Just got my 2010 prius ii 12 days ago and on the 7th day I noticed that the climate control display plastic/glass has swirly scratches on it. And the CD player dislay has a line thru it also. You can only see the scratches/swirls and line in direct sunlight. When i first got the car i used a cotton t-shirt to wipe off dust from the displays. While getting my 3m protection, i mentioned it to the service associate. He said a cotton t-shirt or terry cloth shouldn't have done it. But he wasn't able to remove swirl/scratch marks. What should I do? Should I ask toyota to replace it?
I'd look for Meguiars Plast-X, designed for plastic scratch removal. I've found that all dashboard clear plastic surfaces get swirl scratches quite easily. I learned years ago on a speedometer face on a brand new car. A wet cloth and microfiber is about the best you can attempt, but it still has risk on surfaces where you can get a bounce light reflection. It's not the dealer's problem since you know exactly what you did, so I don't really see why they would replace it for you but they may do it as a courtesy. It's very likely to get brushed or wiped again as the car ages, even if only by accident.
Use right cloth on right surface ... terry cloths will scratch delicate plastics (i.e. the radio cover in Gen2 Prius). Even microfiber terry will scratch smooth plastic. Use glass cloths or cloths for wiping sunglasses on delicate plastic. I like Autozone since they label cloths for glass, polishing and drying car body. ----- to go further, try wiping glass with a terry or microfiber terry cloth ... it grabs. Grabbing on plastic, paint, etc.. is scratching. Glass cloths glide over glass. Just try 'em, they work on those sensitive plastics.
-- No worries...mine had them also...this was the case from the day I drove it off the lot. Mine appear to be under the display not on the surface. Ed
Ha--I thought I was the only one who cared about such things. My car also had some scratches through the same plastic face as well--these went left-to-right across the display. I stopped in to see my car before it was prepped for delivery, and was going to ask them not to clean any of the acrylic plastic display surfaces, but just as I arrived, I saw the prep kid wiping my center console down with a rag. He was not scratching it intentionally, but just wasn't being as careful as I would have preferred. I know this is too late for you now, but I took a flashlight in with me for my pre-buy inspection and with that light I was able to see the scratches before delivery, so I had the dealer include a replacement at their cost as part of the deal. The interior lights in the showroom are not enough to highlight such things. One piece of info that might help--I use compressed air (can air dusters with R134a propellent) to remove the dust from the displays--as long as no dirt or smudge marks get on it, this works well as a non-contact cleaning method. I also insist that the interior is not cleaned whenever I take mine in for any service, and since I always do all my own detailing, I can control who touches the clean plastic surfaces and with what materials.
Just be careful with the compressed air. You can blow dust particles under the screens, and seeing them will drive you nuts. Glad to see I'm not the only one who has this particular form of OCD.
Thanks for the tip! I try to blow the air at shallow angles and in the middle of the screen with the intent of deflecting the particles away from the interfaces. I will make sure I take care when doing this because I would be driven completely nuts (maybe a short trip in my case) to see dust behind the screen. Maybe this calls for vacuum assist at the other end of the screen..... And you thought your compulsion was borderline clinical...
I tend not to be extremely anal with such things, but it is an irritant to see dust on the screens. My V is 5 weeks old. I've caught myself lightly brushing dust away while driving with my finger, then started using a microfiber cloth.. Both screens do have very light scratches - but as with other owners, may only be noticeable to us. Why can't car makers (I've had issues with other makes on this topic as well) use better materials for the screens? Planned obsolescence? That's a stretch of course, but c'mon.... I just received my new California dusters - one smaller one for the dash. Have already given it a couple once-overs and does a great dust-off job. Please tell me that this won't cause scratching on the lenses too???
I've been using CA dusters on my cars (exterior & interior) for many years with no issues. A good habit to get into is to shake it back and forth before using, and every once in a while during use (particularly on the exterior), to allow any larger particles to be released. I've used them many times on my Prius, and the pre-existing scratches on the A/C display haven't increased.
Maybe not dead-on topic but what I noticed was how, when outside where our cars spend 100% of their lives, the sun shines directly on the radio and climate control screens. On my gf's Sentra, you can no longer read the frequency of the radio due to the sun fading of the readout. That's one of the main reasons I jumped on the Sunshade for the windshield when I saw it in the PC shop.