Fitting Thule Roof Bars to a Toyota Prius

I mentioned that I had fitted Thule roof bars to my Toyota Prius in my last post.  It occurred to me that some people might be interested in how these fit onto a gutterless roof like that on the Prius.  Whilst I didn't take a video when fitting the roof bars onto my car, I did see a good video from Tow Equipe posted on You Tube.  I've included it below so that you can see for yourself how relatively simple a job it is.  Before starting to fit such roof bars you need to ensure the roof surface is clean and polished, which isn't specifically shown on the video.  Note also that the demonstration car in the video isn't a Prius but since they are both gutterless cars this is of no significance for demonstration purposes.

I'm really happy with the Thule roof bar system we fitted. I had previously bought a Mont Blanc alternative product but had to return it as not fit for purpose on my Prius.  All this was despite extensive checks of the online literature, even Mont Blanc's own documentation, to affirm that the product we bought was suitable for our Prius.  One phone call to their customer centre later and it transpired that was in fact incorrect.  Having handled both Mont Blanc and Thule products, read their documentation, fitted and used the products I can safely say that the Thule system is by far the better in terms of ease of use and end product quality. They are a bit more expensive but, in my opinion, well worth the extra expense.  As a friend of mine often says in her Scottish brogue, "buy sh!te, buy twice".

Thule provide an online roof bar application guide (and accurate too) that lets you check the suitability of their products against your car.  Gen I and Gen II Prius models are listed, so go there yourself and check it out.

I'll write a bit more about my Mont Blanc experience in a subsequent post.