[rrsteer]

I have faced similar problem when i used to give the car for servicing. So now whenever I leave the car with a mechanic or a person who is going to work on it, I take out the detachable front of the head unit.

A simple glance on the km reading while parking the vehicle for the day or while leaving it in a workshop, should help one know if it was used in their absence.

[skandyhere]

What car do you own?

Check if your car has a rolling-code based ignition. If it does, you have a simple solution on hand; have a duplicate of your car keys made and give it to him. He can open the doors but can't turn your car on.

Edit: I see others have posted the same response between the time of opening the page and hitting 'Post'

[pganapathy]

A couple of points first and then some solutions.

Does he turn on the car or merely run the radio off the battery.

Does your radio have a detachable face.

What type of alarm system do you have and can all the car doors, including the boot, be opened without a key once he opens the main door.

Some possible solutions to make your life easier.

Get a gear lock installed in the car and lock the vehicle in reverse. Keep the key separate from the key you give the cleaner and now he cannot start the vehicle as to do so will require him to keep the clutch depressed at all times, which means no cleaning. However, that will mean that the battery dies faster if he listens to music for a long time.

If the face plate is detachable, remove that and he cannot listen to music. However, music is something we all like to listen to when we are cleaning our vehicles and it is unfair to deprive him of this. Therefore, find a cheap and simple solution for this. Buy him a cheap radio cum CD/cassette player. If the basement gets radio easily all will be fine. If not, you will need to invest in a few tapes/CD's for him. Try and get everybody in the building to contribute for this. It will not be too expensive. No more than a 100 rupees per person one time investment.

If all the doors including the boot can be opened with the remote (central lock) and once inside the boot can be opened with the lever next to the seat, there is no need to give him a key at all.

Invest in a GSM security system which is activated by an SMS from your cell phone. There is a thread about this in TBHP, so look it up. It should cost less than 10,000 and is good for overall security of your car, in addition to this problem. You can send an SMS whenever you lock the car and it disables the engine so that it cannot be started unless you disarm the system from your cell phone.

In addition, the GSM system also has a proximity sensor which means if the car is taken out beyond a certain proximity, say your basement, you get an SMS alert on your phone and it can be set up that the vehicle is immobilised. Therefore he cannot drive the car on the road.

A couple of points to note and consider.

Do not have him wash the car without opening the doors. Water collects in the door sills and the boot and bonnet sills and you should have this dried out ASAP to prevent rusting and water stains.

Removing the stereo detachable faceplate, using a gear lock, a GSM security system, not keeping valuables in the car etc., are all very useful habits to get into so that your car is not a theft or even pilferage magnet. Do this even in your car parking.

Do take some time out once or twice a week to just go and check on how your cleaner is doing his work. At the end of the day it is your car.

[anekho]

Instead of getting your car washed daily (and being in fear of something happening to the car) why not just wash it yourself once a week?

Personally I love maintaining my own vehicles: it's peaceful, gives you time to think about other things and heck, a good workout!

Head over to this thread: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...guide-375.html you might get bitten by the detailing bug!

[Blow Horn Ok]

Give him strict instructions that If he fiddles with anything inside the car, he will lose the cleaning job for your car. You can also tell him that if he's caught, you will report to the society and he'll lose entire cars for cleaning etc. etc.

In NCR, we lived at 2nd floor and our car used to be at ground floor The wash guy used to clean the interiors only on Saturdays or Sundays. We used to open the car by the key fob and lock it when he was done with cleaning from the flat's balcony Itself.

I know this technique isn't feasible at your place since your car park is at the basement and you live high up. But cleaning the interiors daily isn't necessary IMO. Make it a weekly job and try to be around the car at that time for few days. He would sense that you are pretty sensitive towards the car and touching anything which isn't required will lead him jobless.


+1 anekho. I can't tolerate the cleaning guys who wash a bunch of cars with dirty & muddy cloth/water. Such cleaning leads to millions of swirls and scratches on the windscreen.

[amk_2009]

My car gets external wash every Monday morning. No internal cleaning by regular wash guy. So no question of handing over keys. Everyday I start the engine, clean the car quickly and get going. It takes 2-3 minutes to quickly clean the car and meanwhile mHawk gets good warm up. I use Jopatsu duster and it makes this cleaning job very easy.

I do interior cleaning myself whenever necessary that is every quarter or so. Cleaning your car with specific cleaning aid is a fun and helps develop bonding with your vehicle. Besides, you get some surprises as well - I keep getting my daughter's shoes, hanky's, key chains, small toys, wife's ear ring, colleagues I-Card, coins and numerous things. Root cause of many small niggles was found when cleaning it myself.

Due to Mumbai weather, traffic, pollution and dust, have to keep windows down most of the time and it helps interior keep clean and minimises need for frequent cleaning.

I used to get my M800 external wash everyday and observed body corrosion as obvious thing. I blamed it on thin metal of M800 and continue to wash Scorpio for one year every day. even Scorpio started showing signs of rust and on first occurrence, I stopped daily wash. No more rusting. It is running in third year now.

I do get interior detailing and polishing 2-3 times a year which keeps it like new. every alternate weekend or so, I keep all four doors open in the Sun for 30 minutes or so to get rid of any moisture / odour.

Only once I observed foul smell from AC, searched tbhp and ran heater with full blower for 10-15 minutes, and bad smell vanished.

Above all, many places in our country lack even drinking water and have to fetch water from 15-20 KM every day. Considering this, washing car everyday is a luxury for me and I can’t afford it.

Hope this helps.

[FasterPhene]

Originally Posted by amk_2009

Above all, many places in our country lack even drinking water and have to fetch water from 15-20 KM every day. Considering this, washing car everyday is a luxury for me and I can’t afford it.

I entirely agree with you about the fact that water today is a luxury and that we need to ration it so that we can ensure it is available for us tomorrow. I always clean the car myself and mostly with a bucket of water once a week. Its only after the long drives over muddy surfaces that I hose down the vehicle to remove the mud caked to the car body. Sorry this all might be O.T. but which better place to start this good practice of saving water than on this forum.

[NinadJoshi]

Wow, I am reading a thread of luxury here. You guys seriously get your cars cleaned by someone every day!? (The luxuries being (i)having a human at your service for this, and (ii) having the vehicle cleaned inside out every day; both of which are unheard of in my part of the world).

My ignorance begs me the question as to how much really does a car get dirty in a matter of 24 hours...internally and externally ? And also, like someone else pointed out, isn't this a bit on a extravagant side considering that water shortages are severely affecting not just small towns but even bigger cities these days ? (Of course it is none of my business to be nosy about who expends how much of resources toward his rides. I place a high premium on water, and that is just me).

On the technical side, wouldn't washing (scrubbing) frequently be detrimental for your car's paint surface in the long run?

[Y@SH]

Originally Posted by NinadJoshi

Wow, I am reading a thread of luxury here. You guys seriously get your cars cleaned by someone every day!? (The luxuries being (i)having a human at your service for this, and (ii) having the vehicle cleaned inside out every day; both of which are unheard of in my part of the world).
My ignorance begs me the question as to how much really does a car get dirty in a matter of 24 hours...internally and externally ? And also, like someone else pointed out, isn't this a bit on a extravagant side considering that water shortages are severely affecting not just small towns but even bigger cities these days ?

Yeah, cleaned by someone everyday!

Cars here dont get dirty as in muddy but its mainly dust, bird poop that needs to be cleaned and dirt on the carpet again due to a combination of dust/mud.
A bucket of water to clean a car isint much. Till now havent had any water shortages in my part of the city. My cars get cleaned throughly by pressured water every saturday. Use car formula 1 car shampoo which incudes wax and tyre shine to clean tyre, formula 1 leather cleaner to get any dirt on the leather.

[aaggoswami]

Your concerns are correct and if the guy starts to drive the car, etc. its not good.

1) Why daily wash ? Is it required in the first place ? May be a wash once a week or twice a week would be sufficient IMO.
You can tell this to the cleaner and tell him wash the car twice a week only externally.

2) Once permission is given ( whether forced like in your case or otherwise ), its tough to take it back. Just inform him that you dont want to wash the car more than twice a week or so. This way, even he wont feel insulted, or have negative sentiments.

3) Try to park the car in open parking space if you have.

4) The best thing to have is security guard at your tower. You can simply instruct him not to let your car out, or some similar instruction. This can do wonders and even the cleaner guy would understand boundaries you have set.

[SedatedDrive]

I too have a guy who washes my car everyday. But I don't hand over the key. No matter what. Ask your guy to buy a cheap mp3/FM radio receiver.

[MAS]

@ Taurus. Why car do you drive? Does it have an integrated key with remote or the remote comes with a key ring. In this case, you could just hand over the remote to the guy without the key.

In case you have an integrated key and remote, you could tell him in the morning that you had trouble in starting the car due to low battery and request him not to use the radio as it saps the battery. You have to be strict with these guys. If you don't tell him what he cannot do, one day this guy will switch on the car and use the aircon while cleaning the car. Better stop him now.

OT: I do not face this dilemma as i clean the car myself, both interior and exterior.

[zzzehar]

Buddy, you seem like someone who has trouble saying 'No'. I read an article a couple of weekends ago in TOI in the column by Khushwant Singh which talked about 'impotence being our only defense' now a days. Sorry to say, but your post made me recall that.

It is your car, you employed him - just tell him that you don't want him to listen to the radio. Simple! If he retaliates in any way, well! there are ways to fix that - aren't there? I am sure you can teach him a real nice lesson in a very diplomatic way if you want to stay out the picture - that is if he retaliates.

However, if you still want to be polite and say no - tell him your car has a problem with battery getting drained on using radio on stand still. I am sure he wouldn't have guts to ask you to crank the engine and waste your fuel just because he enjoys listening to the radio. He has to work within the set policies and procedures and you being the employer - enforce them.

Otherwise, you may also connect with a few of your friends or neighbors in the colony and inform them of this practice of the cleaner so that all of them can or some of them can ask him to stop. I am sure nobody would appreciate this kind of an attitude.

By the way, your cleaner is lucky he doesn't clean my car. I generally (almost) castrate people who fiddle with my hard earned money. There was a guy who tried to take the air out of my brand new car just b'coz I asked him to move his scooter to a side from the space marked for car parking. He lost half an ear.

Man Up! Thanks.

[S_U_N]

@TaursuAl: Lot of suggestions given so far - many of which are practical and implementable.
I would just add one more to the list: Get a good car cover. Should cost about Rs. 3000.

After putting in a cover on my car, my washing cycle has changed from weekly to monthly.
Add a Jopasu duster to your kit, and you will be able to maintain a clean car yourself without any external help.

For interior cleaning, buy a car vacuum cleaner. That should pick up 90% of the dirt. The rest is generally not worth chasing, unless you have a lot of time.

[fine69]

Assuming that the alternatives posted don't suit you and whatever means you adopt of not giving him the key might result in some kind of vandalism on your car.

Tomorrow when you give him the key tell him not to fiddle with the radio/ICE as it's developed some problem where in even if the car is on (engine running) the radio somehow only extracts the power from the battery and just yesterday your car stalled when you turned if off on a signal. It didn't start and you've diagnosed it to some wiring/connection fault in the radio as you'd gotten it repaired through some local mechanic when the FM had stopped working (a month back) for some reason and he had installed some in-built antenna or something to strengthen the signal.

A casual mention of how cars these days catch fire due to incorrect spec cable use and loose connections etc. should gain his attention. I'm sure he wouldn't want any of his customer's car to catch fire while on job.

Complicate the matter even more if it suits the situation, throw in some jargons. I think that should act as a deterrent.