Drivers of expensive cars - do you get paranoid?

EdGasketTheSecond

MovingForwards wrote: »

Are you indicating that those of us who drive older cars don't care about what happens to them?

I think 'don't care' is a bit strong but I'd say it doesn't bother me too much. There are bigger things in the world to be concerned with than the odd ding on a lump of metal.

onwards&upwards

JackeeBoy wrote: »

Him and a bunch of other people. Disabled bays in non-council run car parks. In other words, where he legally can do it. Still a nob.

Yeah I know loads of people do it, because I often give lifts to a disabled family member with a legitimate blue badge and the spaces are frequently full of expensive cars owned by people who think their property trumps someone else’s right to access shops/hospitals etc.

jimbo6977

This is why "sleeper" cars were invented.

suki1964

We have " expensive cars" I guess

Mr S is anal about keeping them pristine, showroom condition, spends hours on them, but they are his hobby so WTH

To me they are a metal box to get you from A-B. However saying that, I don't park in the road and I park in a far from the door spot in car parks and not got a prang yet

Goudy

I've had cheap cars and I've had expensive cars and to be truthful, I always expect all of them will pick up the odd car park ding or bumper scrape from some dozy !!!!!!s bad parking.
It's part of ownership, particularly where we live, worrying about it isn't going to stop it.

What really does bug me is damage from stupidity.
The Mrs recently parked up on a windy night under a conker tree.
In the morning it looked like Father Ted's Rover after he's been at it with a hammer!

Ok, not her smartest move, but who thought planting conker trees around and in a !!!!in' car park was a good idea?

vacheron

I generally buy nearly new and ex-demo cars beacuase they are usually "slightly imperfect" in some small way and I am happy for someone else to pay the thousands (or tens of thousands) of pounds in depreciation that acconpanies that. It also means you can immeidately start enjoying the car for the purpose it was intended.

I find that anything expensive and brand new seems to be on a disproportionate quest to damage itself from the moment you buy it. I used to have a thing for swiss watches and they used to be real bugg@rs for it!
The one time a year you bang your arm on a door frame or wall would be the day you were wearing a new watch for the first time! It seems the more you concentrate on keeping something pristine, the more seems to happen to it.

I even knew of one guy on a watch forum I used to regularly visit who used to deliberately put a small neat scratch on all of his new watches in an inconspicuous place as soon as he bought them to "break the curse" and he swore it worked (and we were talking £10-20K watches here!)

Regarding cars, and to prove the above, having not had any kind of accicent in over 15 years, I bought an ex-demo Mercedes E350 Coupe for around £35K a few years ago and a lad in a battered up 1989 Mini drove neatly right into the back of it when I was stationary at a set of lights on my second day of owning it... that was "vexing"!

buglawton

Things have been made worse with the trend of oversize SUV type cars used as shoppers that barely fit into parking spaces. This has been a reason for me to use more Amazon and less bricks and mortar shopping, I hate typical UK car parks.

Found driving in the US much easier due to wide streets and generous sized parking bays everywhere.

vacheron

buglawton wrote: »

Things have been made worse with the trend of oversize SUV type cars used as shoppers that barely fit into parking spaces. This has been a reason for me to use more Amazon and less bricks and mortar shopping, I hate typical UK car parks.

Found driving in the US much easier due to wide streets and generous sized parking bays everywhere.

Agreed. We have a kids soft play near us with the smallest space markings of any place I know!

Whoever did the space markings clearly didn'r consider that at a kids soft play almost every car will be a larger family car, SUV or MPV.

Even moderately sized (Q5/Tiguan not Q7/Touareg) correctly parked SUV's will not fit side by side with room to open the doors without breathing in and squeezing yourself out, never mind the extra space that should be assigned because exceited kids will be heaving in and out of the back doors.

It's no surprise that there are so many prominent "Park at own risk, damage has nothing to do with us" signs plastered all over the place!

facade

I think the "standard family car" on which spaces are based is still the Austin 7 Ruby

Mercdriver

Goudy wrote: »

I've had cheap cars and I've had expensive cars and to be truthful, I always expect all of them will pick up the odd car park ding or bumper scrape from some dozy !!!!!!s bad parking.
It's part of ownership, particularly where we live, worrying about it isn't going to stop it.

What really does bug me is damage from stupidity.
The Mrs recently parked up on a windy night under a conker tree.
In the morning it looked like Father Ted's Rover after he's been at it with a hammer!

Ok, not her smartest move, but who thought planting conker trees around and in a !!!!in' car park was a good idea?

Perhaps the conker tress predate the car park?