What are these raised areas in 2014 Prius two rear doors

It's a 3M paint protection film. Just a door guard protector.

My Black 2013 came with that as well.

 

i've always wondered about that. seems like an odd spot to protect.

 

That area of the vehicle juts out just a hair bit more than the forward parts of the car for aerodynamic purposes. If you look around you'll actually see that as a frequent area for those types of guards to be installed on a lot of vehicles. Even a family owned 2005 Toyota Highlander has those guards in that area.

 

Those are not for aerodynamic reasons at all. It's to protect you from door dings.

 

Haha, I didn't mean the protectors are for Aero, but the shape of the door/chasis is for that reason...

 

that's an interesting point. i'm not much of a scraper, but i'll have to keep an eye out, thanks!

 

Those patches don't protect from door dings. For that you need different stuff in different areas. Such as strips down the side of the doors, and bits folded over the door seams to protect your door if it hits an object when you open it.
Those patches protect the paint from small rocks -your- front wheel picks up and throws back.

 

that's amazing! the aerodynamics of the car aim the rocks at those tiny little spots.

 

If you look in the crash books, they're called "protector".
The long narrow one on the door edge costs about $13, and the rectangular corner one costs about $4.

 

No, every Prius gets them, I have them on my Blizzard Pearl PIP.

 

gen II didn't have them. first time i saw them, i thought the car had been repaired (badly) before selling new.

 

I have to agree with Bisco.

My guess is that the protection is mostly just for scrapes that might happen when opening or closing the door.

If it was for rocks flying up? That's an awfully small patch.

Be like somebody wearing a Bullet Proof "Tie" instead of a Bullet Proof Vest.

 

I'm going with the rocks flying up also. Plastic film wont stop dings, but I believe Toyota puts them here to protect the paint from chips, they do warranty the paint and rust though of body panels.

 

What's interesting is that rocks fly up and chip your doors all over them, not just there.

This happened to me when I went over some gravel while turning...

 

it does flair out in that area compared to my wifes hycam. i'll have to compare it to my daughters genII.

 

Not sure where or in what conditions you guys are driving, but I've never seen a rock chip anywhere on the doors on any car I've owned, except at the bottom rear, where the film is. Now the -hood- is another matter entirely!

 

Seems strange for Toyota to be so concerned about rock chips on the very bottom of a rear door that they go to the trouble and expense of adding protective film while at the same time they paint the front bumper and door handles of the PiP with a special color of paint that you can't even get touch up paint for. When it does chip you have to replace the entire part or try and color match a metallic paint with no paint codes available from Toyota. That's thinking!

 

I do t think toyota is trying to protect anything with these pieces. They are just trying to use it as a selling point - like, "the car comes with door guard protection".