2012 Crooked Prius?

Have you had it since new?

 

There are variations in the manufacturing process when components are made from drawn or stamped steel. When it is stamped, sheet steel has a tendency to spring back. Contrary to conventional wisdom, no two parts stamped with the same dies is identical. No two raw steel sheets are identical either.

The bodies are assembled on fixtures that align the components to be spot welded and assembled. Welding either with spot welding or continuous electrical welding will cause the components to move as they heat up and cool.

The sum of all these little variations could result in the difference reported by the OP.

Bolted together components with have "backlash" common with even the most precise machine tools. Freeplay is necessary for the parts to slip together. Otherwise, expansion and contraction or variations in temperature will cause the parts not to fit together.

Wheel alignment with shims and other adjustments allow for all of these variations to provide for a good tracking result as the car travels down the road.

Basically, it is nothing to worry about.

 

On this wiki page:

Toyota Service Information and Where To Find It | PriusChat

you will see mention of the "collision repair manual". It has several "body dimension drawings" that give a web of dimensional measurements between specific reference points on the body and underbody, to make sure everything is properly lined up after a repair. The reference points are often small holes provided in the sheet metal, so you can anchor the points of a tracking gauge there.

The reference dimensions are given in mm. I'm looking in a Gen 1 edition of the manual, and I don't see them saying what an acceptable tolerance is on the dimension. But they do go on about using a freshly-calibrated tracking gauge with no looseness in its body or joints, which has me thinking that whatever tolerance they have in mind, an inch would be outside it.

 

Is the OP measuring the chassis or the difference between the hubs on the wheels on the ground? Since most cars are driven with only one person in the driver's seat, those springs become weaker and shorter with age.

Alignment is usually done with no one in the car. When the driver gets into the car, the alignment of wheel separation between the nub's centers will be longer.

 

i'm afraid to check mine like you said, if it ain't broke, don't fix it

 

Any little variation in the steering not pointing straight forward will result in the inch in variation.

 

Yeah, that was my first thought on reading the initial post.

 

So what happened here when you swung the arms out on the jack all of them lined up except for one there's usually four pads that swing out or in my missing something here or the one side the pads lined up perfectly and on the other side they were an inch forward or rearward?