How much effort do you put into keeping cars nice?

This year has been brutal to the Miata's paint.

1. Rear ended in March. Minor scuffs and scratches, but went through insurance to get it resolved.
2. 1 wk after being rear ended, pretty gnarly scratches on the left fender. Looks like someone cut a bit close when parking. No idea who caused it or where it happened - work, apartment parking lot, etc..
3. A few pretty bad scratches and I found after the car was delivered from a cross country relocation. I probably should have filed a claim against the carrier, but seemed like a lot of effort to just fix that one set of scratches when the car is otherwise far from perfect.
4. My apartment's "compact" parking spot is sized for a kei car, and I back in, parking inches away from a pole on the right side so that I have enough room to get out of the car. I tagged the front right fender against the pole, so now there's a semicircular dent along the front right fender. That one's totally my fault.

The latter three bug me, but fixing these paint issues when living in a city seems like a start of a never ending quest for perfection. Yet, I see cars so much older than mine with near flawless paint. For those with newish cars, or even older cars with paint still in good shape, how do you keep them nice?

I would imaging living in the city is going to cause a fair amount of damage just do to the tight spaces. Leave it ratty looking and people will give you more space.

Fairly close to zero. Although of my current 5 cars only one of them cost over $600. They don't seem to attract scratches or bumps from other cars though.

I live in Philadelphia. Parking job from 2 nights ago... yes I'm proud of myself for being able to do this on first try. Probably 10x shuffles to get it all the way in.

Oh, you thought 1" total space (front and rear) was impressive??! Try NEGATIVE space.

I can't wait to move out of this hellhole. I guess that explains how little I'm allowed to care to keep things nice. GFs year-old Crosstrek is missing half the paint off its bumpers already. I guess you can see the smashed up quarter panel as well, which was a hit and run. It's also been hit by golfball size hail. This is why I can't own nice things.

EvanB wrote: Fairly close to zero.

QFT - vehicles are either tools for me to use and abuse, or they get left in the garage.

I had the same thing when living in Chicago. Street parking is brutal on a car. I never even bothered keeping anything nice there. I got so much damage on my car over the 2 years I lived there, it was insane.

Now, living out of the city, I try to make some sort of an effort but don't go crazy.

Close to none, but then they gey sruffy and it pisses me off. So i spend a bunch of time and money to get them mimt, and repeat the process. Its a mild form of insanity.

Not as much as I should. I try to run them through the car wash once in a while OMG GASP CHOKE SWIRLZZZZZZZZ!!!!11! and keep them fairly clean inside, ie vacuum them and don't leave trash in there.

But all the cars would benefit from a good detailing top to bottom. It's probably been 3 years since any of them were waxed, if not 4.

I had the teenagers clean cars inside and out Saturday. But I have 4 teenagers and off street parking so my effort was low and it was a battle against dirt, not dents and scratches.

Around oil change time, I'll do a seats out vacuuming of the cars, otherwise, they get washed when it rains, and emptied of trash before autocross.

When I lived in Boston, I pretty much took negative car of the car, and it reflected that. What I did to that little car was criminal.

Now that live way out here in cranberry and cow country (Seriously, there's a horse farm about 50 yards away and a pheasant farm right next to that. Several dairies and two more horse farms with berry bogs between them within a quarter mile.—A TOTAL shock for a City Boy !) I'm even worse. I inherited my Father's near zero-miliage '08 Mustang and treat it like a pick-up truck. Free car, no sweat, do whatever I like, you know?

I typically keep my cars very, very clean. Washed, etc.

Now that I had an accident with the BRZ back in January, body shop fixed it so well you'd never no if no one told you..........and the incredible way the value has dropped on them, I'm taking it back to stock and just going to drive it for awhile until I decide what to do next.

I'm likely going to build a house this year, so I'm going to wait until that is done, then I'll have a garage to park the car in. It's in a parking garage now in my apt building, but the way it's setup, there are only certain spots I can park in and still be able to open my door.

I hate street parking in towns. When I had my brand new Tiburon, it was parked in the street out in front of my place (I had family in town and let them park in my spot in the back) and came out to find a stolen bicycle thrown into the side of the car. This was a street filled with much more expensive cars (BMWs, Caddys, MBs, Lincolns, and the like) and they chose to vent their anger on a cheap Korean coupe.

Blaise wrote: I live in Philadelphia. Parking job from 2 nights ago...

OMG...thanks for reinforcing all of my preconceived notions about city living.

Today when I was pumping gas I noticed that the Honda was crazy dirty, so I grabbed the sponge/squeegee and washed the roof briefly. Much paint came off, so I stopped.

Near zero. I wash it when the dirt on the outside gets so bad that if I brush against the car I look filthy. Its 20 years old and the paint looks fine to me though.

Tyler H wrote:

Blaise wrote: I live in Philadelphia. Parking job from 2 nights ago...

OMG...thanks for reinforcing all of my preconceived notions about city living.

Don't worry, it's worse than you can imagine. Oh your brake caliper got stuck at 9PM?

Have fun taking it apart while people fly by on a 25mph street doing 50+ a few inches from your torso. In 96 degree heat. In the dark. Why am I using a scissor jack? Because somebody stole my floor jack the last time I had to do a repair like this outside. It's awful. It's horrible. It's my life.

As a bonus, at the moment all of our streets are being repaved (very slowly) so sometimes we'll have week-long bans on parking for a 4 block radius. And holes so deep in the pavement that I have to haul 2x10s in my trunk to be able to make it home. Really.

I spend a lot of time keeping my cars in good shape--- the M3 and TR6 get washed EVERY time they travel beachside--- just to be sure the salt spray is washed off. They also live under covers when not in use. The 3-0 gets less attention, but is still washed and vacuumed regularly. I hate driving a dirty car--- especially the interior--- it's just gross, and easy to rectify.

However, I don't live in a big city. If I did, I'd drive a beater. The interior and windows would still be clean, but I'd care less about the exterior. You are fighting a losing battle parking on the street in a big city. It's torture on a car---especially in a place like Chicago or Philly.

Not as much as I used too, with 3 kids and a house, but i run them through a car wash as often at least once a week.

I like keeping my cars clean and nice. Detailing is a hobby for me, so I have all the gear, and each vehicle in the family gets waxed at least twice a year. I hate dirty cars and dirty interiors. I also live in a fairly rural area and almost never visit cities, so I don't have to worry about street parking and the associated damage.

Not zero but certainly not a lot. My daily get used like a truck and my truck gets used like, well, an old truck.

Where I grew up it was all in street parking. I spent almost all of my free time cleaning and detailing my car. I loved cars and had no money to do anything else. Sometimes if just pull random pieces off, bring them inside and clean them. I've always kept my junk pretty clean. The only exception was when I had a gravel driveway and parking area at home as well as at work. It was futile to try to keep them clean then.

The weird thing is I don't really put any effort into keeping the bike clean. I view it more as a tool and I don't get much satisfaction out of cleaning it. Even though the Civic spends most of it's time out in the street in front of the house it's gets cleaned at least weekly. And I don't even really drive it.

Anything I drive often I just accept that it's going to be dinged to hell and I'll make an assessment on it when I go to sell it. I tried to keep my Miata nice but that's an uphill battle on a AutoX car and I gave up when I knocked off my second rocker panel cover. I do try to park it away from other people when I'm in a parking garage but that's about it.

I've been parking in NYC garages for 11 years now, and even after being nice to the guys it seems like there's always a new scratch/gouge on the rear bumper. The first couple bothered me, especially after I got it repainted on my own dime, but now I just accept it as a fact of life. Lots of people use bumper guards, but I'm just too lazy to deal with one. Edited to add that wash my daily every couple of weeks and I am obsessed with keeping the interior clean and uncluttered...But that may be because my kids are hyper talented at keeping the house and garage looking "lived in", so the car is my one oasis of clean.

Less than I'd like but more than I should.

I tend to be a bit obsessive about chips in paint on metal surfaces. Anything more than surface rust sends me over the edge.

The the MS3's front bumper is driving me up a wall currently.