Are you too obsessive compulsive about the condition of your car?

Got a nice car? Keep it clean?

[Terabytes]

Is there a reason the some people find fault in the way you keep your car clean?

I currently own an '07 Solar Orange 350z, (no it's not a ferrari, or a lambo, or a vette..but it's nice!)

I hear...

"Are you washing it again?"
"Are you waxing it again?"
"why are you washing the wheelwells?"
"Do you really have to clean the inside part of the wheels?"
"Why are you waxing the wheels?"
"gee...I've never seen anyone clean their license plate"
"why are you under the car wiping/cleaning things?"
"why are you wiping the engine compartment?"

I say....

"Get yer butt off my fender...."
"Get yer dirty oily hands off my paint..."
"Stop leaving garbage in my car..."
"Get the hell away from the car..."
o O (did that jerk have to park so close to my car?)
"Don't slam the door!...the door works fine it's not a GM..."
"Don't kick the side of the door/car when you get in" (you'd have to own a Z to understand this one...)

(I could go on forever...but you get the idea...)

I Don't know...MAN! is it just me?...am I @nal or what?
Yes! I must be...but damn, I paid for the car...I want it to be nice...
I'm not a "take yer shoes off before you get in" type of maniac....but I expect "others" to respect my pride and joy....

is it me? or are there others "out there" that have the same issues?

(thanks for the rant!)
Tera

[GaryK]

Is there a reason the some people find fault in the way you keep your car clean?

I'm sure they are people like me whose car gets washed when it rains. ;)

but I expect "others" to respect my pride and joy....

It's your pride and joy, not mine. I won't put my feet on your dashboard. slam the doors, or change the radio station (unless you insist on listening to rap). At the same time nobody is going to take the same amount of pride, or possess the same amount of passion as you do for your daily drive. :)

You'd fit right in at one of the community/hobby sites I run. Many of the members are now friends of mine. I respect them. But I don't understand their obsession with their cars. One of my admins spends 4-6 hours a week just washing and detailing his and his wife's cars.

I guess it's just a reflection of their desire for perfection in the things they build as part of the hobby. It seems obsessive to me but I'm sure people would consider some of my quirks obsessive too.

[vincevincevince]

I'm sure they are people like me whose car gets washed when it rains.

I too am one of those. I firmly believe that dirt and dust form a protective layer, and that regular car-cleaning will eventually cause wear on the paintwork. Once a year I will hoover the inside, and I've been known to wipe off large bird deposits from door-handles.

Why don't I care about how my car looks? Because it is a car - a simple machine to burn petrol in order that I can get from A to B. A clean car doesn't do that job any better. Perhaps I have enough other interests not to need to find meaning in my life through keeping a car shiney...

[King_Fisher]

I was raised on a farm situated on a dirt road. Trying to keep a car or truck clean would be a losing proposition and a great waste of time.

I personally think car cleanness fanatics are some what anal retentive.
But again thats what makes people the funniest monkeys! KF

[digitalghost]

I wax my cars twice a year but if they're just sitting around, (they sit around in a garage) I don't wash them. Before I drive them I wash them, that 'protective cover of dust' turns into an abrasive as soon as someone rubs a hand over it. Before I take them to a car show they get detailed, washed and waxed.

My daily ride gets washed every other month.

I'm a little more fanatical about what goes on under the hood. Definitely no dust or grime there.

[rocknbil]

Trying to keep a car or truck clean would be a losing proposition and a great waste of time.

Agreed, besides you have no control over pooping birds or mall rats who say "cool, look at that clean car" and hock one on it just to ruin your day. Let's not talk about car keys . . . .

Cleanliness in anything you do is a good thing. Cleaning a car extends it's life by preventing the paint from oxidizing, and it is conductive to inspection for damage or areas needing repair. A good washing "every now and then" is a required maintenance procedure.

Retentiveness about anything you own is obsessive. A car is just a thing. The time you waste on polishing up your ego can be spent polishing up relationships with people, there's something of value that needs your attention.

[sonny]

I found a picture of your car; nice looking!

I have a a clunker myself, but man if I had that car, I wouldn't even let the wind blow on it!

That's a nice car, you'd better take care of it!

[Habtom]

The time you waste on polishing up your ego can be spent polishing up relationships with people

Perhaps this is the best advice you will get from the thread.

[PCInk]

Also be careful about waxing lead-free paint (now law in many countries) with old-style wax. It wrecks the paint over time because the paint is so soft. It's often better to get the permanant type wax from a specialist on modern cars.

[Terabytes]

I found a picture of your car; nice looking!

Thanks...
Saved for a long time for it...
(almost 10 years...)

thanks everyone for your input...
I just wondered if it was me...or what...lol

[sonny]

People come and go, but ego; now that's something you get to keep for your whole life!

[voices]

I used to keep my car clean, now it's a disgrace. Always too much to do and not enough time, car is pretty far down on my to do list.

You have a right to keep your car too clean if that is how you wish to spend your time.

The problem with people is they expect everyone to be just like them. Wouldn't that make for a terribly boring world?

[ken_b]

On my daily driver I keep the windshield washed.

If it needs it, my 61 Ford F100 gets washed before I take to a show or cruise. I will say, it's amazing how quickly it can collect dust in the garage.

[Gibble]

Depends on the car.

'05 Sunfire, who cares. I keep it tidy, but I'm not OCD about it.

'66 Mustang 'vert ...that's another story altogether.

[lawman]

Wash mine once a week, quick detail between washes. Every four or five months use Klasse All In One then two coats of Klasse Sealant Glaze (one coat one day, second coat the next day).

[LifeinAsia]

I washed my car last year. I guess it's about time again...

If I drove it more often, I might remember more. But I'm bicycling to work 4-5 times/week now. I just realized that I put more miles on my bike than on the car in July. And my wife drives the car too!

[edited by: LifeinAsia at 9:10 pm (utc) on Aug. 3, 2007]

[engine]

Unless it really is dirty, and I mean dirty, they wash and valet my car for me at service intervals: Every 12,500 miles or 1 year, whichever is the sooner.

[Bewenched]

I actually enjoy washing and waxing my cars. I pop on the headphones, dance with the hose and polish my woes away. I guess it's my "special" time away from the kids because they know if they bother me then they will have to help .. hehe..

Although I will have to admit that using billet polish on my A-arms (suspension) was probably going a bit far.

[Essex_boy]

Im not obsessive about my car, I do allow it to fill up with rubbish before emptying it and I mean a lot of rubbish to. So much so Ive had people refuse to get in it... Cockroaches too.

I now for some odd reason worry about how clean the outside is, and have a place that I prefer to take it to be hand washed. They do an excellent job for a £5 ($10).

[abbeyvet]

I've never washed a car in my life. Periodically I pay someone else to do it. To me cars are means of getting around and there my interest in them completely ends. I'd have to think for a moment to be able to tell you what model I'm driving. It's nothing special though, I know that, maybe if it was I'd care, although having a nice car is way low on my list of priorities.

But then my idea of hell on earth would be to attend a car show, much less take part in one.

[ann]

When someone takes me shopping (been ill, not yet driving), we use my car.

my youngest son will have little fits if you even drop a gum wrapper in his nice truck BUT when in my car bags filled with fastfood garbage and leftovers are flung causly in the backseat, "Will get that when we get home...weeks pass and it is still in there with others added to it. Heh, good thing I am not as obsessive as he is.... :)

[pageoneresults]

Is it me? or are there others "out there" that have the same issues?

Oh, you want anal? Talk to Edward's peers, those who know him well, and they will tell you that Edward takes anal to a whole new depth. ;)

First rule of engagement with my automobile...

Don't touch the door, ever.

Second rule...

Don't use your hand to hold on to the pillar while entering the car.

Third rule...

Don't you dare say anything about other vehicles within my vicinity, I know they are there, I have great peripheral vision.

Fourth rule...

If your body cannot handle a small amount of "Gee" Force, or, if you are pregnant, you cannot ride in the automobile, sorry.

Fifth rule...

Oh, I could go on and on. And, with the new 2007 BMW Z4 M in the driveway, anal is going to take on a new meaning.

What I really don't like.

Fingerprints! People just don't realize that the oil from their fingertips leaves a nasty little mark on the car. Plus, you've just left yourself open to identity theft. ;)

Touching the Door

On rare occasion is there a Male in the passenger seat of my automobile. Its usually my 7 year old daughter or just today, my Mom. Hehehe, the neighbors were laughing watching her trying to get in to the Z4 while following my rules of engagement. :)

My daughter knows not to touch the door handle from either inside or outside. I've even asked her to open the door while she was inside and she shook her head no. Luckily I had the key fob with me. ;)

All glass must be perfectly "see-through". No smudges, streaks, etc. This is difficult to achieve if the glass is hot. It must be cool to get a true "clean". You know, the kind the birds run into. ;)

If you see me parked allllllllll the way out at the end of the mall parking lot, please don't drive all the way over and park right next to me. I know you did that "just because". Schmuck!

I will not park in high traffic areas. I will never park next to a Handicap spot, no, no, no. Been there, done that, and sure enough, got whacked by poor ole Grandmom. That was years ago and she got me good. Brought tears to my eyes. Easily fixable.

Man, I could carry this rant on forever. And get this, I live in California where the air is so thick with soot that you have to blow the car off every day to keep it from building up. It can get pretty nasty around here with fallout, especially on the Freeways at rush hour which is from 0400 to 0100. Yes, that is 21 hours of traffic each day, with the exceptions of weekends. I don't drive in that stuff if I don't have to. About 10,000 miles per year average. I used to do 30-40,000 per year. No more, no way, never ever again!

And YES, I am an absolute obsessive-compulsive.

As I tell my Mom...

I'm OC in the OC

And no, not OCD, just the OC part. Haven't reached Disorder stages. Don't think I will. I'm just too freakin' anal, about everything, not just the car.

[Hawkgirl]

The inside of my car has to be spotless. No dirt, no grime, and no JUNK. I borrowed the camping rule for use in my vehicle: if you pack it in, pack it out. That means everything that is brought into the car with me (or my passengers) leaves the car when we do.

Want to drive me insane? Leave a small scrap of paper on my floor - or better yet, a half-empty bottle of water in my cup-holder. ARRGH!

[GaryK]

Want to drive me insane?

You're not going to survive being a mother. Especially if Eleanor ever finds this thread when she gets older, LOL. ;)

[voices]

Actually I dont even call it a car anymore. I call it a swamp buggy. Take the big hairy dogs swimming several times a week. So even if it doesn't look like a swamp buggy on the outside, it smells like one. Several times a year I clean out the dog hair.

[dreamcatcher]

All cars are just metal boxes with wheels. ;)

I take mine through the car wash occasionally. I think I might have hoovered it once too.

dc

[Hawkgirl]

You're not going to survive being a mother.

Oh sure I will ... who do you think I learned this OCD behavior from? My parents! We weren't allowed to eat or drink in the cars, and we weren't allowed to leave anything in them once we got home ... no fingerprints on the windows ... the list goes on and on.

I'm looking forward to passing the family neuroses down to my child!

[lawman]

Do you let BT in your car? :)

[Hawkgirl]

Do you let BT in your car?

Occasionally. He has to ride in the backseat with the kiddo, though.

[imstillatwork]

It has always completely blown me away that people can spend 20,30,40 80,000 on a car and just treat it like crap. There is a happy place in between obsessive monthly waxing (overdoing it ain't good here anyways) and never washing your car.

People that think 'it's just a car to get me from here to there': Is your home just a box to sleep and eat in? That's all it is to you? Objects ARE NOT permanent, or all important but they have meaning, value and importance. How one takes care of these 'things' (car, home, self, etc) is often a good reflection of how one will take care of a relationship.