Black Exterior Paint

I have a black one, and it looks fine after 15k miles, but if I were buying another Prius (and I almost did twice earlier this year), I'd go for the magnetic gray. that's a beautiful color, dark like black, but better in the sun & closeup, and shows dirt much less.

rpm

 

Update of the WOOHOO variety (with thanx to Galaxee)

Ok, so while Bruce was in getting fixed for the damage caused by the valleys in LoCal, I started thinking about all the travel/gravel damage wot was not getting fixed and asked the body shop for a quote. Since Bruce was there anyway and all of that...Given that Bruce & I had travelled over 20k miles and all that...AND, given that the body person at the shop told me that, generally speaking, road crap damage is NOT considered ONE'S fault by ONE's insurance company, and covered under comprehensive rather than collision--all of the dings and dents COULD be repaired and covered by ONE'S insurance company--with my $50 deductible for the comp rather than the $250 for collision--well, what they hey, I asked. (No...actually, I asked BEFORE I knew about the insurance coverage, to find out what I'd have to pay to fix the road damage to my sweet black Pri.) More than $5k was the answer (one particular bit in which the insurance co was interested was a chunk out of the SPOILER--god bless aerodynamics, says I).

Short answer, of sorts...it will cost me $50 to have ALL of the road debris damage fixed, along with the valet stuff.

And, yes, I WILL have a 3M cover or equivalent added.

God bless local business!

 

WOW! that's awesome!

if we had the money for the deductible, i'd try like heck to get my hood repainted.

 

Sorry, owner of a silver Prius here come to comment.
I had my bonnet repainted when I purchased my 04 Prius a few months back but I wanted to comment about the idea of insurance fixing it.

Congrats on getting insurance to pay for the repairs, if it was here in Australia the insurance company would treat each chip as a separate incident therefore each chip would require an "excess payment", which on my insurance, $250 which is pretty standard. As I couldn't identify the person responsible for each or any of the chips I would be the at fault driver and if I didn't have "protected no claim bonus" my premium would sky rocket.
Just a thought.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(patsparks @ Oct 11 2007, 10:29 PM) [snapback]524446[/snapback]</div>

First, please let me say, GALAXEE I LOVE YOU, AND WE OWE YOU & DH *AT LEAST* ONE DINNER NEXT TIME WE ARE IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD!!! Next, Pat, my insurance company DID at first try to say I had to identify where/when each ding had come from. When I said I couldn't, and the claims adjuster saw we'd (or, at least DH had been) members for 27 years, the adjuster caved VERY rapidly. He DID initially try to say each chip was a different claim, but, after he spoke with the body shop person, given that the shop already HAS the car for the valet damage, he agreed to accept enough of the damage as one incident, which I could not apply to any other individual, given the mileage on the car that I could tell him was from two separate round-trip cross-country trips. I firmly believe the 27 years has a LOT to do with it.

In this case, there were actually TWO claims--one for a trip I took last year, between October and December, and the other from this past August to December. For various reasons, with which I really cannot argue, my insurers denied the 2006 claim. However, the damage from the 2007 claim covers most of the same body parts, so those are all covered, it seems. Yes, yes, yes, the insurer DID try to say that each chip was a different incident, and virtually certainly would have won that argument had we not been with them, with the VERY high coverages we have...which are leftovers from when DH's business was a "sole proprietorship," meaning, here, that any claim for anything could have taken the business as well as the home. It's been many years since DH has incorporated the biz, but, somehow, he/we have never got around to changing the auto insurance policy. I don't know how y'all do this stuff down under, Pat, but here in California, it makes a VERY big difference.

As to the "at fault" driver issue...This surprised me as well, which was why I didn't do anything earlier. Apparently, stuff like road damage and hitting deer are NOT considered faults for the driver. The deer thing I know from a couple of years ago, when DH and his beemer had a close encounter--score: Deer 1, Beemer 2. The deer croaked. The beemer got a new bonnet. (DH is NOT sorry about this one--we have too many deer eating everything DH tries to plant...DH's philosophy is 'live and let live,' and the bambis are NOT keeping to their part of the bargain.) It was only when I asked for an estimate to fix the road dings that the body shop suggested I ask the insurers about my (VERY GOOD) comprehensive coverage. I wouldn't recommend to most others to try to get the fix I'm getting. Yes, most insurers here would indeed TRY to say each ding is a separate incident. They would usually win. I would definitely NOT recommend my course of action to most people. I would not have even TRIED, but the body shop, which IS some kind of business partnerr to my insurance company, suggested it. (And the "my fault" deductible for this "comprehensive" claim is $50USD, not the $250 for a "collision" one.)

Am I morally wrong to go this route? I do not know. Probably. But I DO know, in 27 years, we have paid more in insurance premiums (premia? PRII????) than we have paid. I also know the body shop in question has been in business for a LONG time, and they have to jump through lots of hoops to get the rating from my insurance company, and they would not recommend a course of action for which they could not get paid (ok, that's weak-ish), but if they were out-and-out bounders, they would not hold on to their AAA rating. Never mind that we've had other cars repaired there. No, really, never mind. Please...Whatever. I still can't help but smile when I think about how new/RIGHT Bruce'll be when this is all done with. (I even sorta kinda went and upset the bodyshop folks by going over this afernoon to get out stuff like my sunglasses from their nifty hidey hole...Bruce was sitting without his front bumper and front right fender from the OTHER problem, and had almost COUNTLESS hot pink circles on all the other surfaces, showing the road damage...poor guy who led me back to it, who was almost gibbering--as much as I am--about how they were just for the insurance pix.) I'm just not gonna kick when an insurance company does what they really ARE supposed to do--I've known too many that don't. And I've paid for ALL of them.

As to Australia vs US--US insurance laws are different from state to state. California's are, as near as I can tell, just about the strictest (for the insurance companies). As are our emissions laws and I don't know what all else.

I'm surely not going to complain when it works out in my favo(u)r for a change. (Like, for an example I am PERFECTLY happy to complain about--why do I have to pay for "uninsured motorists' coverage when California law says ALL registered cars MUST have insurance? No, it is NOT for the benefit of the VERY few out-of-state cars that are not insured.)

Enough ranting.

Hey Pat, can we tell you hit a button????????????

 

Wow, what did I do
Yes I can tell.
Nope, what ever you can get from insurance as long as you are honest is cool by me. It is only morally wrong when you tell lies to get it.
That is one good insurance company and if I were you I would stick with them.
I have 3 cars, home and contents insurance all with RAA Insurance and I doubt they would paint my bonnet free if it was chipped, and I have been with them for over 20 years. I'd have my bike with them but when I tried to get cover they said they don't cover bikes over 500cc or valued at more than $7000, 2 strikes.
Well done with your claim.

When you say all cars must have insurance, does everyone have to have a certain standard of insurance? Is it an amount of cover you would be happy claiming against?
Here, third party personal injury insurance is compulsory but not property damage. Therefore if I had the minimum cover allowed you rcar wouldn't be covered if I hit it with mine but your injuries would be. In South Australia the compusory TPI premium is paid with the registration cost. Property damage and comprehensive insurance is up to you whether you have it or not. I like comprehensive insurance because if someone with or without insurance hits and damages my car I only have to deal with my insurance company, they deal with the other persons. I believe I have the best comprehensive cover I can get, I'd rather deal with my insurance than the companies that put a stack of restrictions on who and how the car will be repaired.

PS, I could never live with a black car and my sypathies go to those who are addicted to them.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Husker4theSpurs @ Sep 20 2007, 04:44 PM) [snapback]515420[/snapback]</div>

We bought our 2006 Prius in Jan., 2006. It's black, we live on a short, but dirty dirt rd. in FL. I wax the car every 3 months and the paint is still excellent. I have only had to touch up 1-3 chips since 1/06. I see no problems with the black paint. Hope this helps.

 

One more thought on insurance paying for rock chips....

How is the adjuster going to counter the statement that a load of gravel fell off a truck in front of me and I couldn't avoid the gravel.... In California, the license plates on 18 wheel tractor-trailers are on the front of the tractor (which is where the responsible driver is). If the damage-causing event occurred on a two lane (one lane in each direction) road, there is no way you can reasonably be expected to get the license plate or drivers license number of the other party. Also (at least in the U.S.), rock hits are usually placed in the act-of-god (otherwise known as not your fault) category. Absent something that demonstrably shows the relative age of the rock chips (like rust on some and no rust on others), there is no way to distinguish one rock hit from another. At that point, the only issue will be the payment of a deductible (there could be a debate between comprehensive vs. collision coverage; collision usually carries a higher deductible). But compared with the cost of painting a section of the car, the deductible is the lower expense (unless you carry some outrageously high deductible).

 

I own a 2006 silver. The most disappointing thing about the car is the paint -- I have little chips all over the bumper and many on the hood -- and it's only 16 months old.

That said, I think black would probably show dirt and chips even more because silver tends to hide them. However, I also think that black is a better color for the Prius. From the back, I think the other colors make the car look kind of dumpy but the black blends in better and it looks much sleeker. Black looks beautiful when it's just been cleaned and polished -- and as someone said earlier, lighter colors look kind of bland regardless of whether they've been polished.

I do like the spectra blue -- it's just so vibrant. The magnetic grey is also very nice, but if that isn't polished it can look kind of dull.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(patsparks @ Oct 12 2007, 01:25 AM) [snapback]524482[/snapback]</div>

Hello. I am Rufaro and I am addicted to black cars. B)

In California, and many other states, there is a minimum level of insurance required by law, but it is not enforced. Those of us who have insurance pay, as part of our premiums (premia?) a bit called coverage for "uninsured motorists." Yup. to cover the insurance companies for damage caused by motorists who do not have the legally required insurance. There is NOTHING required with the registration with the state, other than saying, yeah, I have insurance. By the time the state gets around to checking it out...who knows? There is a lot of protest against checking, because many of the uninsured are illegal aliens.

The insurance company DID want to know about a particular day/incident for each bit of damage. The body shop CAN tell whether a chip is from November 2006 or August 2007. All of the same panels on the car are involved for both times. My insurance co. is accepting the August '07 claim but not the November '06 one. Should the body shop leave the dings on each panel for the earlier trip? YES YES YES, the insurance company would CERTAINLY have rather denied both of my claims. But they chose not to. THIS, I believe, is where the 27 years, up to five cars, plus the house, all come into play. There's one ding on the front I am pretty sure is from the earlier trip and one I KNOW is from the more recent one. Should I insist the body shop paint around the older one? The insurance company was NOT happy when I told them about a chunk out of my spoiler that I KNOW came from the second trip (believe me--if they could have denied the claim on the basis of a spoiler chip, they would have--but I, without being a professional, as it were, HAVE noticed that Prii get whacked in funny places, thanks to aerodynamics. AND, someone who I had detail the car recently, pointed out some scrapes along the car's roof that tell me that AERODYNAMICS are a problem here.)

Do I sound like I am protesting too much?

I do not know.

I told the company what happened. They followed up with the body shop. Not necessarily a ringing endorsement, I know, but, given that my insurance company RECOMMENDS my body shop, well, what can I say?<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(apriusfan @ Oct 12 2007, 09:52 AM) [snapback]524690[/snapback]</div>

As to this, in California in general, I do not know. AAA asked me if there was a particular THING that happened (windstorm whatever). I told them no. I was on the road for several weeks and did not see the damage until later, so I could not give them an exact explanation. All I know is that the car looks like it has leprosy after the body shop circled all of the road crap damage (and ignored the other bits). This deductible is, for me, definitely lower (And I believe that ALL CA drivers, including truckers, MUST have BOTH plates, and for those states that only require one plate, the plate is on the rear. In any case, the insurance company allowed me to say it was while I was driving, and alone in the car. I will also repeat that it probably doesn't hurt that we've been with the same insurance company for 27 years.)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(apriusfan @ Oct 13 2007, 02:22 AM) [snapback]524690[/snapback]</div>

If that is what happened then it wouldn't be telling a lie. Then that's cool.
Do trailers have a plate on the back there?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(patsparks @ Oct 14 2007, 02:01 AM) [snapback]525383[/snapback]</div>

They do, but it is often covered with about 1 inch thickness of mud.

 

I'm glad that I saw this post! I was wondering if everyone with a black Pri had hood-chips like I do - and it sounds like I'm not the only one.

I travel on I95 3 days a week for a 50 mile commute. I NEVER tailgate and am very good about staying back from trucks that may release stuff along the road that could chip my black paint. Unfortunatley it's got about 10 chips... ARGH!

Other than that, my paint looks great for 58K.

My Honda Accord, with 110K is black as well. That paint isn't super, but still looks good (the wife drives it... nuff said!). She took it thru the carwash a few times!

 

Just bought an 08 Touring package #6 in black. It looks awesome. Agree with other posts that it makes it look more "sporty / manly"

 

There is a company here called "Chips Away" They do a great job of fixing stone chips and are quite reasonably priced. There may be a similar service near you. It may be a routine maintainance item to schedule in annually.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(patsparks @ Oct 14 2007, 02:01 AM) [snapback]525383[/snapback]</div>

Okay, so maybe I'm a tad touchy about this. I lied about NOTHING. I took my car in to two places for quotes after someone else damaged the right front bumper and fender. During this, I found that legally, I did NOT, per California law, have to supply two quotes, but could take the car to the place of my own choosing. Which I then did. While my car was with my chosen body shop, which happened to be one that is recommended by my insurance company, I asked for them to give me a quote FOR ME TO PAY FOR, the other, ROAD, damage extant on my car, plus how much more it would cost ME to pay for something like the 3M coating or whatever that would protect it further. The body shop guy was the one who told me, based on his evaluation of the damage to my car, that he thought it was ALL stuff that SHOULD be covered by my comprehensive coverage. His shop is NOT a fly by night. These guys have been around for a LONG time (they have a poster up in their lobby citing the relevant California laws...it is signed by GOVERNOR of California Ronald Reagan [1967-75]). (The relevant law dates to 1971.)

As it turns out, yes, my whole car has been repainted, and, as I found out on Saturday, the windscreen's also been replaced. ALL due to road damage. There was a 1/4 inch chunk out of the SPOILER, which was one of the bits I did tell about to the insurance adjuster. I hadn't a clue how that chunk came out until the body shop guy showed me the gouges along my roof (which I'd never seen, being too short), and I figured it out. The car is virtually invisibly, from the front, to WIND. I KNOW, from driving the bugger, that, in side-to-side winds, it's a bunker on wheels (hence all of the damage to the sides of the car...the damage I'd chosen to ignore). Apparently, the wind misses the car. The road crap does NOT. Look at the patterns on your Prius next time you drive it at speed in mucky weather. It's fascinating.

Again, we have been with this insurance company for 27 years. The body shop has been associated with the insurance company for longer than that. I brought the car in for one repair that my insurance company is going to collect for from yet another insurance company. I found that I could get other damage repaired, per advice from the body shop, after asking them about how much it would cost ME to get it fixed--and they advised me what they saw had caused the damage. And they were the ones who convinced the insurance company about what NEEDED to be done.

I DID NOT LIE TO MY INSURANCE COMPANY. I'm pretty sure that my body shop didn't either, or they wouldn't be on the list of recommended vendors FROM my insurance company. For MANY MANY years. (The other shop from which I asked for a quote was my dealer's body shop--they are NOT on my insurance company's list, although, oddly enough, that is from where the body shop has been getting most of the parts they need for my car. Funny, huh?)

Doth the lady(?) protest too much? I do not know.

I didn't lie. I get the feeling you don't believe that and I guess that irks me.

If my insurance company and my body shop have a deal going, to whom should I complain?

As to the original damage for which I brought in the car, caused by the valets, whose insurance company was trying to screw me over--THEM, I WILL take for every penny available...up to and including the $8 it will cost me to replace my carpool lane stickers (and the adjuster agrees with me on this one). However, on this one, I may well be screwed--I may not get the replacement stickers simply because our DMV is not entirely, um, COORDINATED, shall we say, to be polite (for a change). I know I sent them my peeled off stickers and a check about 2 weeks ago, and the check's not yet been cashed--BAD sign, near as I can tell.

Whew.

Ok.

I'm due to pick up my newly painted car in about 12 hours (then have to let it "cure" for about 60 days before I can get it 3M or whatever coated--DH is thrilled, since this means I'll let him drive us in his beemer to LA for Thanksgiving).

Soapbox now put away. Mostly.<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ferret @ Oct 16 2007, 12:04 PM) [snapback]526475[/snapback]</div>

Sure thing, bubba.

Regards, Hot Chick in Black Prius

 

Hey just to put the record straight here, I wasn't saying you were telling any lies and I could never say you were, I haven't been with you while you are driving so I wouldn't know. Hey IF you had told lies to the crash repairer your insurance company would likely knock back the repair as they normally look at the car, either by having a repairer take photographs or an assessor will go around and look at it. I think the shop you took the car to has done well by you and they most likely worked hard negotiating with the insurance company on your behalf. Maybe take in a carton of beer for the workers as a thankyou if you're happy. (Aussie version of a tip)

Sorry if my post caused you any stress, that was never my intention. I'm pretty good at saying someone is telling porkies if I think they are, I won't be dropping subtle hints. I think I have done just this in some of my posts here.

I hope we are still friends? Friends are too hard to find to be falling out with them.

Pat
Ugly bloke in a silver Prius
Maybe I can start a club?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(patsparks @ Oct 29 2007, 06:23 AM) [snapback]531912[/snapback]</div>

No worries, mate. Not too sure about the beer though...maybe a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and some GOOD coffee (the stuff they have there is FOUL!). Thanks for the, um, tip!