I just bought a bra for our new Prius and it fits great. I like the idea that the grills are meshed in. The price was $99.00 and the shipping was free. Easy to install with no holes to drill or tools needed.
No way trying to start a war of opinions, but I really don't like that. Maybe it's just the color of the car or that it has bulky properties. Man.
How long does it take to put the thing on and get it tight and straight? What are the clips like; what do they connect to? Does it seem durable? What is the inner surface - is it vinyl?
I bought the bra from Wolf Car Covers: Wolf Car Cover, Auto Covers, LeBra Car Bra, Wolf Bra, DashMat DashBoard Covers, Car Floor Mats . You will need to email them as they have not put it on the web site yet. They do have them in stock and the cost was $99.00 total. From the time I ordered it via email to the time it was in my hands was two days. GREAT service. The intallation is very easy and what I like about the bra is they have nice sturdy straps with tension buckels that make it easy to adjust the tightness of the bra. The old bra I bought from Toyota in 04' for my past Prius was $165.00 and the fitting was poor, I had to loosen the headlight buckets to slip the retainer pieces in place and the straps were elastic. This one requires no tools. It took me 15 minutes to put it on the first time and now that all the straps are in place it should be about 8 minues. This bra is as good of quality or better than the one from Toyota. The lining is soft like felt and the exertior is a well stitched leather like material. The straps that hold it on the bottom fit perfectly in holes that are already there. The sides are held in place by three 2 inch heavy duty strips that snap over the inner fender lip and have velcro on them. The bra has heavy duty metal strips that have the felt for the velcro to hold on to. You just slide the clips on the inner well and pull and bend the velcro tabs over them (as seen in the photo), nice idea. Like I said, I like the meshing covering the grills, it will keep the areas clean of bugs and stones. I ONLY use the bra when I'm on a road trip and never leave it on when I'm just driving it around town, like some drivers do.
This is an important distinction to make. When I lived in CO, I put a LeBra on my GL-10. After two trips up the mountain, I had collected enough sand and grit underneath it (they don't use salt out there) to burnish the paint to a nice steel wool-effect patina. Then, years later, I acquired another bra from VW for my B5 Passat. After leaving it on all winter, I was graced with quarter-sized circles of paint missing (they'd adhered to the lovely soft felt backing and came off with the bra itself). Needless to say, YMMV. However, I shant be installing one on another vehicle.
Chris, this is a VERY important fact when using a bra on ones car, and the reason I stated that I ONLY use it for road trips. All makers of these bras make it VERY clear that you should have a freshly waxed finish before installing one. They also should be tight on the car so they don't flap in the wind, causing rubbing on the finish. Leaving one on in the winter in the north is asking for trouble. This past July we went on a 4 week road trip with our 04' and we drove through 18 states and over 7,000 miles. I had the bra on the entire trip and when we got home I washed it and the front end was perfect, even though we had driven in some nasty places.
I know - matter of personal taste, but....IMO yuck. Completely detracts from the Prius front appearance - but will turn heads, perhaps stomachs... It's like a person putting on a black leather nose mask rather than clear chapstick-like application for sun & ski. And, if it shouldn't be used in winter etc - what's the overall benefit? Ugly. Cannot use as protection 100%. Potential finish damage. Impact of air flow. Was it simply $$$ as clear bras are much more?
A clear-bra is the only way to do this. Old technology was the black leather bras that were a pain in the butt to put on and take off and risked damage to the paint. The clear bras solve the problem and unless you are standing right on top of the car are invisible. I have had one on my '05 for 123,000 miles and it still looks good. They are considerably more expensive but well worth it in time savings and the appearance of no bra on the car.
