I was very impressed with my recent test drive of the 2007 Prius and would probably buy today, but I'm concerned about the ground clearance. Without even trying, I scraped twice during the test drive.

How do you deal with pot-holes? And when you do bottom-out, what damage is done to the car?

(Currently have a Jeep Grand Cherokee and a Nissan Pickup, so clearance has not been on my mind for many years.)

I've had my Prius for two years and have never bottomed out. I guess if you drive a Jeep it may take some time getting used to.

The only time I've been concerned is driving during rare heavy snow conditions when you can hear the snow and ice under the Prius.

"I've had my Prius for two years and have never bottomed out."

IndyDoug, thanks for that reply. It's reassuring to hear.
Maybe my wife will be able to get the car (Prius) she wants, instead of a Ford Escape Hybrid.

We used to drive a VW Rabbit years ago, but it looks like the Prius is a tad lower than that.

If anyone else has road clearance stories to share, I'd like to hear them.

First, avoid potholes. That is good advice for any car owner no matter what the ground clearance. I have not every bottomed out on an unexpected pothole. So, that must have been a very nasty pothole.

Joints between parking lots and streets can be the worst if the joint wasn't graded correctly or the angle of approach is too severe. When you encounter a high angle joint between road parking lots and roads you usually have to take the approach at an angle. That will generally insure that you don't hit bottom.

The noise you hear when you do scrape is usually the plastic dams and air deflectors under the vehicle. You are not generally actually hitting the floor pain. I did hit the floor pan on a joint between a parking lot and street which had a high angle of approach and a high angle of departure, thus creating a peak that I had to go over. I inspected the bottom of the vehicle and there was no significant damage. There was a scrape on the rubberized coating of the floor pan, but it did not go through to the steel.

Yes, there is a ground clearance issue, and once you are aware of it you drive differently in anticipation of road surfaces which are not low clearance friendly.

It has been said:
Hybrid drivers come in 3 flavors, greenie, techie and cheapie. Pick any 2.
2005 Prius, Melinium Silver over gray, package 5 (AI)

The noise you hear when you do scrape is usually the plastic dams and air deflectors under the vehicle.

Jerome thanks for that information. What do these plastic parts actually do, and what kinds of damage can they endure without affecting the behavior/performance of the car? Are these basically "spoilers"?

There is an air dam on the front at the bottom of the bumper. It has changed from the 2004-5 model to a different design on the 2006-7 model. There are also two small spoilers in front of the front wheels. Both the wheel spoilers and the air dam under the bumper can get caught up with parking lot barriers. So, "park short" with the Prius and don't try to put the tires on the parking bumper.

There is a plastic cover, for lack of a better term, running along both sides of the car below the doors, between front and rear wheels. As far as I can tell, these usually take the brunt of any scraping if you go over a high angle of approach parking lot, road transition. These plastic covers also seem to have some sort of aerodynamic benefit.

There are also wheel spoilers in front of the rear wheels and then the black trip behind the rear wheels going toward the bumper also seems to have some sort of aerodynamic effect. The plus is all of these plastic parts close to the ground are black and don't show up when looking at the car in general. Scraping them up a little won't hurt them or their performance, but you don't want to break them or have to remove them as they provide some kind of benefit.

I have discovered that when I have driven too close to a parking barrier and the front bumper air dam has scraped on it, it is usually one of the bolts that holds on that air dam that is scraping and not the air dam itself. You can really hear it because the noise is carried throughout the car through the frame. It is much louder and nastier sounding than I think it really is.

It has been said:
Hybrid drivers come in 3 flavors, greenie, techie and cheapie. Pick any 2.
2005 Prius, Melinium Silver over gray, package 5 (AI)

Jerome,

I just got back from another test drive of the Prius and I noted most of those air dams and spoilers. You're right about not parking up to the parking barrier -- it does make a nasty sound -- but I think we can learn to avoid doing that.

I think we will probably buy the Prius soon, if we can get the color and interior we want. Thanks for the comments.

My RX-7 was much worse than a Prius re scraping. It had 3.5" of ground clearance. It required constant attention while driving.

The front spoiler is often called a "chin spoiler". It minimizes the amount of air flowing under the car and reduces lift at high speeds, which isn't really necessary for the Prius as it doesn't go much faster than 100 miles per hour. Reducing the amount of air under the car reduces Cd, which improves fuel economy, which is why the Prius has it.
The parts along the sides are side spoilers or side "skirts" - they keep any air that does get under from exiting out the sides. This helps reduce drag and also helps keep the car from from "floating" - it lowers the pressure under the car, though you wouldn't think it would. It does so because the air is forced to exit out the rear, filling the hole in the air created by the cars movement though it.
The air is encouraged to exit at the rear of the car - to fill the vacuum there. This can reduce lift of the rear of the car at higher speeds (the vacuum will pull up on the rear half of the car). If you look at a street car converted to a race car (the Corvette is a good example), you can see a "diffuser" on the rear underside of the car - it has a lot of vertical plates. It directs the air trapped under the car to exit out the rear. It provides some down force without the aerodynamic drag a wing would add. "Free downforce". The Prius might benefit a little from this (even lower Cd).

Pearl is a
2007 Driftwood Pearl Prius
Package "B" (everything but leather, nav, and rear camera)

Compared to a Corvette, the Prius is a Jeep.

No problems with our 05 and we get lots of snow too. Like any lower car knowing it's not a truck and having 10" of ground clearance is manditory. The only time the wife said she scraped was on a real steep angle drive going out to a level road service. I think my Porsche has a tendency to scrape more then we ever did with the Prius and I'm every careful when driving that.

2005 Prius - White, Gray Interior, Option Package 6, Mud Flaps & Auto Door locks from Coastal


2006 Highlander Hybrid - Limited, White, Tan Interior, Nav, 4WD, Trailer Hitch

NOTE: On both the Prius and HH batteries are included with your purchase !