Chipped Hood

If your car is a 2010, I wouldn't even worry about it, it's 9 years old and it'll soon start to peel/flake

 

We don’t get enough rain in the Bay Area during the summer months for it to do that .

I’d buy a paint pen and cover it up.

 

Well the upside, car was truly driven mostly on highways because of actual of rock chips so there's lesser engine wear. When car sellers claim that their car was driven on the highway 90% of the time, or mostly highway miles, and not one chip of rock is visible on the hood and/or bottom lip of the car, that's when you give them the stink eye. Exceptions are bumper bra or hood and bumper were replaced.

If it was mine, touch up paint. Or you can do what people here do, replace it with a carbon fiber hood.

 

Three quick suggestions for you.
1. Get a bottle of your paint and some micro-tip brushes from
Touch Up Paint and accessories | AutomotiveTouchup

2. Consider following up with an invisible hood guard like THIS.
3. Only as a last resort, a bra will stop further damage, but will spoil the look of your blue car.

 

The hood on my 2009 Gen II is aluminium, it has a few tiny chips and I never worry about it rusting. The hood is also is fitted with a "mini-bra" (see picture)

 

The chips haven’t gone through the primer. Shouldn’t rust.

 

Aluminum does not rust.

 

The hood is lighter. Less pressure on the front tires. Should improve fuel mileage and
there will be less wear on the front tires.

 

Could try spray-painting the hood a matte black—my brother did that to an old Citroen and it did not look too bad.

 

Hey that looks like my hood ! I was thinking of wrapping it with carbon fiber vinyl.

 

That was my feeling or brain addled thought.
I thought the hoods on Prius were all aluminum, which would mean rust isn't a issue.

 

Can we confirm the hood is aluminum?

 

The hood on my 2009 Gen II is most certainly made of aluminium (as are other parts of its body) - for confirmation try the magnet test!

 

My understanding is that the hood and hatchback on the Gen 3 like our 2012 are aluminum , and my testing with a magnet seemed to confirm that. While aluminum does not “rust”, it does oxidize when exposed to air when, for example, the paint is chipped down to bare metal.