Luxury car slobs

Am I the only one who has seen people driving nicer newer luxury cars, who seem to not give a crap about them. I've seen quite a couple of newer jaguars including an s-type, x-type, and xj8 with about all the clear coat peeled off the hood, top, and trunk. Why buy a luxury car if you are going to treat it like a beater? This phenomena isn't relegated to any one luxury brand but I see BMWs, Lexi, and various other once expensive cars getting ruined by slobs who are either too lazy or stupid to take care of their cars. All you have to do is put a little wax on the car every 2months and that 5000$ paintjob should last the life of the car.

My car has about 50%(previous accident damage) of the original paint on it even on the roof where some thick headed dutchmen stood on the roof when the car was in the port of Rotterdam. They used a heat gun to pop the metal out and the paint is crazed, but still attached. I figure the crazed paint is part of the history of the car and shouldn't be repaired.

Just curious if some of you folks can enlighten me about car slobs.

I test drove a used 911 last week. The white interior was trashed, as in "full of trash". Gum and candy wrappers, sand, leaves...

Working at a Cadillac Saab dealer back in the day, I drove a lot of "rich" people's crap Saabs and Cadillacs. If more than 5% of them weren't completely and totally unkempt, filthy, and disrespected inside and out, I'm Henry Ford.

Because they are the many of the same idiots who bought lower end "appliance" cars (e.g. Toyota Camry's, Honda Accords, etc) then they got a big promotion or a huge bonus, etc.

Yeah, I like the long-term neglected bodywork, too. Nothing chaps my ass like seeing a late-model, $25-30k car with a garbage bag taped over the rear window... for 8 months.

I work at a lexus dealer and we call ls 400s that have made there way down that path Iraqi Taxis they're only fit for a car bomb!

benzbaron wrote: Am I the only one who has seen people driving nicer newer luxury cars, who seem to not give a crap about them. I've seen quite a couple of newer jaguars including an s-type, x-type, and xj8 with about all the clear coat peeled off the hood, top, and trunk. Why buy a luxury car if you are going to treat it like a beater? This phenomena isn't relegated to any one luxury brand but I see BMWs, Lexi, and various other once expensive cars getting ruined by slobs who are either too lazy or stupid to take care of their cars. All you have to do is put a little wax on the car every 2months and that 5000$ paintjob should last the life of the car. My car has about 50%(previous accident damage) of the original paint on it even on the roof where some thick headed dutchmen stood on the roof when the car was in the port of Rotterdam. They used a heat gun to pop the metal out and the paint is crazed, but still attached. I figure the crazed paint is part of the history of the car and shouldn't be repaired. Just curious if some of you folks can enlighten me about car slobs.

They didn't buy them because they actuallly liked the car...they bought them because they wanted their neighbors to see how rich they were. Mindless Consumption taken to it's logical end.

No, wait...that was the housing bubble, wasn't it.

I admit my cars get messy.. but I do try to clean them out at least once a week.. and I definatly clean them before a shop gets their hands on them

Saw a white mercedes, 320? Maybe? I dunno what it's called but it was newer. Rust dust all down the side. I mean covered. The front rotor was ground down to the cooling fins. I have a photo if it I took today, but it's in the iPhone and I'm not sure how to post it online.

Joey

Thanks for the explanations folks. It reminds me of a bitchin jag I saw for sale a couple months ago. Clean and funky british green I think it was an older xj6, but from around the 70's. It was for sale and sat a couple months with 3999$ sign up front, well some a-hole got ahold of it and I saw it was now down the street a couple of blocks. Next thing I notice is a big dent in the rear quarter panel, well the car lasted another month and I noticed it looked like the whole grill and hood were totally crunched. The moral of the story is some goof got a nice clean older RUNNING jag which is a very rare species and totally ruined it. I'm sure it is in Taiwan now as scrap.

mad_machine wrote: I definitely clean them before a shop gets their hands on them

+1...if a shop thinks you dont care about your car, they may not think you mind if they cut corners either. Even my old beater corolla and cavalier were as spotless as a decades worth of young man ownership would allow.

Now that I own an Infiniti, I try to keep it as clean as I can at all times. Its by far the nicest car Ive owned, and if I want it to perform for me, the least I can do is keep it respectable. Plus, you never know when the boss will want to ride along to lunch...stuffing burger king wrappers between the seats and wiping the spilled coffee off the console with your sleeve as hes coming around to the passenger side is never a good thing for the boss man to see...

You could eat off any surface of my cars at any time. Same goes for my house. I will never understand people with a messy car or house.

93gsxturbo wrote: You could eat off any surface of my cars at any time. Same goes for my house. I will never understand people with a messy car or house.

We got kids.

Of course, if you do as well, then we're just lazy. I have to admit, these days the only time I get my interiors really cleaned out is when I take `em to autocross, and can't run without removing the potential shrapnel...

Yeah, it ain't easy once there are a few rugrats involved. But I do prefer to keep the stickiness and food wrappers away.

Well, I'll be honest...we're slobs in general. So while we don't own anything that would be considered "luxury" - unless our '00 Villager that originally stickered for $30k counts - we don't really clean them that often either.

Hell, our 3-month old Fit has only been through the carwash 3-times and I never have cleaned out the interior. Call me lazy/weird/odd/whatever, but I just don't really care how my cars look, as long as they function as intended. OTOH, I wouldn't willingly allow some type of permanent damage to occur that would hurt the vehicles value either. But I figure I could always pay someone $50-$100 for a detail job if I really want it looking nice.

The other problem is the mileage we drive. When you're putting 100-200mi/day on a car, good luck keeping it clean for more than an hour. Between bugs, rain, road-grime, etc. it gets covered way too quickly.

93gsxturbo wrote: You could eat off any surface of my cars at any time. Same goes for my house. I will never understand people with a messy car or house.

And I can't understand how some people are so anal they're willing to spend so much of their life just cleaning and tidying. I have kids, cars, pets, a job, friends and family. To me dedicating the necessary time to each of those is more important than making sure the toys are picked up and my wheels are spotless every day.

That doesn't make me a bad person any more than your view makes you a bad person.

Chill everyone. If someone has paid for a car let them treat it like they want. Don't forget that for many people driving a $50k car, it may well represent less of an investment for them than someone else driving a $500 beater. Having money also doesn't make someone a bad person

Once you get away from our happy little world of self righteous car geeks, for most people cars are just (now get this and don't be too freaked out) a method of getting from point A to B, shocking huh! Who cares if the car is dirty and full of fast food wrappers. On the few occasions where I've seen high end cars (Ferrari's, Lambo's etc) dirty with empty coffee cups in the foot well I don't think 'god what a slob' I think 'Cool, someone using a car like this as a true daily driver, way to go! One happy memory was seeing a then brand new GT2 in a Home Depot parking lot, covered in salt and road grime, snow everywhere getting pilled high with the owners purchases. I've always said you don't need a pick up truck for doing home improvements!

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

93gsxturbo wrote: You could eat off any surface of my cars at any time. Same goes for my house. I will never understand people with a messy car or house.

And I can't understand how some people are so anal they're willing to spend so much of their life just cleaning and tidying. I have kids, cars, pets, a job, friends and family. To me dedicating the necessary time to each of those is more important than making sure the toys are picked up and my wheels are spotless every day. That doesn't make me a bad person any more than your view makes you a bad person. Chill everyone. If someone has paid for a car let them treat it like they want. Don't forget that for many people driving a $50k car, it may well represent less of an investment for them than someone else driving a $500 beater. Having money also doesn't make someone a bad person Once you get away from our happy little world of self righteous car geeks, for most people cars are just (now get this and don't be too freaked out) a method of getting from point A to B, shocking huh! Who cares if the car is dirty and full of fast food wrappers. On the few occasions where I've seen high end cars (Ferrari's, Lambo's etc) dirty with empty coffee cups in the foot well I don't think 'god what a slob' I think 'Cool, someone using a car like this as a true daily driver, way to go! One happy memory was seeing a then brand new GT2 in a Home Depot parking lot, covered in salt and road grime, snow everywhere getting pilled high with the owners purchases. I've always said you don't need a pick up truck for doing home improvements!

+1 I saw a black Maserati Qattroporte in the Lowes parking lot this weekend getting the trunk loaded while the kiddies got in their car seats. I considered it a spotless car in spite of the dust on the paint, sippy cups and detritus from two rug rats and all.

I find that they're the cars that are most often run aground on curbs when parking as well...

People born into wealth usually just don't take care of their stuff, period, and if you're a first-generation wealthy person you probably either can't afford a luxury car without becoming a debt junkie, have the sense not to buy one, or take care of the car as you know how much it's worth.

I NEVER wash my car. I will wipe the windows, and pick up the trash and bits on the inside.... but i see no point in washing this car. I didn't build it to look pretty.

GameboyRMH wrote: People born into wealth usually just don't take care of their stuff, period, and if you're a first-generation wealthy person you probably either can't afford a luxury car without becoming a debt junkie, have the sense not to buy one, or take care of the car as you know how much it's worth.

I'm going to go ahead and pretty much completely disagree with this statement. Having gone to school with some serious Old Money, those folks were always pleasant, nice, respectful, and mostly fun. Most of them kept themselves and their stuff (including cars) very well. The wealthiest guy I know drove a 12-year-old mid-range Mercedes that was in perfect condition.

It's the new-money folks who don't have the sense of tradition to care for anything, and who are out to prove that they have the money to blow by being careless.

GameboyRMH wrote: I find that they're the cars that are most often run aground on curbs when parking as well... People born into wealth usually just don't take care of their stuff, period, and if you're a first-generation wealthy person you probably either can't afford a luxury car without becoming a debt junkie, have the sense not to buy one, or take care of the car as you know how much it's worth.

So what, who cares? I disagree with this statement but even if it were true so what? If you compare where I came form and my peer group in school I'm now wealthy, compared to many in this world I'm not. My debt or lack of it (I'm not going to discuss that here) are my business. My car appears to have a curbed wheel, it actually came from a Michigan pothole, does that make me a debt laden moron? Come off it, that's silly. Look, even in this economy most people who have debt are and will pay it off, it may take years but they'll get there.

I know rich people with new cars in great condition
I know rich people with new cars in crappy condition
I know rich people with old cars in great condition
I know rich people with old cars in crappy condition
I know poor people with new cars in great condition
I know poor people with new cars in crappy condition
I know poor people with old cars in great condition
I know poor people with old cars in crappy condition
I know rich people I like, I know rich people I don't like, I know poor people I like and I know poor people I don't like.

Duke wrote: I'm going to go ahead and pretty much completely disagree with this statement. Having gone to school with some serious Old Money, those folks were always pleasant, nice, respectful, and mostly fun. Most of them kept themselves and their stuff (including cars) very well. The wealthiest guy I know drove a 12-year-old mid-range Mercedes that was in perfect condition. It's the new-money folks who don't have the sense of tradition to care for anything, and who are out to prove that they have the money to blow by being careless.

I'll fully agree w/ this statement.

benzbaron wrote: I've seen quite a couple of newer jaguars including an s-type, x-type, and xj8 with about all the clear coat peeled off the hood, top, and trunk. Why buy a luxury car if you are going to treat it like a beater?

I think people get tricked into them by the low cost of entry. "Instead of that 2003 Honda Accord for $7000, I'll go for that 2002 XJR for $9000, or that 2002 530i for $8000." (Seriously, they're going for that cheap). Then something breaks, or it needs tires, and all of a sudden this great deal they got starts costing them a lot of money and they can't afford the upkeep, so they resent the car and ignore the problems that arise. The car starts going to pot, they're really only into it for $8000 or $9000 so they don't care. They'll ditch it in a couple of years for $4000 or $5000 and pick up another one. It sucks, but it's how a lot of people think.

If the engines hold up well though, a Jag supercharged V8 Locost could become a real possibility in a few years.

Bob

Schmidlap wrote: I think people get tricked into them by the low cost of entry. "Instead of that 2003 Honda Accord for $7000, I'll go for that 2002 XJR for $9000, or that 2002 530i for $8000." (Seriously, they're going for that cheap). Then something breaks, or it needs tires, and all of a sudden this great deal they got starts costing them a lot of money and they can't afford the upkeep, so they resent the car and ignore the problems that arise. The car starts going to pot, they're really only into it for $8000 or $9000 so they don't care. They'll ditch it in a couple of years for $4000 or $5000 and pick up another one. It sucks, but it's how a lot of people think.

Ding ding ding I think we have a winner. I've thought this before and been tempted by the trap. I don't know why I didn't think of it in this thread. I think you've got it nailed.

My van is really an appliance for getting to work in the snow or carrying motorcycles. As a result, I can easily neglect it. I HATE litter, so any trash I create stays in my car until I take it out. Its a very incidous process that simply involves an empty coffee cup, or soda can a few days a week. After a short while, I have a mess. I make myself clean out all my trash and carry it to the rolling can in the driveway every afternoon. But as far as washing it, only when its really bad.