photos taken of the bottom of my Prius

I have a friend with a lift and I had him lift my prius so that I could take a look at the bottom. It sure looks different than any vehicle I have ever seen (I have been driving a 1985 Land Cruiser for 24 years).

It looks rather aerodynamic under there. some easily damaged plastic. very "neat" and "pretty". Glad I did it while it still looks new!

here are some photos I took

Very nice! The middle one, in particular, brings to mind a turtle on its' back. I had begun to think that all the creative snaps had been staked out. Wrong.

Neat! First picture threw me off, I thought you had it on its side, LOL

Nice....
Thanks for thinking of us and sharing. Looks as if Toyota did as nice of a job under as it did over. Like the turtle comparison...so right.

Much appreciated. I was also initially shocked as the first pic streamed in until it was completely loaded. I was thinking roll over accident but then was relieved.

It's obvious that great design care was taken underneath with aerodynamics in mind.

I'm keeping a copy of these for future reference.

Good god! That's a lot of underplating. Does this bother anybody? For me this is one of the big reasons I say I'm not a D.I.Y.er when it comes to oil changes on the new Prius. But it also makes me nervous that I'm going to have to trust a technician to take the time and carefully remove the plating, and carefully replace the plating everytime plating needs to be removed. Seems nightmarish.

I know Toyota is proud of the designation of lowest CD of a production automobile but given that it is only microfractions higher than the second generation Prius, and only microfractions higher than The Insight, I have to question if all that underplating is worth it.

It looks like the bottom of a toy car. I also don't like the idea that my Prius could be leaking a fluid from the top down, onto the plating and I'd concievably never know.

Maybe it's the inevitable evolution of Hybrids and EV's to have so much underplating, but I'd be curious as to as far as CD and gas mileage, what the tangible benefits actually translate into being.

Seems like the future of automobiles is becoming Open the Hood see a big slab of plastic, look underneath see several slabs of metal and plastic.

Upside-down turtle is what I immediately thought of too!

Great pictures - it does look like some type of animal.

The only other time I'd seen the underside (except when looking under my own vehicle) was one of the factory videos posted in another thread.

These pictures confirm to me that I'll not be driving up a friend's long dirt driveway with a seriously high hump in the middle of it, but stay on the street and hike over to his house.

lutece7,

Way cool. Many thanks. :cheer2:

Asking on behalf of the many Gen II drivers; would it be possible to find
a cooperative Gen II owner and have it lifted and photographed?

Just asking. For those photos I'll nominate you for President...
of the former Republic of Texas.

Wow nice pictures.
Thanks for sharing.

sorry, I don't have time to find an 09 Prius, arrange with my friend, take the photos, then do the post processing, OR be President of the former Republic of Texas. Glad you liked them, though.

Great photos. Thanks.

LOL. So true. I put one on a lift and took this photo:

[imglink]http://priuschat.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=18292&d=1252254150[/imglink]

LOL! Exactly what I was going to do, but you beat me to it. With two boys in the house, I recognize the bottom of a hot wheel when I see one!

Interesting distortion out at the wheels. What sort of camera/lens?
.
Oil changes and the like are easily done through an openable
hatch door in the front underbelly panel -- nothing to *remove*
except a few clips. See the block heater page where FireEngineer
is reaching right up into the engine area -- the oil drain plug
and filter are right next to where his arm is.
.
_H*

I used a 14mm lens on a full frame Nikon D700 DSLR.

If you go to this site John's Stuff - Toyota Prius and more you can learn more about the Prius than just about anywhere you could go. On the site is a fully illustrated 'how to" on changing the oil in the 2010.

You DON"T have to remove the entire cover. The engine cover has three (3) fasteners only.

Also, the undercovering is not just for airflow. It also is a great sound silencer. My 2010 is SO muct quiter than my 2008 was. My 2010 is maybe about the quietest car I have driven in over 40 years.

you need a good 4 wheel alignment.



interesting curves in those bottom center panels

Thank you for the photos but one thing has me scratching my head. Notice the orange power cables pass under exhaust pipe just before the rear axle, stability bar and the curious shape of the heat shield that appears to take a much tighter bend. Somehow, I keep thinking the heat shield should follow the exhaust pipe route and protect the high voltage cables from radiant heat. I will ask the Toyota shop take a close look at that area when I take it in for service.

Bob Wilson

it looks like the heat sheild is only there to protect the gas tank.