Just by chance, (I certainly have no interest in this) I found a link to a certain `detailing` site and in one thread two blokes are looking at paint through big magnifying glasses and using torches.
The comment below the photo went something along the lines of. " I can`t really reject it (new car) because you can`t see it with the naked eye"
The blemish being a slightly raised area, as seen through a microscope, or imagine a halved grain of rice shrunk 100 times.
No link because there were faces, reg numbers and even a street name in the background.
Regarding intense `detailing` I would be surprised if in similar situations, that the car was the only interest receiving that level of attention.
Personally, I`m a slob with upper (not under body) cleaning and paintwork (never polished) but everything of a mechanical/pipes/grease/rustproofing, nature is done with thoroughness.
So, How is your personality expressed through the car? and does that expression extend elsewhere?
Put another way. Is that use of fuel additives reflected in the patio door hinges receiving `care` and do you consider you have `free choice` in any of these matters?
;)
Regards
Edited by oilrag on 19/08/2008 at 09:27
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Thanks, yet again, oilrag for stirring things up - I look forward to seeing how this thread develops.
My car is shiny on the outside, serviced and gleaming under the bonnet and super tidy on the inside...
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With a downturn in economy, it will be harder to judge personality of a bloke from his rides.
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My cars are well serviced and mechanically cared for, but usually dirty inside and out. They work for a living. Cleaning is usually limited to emergency bird plop removal, unless I get time at weekends to do a proper clean. Which isn't often.
Cheers
DP
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My car is spotless inside, has tyre and fluid checks weekly, is washed about once a month, and polished every six months. Serviced on time (local indy). No additives but all fluids (including fuel) to manufacturers spec. As for the patio doors, mine slide, but I do a 20 minute mechanical house service once a year, power garage door, locks and hinges. I like everything to operate smoothly and quietly (house and car) and consider noise to be the first sign of a problem.
Edited by Old Navy on 19/08/2008 at 11:01
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Funny this be brought up. Ive currently got the lilac wonder jacked up and rear wheel off so I can clean up the rear arch in order to underseal it. Turns out theres a bit of surface rust due to a none to thorough repair to the rear wing which also needs some attention behind the scenes.
Since I hope to keep the car a while, I decided some underseal wouldnt be a bad idea although im disappointed that the rear wing will need some work to tidy it up
Our cars get a weekly wash and hoover, a wax every month and I do other little detailing bits as and when the mood or severity of dirt dictates.
I tend to fill both cars with high octane fuel, just for the hell of it, cant do any harm can it! I also do a mid-interval oil change, again, cant do any harm, plus I absolutely always have to have all parts on the car working, I cant have things outstanding, drives me nuts!
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My New Yorker sedan is like me in that it's big (it, 2 tons, me 19 stone), brash and loud (sorry, I'm an American, we're all like that) and consumes resources at an alarming rate! Betsy is the car equivalent of a Yankee tourist in the high street of Bolton, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, a Yankees cap and a big camera round the neck, laughing loudly and inappropriately...in a word, obnoxious.
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According to Oxford University psychologists Dr Peter Collett and Dr Peter Marsh, the red colour of my car indicates that I'm full of life, lust and passion.
They're wrong about the full of life part!
Consult tinyurl.com/6a737l to find out your personality.
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My car is almost always immaculate - I wash it several times a week, vacuum it weekly and spend a weekend doing a full 'detailing' session on it about 3 times a year. I thoroughly enjoy keeping my car in exceptional condition.
I replace the headlights last month becuase they original ones were showing signs of age.
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My car says I am stuffed if I'll leave a nice car outside to get vandalised, and I am stuffed if I'll leave that space on our property empty so people can park there and beep their horns. Some people eh? No consideration, or thought for anybody except themselves.
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How about small, slightly battered, genuinely regarded by all as liable to breakdown at any moment and highly fragile, but has never put a foot wrong for me. Also far from the best looking car available, cheap and slightly anonymous. Just the way I like it (Citroen Xsara in case any one doesnt know).
Cleaned when finally get round to it (never get any free time from work or kids), wife and kids generally ensure inside is littered with junk (although do clear this up as often as possible as hate clutter in the car with me)- although must hasten to add own personal hygiene is very important to me! Serviced on time, and normally by local independants as feel do much better job (and cheaper).
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Life is far too short to waste it spending hours cleaning something to show room condition that most of us spend less than 1 hour a day sat in...
Clean, to the point & functional and that is it!
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How is your personality expressed through the car?
My car has about as much to do with my personality as my central heating boiler. It's just a tool that gets the necessary maintenance.
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>> How is your personality expressed through the car? My car has about as much to do with my personality as my central heating boiler. It's just a tool that gets the necessary maintenance.
And doesn't it show..
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My car is like my body: in peak physical fitness for its age, bodywork taut and well honed, no rust and no signs of the hard life it has undergone.
Like me it also looks a little shabby and at time in need of a wash and some waxing.
:-)
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My car has nothing to do with my personality. It is just a tool that is used very infrequently.
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My car has nothing to do with my personality. It is just a tool that is used very infrequently.
I often find it strange that people who think that spend time on forums like this. If your car is simply a tool then fair enough - but I bet you don't post on What Lawnmower?'s forums, do you?
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Trying to think exactly why we bought the old MB, we bought it to keep as long as possible originally, very old design i suppose, maybe a statement against the modern clone car, it seems out of place and time sometimes, possibly like its owner.
I suppose it gets treated very well, affectionately cared for and nurtured, maintained regardless of cost, its not a tool to be used and discarded, thats how i feel about many things.
The old car does get driven quite enthusiastically sometimes, only when the engines warm of course.
I suppose the hilux fits in with that in a way, its a new design, but probably as simple as possible to find these days, mrs gb loves the thing, and that too is treated well, but driven shall we say rapidly by the good lady, its also helped to get her around mimsers easier too.
Not sure about this thread OR, this self analysis of why these cars have been bought has made me realise as well as becoming ever more reclusive, the luddite tendencies are possibly increasing too.
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>>>I often find it strange that people who think that spend time on forums like this. If your car is simply a tool then fair enough - but I bet you don't post on What Lawnmower?'s forums, do you?<<<
My lawn mower is Japanese - same as my car, so that says I like to put my hard earnt's where I will get the best return ... The lawn mower is made in France and the car is made in Britain !!
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>> My car has nothing to do with my personality. It is just a tool that >> is used very infrequently. I often find it strange that people who think that spend time on forums like this. If your car is simply a tool then fair enough - but I bet you don't post on What Lawnmower?'s forums do you?
I can't answer for mapmaker, but for myself the answer is that there if there were hundreds of lawnmowers speeding past my door every day and lawnmowers were a huge cause of accidental death, and if a lot of personal journeys were very difficult without lawnmowers, and if lawnmowers cost thousands rather than hundreds ... then I'd probably be on the lawnmowers forums.
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"and spend a weekend doing a full 'detailing' session on it about 3 times a year"
Michael R , Am interested on this detailing thing. Not something I had encountered before joining this forum. Am certain it does betray personality but not sure it has much to do with motoring. Is it the car that just attracts such obsessive attention and if so why? Am genuinely interested in why someone would want to spend that amount of time cleaning something on to that degree when a quick drive down the road will undo all the hard work
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Michael R Am interested on this detailing thing. Not something I had encountered before joining this forum. Am certain it does betray personality but not sure it has much to do with motoring. Is it the car that just attracts such obsessive attention and if so why? Am genuinely interested in why someone would want to spend that amount of time cleaning something on to that degree when a quick drive down the road will undo all the hard work
Because it's a hobby - pretty much. In much the same way that some will sit down and paint model aircraft, others will collect stamps and some will spend a day on the Golf Course, I particularly enjoy keeping my car in fine fettle. I'm nowhere near as obsessive as many of the people you'll find on certain other forums - but there is something theraputic about ensuring the car is thoroughly cleaned, polished, waxed and particularly shiney.
Generally speaking I'll spend a couple of hours a week at the very most on keeping the car clean - but a few times a year, usually 3, I'll spend a few days giving it a comprehensive go over. Probably in much the same way that once a year many of you probably spend a few days painting the bedroom.
I think probably the best comparison I can draw of it is it's the motoring equivilent of tending to your garden. Personally, as long as the grass is tidy, I couldn't give a stuff about the state of a garden. But clearly some people get great pleasure from tending to their garden.
I'm not old enough to get excited about plants, so I tend to the car instead.
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think probably the best comparison I can draw of it is it's the motoring equivilent of tending to your garden. Personally, as long as the grass is tidy, I couldn't give a stuff about the state of a garden. But clearly some people get great pleasure from tending to their garden.
Put like that it does make more sense although I don't think it's for me all that attention to detail. Now if you were talking about growing the perfect standard fuschia I could give you some tips . . . . .
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Trying to answer the question in the thread - Possibly more than other possessions as (for example) we can seldom afford the house, or valuables, we'd like but may have more chance with a car.
But this can never be reliably analysed - just look at the different attitudes to car choice and car maintenance shown in the posts above. And I wonder if the answer is really very much to do with how often we clean our cars.
Ultimately it's 'each to his/her own' - and remember that even the best psychologists understand no more than 40 % of what goes on in the human brain. Let's be thankful that we still have a meaningful choice of cars that are different enough from each other. You couldn't deduce much about someone's personality from, say, their choice of bank, or computer.
Edited by Avant on 19/08/2008 at 19:55
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"Not sure about this thread OR, this self analysis of why these cars have been bought"
I have to stop doing multiple choice questions GB ;) I didn`t approach it from a "car choice" perspective as I thought I might be seen as being too inflammatory.;)
It was (poorly written) more about whether we have any `freedom` at all in our actions. As defined by our personality through the limitations of our particular neural pathways.
Sure, You and I are free.. But are we? I could not let my own brake lines rust for example.
I could say I can do whatever I like, but I can`t do that.
And so on.
All the Best (apologies for the big car `poem`s` thread too. Just an angle to notoriety;)..However, that said...;);)
Edited by oilrag on 19/08/2008 at 21:07
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Nicely put by Lud - I own (and have owned) cars from the FU school of design. I think it says rather a lot about me.
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Not sure that my car choice expresses my personality. Well not for many a year anyway. It does absolutely express my needs though. I need a comfortable / economical car with tons of loadspace but still like a reasonably responsive and dynamic drive. Hence, almost by default, a mainstream estate.
If I were to choose a car to suit my personality it might be more like a Westfield or Caterham. No frills, but likes the open air, a bit unfashionable but doesn't care, can be loud and inappropriate, can be fun for a while but a bit useless most of the time.
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I spend around 25 hours or more a week in my car so although it?s a tool (the first personality match sorted!) I like it neat and tidy (jury?s out) and clean and shiny (easy one this - my forehead.) Being a Subaru the excellence in engineering is not immediately apparent to all (hear hear from SWMBO) but can be relied upon in adverse conditions (Mr Dependable to those close.) What a load of tosh ? I work in IT and live in the Thames Valley and bought the Subaru because I could have bought a Beemer or Audi but I?m not that sort of bloke.
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All the cars I have owned, now I think about it, have expressed or betrayed aspects of my personality, but different ones. I have a penchant for the eccentric, the anonymous and the shabby. I am a sucker for elegant lines but I've only had four cars that could be said to have those. My present car looks like something at the bottom end of the London motoring food chain. It is invisible. But it doesn't frighten people or hang about or make untoward noises... So far so good.
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It depends on which car for me!
My Audi is a workhorse and as such barely cleaned on the outside and only gets the rubbish taken out of the inside, but is serviced on the dot and fluids/air checked each week.
The MG is detailed regularly, washed once a week, is kept immaculate (or as well as it can be in this weather). Service is probably over the top as well.
Last but not least the ageing Rover 214 resembles a rolling skip most of the time. Ashamed to say that its cleaned once a year and gets one reasonable service a year.
Not sure what to say about myself really! Scruffy and over the top all in one go!
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I'll tell ya one thing - I'd rather buy a car previously owned by MichaelR ,than from the "only a tool" merchants.
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I'll tell ya one thing - I'd rather buy a car previously owned by MichaelR than from the "only a tool" merchants.
Me too!
Would you want to go out to the pub with somebody who spends a whole weekend detailing (whatever that is) his car?
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>>>Would you want to go out to the pub with somebody who spends a whole weekend detailing (whatever that is) his car?<<<
I.ve got a mate who spends his weekends "detailing" his girlfriend ... I don't know what that is either, but he always seems to be smiling !
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Would you want to go out to the pub with somebody who spends a whole weekend detailing (whatever that is) his car?
Would you go to the pub with somebody who is a keen gardener? Or a hiker? Or somebody who lives his collection of matchstick warships?
Of all the times I've been to the pub, and being a student there are very, very many, the subject of detailing has come up in conversation precisely nil times.
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Just like me my car is covered in dents and falling apart.... It's also being traded in for a younger newer model on friday so I hope the wife hasn't got the same plans for me.
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