Always polish spring and autumn.

 

I think some of the problems is dealers not fixing anything now.
Sometimes you see pictures and they clearly haven't bothered cleaning it inside or out. Take a picture and get it on sale.

But I definitely think with leasing and the like people car less about the cars than when they owned them. Now with cars costing so much more less people are buying outright and looking after there car.

 

Personally, no. I try not to pick up scuffs and dings etc, but sometimes stuff happens and when it does I rarely think the cost of making it look pristine again is worth the time, effort and money. The car still gets me from A to B which is what I bought it for.

 

I used to keep my cars clean and faff about polishing them regularly but older age and living in rural France as opposed to UK suburbia has lead me to become quite lazy in that regard.
However scuffs and scrapes to the interior will make me take action to clean them up or polish likelwise I keep an eye on the paintwork and still am neurotic about scuffing the wheels or parking the car where it might get door dings from lazy inconsiderwte people opening their car door onto mine.

 

No, it is just like the fad for buying new ripped jeans. I'm sure one could ask the dealer to whack a new car about with a length of scaffold pole to match the ripped jeans.

 

I keep my car in as new condition.
People write about scuffed wheels like it's no big deal but if you can drive by sight rather than by ear there's no need to scuff a wheel unless there's a bizarre accident of some kind.

I always check my car hasn't been dinged by a dimwit if one chooses to park next to me in an otherwise empty part of a car park and have spent a good load of dosh having things corrected on even cheap cars, driving around in something that's in a state isn't very nice.

I treat the interior as if it's fragile so nothing gets scratched or ripped or broken.

I really don't understand why people treat cars so badly.
The last courtesy car I had was absolutely full of crap, the door handle was half missing outside and you'd think it was a 5 grand runabout not something costing around 55k. I can therefore see how people treating a car on loan so poorly probably look after their own poorly too.
It's a disgrace.

All that said and done if you have no pride in the car and it's just something full of crap to get you about and some asshat dings it up a bit more you'll probably not be completely devastated by it.

I had a flat in an old Escort that caused me to hit London Bridge so I had to pull a dent out a bit.
I then had some idiot reversing a van hit the back of it as I was driving along, I didn't even bother to look at it. The same car then got a dent to the bonnet when a moped decided my stopping space was a good spot for him, it wasn't. There's a certain freedom from driving a shit heap.

Gaz

 

Most people see a car as purely a mode of transport. It's not their pride and joy and they don't really care that much about it.

They want to run it for as little as possible which means skipping servicing and using cheap budget parts.

Finding a good used car is difficult especially if it's not an "enthusiasts car". Even then a lot of the "enthusiasts" aren't as car proud as they think.

 

They're just machines. Who cares.

 

If the "machine" is not looked after it could kill you....but obviously you don't care ..

 

Just do a search here in the forum....we have a number of threads, by forum members asking if they should rectify a cosmetic issue with a car they are returning. Some of the posts, clearly showing that people just don't give a shit about what the car looks like. For them is just a long term rental. Once returned, the dealer doesn't put any effort as well. Most often the explanation is that they will clean/touch up the car only AFTER is sold. There is no pride and representation of the cars you are selling. It is just a numbers game.

 

Honda Jazz, Lexus CT, Mazda 2, Suzuki Swift.

With the mats laminated and seats ironed.
😂

 

I kerbed my wheel, and paid £120 to get it fixed. Now, if I’m parking on a road, I always reverse in, even if there’s plenty of space in front - purely so the mirrors dip and I can see the kerb, so I can park 10mm away without risking damage. I was wondering how to fix a tiny chip in the back door - and now a scratch has appeared in the other back door. Whether to fix them both, or wait until the end of the PCP and fix them, and whatever else happens… I won’t decide soon, as I’m driving to Farnborough for the Everything Electric Show, 1,000 miles or so round trip, parking in various places I’ve never been to before.

 

Some do, many don't.

The first photo I try to find is one of the driver's seat. My view is that to keep a perfect car seat takes some effort, and a sign of 'some effort' for one thing generally reflects the rest of the car.

If a cloth seat has water marks on it, these can usually be cleaned up and the dealer probably left the window open at some stage.

Damaged steering wheels is always an odd one. Not sure how that happens.

Apart from liking a neat new looking seat, it is a simple giveaway.

The other signs are; undamaged keys (or just worn with age). How the hell do they get so bashed up? But not often in photos so the other you can pick up in listings is matching tyres. This is a strong sign of care. If the tyres are new looking and matching (you can see the tread patterns in photos often) then to my mind it means the owner has planned out their maintenance and tyre purchase habits, which implies care and thought.

Unfortunately, the outside of cars can get appreciably bashed around. I tend not to worry about obvious dents, it is not something one can avoid, and a pre-dented car tends to avoid more dents. If you have ever had a well-dented car, just see how few people park next to you!

Good luck with you car hunting.

 

If they owned the car perhaps they would think different but if you lease or have on PCP it's not yours it's a commodity

 

To be fair I take far more care of my lease car than I ever did with any of the ones I actually owned, as I do t want to pay the charges!
Once I own something, any damage is just wear and tear, and not worth fixing unless it's necessary

 

Are Arval Select likely to be a good choice? They seem to talk the talk...

 

I had a 4 year old car off them this year, was pretty mint really, a few scuffs in the boot and a few very small stone chips at the front.
I think they must pull out the best condition returns before they go to auction

 

I try to look after my car, but the problem is that other people don’t care.

For example I had my ioniq 5 for a week when my wife’s aunt let her dog scratch the bumper with his paws. It was multiple scratches.

I was fuming, but both my wife and her aunt shrugged it off saying “oh well, these things happen” and “I don’t know why you are so upset”.

Her aunt was always opening the door with rings on her fingers which left scratches all around the door handles. She tends to sit in the back and can’t seem get in or out without putting her feet everywhere. There’s always muddy footprints all over the sills and on the back of the front seats.

And the most recent incident when she was eating biscuits in the back of me new car and got crumbs everywhere, then just rubbed them into the seat.

Her own car is an absolute mess, the interior only gets cleaned when it’s at the dealer for a service.

She’s a 70 year old lady. Maybe it’s an age thing, maybe women in general just care less about cars than men do, but her lack of care for my car annoys me.

And then there’s the people who will open their doors against your car in a car park. I do everything I can to prevent this by parking in a far corner, but someone always parks in the next space anyway.

And then there’s the kids in my street who ride their bikes onto my driveway, with their handlebars or pedal centimetres from the car. Luckily none of them have made contact yet, but i feel it’s just a matter of time.

 

Its not that I don't like kids but I can't eat a whole one, unless of course, they scratched my car.

 

Buy private from someone who's really into cars but just gets bored, they probably babies it a d spent a fortune and are just itching for something different.

 

I’ve generally kept my cars for ten or more years each and they've all been pretty close to as new condition when I’ve passed them on. Now in my 60’s and having some health issues I clean and polish the cars less than i used to, but they’ll never be a tip like some others. If a bird poops on the car it gets cleaned off straight away before it affects the paint. I’ve never kerbed a wheel in over 40 years of driving ( alloys can chip on bad potholes however) and have never opened a door into another car.

I’ve driven in Italy a few times and was horrified at their driving skills. I’ve also driven in France and once in a supermarket car park was agog when someone came driving into a vacant parking space and heavily dinged the adjacent car and then got out casually and went into the shop. They didn’t even look at the damage. There was loads of empty spaces but it was almost as if they needed the other car to slow them down. Damaged cars were everywhere.

 

Damaged cars were everywhere.

Yep it used to be a rarity if you saw a car without a dent back in the old days……now it has seriously changed and the majority are shiny and clean and lacking dents! Yes the farmers workhorses are still filthy and knocked about but it is quite hard to believe the transformation that has taken place in the last 20yrs.

 

smells

I recommend not sniffing other people's cars. 🤨

 

I have rules for my car if you want to sit in it or be taken somewhere.
No food.
No drink.
No muddy shoes.
No animals.
If you don't like those rules, there is always the option to walk to where you want to go.

You will also not faff about with any of the electrics or settings, aside from the rear seats, where I will allow that you can use the seat back adjuster to get comfortable.

I always have the outside of the car protected with some form of paint protection, such as DiamondBrite (which is what I have had done this time). I do not wash my car as I don't have the equipment for this nor indeed the will. But I do get a mobile car valeting company out to wash and wipe dry the outside once every 3 months, or on an as-needed basis if it somehow gets really dirty. I don't mind it having a light coating of dirt or dust, as there's only so much money you can justify to keep a car clean, given it's outside in all weathers.

Once a year, the car gets a full valet, both inside and out, and all areas are cleaned to bring it back to 'showroom' condition.

I drive slowly, as the most boring driver in the world, and I won't park somewhere I'm likely to damage my car in any way, or other idiots might damage it by hitting my car somehow. Where that isn't possible, I take great pains to try and reduce/mitigate as best I can. For example, my last 4 cars (3 EVs, 1 diesel) over the last 15 or so years have never been in a multi-story car park.

A car is more often than not the 2nd largest expense after a house (or flat etc). So it makes sense, common or otherwise, to pay it a little respect and take care of it. But that's just me.

 

I too have issues finding a decent used car.i like my cars dent and scratch free if at all possible. Never used to be an issue 20 yrs ago. I keep my cars in the same condition if at all possible

 

With 2 to 3 year old cars, you can still find a few lower mileage examples that are in pristine, almost as new condition, but it does get harder the older they get as people are generally just slobs and don't take any pride in caring for them these days. Lower cost family runabouts are the worst, the more expensive models (sometimes) get looked after better.

I'm the opposite end of the spectrum to the car slobs as I collect classics and keep them in utterly pristine, museum/show condition, often even at 60 plus years old. I've just invested the best part of £60k in expanding and upgrading my garaging at our new home! Nothing is ever left outside in the weather or put away wet (apart from the daily drivers) and they only get used in good weather. I am beginning to think I'm A, a dying breed and B, just a bit mental though!

 

Up to a point I keep mine clean. I clean the interior every 3 or 4 months and bring it to a hand car wash at the same time.

As far as looking after them, I will try to polish out scratches etc (even a lease) but interiors on some of the cheaper plastics in cars are becoming harder to keep scratch free.

My used Born has scratchy plastics everywhere and some suede type material on the centre console. The previous owner scratched around the interior door lever very slightly and the centre console has a few scuffs on the suede material. I have gotten used to these scratches after 4 months of ownership and don’t care about repairing them.

One thing I had convinced myself I now needed was a 360 camera for parking. This was because I was used to driving largish taller SUVs/Crossovers (E-Tron and I-Pace) with incredibly poor all round visibility that were almost impossible to judge distance from the kerb. But the first time I drove the Born I realised I had been missing what a lower, smaller car with decent rear and lateral visibility was like to drive.

 

I try and look after my cars, but as they get older day to day wear and tear does take it's toll. The odd car park ding, scratches from hedges whilst passing in narrow lanes etc, road chips, so when they get to five years old they aren't in showroom condition anymore, that's not to say that it isn't cared for.

 

A tenant of mine moved out recently and the other day I parked in the flat's parking space to do some little jobs. I was shocked to see the rear door of the car next door: Little dimples all over it, presumably due to my tenant's careless children. I hope the other car returned the favour.

 

Wow, the level of neurosis shown by some over a metal box... Well, I suppose if they've got nothing better to invest time, effort and money in, then it's relatively harmless.
However, unlike most other interests and hobbies, it doesn't seem to make them happy, and instead promotes stress and anxiety. Why do that to yourself? It's not a freshly restored E-Type or Dino that needs curating for future generations, it's a mass produced appliance.

The financial argument is rubbish - the scrap man or insurance payout doesn't care about how spotless clean the car is as the end of the day, nor is a trade in price significantly different, certainly not worth the time and effort expended (which can instantly be written off by a ding in the carpark).

For the vast majority with real lives, they have far more important things to spend their time enjoying.

Plus most lives aren't remotely conducive to spotless cars - consider children - a reality for the majority at some point. First (well not exactly first, but the very first doesn't always result in bodily fluids in the car) comes morning sickness, so plenty of vomit. Then waters break (we managed towels on seat, but not 100% protection). Then the real fun - a baby capable of producing near limitless quantities of wee, poo and vomit at high pressure. Then there's the milk that jets out in every direction, again at high pressure. That's before they start eating and drinking on their own, plus the mud, pushchair, bikes, random sticks, snails, stones etc. How does a 3 year old get into a car seat without climbing on the sills and seat? The vast majority of the above applies similarly to dogs...

In summary, don't buy our ID.3, but to be fair, the exterior is pretty good despite various diversions into hedges (it's either that or losing a wing mirror to a white van or the entire car to a tractor) and it being washed maybe 4 times in as many years...

 

Annnnndddd breathe

Honestly what you just did was apply “your” neurotic foibles on to others. Everybody is different.

I would hunt out a mild rattle that most would “fix” by turning up the radio. Others take hours detailing every part inside and out of their car to make it spotless. Others (like yourself) are happy to drive around in a pigsty that would have the previous type of people going off the mental deep end.