You may try your hardest to avoid it, but if you drive your car daily, it will get some form of cosmetic damage eventually. Maybe it’s a ding or a dent, maybe it’s fading paint or heck, maybe you crash your ride into something. How much do you care about cosmetic damage? Does it have you lying awake at night?
My wife’s Scion iQ has become like a pet to her. Sheryl’s given her iQ a name, Ike, and thanks the little car after every successful trip. We think of the little car as an underdog taking on the world. Unfortunately, growing such an attachment to a small car means feeling hurt when the little car takes on damage.
I don’t have pictures of it yet, but Sheryl says she got trapped in a horrible scenario. A semi-trailer ahead of her shredded a tire and she couldn’t react in time to dodge the tire “gator.” The tire shred removed a chunk from the vehicle’s lower left front bumper cover before whipping around and slamming into both right wheels. The vehicle’s right wheels lost their trim rings, which isn’t bad, but the tire also somehow managed to bend one of the steel wheels a little. We were already considering replacing the steelies with alloys, so now we have one more reason to. Thankfully, the overall body escaped damage and the only broken parts under the vehicle appear to be one or two exhaust hanger welds on the pipe. Here’s the sharp little car beforehand, if you’ve never read my pieces on it:
All things considered, it’s all very minor, very repairable damage. Still, Sheryl feels so sad because her Ike got hurt. She also hates looking at that chunk missing from the bumper because it’s a reminder that she couldn’t dodge the tire. Despite that, Sheryl tends to care less about body damage than I do.
I buy crap cars, but trust me, I do care about cosmetics!
I consider myself to be pretty loose when it comes to cosmetics. I don’t care too much about scratches, dents, dings, or other damage so long as it’s not severe. My Volkswagen Phaeton has a little dent near the right rear wheel well (above). I can live with that or have it fixed.
What I can’t deal with is when body parts are entirely wrong colors, when there are giant rust holes, colossal dents, or just general carnage. Yes, those of you who have read my work long enough will point out that I bought the multi-colored Volkswagen Passat W8. Yeah, I thought making it all one color again was going to be easy. It was not.
I won’t even buy a vehicle for the Gambler 500 if it’s been beaten too far for my liking, which some might call insane. I’ll make exceptions for rust for Gambler vehicles, but I’m not going to park a car at my apartment that has three different colors of doors or whatever.
Yet, Sheryl will happily drive around a car that has body damage so long as she didn’t cause it. Her HHR had a messed-up maw and her Oldsmobile LSS shed paint in giant sheets. Yet, she loved those vehicles.
So, what about you? How much do you care about that dent on your car’s door? Did you get good sleep last night?
As I came out to my car yesterday in the office parking lot and saw what appears to be a fresh door ding in my passenger side door handle, it bothers me that someone would be disrespectful like that.
The car is 11 years old, it has dings, scratches, rock chips. So it isn’t the end of the world, but I still don’t want more damage.
Maybe if I had some awesome car I was keeping mint, but even then, if you drive it…stuff happens. I had a rock somehow nail my side window on the highway yesterday and put a good pit in the glass. What are you going to do?
As I came out to my car yesterday in the office parking lot and saw what appears to be a fresh door ding in my passenger side door handle, it bothers me that someone would be disrespectful like that.
The car is 11 years old, it has dings, scratches, rock chips. So it isn’t the end of the world, but I still don’t want more damage.
Maybe if I had some awesome car I was keeping mint, but even then, if you drive it…stuff happens. I had a rock somehow nail my side window on the highway yesterday and put a good pit in the glass. What are you going to do?
Small dents or swipes from shopping carts? Eh, that’s life.
Small paint chips/scratches, the size of a pencil eraser or smaller? I’ll fix those one day. Maybe. (It doesn’t rust here so there really isn’t much risk).
Visibly broken parts, even if they still work? Fix.
Peeling clear coat? Fix.
Panels with mismatched paint? Fix.
Interior? Fix only if it affects functionality or will get worse if neglected (E.G. a rip in a seat).
Small dents or swipes from shopping carts? Eh, that’s life.
Small paint chips/scratches, the size of a pencil eraser or smaller? I’ll fix those one day. Maybe. (It doesn’t rust here so there really isn’t much risk).
Visibly broken parts, even if they still work? Fix.
Peeling clear coat? Fix.
Panels with mismatched paint? Fix.
Interior? Fix only if it affects functionality or will get worse if neglected (E.G. a rip in a seat).
Way more than it should.
Way more than it should.
Cosmetic damage annoys me, but the severity determines if gets fixed or ignored. I take good care of my truck, but the paint on the hood is showing signs of getting hit with rocks and things when on the interstate. Overall the paint looks shines up well and it gets washed and waxed. If I get into an accident I would have associated damage repaired as I don’t want to live with large dents or obvious body defects. At the end of the day the truck will be 10 years old soon and that’s part of owning an older vehicle. I did replace a damaged driver’s seat cover even though it didn’t affect anything beyond there being a tear in the material.
Cosmetic damage annoys me, but the severity determines if gets fixed or ignored. I take good care of my truck, but the paint on the hood is showing signs of getting hit with rocks and things when on the interstate. Overall the paint looks shines up well and it gets washed and waxed. If I get into an accident I would have associated damage repaired as I don’t want to live with large dents or obvious body defects. At the end of the day the truck will be 10 years old soon and that’s part of owning an older vehicle. I did replace a damaged driver’s seat cover even though it didn’t affect anything beyond there being a tear in the material.
Depends on the vehicle, material, and the use case.
For example when an aluminum bodied 4X4 scratches the paint and or dents in hard enough to get to the bare aluminum, provided it doesn’t inhibit the function of the 4X4 while I wouldn’t be happy about it I wouldn’t mind it much.
Now say you have a first gen Honda Insight, it’s an aerodynamic vehicle, a big dent in it would hurt the aerodynamics a bit even though the aluminum structure would most likely be fine.
For carbon steel panels ANY damage irks me a ton, because I know it’ll slowly rust away of not taken care of.
Plastics are great for body damage because they’re cheap plastics, bonus points if they’re matte black.
Depends on the vehicle, material, and the use case.
For example when an aluminum bodied 4X4 scratches the paint and or dents in hard enough to get to the bare aluminum, provided it doesn’t inhibit the function of the 4X4 while I wouldn’t be happy about it I wouldn’t mind it much.
Now say you have a first gen Honda Insight, it’s an aerodynamic vehicle, a big dent in it would hurt the aerodynamics a bit even though the aluminum structure would most likely be fine.
For carbon steel panels ANY damage irks me a ton, because I know it’ll slowly rust away of not taken care of.
Plastics are great for body damage because they’re cheap plastics, bonus points if they’re matte black.
Well I had a tree fall on my car… and still commuted in it 100+ miles round trip afterwards.
So… I don’t love it, but depending on the shitbox I can go from being annoyed to not caring much at all.
Well I had a tree fall on my car… and still commuted in it 100+ miles round trip afterwards.
So… I don’t love it, but depending on the shitbox I can go from being annoyed to not caring much at all.
My car has no paint on it so if somebody bumps it, meh.
My car has no paint on it so if somebody bumps it, meh.
I’m sort of glad my GTO shows signs of use, though the prior owners did clearly care for it. Just that if it was too nice, I might be more precious with it than I am. I can’t help but notice when I am waxing it, but I also know I’d hesitate to use if it was too nice.
I’m sort of glad my GTO shows signs of use, though the prior owners did clearly care for it. Just that if it was too nice, I might be more precious with it than I am. I can’t help but notice when I am waxing it, but I also know I’d hesitate to use if it was too nice.
I’ve found as I’ve gotten older that I still care to fix minor cosmetic issues, but they have moved from the “right now” list to the “eventually, once other more important projects are finished” list.
The Cayenne got a small dent in the front passenger door from a wayward cart at Home Depot in 2019 or so. PDR will take care of it, but it’s still on the list because, well, you really can’t notice it unless you’re standing at the right angle on that side of the car, so I have mostly forgotten about it. Same for the small scuff in the back bumper thanks to someone in a parking lot. Still on the list, although I finally got around to sourcing a good used bumper for a fraction of the cost of repainting mine.
The P38 needs its hood repainted, as they all do. It’s only bad in a couple of spots, but still needs doing. Eventually.
The E34 needs the rear bumper repainted to fix some small blemishes on the corners. Eventually.
The Stelvio…actually I think the Stelvio is good, aside from the massive amount of German Shepherd hair that needs vacuuming out of it.
I’ve found as I’ve gotten older that I still care to fix minor cosmetic issues, but they have moved from the “right now” list to the “eventually, once other more important projects are finished” list.
The Cayenne got a small dent in the front passenger door from a wayward cart at Home Depot in 2019 or so. PDR will take care of it, but it’s still on the list because, well, you really can’t notice it unless you’re standing at the right angle on that side of the car, so I have mostly forgotten about it. Same for the small scuff in the back bumper thanks to someone in a parking lot. Still on the list, although I finally got around to sourcing a good used bumper for a fraction of the cost of repainting mine.
The P38 needs its hood repainted, as they all do. It’s only bad in a couple of spots, but still needs doing. Eventually.
The E34 needs the rear bumper repainted to fix some small blemishes on the corners. Eventually.
The Stelvio…actually I think the Stelvio is good, aside from the massive amount of German Shepherd hair that needs vacuuming out of it.
For the cars I’ve had, I generally didn’t care and never fixed minor cosmetic damage.
Hell… I didn’t even fix major cosmetic damage.
Though that is mainly due to never having owned a car that cost more than CAD$5000.
Though that is gonna change with my next car… which will be a much newer plug in hybrid or BEV. For a car that costs more and is all-around nicer, I’ll care more.
For the cars I’ve had, I generally didn’t care and never fixed minor cosmetic damage.
Hell… I didn’t even fix major cosmetic damage.
Though that is mainly due to never having owned a car that cost more than CAD$5000.
Though that is gonna change with my next car… which will be a much newer plug in hybrid or BEV. For a car that costs more and is all-around nicer, I’ll care more.
EXTREMELY. I feel like my life has been in shambles and every little ding and blemish on the Lancer is a reflection of that. :'(
EXTREMELY. I feel like my life has been in shambles and every little ding and blemish on the Lancer is a reflection of that. :'(
Back in the early 90’s my wife’s VW Jetta Wolfsburg edition suffered serious hail damage. No broken glass, but every bit of sheet metal had many serious dents. She took the large insurance payout along with our teen-age daughter to Scotland for two weeks. Any time someone noticed the dents she would smile and say it was worth every dent 🙂
Back in the early 90’s my wife’s VW Jetta Wolfsburg edition suffered serious hail damage. No broken glass, but every bit of sheet metal had many serious dents. She took the large insurance payout along with our teen-age daughter to Scotland for two weeks. Any time someone noticed the dents she would smile and say it was worth every dent 🙂
A lot, it gets fixed immediately as it occurs, don’t want people looking at it and assuming I’m either a drunk or senile.
Would rather they get to know me and learn that first hand