To repair, or not to repair?

[DaveNP]

I'm sure I've said it before, but, I was quite pleased recently when two of my younger colleagues at work were stood looking at my car, when I got up to it they commented that it was the best looking car in the car park- a patinated '98 V70 against a carpark full of less than 10 year old homogenous hatchbacks.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[volvo always]

I try my best with my 1996 940 but in less than 1 year 2x 4x4 have bumped into it. One pulling out from the parking space next to me and put too much left lock and scuffed the front bumper and scraped her nearside rear bumper/alloy wheel.

Last week parked at screwfix and a white 4x4 reversed into it and clipped the bumper edge scuffing it. His white plastic bumper and wheelarch had black scuffs along it for 4 inches and had to press the bumper back into the fixing clips, so it aligned with the wheelarch.
He said he was being nagged by his boss and the rear parking sensors weren't working!

In both cases I didn't bother taking their details as so minor not worth bothering. I now have matching front bumper scuffs!

I like my car to look presentable and will repaint the offside rear quarter as I didn't do a good repaint job of old scrape. The tailgate pillar dent I filled and painted.

James

[Sasha94]

When I had my C70, it was hard for people to get their heads around the idea it was 14 years old at the time





I paid £900 for that car yet it was immaculate inside and out and kept that way in my ownership. Folk also find it hard to believe that my Mercedes is similarly aged, about to hit its own 14th birthday in March



That car was quite a bit more than £900 but a non AMG variant can be had for under £2000.

I have just booked the Skoda into a body shop as 2 weeks after purchase some nice person thought it could do with a beating and clipped the drivers side rear quarter and rear bumper leaving damage that won’t polish out. As the car cost me over £11000 I want it sorted as I won’t be able to live with the damage. If it was something that cost £2000 or less I’d be happy with my polishing efforts. The value of the car always has to be assessed first unless it has sentiment or specific interest, then you just sort it anyway.

[Dippydog]

As long as it's mechanically sound and does what it says on the tin-gets me from where I am to where I want to be-I don't really much care what it looks like.It stands at the side of the road[either where I live or where I work]for probably a good 90% of the time,if someone dings it/scratches it or whatever it wouldn't faze me.If I had paid many thousands for a nice shiny car that might well be a different matter.Having said that I might just might when the weather gets warmer rattle can the drivers side so it looks all one colour!

[Volvo6]

I've had varying attitudes to this issue over the years. Depends on the car really, various boring cars I've had I can never get too excited about minor scrapes etc. Big dents though would usually get done. The enthusiasm to deal with them also reduces as the car gets older.

More recently I'm making a conscious effort to get the V70R looking something resembling how it did in 1999 (not that it looks bad), just because it is a car we cherish. The laser blue paint still looks fantastic when clean, even after nearly 20 years - just seems a shame to let it get spoilt with car park dings etc.

[Grimble]

As an old pal used to say (although he was referring to motorbikes) 'chrome dont get you home'.

No expense spared on the mechanical parts, nothing on the cosmetics other than a hoover out and a drive through car wash when its on offer.

By the time I get rid, it will be about 8 years old, have about 180k on the clock, a full service history, but minor dings and scratches will have no impact on my sale price.

It will be a good buy for someone.

[vorlon7]

Agree absolutely if it looks tatty then the antenna twitch rightly or wrongly if the car is visually poor then the presumption is that safety critical stuff has also been let go.Large furry dice tend to do it too!

[ITSv40]

I remember many years ago, Ester Rantzen interviewing passers by outside Harrods for That's Life. They always pitched up outside Harrods when they wanted the views of the person in the street.

Anyway the question was: Does the type of car reflect the type of person driving it. One classic reply was that if you saw a scruffy little car it must be driven by a scruffy little person. I don't want to be seen as a 'scruffy little person' although I probably am therefore, I keep all my cars polished and well maintained. Mechanicals first cosmetics second.