Prius a remarkably fragile car?

I live on Long Island and drive to NYC and Jersey A LOT, since most of my friends live in those areas. I've never damage my Prius in almost 2 yrs of ownership (crossing fingers). Just like many new cars, the bumpers are made with plastic. So they are easy to crack. Your incidents sound more like driver error more than anything else.

Just be careful next time you drive your Prius.

 

No, it's not the Prius being "fragile". It's a combination of two factors:
1. The Prius has low ground clearance. ANY vehicle with low ground clearance will suffer that kind of damage and costs if extreme care is not taken. My RX-7 (below) is one of those. Even driveway entries can damage it.
2. Most modern cars no longer have "bumpers" that can bump. They are painted "bumper covers". Even just touching another object will scratch them enough to require replacement. Happened to the anti-Prius below, twice! Touched side of garage backing out. Couldn't even feel it happen, but it damaged the bumper cover!

Try adding "curb feelers", long spring devices that attach to the frame. They make noise when they touch something, warning you to "STOP NOW!"

There isn't much you can do about the low ground clearance. It's needed to improve fuel economy. Just be aware of it and avoid snow piles, and deep potholes/road discontinuities. Especially be careful entering driveways/parking lots. If the entry looks steep, try to straddle it when entering and leaving.

 

I have had cars with low ground clearance since I can remember. Well maybe my first car in high school didn’t. You have to be careful when going over bumps and stuff like that. If you have a steep driveway you may need to be careful pulling out of it. When the weather is bad maybe you should slow down. To me this is what your post sounds like.

“* One week after I bought it, it was snowing heavily. About a 4-6 inch snowpile was on the side of the road. I swerved to avoid it but clipped it. Totally crushed in a part of the front bumper. Engine cover ripped off. $1000 repair.
• Two weeks later, again snowing. Making a K-turn and, while backing up, the brakes don't stop me and the back bumps lightly into a wall. This one was almost totally driver error. Surprisingly there was less damage than the first accident but still $400 repair for the rear bumper.â€


Hey its snowing slow down and realize the car is not going to stop on ice or snow. Slow down. Or just realize that snow and ice make things slippery. Slippery means things slide and do not stop on a dime.

I had a Mini and it snowed here the car was not handling like it should (first time driving on snow) I didn’t blame the car I down shifted and drove slower.

I am not trying to give you a hard time but it just sounds to me like it is more your fault (ie driver error) and not the car.

 

Go to driving school, haha.

 

Wow, 4-6 inches of snow on the ground? Umm how about driving a 4WD Jeep or something? The Prius isn't designed to be a good snow car. The engine cover was ripped off, good job dude! Take better care of your car and you won't have trouble.

Dave

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Crsgardner @ Apr 3 2007, 10:49 AM) [snapback]416990[/snapback]</div>

A 4-6 inch snowpile? And it hurt your car? I'm sorry, but I rammed our car in foot high/snow ice drifts this winter after snows to make our parking path*. How did you do $1000 damage on a 4-6 inch snowpile? Have any pics of the damage?




*and yes, I did get it stuck once, but it moved out after a two person push.

 

Most of the damage is just plastic pieces--no big deal.

Maybe you could save up a few of these instances and get them all fixed at once, instead of fixing each individual instance.

 

***SIGH***

Like a previous post, I have driven two Prius {2004 and now 2007} for over 2½ years in Dallas TX without a scratch in all kinds of traffic, parking in garages and lots, etc.etc.etc. I do not, in any respect, consider my Prius to be 'fragile.' I do occasionally scrape a high curb with the "wind dam" beneath the front bumper cover but not enough to damage it. I suppose a "Texas Pickup Truck" or a Military Hummer would be the ideal vehicle for a driver who collides with things periodically.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Crsgardner @ Apr 3 2007, 11:35 AM) [snapback]417062[/snapback]</div>

I feel bad for your situation, it's no fun to be faced with car damage. But since the ground clearance is 5.6" and the front grill bottom is higher than that, and looking at your photo, this had to be at least 7-8" of thick ice you ran into, not 5-6" of snow. Or some metal object was hidden in the snowbank. I've driven for blocks in about 8" snow and gone thru mildly packed snowbanks higher than that with nary a problem other than a snow-covered license plate (and yes, I was leaving a drag mark from the undercarriage).

None of these incidents affected the drivability of your car, so getting them fixed can be done at your own schedule, not affecting your work if you so desire.

The only damage I've had on my car (other than some unexplained scratches, but with an 8-yr-old and his active friends it could be from anything), was popping off the right rear-view-mirror shield (the black plastic part) when backing into the garage too close to the door, but luckily I was able to snap it back on. My wife was watching too, so I lost some good-driving points from that incident.

All new cars use a lot more plastic parts, in your case it's more a matter of getting used to the lower clearance than anything else. I had a friend with Land Rover and he wanted to go over a little dip in a grass median between parking spots, heard a little pop, and ended up with several hundred dollars of damage from a broken window crank assembly. And the Land Rover is supposed to be this rugged SUV, so it can happen on all vehicles.

 

I'm sorry you are having such bad luck with your new baby. This is the lowest-to-the-ground car I have ever owned and I have had to learn to avoid those cement wheel stoppers in parking lots and also be very careful about anticipating steep transitions from the street to driveways (using the angle approach). My last car was a Toyota Cressida and had at-one-time-mandated 5mph bumpers covered in black rubber. I much preferred those to the current trend of plastic covered Styrofoam which is extremely unforgiving. I suppose in your experience the Prius seems rather fragile. Except for contact sports like touching the car on a curb or going over a curb, I have found the car to behave like any other car...that is I can drive at speed on dirt/washboard roads, take a few inches of snow, or about anything else just like any other car I have owned. I hope you have better luck in the future and enjoy your car as much as I do.

 

I think you should sell your prius and consider getting a Dodge Power Wagon like they had on that TV show Simon and Simon.

 

I hit a truck tire tread on the freeway (tire treads breed and multiply at night in California), and got $1300 in damage. New bumper, foglight, lower grill, and door repaint. I've hit tire treads in my other cars, and it usually polishes out, without further damage. Both of out Subarus have had foglights broken by flying gravel. It is an ugly world out there if you care about keeping your car nice.The moral of the story is, don't hit things, and you shouldn't have any problems. This is usually true of most vehicles.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daronspicher @ Apr 3 2007, 03:17 PM) [snapback]417208[/snapback]</div>

Wow, I forgot all about Simon and Simon and their "cock and balls" pickup. They seemed to have an endless supply of vehicles at their disposal on that show. Magnum only had the Ferrari and the Audi.

Dave

 

It's possible to make plastic bumpers that are not fragile, Volkswagen knows how to do this.
See "New Beetle ranks no 1 in slow-speed crash". That was almost 10 years ago, Toyota, watch and learn!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveLeePrius @ Apr 3 2007, 03:29 PM) [snapback]417220[/snapback]</div>

Magnum had a Bronco and TC's helicopter too!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daronspicher @ Apr 3 2007, 04:17 PM) [snapback]417208[/snapback]</div>

Ah, Simon and Simon.

Ki'i's don't lie. And diamonds are not a girl's best friend.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Charles Suitt @ Apr 3 2007, 08:57 AM) [snapback]417072[/snapback]</div>

Yes, what a drag Have you noticed this any more often since getting the 07? Ours has taken to scraping the sidewalk when we turn into our drive. The 04 didn't do that. Can't see any sign of damage or significant scrape marks but it's probably only a matter of time. It's a left turn and with oncoming traffic we sometimes take it a little fast.

 

I would say that the Prius is definitely *not* fragile where it
really counts. I've gone over some bumps that make me wonder why
I still have a front end at all, let alone still in proper alignment.
I've left my share of underbelly-prints in the snow, but that was
deliberate just to have some fun and see how well the car could pull
out of it -- not hitting mysterious buried icebergs. I consider the
nose and tail plastic more or less expendable, because it's built
that way ... but it was still annoying to come back to the car about
a month after I got it and find a big streak of white paint across
the back bumper because some yutz didn't know their own dimensions
in a somewhat tightly-packed parking lot. But per my dad's favorite
quote from _Tobacco Road_ -- "it don't hurt the runnin' of it none."
.
Anybody remember Mr. Magoo?
.
_H*