Protecting my Bumpers

[tbullock]

First off, thanks to everyone for providing great info here. I'm a new Prius owner as of Saturday, and I'm loving it. 48 mpg in the first 100 miles w/ AC blasting. Glide! Glide! Glide!

However. I live in DC, where bumpers are so very abused by anonymous parallel parkers. I've seen and read about bumper guards, black aprons, clear 3M aprons, etc to protect the bumper. I know many people on the forums have bought these products. Do any of them work well to protect bumpers from other cars?

[eagle33199]

I think most people around here buy those products to protect against the occasional road rock. That being said, i think it really depends on the amount of damage you're talking about. if it's a small scuff here or there, i'd say they'd probably work fine. If it's small dents and deep scratches (say, from metal license plates), they probably wouldn't help very much... the black fabric aprons may halp against scratches, but i bet you'd have to replace it often cause it would get torn up. My advice: in some areas, you just can't protect a car like you may want to, and you may have to let the bumper do its job of protecting the rest of the car from the 1MPH collisions when some idiot is trying to park.

[brandon]

You may not have the option, but I will go out of my way, walk further and park in a non-parallel parking place just to avoid such a situation. I, for one, think parallel parking ought to be banned!

[Trevor]

Last week while at a Home Depot, I went out to my car to find another '06 Seaside parked right next to mine. That prius had a black bumper guard that went all the way accross the rear bumper. It looked think enough to prevent parralell parking scuffs. I usually see the specific Prius ones that cover just the corners. I decided that I might want to do the same to mine, but I haven't really started looking yet.

[eagle33199]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(brandon @ Aug 21 2006, 03:38 PM) [snapback]306951[/snapback]</div>

You may not have the option, but I will go out of my way, walk further and park in a non-parallel parking place just to avoid such a situation. I, for one, think parallel parking ought to be banned!
[/b]

no, not banned... just require that everyone have a parking assist button! that'll solve all the problems... until someone uses it to try to parallel park the wrong way into oncoming traffic... oh well, Darwin will step in then!

[jimmyrose]

There's no protection from the people who were taught to back up until they hear the sound of breaking glass. I've watched people who don't use the mirrors, or turn their head when backing in...they just wait for the bump, be it the car behind them or the curb. I don't get it. I learned to parallel park in a car so big that the Prius would fit in it's trunk!

[Boo]

I personally like 2" bumper protector strips which will protect your bumpers from most parallel parking scrapes (chipped paint on rear bumper from a car's front license plate bolts; corner scrapes to front bumpers from your turning into a parallel park; and corner scrapes to rear bumpers from another car turning out of a parallel park), but will not protect your bumpers from a heavier collision.

bumperdefender.com has nice color matched strips for a good price (about $80 for front and rear). You can get 4 free samples from them to try to match your car's color. I like their bumper protector strips because the color is impregnated - it goes all the way through. Compare, for example, the popular side moldings sold on this site where the color is painted on and can scratch and chip off to expose the white or other color undercoating.

I have a Magnetic Grey Prius, and found a pretty close match with bumperdefender.com's Dark Grey. It looks fine. And if I cared enough for an absolute color match, I could have spray painted the bumper strips with Toyota Magnetic Grey paint, which if it chipped, would expose the pretty close match of the bumper strip with its impregnated color.

Also, nobump.com has these small (about 1") round bumpers that get screwed into the top screw holes of your front license plate. These give you some protection, but probably protect the rear bumper of the car in front of you more from getting dinged by your front license plate screws when you parallel park.

If I can figure out how to do it, I'll post pictures later of both the bumper strips and license plate screw hole round bumpers. PHOTOS ARE NOW ATTACHED:

[attachmentid=9600]

[attachmentid=9601]

[keithnteri]

Another good trick at least for the rear bumper is to install a trailer hitch and have the ball left on. I started doing that on my old SUV and never had a problem after that..

[BexarWolf]

I'm waiting for Ranch Hand to come out with a bumper for the Prius. :P

[DreamcastDC]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ZenCruiser @ Aug 21 2006, 07:46 PM) [snapback]307276[/snapback]</div>

There's no protection from the people who were taught to back up until they hear the sound of breaking glass. I've watched people who don't use the mirrors, or turn their head when backing in...they just wait for the bump, be it the car behind them or the curb. I don't get it. I learned to parallel park in a car so big that the Prius would fit in it's trunk!
[/b]

What are the sizes for the front and rear that you brought? I am planning on buying some... \

Thanks