Luckily, I no longer lives where it snows on a regular basis, so this isn't quite an issue for me. However, trips up the hill happen occasionally, such as this weekend. Well, after washing the deicer off this evening, I noticed a brand new rock chip, but on the nose of the car. There was also a couple chips in the paint, near where the Advanced fog light is. The chips are only on the driver side, likely from someone with "don't-want-to-be-stuck-behind-a-prius-itus"... This crack looks just like rock that hits glass, with a small impact spot, with the crater on the opposite side. This post is for observation and logging more than anything.
Clear bra helps some, but it doesn’t protect against everything. They are only a couple of mils thick, so if you get a big enough rock, it doesn’t matter. One of my employees had a similar occurrence a couple of weeks back, only it left a larger beauty mark. Needless to say he wasn’t very happy after learning the repair cost.
So they're literally glass chandeliers up front now, groan... Remove (or mask?) and spray multiple coats of mat-black Plasti-Dip?
One old school option is the Le Bra, which I put on our 2010 way back when we lived in fly over country due to ag trucks coming off of the fields and causing a lot of chips on the front of our 2010. Might not look the best, but it does the job really well.
Is there a Le Bra for Prius Prime? I looked for one but didn’t find one. I ended up putting paint protection film on the hood and bumper (but not the glass part). I have a new 2018 and wanted to cover the trouble spots from my 2017 which had 48k miles when I sold it, and many chips on those places. DIY installation: paint protection film | PriusChat
Might be worth checking with Le Bra, but I’ve seen most cars with their mask on, save Tesla’s . I’m a function over looks type and even though the black bra on the front of our Prius doesn’t look the best, it’s better than dealing with paint chips and touch up paint. I’d call them and see what they say.
Get a bra, then a cop-car style bolt-on bumper, some black appliques for white bits on the dash, tuck a temp spare in the back seat foot well: you're all set. Sorry, need coffee...
Yap, known issue with PRIME (and maybe for all Gen4?). I complained to Toyota headquarters, but they are not going to do a darn thing about it. If I really have to do front end works, I will replace it. Otherwise, crack on my front acrylic panel is going to stay.
It's a real shame. I know it looks pretty, but I'm assuming it serves no functional purpose. I'm surprised they put a piece this fragile in an area that could potentially see some of the most abuse...
Haha. My 92 Toyota pickup took a nice blow to the rear bumper. It bent, but that was the only damage. I agree though, these plastic "bumpers" don't allow for much of a bump anymore...
