Thankfully I have a very large collection of this polishes etc. A few weeks ago I was reversing out of a tight drive and caught a branch. Its caused a hair line scratch on my rear quarter. I used Autoglym polish and although still visible it did a good job of masking it.
Today there was a mark on both me and dads front bumper as if a large HGV has scraped it. It is rather odd how the marks got there. Both are colour coded.
Mine was a right mess but washed off and used Autoglym bumper care. Now that area looks shiny and the scratches are only visible very close up.
If I was buying my car I doubt I would spot the scratches until I washed it. However if I trade my car in in 3 and a half years time will these scratches be considered normal were and tear or will they try and knock £100s off?
How much do these scratch repairer companies charge? In a couple of years time I may use them as no doubt more light scratches will follow.
Normaly I would not be bothered but the car is 5 months old and I want to keep it looking as new as possible.
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Rattle, getting scratches is part and parcel of car ownersip.
If you pay to get them fixed, you can guarantee the same thing will happen a week later.
Do what you can with Autoglym etc and come trade in time, if you think its worth getting your car detailed to take out all the surface scratches etc then thats the time to do it.
Otherwise you will be fighting a constant battle and you will get yourself down as each new scratch will stand out like a sore thumb!
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I suppose the nature of the way I use my car dosn't help either, its always in tiny crowded Victorian streets.
I am probably going to keep the car very long term anyway so I will just do what I can to keep it tidy rather than pay for expensive repairs but if it starts to look tatty I may consider it.
My dads 13 year old Fiesta is scratch free because its so rusty the eyes don't notice them :p. The problem is on a metalic new car the scratches show a lot more.
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I bought a one and only brand new car and it got more scratches and dints than any other i owned in 3.5 years!
Unbeliveable i thought id look after it but you can't wrap it in cotton wool it's a tool and to be used so drive it.
T-cut and polish will bring out most anymore and a simple fix and a few £££ spent will fix that.
its always in tiny crowded Victorian streets. Yes watch out for the horse and cart.!!
Last edited by: Bigtee on Thu 14 Oct 10 at 22:40
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Rattle, you can now relax!
the car now has its 1st marks.. so you now needn't lie awake in bed worrying about marking it!
Its a car, they are something to use, and hopefully enjoy - a bit like a new PC.
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I suppose its a bit like my new phone, I haven't taken it out yet because I have not the insurance sorted out. It is just too much to loose (its worth £400) but the entire point of a mobile phone is it is mobile.
I do really enjoy it but I am getting quite fat in the process.
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>>I do really enjoy it but I am getting quite fat in the process.>>
You've got me baffled there.....:-(
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I walk a hell of a lot less than I used to. I worked out today that the ten miles I did in my car (jobs 1.5 miles away) I would have walked before I had my car. I am also becoming very aware just how much this car is costing me, which means I use it when I don't strictly need to.
Its on 1200 now, but I have challanged myself to get to 2200 before Christmas.
If you see a blue Panda constantly driving round a round about you know why! :p.
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Rattle, your OCD seems to be getting rather out of control again with your new Panda. Remember, it is only a consumer durable and will deteriorate over time. In fact, a little wear and tear on your car can make it more comfortable to live with, like a pair of old slippers or a scruffy old sofa.
As regards those short, local runs, it's relatively flat where you live and you should consider cycling. You would be surprised how much gear you can carry on a rack with some panniers fitted. Lidl often have very useful panniers in for about £15. You would be fitter and vigorous exercise burns off your anxieties. Get a second-hand bike and fix it up then you won't worry about all the scrapes and scratches that it will, inevitably, pick up.
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...your OCD seems to be getting rather out of control again with your new Panda...
Sound advice from the ex-doc.
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My C5 was new 10mths ago but it already has the first few annoying light marks. Most of them were gained in one week during May when we took a holiday cottage with on- street parking in a busy seafront location. Previously we've always had places with own off-road parking and will go back to that in future. TBH I was gutted at first but as said above it's only a car and they're for using.
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I think these things happen in 3s, I got a chipped windscreen, someone dragged their handbag down the side in a carpark and someone else rolled into the back of my 330d (very gently, slightest of dent in the bumper) - all within 4 days. in no case was the damage sufficient to warrant repair but it was annoying all the same - especially given the care I generally take in carparks etc.
I often wonder whether car makers could make cars more 'damage proof', you'd have thought after 100+ years cars would be coated in something more resistant to inevitable damage such as stone chips and careless hand-bag carrying than paint ?
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Dont't worry Ratts, at least you won't get any stone chips on the front of it. :)
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I don't think there's a single panel on our blue Golf that doesn't have at least one clearly visible scratch on it. The flip side is you can park it in a car park without worrying in the slightest. It's good for the blood pressure. ;-)
When it comes to sale time, I will evaluate the cost of a "paintwork correction" against the residual value, but until then my concern starts and stops with the oily bits. If they're healthy, I'm happy.
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>> you can park it in a car park without worrying in the slightest. It's good for the blood pressure.
Our escort has a scratch, dent or rust bubbles on every panel, because it's scruffy I don't worry about it getting bashed in car parks, I will miss that when we replace it.
The other day I needed to park in a crowded car park, only one space left but a blue BMW was well over the line, no excuse for this as at the other side of the BMW was footpath so plenty of space for passengers to get out. I used the empty space giving the driver of the BMW about 1 foot of space to try and get in.
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>>Get a second-hand bike and fix it up then you won't worry about all the scrapes and scratches that it will, inevitably, pick up.
So you didn't read Rattle's thread on the problems he had with his new bike????
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>> Rattle, your OCD seems to be getting rather out of control
>>
I fear that there is much more to it than OCD. Possibly HPD or worse. :-(
Last edited by: John H on Fri 15 Oct 10 at 11:18
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Isn't there a famous(-ish) motoring cartoon of yesteryear called "the First Scratch" or something like that?
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I do have a bike and have used it for jobs in Sale which is very close to me but also a long way in the car due to geography and the way the roads cross the River Mersey.
All I have to do on my bike is cut through a bit of countryside.
For most journeys the car wins hands down though :).
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When I bought my Mercedes W124 it had survived its first 14 years in the hands of the first owner without suffering a single noticeable scratch. It now has 3.
The first one was due to me reversing into a post and scuffing the rear bumper. A similar scuff mysteriously appeared on the front bumper whilst in a supermarket carpark and another supermarket visit resulted in what looks like a scratch down the side from a bike or pram. I always park as far away from other cars as possible in supermarkets to avoid scratches from those who can drive neither cars nor shopping trolleys and because, to be honest, I could do with the exercise.
In the grand scale of things not really important and probably not that expensive to fix, just annoying after it making it through so many undamaged years. Still no stone chips though.
I remember in my mid twenties buying my first brand new car. It was an XR2i in bright red. The first scratch it received (also due to a careless parker in a supermarket carpark) genuinely caused me sleepness nights. Twenty years later I've grown out it. I do wish people would be more careful parking though.
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i got my 08 reg jazz bought feb 2010 and right now its got 3 scratches on it the rear bumper, the rear door and front bumper all by careless clueless parkers, it caused me a lot of stress and then i let the stress go, by saying it a car a thing that take me a and b, come part exchange time i just trade it for another model.
You gotta expect scratches are part and parcel of car ownership, rattle a scooter would have suited you.
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>> You gotta expect scratches are part and parcel of car ownership....
You shouldn't have to at all. It's a shame no one else has any respect for other people's property anymore.
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>> You shouldn't have to at all. It's a shame no one else has any respect
>> for other people's property anymore.
>>
Exactly!!! Some kids threw a football onto my bonnet near the time of all this Volcano dust, and im very sure there is scratch from that my car was heavily waxed but i still think its scrached, the scratch that i think it is i cant buff out and it makes me cringe everytime I see it
On my Astra G some kids (at my old house) tried to kick the wing mirror off, as they rode past on a bike, left a scuff in the door, and a deep scratch near the fuel filler cap, that just looked worse when I tried to "touch it up" - some people dont have any respect for property and its a shame.
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My old Mondeo estate spent its first eight years and 170 odd thousand miles without a single mark on it. It was pristine in every way. Then, last February, my wife started using it...
It now has, scuffs on both front wheels, a small hole in the back bumper, a crack in the front bumper and scratches on the driver's door.
She denies any culpability in these matters and blames other users of her workplace car park.
Well, maybe, maybe not but how you scuff alloys on an adjacent car is beyond me !
Poor Betsy, she deserves better !
:-(
Last edited by: Humph D'bout on Fri 15 Oct 10 at 13:43
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A neighbours pre school aged grandson carved a smiley face in the bonnet of his car, he said it had looked unhappy. One smiley car, one unhappy neighbour. :)
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Wasn't a Mitsubishi Colt, was it? Miserable-looking car if I ever saw one.
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No, a Peugeot 40something coupe.
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Crikey - it would take more than a smiley face to make that look passably happy. Case dismissed!
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The perils of spending real money on cars is you feel a desire to protect it.
I think Rattle has exchanged mechanical OCD for a bodywork version. Living in town, it can only get worse.
That said, my wife is the same about her Sirion as its the first car she bought with her own money. A centre cap disappeared from one of the alloys yesterday and within an hour she had one ordered up.
Its quite sweet really, these first time buyers.
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>> That said, my wife is the same about her Sirion as its the first car
>> she bought with her own money. A centre cap disappeared from one of the alloys
>> yesterday and within an hour she had one ordered up.
My Partner did just the same with her C4, someone just took the one! centre cap for the alloys, so after a bit of cursing ordered a new one
- Some people.
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Ahhh don't listen to them Rattle, keep it looking tip top :-)
AutoGlym SRP will do the trick over time. Meantime it'll fill the scratches. Megs ScratchX works well for intensive treatment, but if it was me I'd keep the extra microns of clear coat and just use AG SRP.
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...Poor Betsy, she deserves better !...
And the poor wife deserves a new car.
Whatever happened to that idea?
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Failed to obtain a round tuit yet.
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Only two scratches on the C5 so far in 17 months. Not to bad - a few fine ones in the front bumper - met another car in a country lane and it was a choice of clipping the brambles or risking losing a mirror - most of them polished out, but the deepest still remains.
Second is a chip out of the paint on the wing mirror - over enthusiastic daughter getting out of mums car threw the door open into mine........
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"the First Scratch"
I'm pretty sure that was by Fougasse, who was famous both for motoring cartoons and the 'careless talk costs lives' wartime posters. The first cartoon showed the family crowded round the new car showing deep concern for its first insignificant scratch, while the second showed general hilarity at the now much older and more damaged car's final encounter with the gatepost. I can recall it, but not find it on Google, his books still being in print, no doubt. By coincidence, there is an exhibition of his work in London until next month. Worth a visit, IMO.
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FWIW, I think modern cars are more susceptible to dings and scratches
a) because of water-based paints, usually lacquered to make them appear as glossy as the old oil-based ones did, and
b) because the sheet metal used is thinner, therefore easier to dent.
Mrs JBJ had the nose of her old Mazda resprayed a few years ago because it was badly stone chipped, and the two-pack epoxy paint used never showed another mark.
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>>because the sheet metal used is thinner, therefore easier to dent.
Many years ago, I ran into another car driven by a panel beater. Long story, but because I put my hands up he offered to knock out the dent on my A35 - Oh did he swear. Reckoned he'd never seen such thick metal on a car.
Could explain why Martin Brundle's A35 was going so fast at Goodwood this year. New wings?
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I can sympathise Rattle.
I have been upset myself that our new pristine Volvo is not so pristine now that it has one dent on the back due to a car door opening on to it at a supermarket car park and the front wing has scuffs on it from a supermarket trolley dragged down it.
The amazing thing is how unconcerned the "guilty" party was about doing it.
What is one supposed to do? Buy online and never visit a supermarket again? We we do, but then there's always something one has missed off after the delivery arrives...
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I am not by any means fastidious in cleaning / polishing car (it is always cleanish - washed every 2 weeks or less) BUT I am particular about scrapes and scratches.
I park
1) Furthest from supermarket doors, corner of multi-storey
2) If busy park on end space or between 2 cars who are driving out (not reversing)
3) Always reverse into space
4) Never park next to an Volvo estates / MPV / Bashed runabout / Large 4WD / Vans of any size, shape, age
5) Turn in mirrors
Pays dividends, still get the odd ding but on the whole never had a bashed car since 1984 when a Volvo BIG Bumper car caved in the front wing and disappeared.
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You will probably notice that women almost always pull into a supermarket parking space.
This is for a very good reason, it avoids having to drag a supermarket trolley between two vehicles to load the boot with shopping.
Men, on the other hand, have to display their superior reversing skills and inevitably stand and wince as soon as anyone approaches a car either side of them.
Common sense?
Pat
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Women usually drive around until they find a muddy old land Rover and a rusting Panda to park between and only then will they park if the gap is not too wide so as to make it easy to get in and out of the car.
Whereas men will find a corner space or a nice wide space between two cars that look as though their owners will not open the doors and slam them against adjacent vehicles.
;-)
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When my C5 was new I had the usual sensitivity to it being near people and doors. In the first week with it I was parking down a completely vacant area of the Waitrose car park with nothing for 20 spaces either way. As I returned with the ticket couldn't believe it when an old £300 Mondeo with rust on every wheelarch pulled into the next space. Out poured a full load of folks obviously heading for the pound shop who seemed unable to leave the car without half a dozen open/shuts of the dors adj my car as they remembered this or that.
Now it's 10mths old I've all but given up on strategic placing if I absolutely have to use street or car parks.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Mon 18 Oct 10 at 07:54
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>> Common sense?
>>
>> Pat
>>
You can't fool us mere men, Pat, we know why you don't reverse park the CRV. :-)
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But I've learned how to do it now....I let Tesco deliver to me:)
Pat
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I always find the most empty part of the car park too. I would also rather walk 200 yards than risk parking it some where it might get damaged.
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Well, I have been driving my MK6 Golf about 16 months since new and admire its slightly unusual Atlanta Alloys fitted as standare. Unusual in that they are sprayed with a sort of light grey finish and the relatively few 'spokes' are surfaced polished to a mirror finish to reveal a bright Aluminium finish all of which is lacquered.
My béte noir is kerbing alloys but usually if this is done, one of the mobile firms can restore, relatively easily the 'normal' type of bright alloy finish but not apparently this type of wheel. Basically the whole surface would need to be stripped and then sprayed grey and all of the spokes polished back to the metal to get that mirror finish.
Last Friday I had an early dentist's appointment and parked nearby in a road with parking bays but in reversing into one, in front of another parked car - nothing else around, my front N/S wheel grazed the top of the granite kerb which seems to have an overhang rather than a vertical face or one that is angled back from the vertical.
This shouldn't really happen because upon selecting reverse gea,r my passenger's mirror tilts downward to give a good view of the kerb and the rear wheel. I thought that I had allowed sufficient space but no, I heard a slight grunging noise and thought that I'd gone over a metal can but when I got out I found that two 'spokes' had come into contact with the top part of the kerbstone. -- damn it.
I inspected the damage when I got home but could not remove the whitish scars and so just put plenty of clear car lacqquer on top to give some protection. I suppse that as time passes I'll tend to be less aware of the scarring. The only alternative would be to seek out a specialist repairer although a repaired wheel may stick out from the rest if matching wasn't perfect.
Hey, Ho! We can't keep our cars in the their original showroom condition, it seems.
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>> Today there was a mark on both me and dads front bumper as if a
>> large HGV has scraped it.
I would have expected a large HGV to have made more than just "a mark".
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Scratches already - BobbyG
