How to Protect Against Road Rash on 2017 Prius Two

The bumper cover is a sacrificial part. Unless you increase the angle of approach(*), you won’t reduce the likelihood of ground contact or the forces involved; you’ll only change how the energy of the impact is dissipated in the car’s structures.

I don’t think Toyota sells a skid plate or similar accessory for the Prius, and if you find something in the aftermarket, I’m not sure it would be a good idea to install. If it’s thick, it may reduce the angle of approach, and if it’s rigid, it may transmit impact forces to other parts of the car that weren’t designed for such loads and might be more costly to repair. Also consider the possibility of an inadvertent airbag deployment if the SRS sensors detect a hard strike rather than a soft scrape.

As with any part of the car, I suppose it’s possible to do your own reverse-engineering and redesign, but preserving the important characteristics of the original—such as aerodynamics, crashworthiness, and radiator airflow—might be a challenge.

More practically, the bumper cover is plastic and won’t rust, so I wouldn’t bother having it refinished after each strike if the damage isn’t conspicuous. Instead, I’d decide on an allowable damage limit, like no cracks or through holes and nothing dangling or dragging, and replace the entire cover only after that limit is reached. Spare bumper covers (without sonar, part number 52119-47961; list price $247.36) are unfinished, so if you wanted a matching color, you’d have to have the new cover primed and painted.

(*) The Repair Manual and Electronic Parts Catalog both mention a “rough road area spec” version of the Prius that increases the height by 20 mm, but I don’t know if it’s feasible to retrofit a car to this specification or what parts would be needed.

 

I would say the one response you've got so far, from @Elektroingenieur , is spot-on, measured, and about as good as it gets.

 

^^^ Wot @Mendel Leisk said!

 

I would be in favor of installing some type of "bra" on my 2016, if one were to exist. Most people hate them, but I'd like to cover the entire front end, and have it extending under the lip a bit. I've scraped this Prius more than any other vehicle I've owned. Including earlier today. Don't know why, but I am having a difficult time judging the distance on the front of the car.

Operator error. I need to stay away from all curbs, and parking blocks. Stop making U-turns near curbs. And start backing in to spaces when parking. (I'm concerned about smashing or cracking the lower front facia part.)

 

Garage it. Permanently. That's the only solution.

 

Use plastisol or rustoleum peelable clear spray paint

 

Thanks for the tip. Fortunately, none of the scrapes can be seen unless I was to crawl underneath the car. I hope I didn't sheer off any bolt heads. I have to keep reminding myself that the front fascia (spoiler?) is lower on this car than other cars I've driven.

 

If you've been scraping, you should inspect it, sooner than later. On third gen what hits first is plastic, trouble is it's plastic at the base of stubby stanchions, that extend down to steel screws, which screw into nylon grommets which are locked into the car body. The plastic underside tends to scrape up and over concrete wheel stops easily, then snag royally when you back off. Once the stanchion bases abrade enough, the backing off part levers the stanchions, pretty near ripping them off.

Bottom line, if you want to avoid expensive parts replacement: do get under there, learn how it works, see what's happening. And get cagey, about avoiding mishaps.