Keep them on or take it off?

That just doesn't make any sense at all! Maybe he will give thanks that he avoided several other dings. Sometimes your "reasoning" gives pause.

 

Keep them - they are meant to protect your doors from other doors in tight parking spots. I had to pay "dearly" for them - so good to have them at no cost. They even installed them in the same color of the body - in EU we get them only in Black and you have to get them painted if you want to.
They are sticked to the body, no screws are used to keep them in place.
You miss though the ones on the front and rear bumper corners.

 

I had the deal throw them into the deal
I like them, so I voted to keep them on

 

I would take them off!! The car just looks better without them. save them and put them back on when you sell or trade it!!:nod:

 

My vote is obvious, since I bought them from PriusChat Shop and had my body shop put them on accurately.

No one has mentioned that the kit comes with a little tube of something that is supposed to go on the paint before the moldings are attached with the sticky tape. The body shop guy referred to it as some kind of etching fluid. So there is the possibility that the paint under the moldings has been etched--taking the moldings off might expose that.

If I wanted mine off, I would wait for a definitive answer about the paint.

 

As does the original "reasoning," for the 1st door ding may not necessarily fall precisely on the moldings.

 

I will try one more time and I will type real slow for you. I think it is obvious to most that the first "ding" would not have fallen precisely on the moldings. You started your discussion assuming that these moldings would not protect from most dings but I disagree. The location is prescribed and in my limited experience they are well situated and designed to intercept most other doors. I don't think anyone expects them to protect against any and all idiots with a car.

Your thought process that has someone coming back to their car, finding that a Hummer was able to dent their door above the molding reacting by cursing the fact that he ever installed them is kind of illogical.

I can just see it now..."damn it I am so sorry I ever put these on. They didn't protect my Prius from that Hummer (or that front end loader or that trash hauler that dumped it's contents on it.")

I don't think so.

 

It's not like they are magnetic or held on with suction cups or Velcro. This is a 3M adhesive enhanced by an adhesive accelerator and I bet they would be a bear to take off. Obviously with enough money almost anything is possible, but it is not trivial.

 

You know, if you added two more below the ones you now have... it would start to look like a 2005 Mitsubishi Eclipse.

 

This is the way I look at it...

Your Prius might get dinged...you might have to pay $60 to have that ding removed.

So your Prius might look slightly ugly from an up close angle for 3 days until you can get the guy to remove the ding...or it can look ugly all the time from every angle with these door moldings on.

To me its not a hard choice. Its like people who put plastic slipcovers on their nice furniture...sure the furniture can never be stained but you can never really enjoy it either.

 

Since it's already installed, just keep it on. IMHO, it looks out of place on the door panel. Also I very much doubt it'll save you from door dings too.

 

These things actually are not hard to remove at all...just put on with double sided tape.

 

If you don't focus on it you don't really notice them imho. Now if you ask ppl directly if it looks good or bad, well they will stare at it a little bit too long and probably eventually decide they dislike it.

 

I vote to keep it on because:
1. the car looks more slender with it
2. protect the car from some dings (probably not all as the top side lining might get some of it)
3. might be hard to take off and with a month and a half there might be color difference between the area underneath and the rest of the car
4. I would love to get that put on my Prius V

 

First post, great forum. Picked up our 2010 II the other day as well.
Mulling over the side molding addition myself and given the OEM paint match I don't consider them a detraction. For me, at least, the protection is worth it.
I'd say keep 'em.

 

I agree with your wife and others. Thay definitely add to the looks of the car and offer some small amount of protection. I'm planning on adding them as soon as possible.

 

Why don't you? You can get them in the shop at this forum and it is a piece of cake to install them. They come color matched.

 

Tough call. I bought a set for my '09 but never put them on.

The mfr. said they can sit for a long time and can still be put on.

I prefer the cleaner look of the Prius doors, but I hate door dings, so it's a tough call. I rarely see side moldings on Prius'.