[inee]

anyone annoyed about that front rubber skirt/lip always hitting the curb, hump, parking stopper, up/down ramps? i know its not a big deal because its flexible-- but what is the purpose of that anyway? from all this friction someday it might just come off.

 

[Barry]

It improves the aerodynamic efficiency of the car by some (probably extremely small) amount. One or two folks have removed it entirely and not noticed any ill effects. It can be replaced if it wears out.

 

[Steverino]

Like the tail shape of the Volt and the rear spoiler, it's about aerodynamics. Some Prius owners pay a lot of money to add ground-effect kits that do this. Comes standard on the Volt. You could take a utility knife and make it an inch shorter if you wanted (remove it first).

 

[BAZINGA]

I removed mine on my 2013 and I think I only lost about 3 miles of range at freeway speeds (under 65 mph) didn't do any trips where I could get up to 70+ for the full battery. Nothing in town. So if you don't do any freeway driving it won't be missed.

 

[16513]

The Gen 2 spoiler seems to scrape less often. I don't notice it any more.

 

[Prohidium]

Mine is 4 1/2 years old, scrapes all the time and doesn't look bad at all. It is quite durable, even through hot summers and cold winters. I see no reason to worry about it.

 

[VinTC]

Gen 1 Volts had a short spoiler available. Perhaps there's one for the Gen 2?

 

[PilotAlan]

It improves the aerodynamic efficiency of the car by some (probably extremely small) amount. One or two folks have removed it entirely and not noticed any ill effects. It can be replaced if it wears out.

I removed it completely, and noticed no measurable change in MPG on a 60 miles round-trip commute. The difference was lost in the noise of changes in temp, differences in traffic, etc.

 

[inee]

thanks guys. its just that its damn annoying and youll never know if youre hitting something for real.

 

[Joe67]

anyone annoyed about that front rubber skirt/lip always hitting the curb, hump, parking stopper, up/down ramps? i know its not a big deal because its flexible-- but what is the purpose of that anyway? from all this friction someday it might just come off.

It's very common on smaller vehicles depending on the angle of the drive you are entering or exiting. Try to alter your approach angle to help.

 

[Runion]

anyone annoyed about that front rubber skirt/lip always hitting the curb, hump, parking stopper, up/down ramps? i know its not a big deal because its flexible-- but what is the purpose of that anyway? from all this friction someday it might just come off.

As stated, it is a feature for aerodynamics. My 98 Eldorado ETC has one and it scrapes on curbs and parking curbs. You have to be aware and stop short of hitting it in the ETC.
I have not had as much of a problem with the VOLT but I may already be programed to watch out for curbs and parking stops because of prior exp with the ETC.

There was an article that commented about this. It appearantly is made of layered fiberglas and because of continual scraping, will delaminate the layers and will begin to make noise from air passing by, vibrating the layers. According to the article, GM will replace this front aerodynamic feature with a shorter one at the customers req, the article said no charge but I am not sure if that is still in effect.

 

[sparty]

It's very common on smaller vehicles depending on the angle of the drive you are entering or exiting. Try to alter your approach angle to help.

Good advice for drives - in most all cases (moderate elevation change) a 45 degree angle works for me then quickly cut it straight (parallel to side edge of drive)