How to deal with snobbery?

thegirlintheattic

Weird_Nev wrote: »

There's a lady at the end of the road who has decided that the bay space opposite her house is 'her space'. She leaves vile notes on anyones car if they dare park there. Lovely if you have mates over for a BBQ and they come back to that.

The old guy over the road was selling a G plate Ford Sierra Estate, an absolute wreck of a car. I was so close to buying it, taxing and insuring it ,and then just leaving it parked in that space, purely because I knew the merest sight of the thing would make her apopleptic daily. Plus I could have used it as a skip. Sadly he decided to scrap it before I could put my evil plan into action.

So now I just park my own rusty barge there whenever I can. The notes are fantastic, you can really feel the rage. Her blood pressure must be amazingly high!

Oooh I hate people like that!

At my previous house there used to be a guy who would sit and wait, blocking the road, for me to go to work in the morning (at 7am!!) as the spot outside my house was apparently his space. In the winter he would even sit there flashing his lights whilst I waited for the windscreen to clear. Loved watching him on my odd days off, waiting for about 20 mins before giving up!

RetroBob

Personalised number plates are so stupid. Unless you spend a lot of money you get one that kind of looks like you, but really only you and a few others will know. What a waste of money!

dibuzz

I don't know what people think of our cars, shiny black 2 year old BMW sport estate, polished within a inch of it's life every week belonging to son no 2. He gets remarks about how a 21 year old affords a car like that but he works long hard hours with lots of overtime in a physically demanding job and has no other commitments.
Son no 1 has a 12 year old Golf with 170k on the clock and probably cleans it twice a year.

Strider590

dibuzz wrote: »

I don't know what people think of our cars, shiny black 2 year old BMW sport estate, polished within a inch of it's life every week belonging to son no 2. He gets remarks about how a 21 year old affords a car like that but he works long hard hours with lots of overtime in a physically demanding job and has no other commitments.
Son no 1 has a 12 year old Golf with 170k on the clock and probably cleans it twice a year.

At 26 I had a bank balance in the region of £38000, I drove an old plate Peugeot 306 and had no desire what so ever to throw away my hard earned on a car. 3 years later with interest added I put that lump sum down on a house, im now 32 and paying a mortgage lower than the rent on a small flat.

My mate on the other hand, he spent £20000 on a nearly new Mercedes C class, which he managed to sell a year ago for just £4000, i'll admit it did get a lot of interest from very young women, but that soon faded they found out he's still living with his folks. He wants his own place, but refuses to rent and can't afford a deposit.

Some of the guys I used to work with (all very well paid), they'd bought brand new cars on finance, shortly before we were all made redundant, one was lucky enough to find another job, the rest lost their cars due to the £300+ a month repayments.

Don't get me wrong, im something of a car enthusiast, so I do like cars, I own a small Kitcar that's about as fast as a Porsche 911.
It's for me to enjoy without caring what anyone else thinks, not to enjoy other people wishing they had one.

To me "nice" cars aren't everyday transport that get battered by shopping trolleys, for this task I buy a cheap everyday "tank".

It's about priorities and I live by one simple rule........ Never buy anything you can't buy on the debit card or in cash.

Weird_Nev

Kit cars are a great way to counter snobbery. I helped my cousin build his: a Dax Rush MC, with a 1.0 Yamaha Bike engine. It's hard to consider how stylish you're looking when you're hanging on for dear life, screaming for e
Mercy and trying to retain bowel control. The fact that you go faster than everything short of supercars for less than £10k helps too.

mikey72

I've still got my vintage kit car.
It's back on the road after many years, and like every other kit car now, screams mid-life crisis.
All the other sports cars round here are real ones, so they all humour me, and tell their 5 years olds it is a nice car.

Hadrian

If the original poster had 'self esteme' he wouldn't give a damn what others think. It's only recently, when kids had more money than sense, and could buy what was the fashion that having an up to date 'thing' gave the owner some unearned self worth. Park the car and stop being paraniod over others perseved atitude to you and your lifestyle. 'Keeping up with the Joneses' is why we are in such a finacial mess that we find ourself today.

pineapple

Snobbery is the problem of the person feeling 'snobbed at'.
Seriously it's a self inflicted problem. Unfortunately in today's materialistic society, too many people feel defined and judged for what they have/don't have. When I'm tempted to feel this way myself, I look at the millions less fortunate in the developing world and feel lucky.

mikey72

Hadrian wrote: »

If the original poster had 'self esteme' he wouldn't give a damn what others think. It's only recently, when kids had more money than sense, and could buy what was the fashion that having an up to date 'thing' gave the owner some unearned self worth. Park the car and stop being paraniod over others perseved atitude to you and your lifestyle. 'Keeping up with the Joneses' is why we are in such a finacial mess that we find ourself today.

I know kids are to blame for everything, and obviously your generation was perfect, but how on earth do you blame kids for "keeping up with the Joneses" which is a phrase from the beginning of the century, and I somehow doubt it skipped your generation?

anotherbaldrick

It's good to own a right old rustbucket, nobody parks close up to you.