Damage to a car does affect resale value. So if someone damages your car and doesn’t pay for it, you it costs you money to repair ir or it costs you money when you sell it.
What if someone dumped a truckload of garbage on your yard? It doesn’t affect your house. The roof still keeps the rain off. But would you want the unsightly mess in your yard? I’d guess not. So you’d have to spend your time (and ‘time is money’) to clean it up, and money in gas and possible a dump fee, or you’d have to pay to have it hauled away. A dent in a car usually doesn’t affect the way it drives. Garbage in the yard doesn’t affect how the house keeps the weather out. But I wouldn’t want either.
…same thing happened to me, but I got lucky. The guy rung the number I left on his car and he got my mum. He said he thanked me for leaving a note, that he could fix the scratch on his car with a bit of paint, that he was sure the damage to my car was worse than the damage to his, and it was cool that in this day and age, people were honest enough to leave notes and take responsibility for your actions.
It’s a pity the next two times, the people were less than understanding. :smack:
Ok, well then. I guess I’ll just come over to your house and spraypaint some graffitti on it. I’m sure it won’t bother you a bit.
Oh, and I’ll leave a note, allright.
What’s that? A car and a house do not compare? Seems to me that they both cost a bit of money, they both provide a service, they both work the same no matter what they LOOK like…shrug could you be the guy that bugs his neighbors because you don’t care what anything you own LOOKS like as long as it does its job?
So you go around wearing second hand clothes, too? They’re out of style, but they do a job, which is keep you from getting arrested for indecent exposure.
Do you bother to take a shower, ever? Well, it’s just skin. It does its job. It doesn’t matter what it LOOKS like. pshaw.
Maybe you don’t care about who you piss off, either. What a classless thing to interject here.
Yes, but I can’t frolic in my yard with garbage there. That is why I would clean it up. Also, I’m not sure that’s it would be healthy to live in a dump. If someone splattered paint randomly (no racial epithets or whatnot) onto my house, however, I would not repaint it. It would be a waste of time and money.
Wouldn’t you agree that it seems a car owner would save money, time, and worry by just fixing all the dents right before he sells it?
(ironically, I wrote this before I saw Faruiza’s post)
I’m not sure I would mind… My landlord probably would, but even if it were my house, I still wouldn’t mind.
I mean, I don’t bug my neighbors about it… Why would I talk to them about my stuff?
Yes.
Do you think cleanliness isn’t useful/helpful?
I don’t follow… If you referring to that weird addendum post I made, I’m sorry, I really don’t have a handle on the way emotions are expressed on the internet, and I do apologize. For example, someone thought I was angry earlier…
No. It takes the same amount of time to fix a dent today as it will in a year. But labour is likely to be more expensive in the future. Also, damage begets damage. A bit of lost paint may seem minor, bit it can result in rust that requires new sheet metal. That would be much more expensive than fixing the original dent.
And it’s not so much about the physical damage anyway, expensive as it may be. It is the lack of consideration by some people to other people’s property.
Cars are important to people. Some cars are more important to some people than other cars are to others. I drove by a junkyard one day. It occurred to me that each one of those cars used to be new. Someone took the time to specifically seek out that car. Someone was excited when they bought it. Maybe they fell in love in that car. Or lost their virginity. Or took a road trip that provided a lifetime of memories. But over time the car was dented and bashed. Now it and it’s companions sit awaiting the torch and the crusher. It’s kind of sad. See, buying a car is an emotional decision for most people. When someone buys a new car especially, those emotions are strong. If some yobbo damages it, it’s not just the car that’s being damaged. It’s an emotional attack.
My Jeep has a few dings in it. Its scratches are ‘legitimate’, in that I’ve taken it offroad. The dings were caused by careless, inattentive people. Although I dislike people like that, I don’t care much about the dings. My Jeep is a utility vehicle.
But I have a lot invested in the MGB. Not only has it cost me an enormous amount of money, but it will hae taken at least three years of restoration before it’s done. That’s a lot of anticipation. I’ve already mentioned the other emotional issues (my mom) with it. Is it wrong of me, after so much time and expense, and with the memory of my mother attached to it, that I should not want some jackhole to damage it? Unlike the Jeep, the MGB is more than a means of transportation. it is a touchstone with the past. It’s a collector’s item. (Like it or not, old cars tend to appreciate in monetary value.)
I think people in our society (for the record, I mean the parts of the USA I have been to) have some misplaced priorities. Don’t you talk to people about your political viewpoints? About your beleifs?
Isn’t that the sole purpose of art, though, to look nice? Okay I guess it is possible to buy a car as a work of art, because you like to look at it, but didn’t a number of people already agree that cars regularly get dented during normal use? That is part of what I meant by the whole ball-point pen parable. I don’t propel my painting down the road at high speeds and leave it lying around in public, and then expect it not to get scratched. Scratches are par for the course, are they not? To non-car people, not expecting scratches does seem silly.
I guess I relent my position, after all, though, because I can see that aesthetics are important, and I have different aesthetic values than most people, I think. I sometimes get all worked up about it, but in the end people have a right to the kinds of aesthetics they value.
It’s kind of funny how this varies by place, however. In Manhattan, for example, it is EXPECTED that, while parallel parking, you will hit the bumpers ahead of and behind you a couple of times each.
I think my problem here is trying to argue values regarding what’s important in life rather than what’s obvious. Yes. Something outdoors is going to get marred in some way be it from weather or your own foibles, but when it’s someone else’s fault entirely, whether the havoc they’ve wreaked is intentional or by accident, they need to be grownup decent people and belly up to the bar for their hot steaming cup of responsibility. People that do not make amends or attempts to own their mistakes are scum.
I worked hard for my big ticket items, and they’re important to me in a way you can’t understand, yet completely unimportant to you in a way I can’t understand. I can get with that, but if you damage something that belongs to me, whether you think it’s important or not, you ought to assume it is to me and act accordingly. Can we agree on that?
Yeah, definitely. My rant was meant to be that Cherry shouldn’t care that much about his car, etc. I never meant to excuse the denter. I definitely beleive in personal responsibility, and the guy was a dick for not leaving a note. I mean just because I wear rags, doesn’t mean I don’t take responsibility when I spill something on your shirt and act accordingly (offer to pay/replace/repair/etc.). But I might get a bit confused and a little touchy if you get really angry about it anyway. I guess I jumped the gun on the OP, however, because I guess he was really mad about the not owning up to it part.
The guy rung the number I left on his car and he got my mum. He said he thanked me for leaving a note, that he could fix the scratch on his car with a bit of paint, that he was sure the damage to my car was worse than the damage to his, and it was cool that in this day and age, people were honest enough to leave notes and take responsibility for your actions.