

 

I hope you weren't pointing your terse solutions at me. It has NOTHING to do with either parking close to the curb or driving at an angle.

In our town, there is no transition of cement between the rolled curb along the street and where a driveway actually is located. I attached a photos of the before and after of the cement work. And yes, I was driving at a very acute angle to get the car up in the driveway, but it still would scrape. In addition, it is a narrow driveway and approach, so not much wiggle room to angle in.

And having this work done spurred 5 other homes on my block to have the same work done. I guess we all got tired of screwing up our cars because of 1940s curb designs.

 

My parents also suggested I drive at an angle to make it up the driveway at the mountain house, but I'm still worried I'll scrape. I told my friend who wants to come along that everyone will probably have to get out, and we'll have to pull all of our bags out of the car before I attempt to climb that driveway...ought to be interesting :-/

 

My new car honeymoon didn't last long... Thirty five years of driving without an accident, and then everything changed within hours of buying my V.

If there is one thing that has turned me off about my Prius, it's the front bumper scraping when you least expect it. If I had known it would be so easy to scrape it, I would have bought black instead of a Blizzard Pearl. Or I might have bought the TDI I was considering instead.

Within three hours of buying the car, I scraped the front on a curb I had driven over for years in other cars with no problems - enough that the paint was taken off on one corner, and black fiberglass shows through.

I've also managed to scrape it going into driveways that looked like they should be safe - including the Toyota Dealer in Pasadena!

So now I have a Blizzard Pearl car with two big black damaged areas on the bottom of the bumper/spoiler. When I asked at the dealer how much it would cost to fix, I was told $600. So, I live with the damage.

 

That's rough, dude, sorry Is it very visible from the front while standing up or only when one's near the front bumper ?

 

+1. I had a BMW before also. I still find myself parking a few feet away from the curbs or cement wheel stoppers. Based on my experience, the Prius does clear the cement stoppers/barriers on most parking spots. BARELY clears most sidewalks if you are parking perpendicular. No problems with driveways.

Best to get in the habit of knowing when to stop without even touching.

 

All you have to do is roll up the curb at an angle, don't take it straight on! The road that leads to my house and my driveway are at a 15-20' angle, I can go on it just fine as long as I am not an idiot and try to hit it straight on. If my Corvette and Z cars can do it without scrapping, I am sure my Prius can too.

This is like SUV owners who slow to a crawl for every speed bump

 

Where the road grade changes, rather than an obstruction on the ground, then the 'angle of approach' and 'angle of departure' matter more than clearance. This is the angle formed by the bottom front of the bumper to the bottom of the tire and the road. The Prius apparently has an angle of approach of 14' and angle of departure of 22'. ([URL="http://www.cleangreencar.co.nz/info_toyota-priusII-specs.asp]Prius body specs[/url]). You can compare that to your other vehicles.

 

Again, I used to do the angle thing with both the MINI and the PRIUS. The "Dip & Bump" from these horrible curbs, as well as some lifting from tree damage made it impossible to go up the driveway (previous to the cement work) without scraping the bottom of the air dam on both the MINI and the Prius. And it eventually tore part of the MINI off during backing out.

 

Thanks for the info I'd never heard of that before, but I did a search and came across some sites that explained it: The Breakover Angle and Approach and Departure Angles, for example. Makes sense: if a vehicle was somewhat low, but the horizontal distance from the front wheel well to the front bumper wasn't very long, it'd be less of an issue than if that distance were longer. [Kinda brings back memories from physics and trig LOL].

So if I know the angle the driveway makes with the roadway, and that's less than the angle of approach plus some safety margin, is there a good chance that I won't scrape ?