I noticed today that my 2013 Prius II black spoiler is chipped. It really is a tiny spot but I can see the little white spot in the center of the black spoiler. My Prius II is brand new, I picked it up at the dealer on December 30, 2012, and I am not really sure if the chipped spoiler was there at the time of delivery. Regardless, what would be the best way to repair that tiny spot? I don't want to leave it like this as it may rust (I live on the Florida coast). Should I try to repair this myself or should I take it to the dealer? If I was to repair it myself, what should I use? Thank you in advance, Kerke
Is The Prius spoiler made of metal? If you can see "white" then I don't think rust is a concern. Being so "new", I'd probably take it to the dealership, state your concerns that you think it may of been delivered to you with the chip, and see what they may or may not be willing to do for you. If you are lucky, perhaps they will fix it for you. If they refuse, or determine that it's unprovable "when" it happened, they could at least tell you the cost of repair options. Just be honest, not angry or confrontational. This is where "The Dealer is My Friend" is the best approach. How small is "small"? If it's small enough, your best answer might just be careful application of touch up paint.
Blu-ray, this is a photo of the rear black spoiler, taken with my low-res blackberry camera, the chip is actually much smaller than how it looks like on the picture. I stopped by the Toyota dealer and basically they gave me three options: (1) Replace the whole spoiler--more than likely the dealer will not cover the cost because it has been 3 weeks since the car was delivered. (2) Use the Toyota black touch-up paint 202, I wonder if this can make things even worse and more noticeable. Option (3) was to just use a black Sharpie marker. So I ask... What do you guys recommend?
202 Black is a perfect match. My repair is barely detectable only because I know where to look for it. The part is plastic so rust isn't an issue. Given the choice I'd have it painted to match the body instead of having the shiny black show all the swirlies.
Most any automotive gloss black will work. I've used Dupli-Color "Universal Black" (after a couple of run-ins with our garage door opener...). I've taken our spoiler off once, just to see how to do it. Also, been toying with trying satin black Plasti-Dip. Would likely take it off for that.
hey, what's your MPG during the winter time ? I'm getting 6.9-7.1 >< my best in the summer was 4.8-5.3
Well, you can see from my Fuelly Icon the accumulated, for a bit over two years calc'd now. And not sure where you are across the country, but we're right on the west coast, winters pretty mild. I just checked our record, see the worst on record was a 5.8. There was one other at 6.2, but someone messed up the fillup, I'm sure it's an anomaly. Best summer was 4.5. It depends a lot on type of driving, trip duration, ambient temps/weather, and so on. Is your's a Canadian Touring?
