A navy blue Chevy Trailblazer, in fact, that I saw on the road this morning.
These stickers were the oval kind, and there must have been 20 of them. I have one on my back bumper with a big D on it, which means “Deutschland”, where I am from. (I also have a “Bitte Ein Bit” decal on my back glass, indicating I’m a Bitburger beer fan. :D) His are of a racing-nature.
But I digress…
What I wanted to ask is, if he leaves these stickers on for any length of time, won’t the paint around them fade, thereby lowering his re-sale/trade-in value, or are they making them out of some miracle stuff these days to where it won’t matter? At the very least, won’t he have a problem with the glue, when he gets ready to take them off?
Didn’t know quite qwhere to put this question, sorry!
Resale won’t be an issue. A guy who covers a Chevy truck with stickers will drive that sucker into the ground. Well, not actually into the ground. He will drive it until he can’t make it go any more and then he will turn it into a lawn ornament for his neighbors to despise for evermore.
I have never felt the need to adorn my car with bumper stickers. I don’t get the appeal. I would rather have clean, unbroken, fresh from the factory lines.
It seems to me that you are right, the paint will fade and the glue is a bugger to remove. However, with a little rubbing compound and wax, the marks may not be that noticable. I think I have to agree with isthatsowrong on this one. And, if he cares that little about the outside, what could the inside possibly look like? This guy is obviously not thinking in resale terms.
Some people buy their cars with the intention of driving them until the wheels fall off, at which point the resale value isn’t as important as how fun the car is for them to own and drive. I have never considered the resale value of a vehicle in any of my car purchases. I’m buying it to drive it, not sell it.
I wish I had a camera with me when, several years ago I saw this one car (a nice sedan, not some old beater) that had religious bumper stickers all over it (not just the back, I mean ALL OVER). If the intent was to draw attention this goal was certainly accomplished.
Personally I’d rather keep my car free of such tacky adornments of self-expression. About the most I’d want on my car is a window sticker for my favorite radio station. While I agree some stickers are witty and good for a laugh or two at the red light, so many bumper stickers I see express opinions which I feel would make my car vulnerable to getting keyed by someone who disagreed with me.
Yeah, I won’t even put an alma mater sticker on out of fear of some agressive twit holding different views. I think the only one I’ve ever had was that “Mean people suck”.
I’m another who would never put a sticker on my car. I don’t like other people to be able to know (or think they know) anything about me that easily. I used to drive a gold Saturn which I liked because there were so many others on the road, I always felt invisible. That said, I enjoy reading other people’s stickers. One of my favorites said: “MILITANT AGNOSTIC. I don’t know and you don’t either.”
I agree completely with the bumper sticker thing. I think they look rather tacky. I will, however, put window decals on as long as they’re small and on the bottom of my rear windshield. I’ve got a humane society one and a really pretty, really small pentagram.
I’ve put little UT Longhorns on my backglass on a couple of cars, but that’s glass and they’re not hard to remove.
The only political issue that’s driven me to grass roots activism inspired me to get a couple of thousand bumper stickers printed up. In the course of investigating doing so, I discovered that there are several types available, and there was one variety that met my criteria: 1.) withstand weathering, fading, etc. for about a year and 2.) be easily removable.
Mine went on my backglass, although I did consider the bumper. I even considered both as I had, well, plenty of’em. But I decided that would make me appear a little rabid on the subject (I was rabid, but didn’t want to discourage discourse by blowing my cover).
As soon as the issue was decided, off came the bumper sticker.
