Hi Folks, There are some good threads here which talk about scraping issues with Prii like these. ground-clearance-issues-will-it-scrape-all-the-time.175383 why-is-the-front-spoiler-so-low-to-the-ground.200089 But I wanted to check in more recently to see if anyone has smart ideas on how to address the issue. My problem is this. We have been contented owners of 2 Prius models, first a 2005 Gen. 2, at present a 2011 Gen. 3. The 2005 Prius we unfortunately had to let go a few weeks back after its Catalytic Converter was stolen out from underneath while parked overnight in our Condo parking lot. Once we found out the repair cost would be ~= $1400 we decided we could not justify that expense on a 15 year old car. We're presently getting by with just the one car but will probably have to replace the 2nd once the Covid work-at-home life comes to an end. We'd like to get another Prius but are wondering whether that's still possible. The problem is that 4th gen. is so much more prone to scraping in front than was either the 2nd or 3rd gen. We know this because about 6 months ago we were on the verge of buying a 2016 Prius from Hertz. We were able to drive it over a weekend and immediately found that it would scrape going into and out of our Condo garage. The garage entrance is fairly steep, and levels off quickly at the bottom. The 2016 would scrape when you go in and scrape when you go out. Nothing you could do, no matter how gingerly you drove, would prevent the scraping. And this never happened, not once, when we would drive the 2005 or 2011 Prii into or out of that same garage. I've wondered about having the "air dam", which I gather is also called a "chin spoiler", on a new Prius cut down a bit. But I don't know whether that's realistic. It seems sad that Toyota is making things worse with what they no doubt consider to be an "improvement". The older models were fine and got perfectly good gas mileage. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Do you share the garage with everyone else in the complex, or is it exclusive to your unit? If not shared, I believe you could put a sheet of plywood down to make the slope more gradual where the driveway meets the floor.
My mom had a similar problem when driving her Cadillac up an incline into her garage but in her case it was the undercarriage that was scraping. Their solution was to find the point where it was scraping and having the cement ground down by just half an inch. You might do something along similar lines by determining if the dam is hitting a high spot (which can be ground down with and angle grinder and appropriate disk) or if it's when the tires are hitting a low spot. You can raise the low spots with wood or rubber mats. Dan
Can you leave on an angle? Instead of going through the driver way with the car perpendicular, go like 30 degrees? I also have SliPro installed on my car. My write up is here: Has anyone used Sliplo Skid Plates to Protect Front Under Bumper from Scrapes? | PriusChat
