I enjoy all the decisions in lowering the Prius , me , I'd like to raise mine 4 inches , Stop hitting parking lot curbes and plowing snow
I don't know,maybe the car at the show was a prototype and the entire car had higher ground clearence than production version !? It is mentioned at about 2.33 of the video,Tideland even says the lowest part of the bumper ! I have never scraped my gen. 3 no matter going up or down a driveway .
I try and go very slowly and gently over speedbumps. So I probably wouldn't know if it handled badly over a bump…
I just don't get it ! I measured the ground clearence of my gen 3 and the lowest I could come up with is 5.5 inches (14 cm),so if the lowest part of the 2016 front bumper is supposed to be 6.1 inches ,what the hell is so low on the 2016 that the minimal ground clearence has been stated as low as just 4.8 inches (12.2 cm) ? Also if the minimal ground clearence of the 2016 front bumper actually seems to be even higher than the 2010's what are owners scraping ?
Remember that the ground clearance is the lowest part of the vehicle which is probably somewhere underneath the car (and the car is fairly flat, so... maybe all of it? lol). However, the clearance for the front bumper we measured is just for the bumper. The bottom of the bumper is angled upwards. (like a boat for example).
Most pre-made parking curbs are 4 inches high. Taking into account the depression of the suspension do to passenger and cargo load and that many cars low spot is the engine undercover forward of the wheel contact area, scraping is not unusual. You also have to consider the wheel track swales and front wheel divots in the parking space that also lower the front end.
At my work it was either mm, or meters, usually mm. Every time I hear cm it just confuses the heck out of me. Canada's foray into metric has been "interesting". They straddle between the old imperial units and metric, with a lot of commerce and construction still imperial. In conversation, most people talk imperial. We also straddle two official languages. All in all, we're very prone to groin injury, with all this effing straddling...
Also, remember tire inflation pressure can move the height. When I put low profile/high performance tires on my last Prius, (2010 ATP, 17 inch wheels, Michelin Pilots) I scraped on every driveway and curb. I ended up having to replace the under-bumper plastic. My new advanced has a clearance sensor that's pretty good at showing how far away I am from a curb. I don't think it sees parking stops, though. So far, I've only scraped 1 curb, and hit on one driveway. But that driveway has many scrapes from cars that have gone before, so I'm not alone. Just made at the wrong angle. Now, I just remember to take it super slow and it's fine.
Yes but where and what is the lowest part to the ground of the vehicle ? If you scrape those spoiler lips of the gen. 3,probably there to improve aerodynamics, it's not nice but no big deal,as nothing gets seriously damaged ! So we know that the lowest part of front bumper on 2016 Prius is 6.1 inches(hopefully Prime is the same or even better !) and angled up a bit, but by looking at the Video which shows the Prime from underneath I don't see any irrelevant spots of the car,such as the plastic panel covers which are actually lower than the front spoiler !? So if the car gets scraped,are relevant parts involved that could cause serious damage ? If the panels get slightly scraped,as I said not nice but probably no big deal,but if parts of the exhaust system or parts double wishbone suspension are involved,not nice at all !
Yeah the Prime looks flatter and appears to protrude out a bit more than the Gen 4. I'm taking a guess here but the Prime may be more susceptible to scrapes on ramps. It doesn't appear to angle up as much as the Gen 4. Oh boy.
No. I paused the Prime video at 5:20 and the Gen 4 at 3:17. They look the same. So maybe the measurements will be the same. It only *appears* to stick out further. Again, I can't measure until the cars arrive and they arrive around the same time you guys get them in Europe.