window tinting and exterior color

there is no "factory tint option", that was probably for a dealer applied tint. having a black touring, the only thing i would reccomend is taking the car as soon as you get it and take it to a reputable tint shop and have it covered in those 3m type invisible bra thingies. this will run about $750. i am not saying do not get your window tinted, but in addition to the window tint get the invisible bra installation

the prius is notorious for having a less then durable paint job, and black just makes it worse. you will get pelted on the road and practically every bit of dust you hit going on the freeway will make a scratch.

you also have to be careful washing the car. go buy some microfiber towels and wash clothes, throw away your old car washing stuff. do not buy the mister clean autodry it will not work with black cars. to speed up the drying process consider purchasing a leaf blower. it will blow all the water off your car at 200-250 miles per hour

20 years ago this was not a bad thing, back in the 1990s your local toyota dealer would do free paint work on your brand new car in the first few miles, i think it used to be like 1000 miles or something, but they do not do that anymore, so it is really important you consider ways to protect the paint

theres regular black vinyl bras you can purchase for the hood for the prius, but from what i have, the prius does not have adaquete mounting holes for the "S" hooks, so you are probably never going to get a 100 % tight fit with one.

throw away your old car wax too (in accordance to regulations!) and start buying wax that is less abrasive then other wax on the market. "black magic" seems to be the wax to get, and its not very abrasive, and its about $8 to $10 per 16 oz bottles.

although i have not tried them yet, there are new "no towel drying" soaps on the market that do not require a mr clean unit, mothers and rainx make them, i hear the rain-x brand is better

from my expierence the less towels and washclothes that come into contact with your car the less of a chance you will cause swirl marks or cause a scratch

if you want to buy into that 'self drying' water filter based items, you can get a good RV inline filter for about 2 x the cost of a mr clean unit, and it will last a lot longer. you can also get a centralized water softner! i bet that would eliminate towel drying too

the primary fault with the mister clean autodry unit is that the water filtes are only rated for 10 washings. in my real world expierence, this is probably more like maybe 2 or 3 washings, because i can burn through a mister clean filter really fast trying to chase every last drop of unfiltered rinse water

when using the mr clean autodry on my moms 1987 white buick, it works as advertised, even with a filter that is way beyond expired

 

Yea sorry to say you did make a mistake. Dont get me wrong the Prius is a good car, but I also have a black 08 Prius bought in July with the same interior as yours and it looks like sh**. It almost always looks dirty even if you wax (I wash the car once a week thats how bad it is maybe twice) and it gets how as he** in the car, but other than that its a good car. I would recomend mudflaps, hood deflector, and side moulding to help protect the car. You should also get seat cover if you have cloth.

 

no, the invisitble bra thingie is a layer of plastic that professional window tinting places will install for you. when you take the windows to get tinted, ask them to install that also

 

louise: hit refresh a couple times i kept adding and adding to my post ha ha

 

tell your signfigant other to get all that crap out of the garage, that will save a lot of money and car washes by letting you park it in the garage!

 

Black is the prettiest color when its clean but its a bear to keep it that way, put a good coat of high quality wax on it when its new !

 

"Clear Bra" is one brand of invisible bra. I have a black

Prius​

and love it. The clear bra is hard to install on a black car and the non-clear area transition will show. But I would not go any other way. Keep your car clean and polished, you will be happy.

 

if you consider a wax at all think about P21S. It low abrasive almost no abrasive and a good protectant and very clear with no yellowing.

I use Zaino and the car has 8000 miles on it and looks like the day I picked it up.

 

ill try zaino as soon as consumers reports actually tests it