Why are people so inconsiderate?

[spidernut]

I so agree about gearheads. I teach classes to 19-25ish year olds entering the military. It is very rare that you find any young person with even a minimal amount of drive or desire to repair or restore cars. To them, a car is nothing more than an appliance. Once a while, I'll find someone who actually wants to or does work on their own vehicle. It is usually a 4-wheel-drive.

[focodave]

Not only do people see cars as appliances nowadays, but they see them as temporary throw-away appliances that they will never own.
A majority of cars on the road are being financed the entire time they are in someone's possession, and are never truly "owned" by anyone so there is no real sense of pride attached to the car.
I rarely even see anyone wash and/or wax their new cars anymore. (especially the "wax" part of that statement)
When they get tired of their current ride -- or -- when they destroy it, they simply start out with another one after throwing the first one away, and the cycle repeats over and over again.
Because they have little or no respect for their temporary "appliance", I think they simply think that everyone else is just like them -- or -- they probably don't even think about it at all.
Sad.
Thankfully there is a core group of people who respect old restored things and when I run into one of them in my travels it makes me feel that there is, at least, a small glimmer of hope out there.
We are definitely a minority.

[azruss]

I just had to give the "company" car back and go car shopping. this is a commuter car. ended up with a salvage civic with 18k miles. The criteria was a car i could buy with no payment, low miles, good economy, and a car i dont give a shit about. It will spend its days in a parking lot gathering door dings and will spend its life with me out in the driveway. (Fiat gets the garage). This discussion made me realize I chose this car, not as a gearhead, but like every other bozo car owner in the rat race.

[toplessexpat]

My wife regularly comments that fiat owners (and by this she means classic fiats generally, and then the enthusiast 500/Abarths) are just ".. so much nicer and more intelligent than other car owners..".

That said, Audi drivers (see .sig) are rapidly taking over as the new BMW driver IMHO

[steve8462]

i go out of my way to instill the old word values in my nine year old daughter. when ever i do maintenance work on my daily driver or resto work on my fiat, i always try to have my daughter help me. i don't want her to grow up to be one of those people that sleazy mechanics take advantage of because she is a girl! also it lessens the chance of her being stranded on the highway broken down. she is actually starting to appreciate all the hard work we put into the spider together because its making something that she called a piece of junk when i bought it , into something she thinks is cool a beautiful!

[spidernut]

Sooooo. I wish I would have taken a picture today.

After leaving the Alameda All Italian Car Show, I drove to Santa Cruz, CA, and parked on the pier - WAY away from anyone else. After a lovely lunch with my wife, we return to my car. Next to my Fiat is a newer Toyota SUV parked crooked with the front wheels at least 9 inches across the line and the back wheels about 9 inches inside the line. The vehicle was so close to my car that my wife had a hard time getting in.

So why not park in one of the other 100 empty parking spaces nearby? It must be some kind of passive aggressive crap.

[hayesbd]

I think the fact that most people don't own and/or have any "sweat" equity in their cars is indeed one reason for not caring. Another reason, perhaps, is that modern cars are so good that most owners do not have to look after them very much and so develop a "don't care" attitude. (Perhaps another is that modern cars are not beautiful enough, like our spiders!)
I remember an incident some years ago when one of my children opened the car door right into a really nice paint job next to us. I had to go into the restaurant and ask at each table until I found the owner. She was (understandably) upset since it was a brand new paint job. I made assurances that I would do whatever it took to repair it, but one of her sons came out to take a look and thought it wasn't too bad. I never heard from them again, but boy did my kids get a lecture! To this day, I still whine at them to be careful with doors in the parking lot. In tight spots I have developed the habit of placing my hand between the door and the nearby car just in case.

Brian

[RRoller123]

I think you are onto something there. I would add that there is no real connection to the cars anymore because they are so complicated and so difficult to access under the hood that hardly anyone works on them themselves anymore. The kids are disconnected compared to when I was young. We fiddled and tuned and played with our cars constantly. Today they treat them like the vacuum cleaner. Use it until it breaks and then take it to Sears for fixing.

Take a look at this pic of the new Jaguar under the hood. Saw it at C&C Saturday and had a good laugh. Now I am not saying that the average Jag owner services their cars themselves, but it does illustrate the point pretty well.

[mdrburchette]

This is what I carry in my car:


If anyone dares put a ding in my door, they come back with flat tires. Just loosen the valve core and you only inconvenience them. Oh, and I also get their license plate # and track their sorry ass down for insurance.

[steve8462]

you don't even need to loosen the valve "core". just take the cap off and place a small pebble in the cap and screw it back on. when you tighten it down it pushes down on the core and slowly releases air till the tire is flat. when they, or their mechanic, being lazy, takes the cap off, the pebble drops out and it will leave them baffled how the tire went flat!