I am thinking about buying a 2007 Prius, but I am concerned about it’s low ground clearance. Has anyone had any trouble with speed bumps or potholes? Do driveways that are higher than the street level cause the bottom to scrape when you drive up onto them?
I've had the occasional scrape. It's not like driving a Jeep. But as SW says above, it's no worse than many other cars.
I also bottom out with 3 people, but then again i have mudflaps and a hitch. Most of the time i scrape the hitch tip when coming out of steep driveways with people in my car. Plus the prius looks ridiculous when fully loaded... looks like it's about to collapse. That's just my opinion though.
I bottom out all the time. Not on speed bumps or pot holes, but as you described, transitions from the road over sidewalks and into driveways. We have some very agressive curb and gutter designes out West and it never fails that the steeper ones cause a big old scrape. The problem is rarely turning into these but out of them. The big dip is a far bigger problem then bumps. I try to just barely creep down on these, but I still scrape. It bugs me. It's a good thing the Prius has that plastic underbelly to protect the bits and pieces. I'm fine with that thing getting scraped to hell and not my bumper or undercarriage.
After 1800 miles I scraped the front spoiler once going into a parking lot kinda fast. I am not having any problems with it.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(sl7vk @ Oct 28 2006, 09:18 PM) [snapback]340131[/snapback]</div> Did you come from a car with more ground clearance? I've found that if anything the Prius bottoms out less than my Lexus in situations like that because the overhangs are shorter.
bottoming out isn't to do with overhangs. That would be whether you scrap the front (or rear) bumper. When I think of "bottoming out", that would be the suspension is compressed to the max (usually the rear) and thus the bottom of the car touches the road or whatever it happens to hit (usually a speed hump or a crest of a ramp leading to an underground car park)
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SW03ES @ Oct 29 2006, 01:30 AM) [snapback]340202[/snapback]</div> I have a 99 Saturn SL1. I don't know what its ground clearance is, but it looks higher than the Prius. I've never had any problems scraping bottom with my Saturn. I have a nasty dip at the end of my driveway and that concerns me. I guess the only way to know for sure is to take the Prius on another test drive but this time bring it home. Thanks to all for your replys. bfw
I wonder if everyone is using the same definition of "bottom out". To me, bottom out means to truly hit a critical component of the car such as scraping the structure, a muffler, etc.. I have never had that happen, even when going over some pretty bad speed bumps when the wheels are on either side of it. I do however have the plastic fairing below the front bumper scrape on occasion. If I pull to far forward into a parking spot with a tall curb. The other time is when backing out of my driveway with a reasonably tall curb if the front of the car drops off the curb onto the street. To avoid this, I let the front of the end come down slowly. I'll turn some while backing out so that one front wheel comes down before the other. This keeps the front from dropping in and scraping. Once I figured this out, I have had no problems.
My Prius scrapes the transition form a road to sidewalk then to a driveway, but not on speed bumps or potholes.
The only problem I've ever had is pulling up into a parking space too far and scraping the air dam under the from bumper on the curb...... never bottomed out on a speed bump or anywhere else for that matter.
The only time that I have had problems with scraping the front air dam is the transition from street to parking lot where there is a steep incline. I am doing temporary duty at our Central office in Austin and getting into the parking lot at the building I am work at is a pain. This is the only place that I have had problems besides the tall parking curbs that I have encountered.
just had the prius up in the air today and we checked the underside for scrapes... nothing. i have scraped the plastic skidplates way up front but that's why they're there. i also scraped the bottom of my car bra (as in, would have been paint if the bra wasn't there) while trying to get the *&^% out of a bad neighborhood asap.
