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Rose Tinted Windscreens?

Joshy

Joshy

Joshy

Soldato
Joined
15 Jun 2009
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Thought this could be an interesting thread.

Do you know someone who absoultely loves their car... despite it being painfully clear to everyone else around them that it is a complete and utter shed?

My father is this. He bought a 1 owner from new, full BMWSH E36 323i a few years ago, and then promptly set about utterly ruining it. It's developed a cutting out issue, it has a long history of logging codes for the AFM for years and years so I'm willing to bet that the AFM is faulty. I offer to do the work for him if he can get the part, but he refuses because if the car cuts out, it's his fault, not the car's :confused:

The battery is utterly useless, listen to the radio with the ignition off for 5 minutes and it's dead flat. I offer to use my Halfords trade card so he can pick up a replacement for £40ish, but he flat out refused, stating that it is fine as it :confused:.

He kerbed one of this front tyres so badly that it was WELL through to canvass in 4 separate places. It was so bad that I didn't actually want to be near it as I genuinely thought it was going to blow out in my face :D. I showed him the likes of camskill and mytyres and told him that I'd fit whatever tyres he bought at work, get em all balanced up with new valves for nothing (being the good son I am), instead he decided this was too much, so it was a better idea to go to the local tyre centre and get a part worn, "quality" Ceat tyre for £15... so now ALL of his tyres are totally mismatched, yay

It's heavily dented, rusty, scratched, the interior is dreadfully worn and tatty - It is generally a horrible mess. You wouldn't give £500 for it. And yet still, he maintains that it is an utterly magnificent car. I just don't understand what he sees, it's a shed, and I know sheds! :p

Come to think of it, he did it with his saab 900 convertible and it wound me right up. He'd constantly harp on about how much he hated the car, but kept it because of all the "admiring glances" he'd get in it. I kept on telling him that no one cares whatsoever about base model 13 year old Saab driven by a middle age bald guy with the roof up, but he would not have any of it!

What's odd is that he is well within his means to replace it with something far better, and yet doesn't! :confused:

It's just something that I can't really understand. I get attached to my cars, but I can always step back and see the flaws. He seems incapable of such a thing!

Any other similar stories?
 
look on the bright side, at least he isnt having a major mid life crisis like my old man and going down the souped up impreza with the loudest exhaust known to man route :)
 
My dad literally refuses to spend any money on cars, he must have a 1 hour + motorway commute but did it for 10 years in a crappy old Citreon and now my Granddads old Fiesta.

He is under no illusion that it is crap but maybe he is just sensible and understands cars are a waste of money, he does like motorbikes. Suppose you don't get money by spending it.

But it is just funny that my mum drives around in a brand new Mercedes CLS yet he is the total opposite.

I try to tell them to spend some money, ah well if they don't then more for me. :D
 
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Maybe he's just not interested in cars? maybe he just sees it as a means to get from A to B and doesn't really care if its a shed or not. I know quite a few people like this (I am sort of one myself).
 
LOAM said:
Maybe he's just not interested in cars? maybe he just sees it as a means to get from A to B and doesn't really care if its a shed or not. I know quite a few people like this (I am sort of one myself).
Click to expand...

Are you particularly interested in fridge freezers? Or do you just see it as a means to keep food cold?

Would you buy a completely scabby, crap fridge freezer?
 
depends where its located, the one in the garage is merely a means to keep food cold. All im saying is some people simply don't care what their car looks like, That might be hard for someone who loves cars to understand (I for example cant understand why people don't walk around open mouthed at some of the Architecture that surrounds them), But some people don't really care.
 
I know someone who did just that. He earns a respectable salary, wears nice clothes and drives a tidy enough car. But when it came to replace his fridge freezer, he found the cheapest one he could in the free ads and spent half a day scrubbing off the mould and smell of cigarettes
 
[TW]Fox;17092181 said:
Are you particularly interested in fridge freezers? Or do you just see it as a means to keep food cold?

Would you buy a completely scabby, crap fridge freezer?
Click to expand...

My fridge freezer is pretty crap. Am I going to replace it? Yes when it completely dies...

Not really a good comparison either as it can be more to do with hygiene.
 
The issue isn't so much it's a scabby looking old thing, horses for courses etc some people simply don't care.

The issue is it seems he isn't or is unlikely to spend the money required to keep the car upto a safe standard, 4 differeing tyres and part worns is hardly a good place to start...
 
My dad had a Toyota Paseo bought 2nd hand from a Toyota dealer, had it for years, so many I cant remember. It was red but turned pink, it had horrible multi fit 15" alloys that were on my first car when I bought it in 1997 i'm surprised they didnt turn to dust after so long, it was a bit of a girls car to me but he loved it and my dad isnt the smallest of chaps, at 58 he's probably fitter than me, it went on and on and on even though he never spent a penny on it, he must have done an oil and filter change maybe twice by himself and the only thing ever to go wrong with it was the battery, even the cambelt was original from the factory in 1996, truely epic reliability, truely awful car to look at, be seen in and the driving experiance on the motorway was scary as hell. He eventually gave in and traded it in for a Mazda 3 last year which is such a nice car but he still bangs on about the Paseo like its his long lost son!
 
LOAM said:
Maybe he's just not interested in cars? maybe he just sees it as a means to get from A to B and doesn't really care if its a shed or not. I know quite a few people like this (I am sort of one myself).
Click to expand...

This is the weird thing, I think he does care about cars to an extent. He has had his share of vaguely interesting cars, and this was supposed to be the car that got him back interested in the world of cars - He wants to put some decent wheels on it, upgrade the stereo, that sort of thing.

What's particularly perplexing is that he does genuinely seem to think that his car is in good shape.

At least he is trying to make an effort - He is enquiring into getting a nasty dent on the sill/door area repairs on his insurance, but he's ignoring my advice that they will almost certainly write it off given it's condition and the fact that E36s are worth 7p.
 
I can say with utter certainty that every member in this sub-forum has a rose tinted windscreen, just some are rosier than others. It's human nature.
 
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