[SS-Traveller]

As I see it, you have two problems. The first one is...

Originally Posted by sen2693

After learning to drive for 6-7 months pre lockdown and a bit mid lockdown, I bought...
...
I have found it very difficult to drive in traffic here and... the traffic from rear and the pressure to clear the ... junction to avoid blocking other cars was stressing me out).
...
Makes me question my driving skills ... The very-tight-slope-with-perpendicular-turns on my way to the parking of my new apartment does not help either.

...that you are not a confident driver. You have learnt to drive very recently, and you lack the expertise to control your car in tight spaces and heavy traffic.

We've all gone through this part, and some of us have come out unscathed, while others have crashed. What matters is developing confidence, and not getting over-confident. I'd suggest you carefully read through this thread (How does one teach a newbie to drive / ride safe?), and practise driving in an empty area on your own, while you follow the instructions and suggestions in that thread.

Give it one or two months, and then let's hear, on this thread again, how you feel about driving then.

The other part that is bothering you is...

Originally Posted by sen2693

...whether I deserve to own a car or not. It has been a very depressing few days.

Should have started with a second hand car. Am really worried if I should carry on driving or not.
...
Can't bear to look at my car like this.
...
Claimed insurance for the bonnet ... SA advised me against going to the insurance again...
and if anything happens again in future in same period then i will be able to claim only 50% insurance.

...whether you can keep your car spick-and-span for a reasonably long period of ownership, and whether you are doing justice to owning a brand-new car. You could afford to buy that car, and I'm sure you can afford to repair and maintain it. So a few scratches and dents are not the end of the world - it's just a few hundred or few thousand rupees. It's a safe car, and while you take the time to gather confidence at the wheel, consider that the scratches and dents are the price of your driver education. In the unfortunate event that you crash the car and kill it, insurance is always there to pay you back (but just don't kill yourself with overconfidence!). Till then, for each new panel that you scratch or dent mildly, ring up a repair / education cost of about 2-3 thousand rupees.

[Tuisha110HP]

Dont worry about the scratches bro! Thats a price we have to pay to learn and become a part of traffic. However, I would like to add a few pointers which did help me become a better driver:

1) Patience: Whenver you are in doubt, apply brakes and wait. Be it squeezing between two cars, taking the car out avoiding a parked bike on left or starting out of a red light. Let the other cars zoom past you. Dont worry.

2) Avoid trailing another vehicle: During the initial days or for that matter any day, the best you can do to avoid any untoward incident is to avoid getting close to any other vehicle. You can prevent your front side. The other conditions wont be in your control anyways.

3) Get Down : Whenever in doubt, just get down and check the surroundings. Nomatter what others think, period. It will help you understand your vehicle's dimensions better when you compare it with what you were feeling from behind the steering wheel.

[Bsimhan]

Originally Posted by RavSam

5. Just yesterday afternoon there was a huge wind which moved my entire car cover and dumped it on the antenna bending it by curving. What could I freaking due about that! It was even tied down. If it wasn't then it would have floated away and didn't bend it D

Reg the car cover, I have a solution for this. Try stitching a velcro strip on all 4 sides near the wheel so as to clamp around 4 wheels. This is able to withstand strong winds. I've long given up on the clamp that the guys provide which fits on the underside at the center. The clamp is made of plastic and is incapable of withstanding strong winds. Rgds.

[RavSam]

Originally Posted by Bsimhan

Reg the car cover, I have a solution for this...Rgds.

Thanks a lot Bsimshan! Could you please post a pic here or inbox it to me as it would help me a lot. It's a lot windy here.

[Stribog]

As others have said THIS IS NATURAL! I am 40, been driving a car from the time I turned 16 (hello sneaking out the family fiat when dad was not in town!), from 2001 when I got my first car I have driven 3, 3.5l KM EASY. This is in addition to my two wheelers which would be another 1l km.

So I am definitely a fairly experienced driver right? You must assume I would be all breezy when I take my car out? Hell no. If sometimes I know I have to drive in narrow lanes (in old Chennai), I literally obsess over it the previous night on. Many a time I spend a ton on Uber or take the metro rail and then get someone to pick me up for the last mile all because I get seriously stressed out driving in the hyper narrow lanes some of our old cities have.

This has nothing to do with being experienced or not, but it is simply a sign of being a autonut! we care so much for our vehicles that well it causes some element of stress.

Some general tips,

1) Accept the reality that driving in India = dings and bumps and scratches. IT JUST will happen. Even if you have the driving skills of Senna, it is going to happen. Just accept it.

2) Plan your routes / day so you avoid scenarios that have a higher probability of dings and scratches (like narrow roads)

3) If something happens, my rule of thumb is simple, what is my NCB next year, is this current claim more than my NCB? Then I don't claim insurance and either do it out of pocket or wait to do them all at one time which brings me to point 4

4) DO NOT KEEP FIXING minor dents and scratches. YES I KNOW, your eyes only go to that eyesore of a spot, you have feelings of regret, you think about how you could have done something else to have avoided it etc etc... but learn to roll with your feelings, think of it as building character for your car (like macho manly scars during the duelling era?) and wait- consolidate a few bumps every 2 odd years and get them done in one stroke.

5) if you can afford it, PPF your car - it protects you from idk 60-70% of these scratches, dents you really can't do much about unless you clad your car in armour like the knights of the High Chivalric era so just accept them.

6) Detail your car personally, at least once a month - if you see rust? THEN it is like an SOS call, get that rust fixed and the bump / dent that caused it addressed. RUST is your only enemy, the enemy you need to fear.

Welcome to the club my friend! Like gymnuts and their love of Delayed Muscle Onset Soreness (DOMS) autonuts and our pain we feel for our vehicles is something only members of this exclusive club will feel and just learn to accept it.

Let me tell you about the time I got my first car, a Santro Zing completely worked out (all dents gone, car was fully painted), and got it out of the garage, after admiring it for 15 full minutes. Stand at a small signal leading to a minor road. This dude who sells cooking oil on his cycle comes along, crosses my car, losses his balance and plops his heavy metal carrier RIGHT in the centre of my brand new, freshly minted and painted bonnet.

Bang! Huge dent and a small hole IN THE MIDDLE of the darned thing and I was not even 100 meters from the garage and not even 5 minutes after I paid Rs 17,804 (I still remember the value) for the full works! My heart literally broke!

Things happen my friend, just accept it and move on

[Bsimhan]

@RavSam - I tried to post the picture here, but I think I accidentally deleted the pics as it was sometime in 2018. I am however sharing a review that I did on Amazon for this product.

https://www.amazon.in/gp/customer-re...SIN=B01604M0Y8

MODS - Not sure if this is allowed, so please delete if inappropriate.

[sahil624]

I know the pain of a new car having scratches or damages. There have been two instances where my, under one year, Nissan Kicks had to undergo insurance claims. One was not due to my fault and other one was due to mine. I would like to suggest to use the insurance bought by you, it has been bought by you for that purpose exactly. In both the cases mentioned before, it was a hassle free, cashless claim process for me and the car became as good as new. Those two instances actually gave me an added confidence and peace of mind.

Below are the pics of the damages from the two instances.

[TheRajput]

Originally Posted by sen2693

This has really thrown me off a lot. Makes me question my driving skills and whether I deserve to own a car or not. It has been a very depressing few days. The very-tight-slope-with-perpendicular-turns on my way to the parking of my new apartment does not help either.

Consider it as a part and parcel of driving a car.

I've been driving for the past 10 years and am considered a good driver in my social circle. But then, sh*t happens with everyone!

Considering Mumbai's parking woes and insufficient parking in my building, I rented a parking spot on the 1st floor of the building next to mine and have been parking my vento there since two years. The spot allotted to me is the most difficult with almost a 90 degree turn immediately after getting out of the parking lift. Initial two months were really bad and I literally used to get nervous while waiting inside the car lift. But then I got used to and also appreciated by drivers in that building who saw me parking at the spot in one attempt. But the journey gave me a dented door and a scraped rear bumper.
I left those dents and scratches as it is for a considerable time and got it repaired just last week. Also now, parking my car has become a breeze due to me getting used to and improved judgement skills.

Now imagine getting the door and bumper painted, and ON THE SAME DAY HITTING YOUR BUMPER AGAINST THE WALL WHILE EXITING THE PARKING. Yes, this happened just last week and I got so frustrated that I didn't remove my car for three days but then just a one off incident shouldn't make me loose confidence right?
I went to get the bumper finished again and now I am again trying to rebuild my confidence by keeping my speed slow and being extra careful. This is how such phases should be dealt with.

[Gorkey]

Originally Posted by sen2693

Did not know where else to go about this, so here I am. Mods please remove or move as it seems fit. Just needed a place to rant.

After learning to drive for 6-7 months pre lockdown and a bit mid lockdown, I bought a Skoda Rapid in April'21 being confident on my driving skills and because there was a need to own a car now. Owning a vehicle (and that too a Skoda) is a very personal thing for me. I would so many times stop and admire how good the car looked from the front.

All was going well until this month I had to move to Bangalore. I have found it very difficult to drive in traffic here and in the 1 week since I have been here - I got brake checked by a mini truck in traffic, causing damage to my bonnet hood, bumper and grill (to be fair I was also guilty of following him closely on a slope, but the traffic from rear and the pressure to clear the traffic light junction to avoid blocking other cars was stressing me out). And then again today I got a long scratch and a dent in my rear side door after I had a squeeze through a very busy market area. This has really thrown me off a lot. Makes me question my driving skills and whether I deserve to own a car or not. It has been a very depressing few days. The very-tight-slope-with-perpendicular-turns on my way to the parking of my new apartment does not help either.

Should have started with a second hand car. Am really worried if I should carry on driving or not. It is the traffic, the slope-y roads and the tight spaces that is a nightmare for me. My 200km drive from my village to Bangalore consisting of both state and national highways was smooth. I even drove in a much smaller city in Tamil Nadu called Salem and came out damage free. But past week has dented all that confidence. Can't bear to look at my car like this.

Claimed insurance for the bonnet, bumper incident but the door incident is fresh. My SA advised me against going to the insurance again for this new dent as am only 2 months into the insurance period and if anything happens again in future in same period then i will be able to claim only 50% insurance.

Dude, this happens to the the best of us. No one likes to look at a new car with scratches and dents and the need fo remove it itches our mind continuously. My suggestion is that since your car is brand new, wait 2-3 years until you get smore scratches and dents and by then you'll be a better driver and will be more confident and after that paint the entire car that way you wont have to worry about mismatched paint. Dont lose hope. Experience like this will make you a better and a more careful driver. And a little tip, please check your ORVM's (right and left) before making any turns to make sure your car's rear never scratches anything. Align the mirrors properly so that you can see the rear bumber of your car. Everyone's confident about the front of the car leaving a parking space. The rear of the car is what suffers most damages due to small mistakez like not looking the ORVM. Make it a regular practice while pulling out of tight spaces and you'll see why its so important. Its a small thing but important thing. We all learnt that the hard way. My car's 7 year old and used to be covered w dents and scratches. Everytime I tried repainting the damaged part, the paint would never match and even though no one else can notice it, you can always tell the difference. I recently repainted my entire car and damn does is look like a brand new car.
Never lose hope. Keep driving safely.
Attaching a picture of my car after 7 years of wear and tear(exterior).

[bark1234]

I have driven for more than 60k km over 10 years. Was handling/avoiding dents/scratches decently well on my i20, got scratches fixed I think 2-3 times over those 10 years. In February 2021, I bought MG Gloster in Black color(because black looks amazing on this beast). Till that point, I had no idea about car maintenance and did not even know black is the most maintenance-heavy color.

I started researching about car cleaning and maintenance here on team-bhp, gone through many threads for days. I Bought a Jopasu(learned from forums here) duster and a microfiber cloth, started dusting my car after every trip. I stopped my regular car cleaning guy from day zero and decided to take it to the car wash center every 15 days until I buy equipment for washing myself. At the car wash, I instructed them not to use the pass-through machine since those brushes will put a lot of scratches. I was also re-searching about ceramic coating and ppf and talked to few vendors.

Then this happened

It was the 20th day of my Gloster with me. A truck tail-ended it just outside my apartment. Details on this thread (My MG Gloster gets rear-ended | Repair quote of 6.5 lakhs!) Then my car had to spend the next 1.5 months at the service center. It was covered in dust for days there. Luckily I got it back a week before lockdown started due to 2nd wave, otherwise, it would have spent another 2+ months there. When I finally got it back in April, it had spent more days at the service center than at my parking . It had many minor scratches as well, though service center guys have removed them with polish on subsequent visits, But i don't see a point in ppf or ceramic coating now.

Now apart from other precautions of keeping a safe distance from other vehicles in traffic, I also try to avoid braking hard and try to slow down my car with multiple small brakes, so that vehicles on the rear start slowing down much earlier and get the longer distance to stop. I use honk also sometimes for inattentive rear drivers to bring their attention to stopping traffic.

I assume now that if I want a good-looking car, I need to claim insurance every year and forget about NCB and focus on getting the most convenient insurance policy.

[RavSam]

Originally Posted by bark1234

Then this happened

Very important. You either enjoy the time with your car along with its dents and scratches and get them repaired later or keep worrying about it and get mentally affected which possibly cannot be repaired later.

I have approx. 36+ cars in my apartments open parking lot and I've not seen ONE car without any sort of damage. The happiest of the onwers even let kids play around their cars who use the cars to hide and play tabla on it. Though I am yet to reach that level of Zen but with every passing day I am trying to enjoy the moments 'with' the car rather than keep worrying about everything that's going on with it.

[Sa1]

Hey, Don’t be upset.

Here is my story to cheer you up.

To start with i purchased my beloved flash red POLO in Dec 2018 and i have driving experience for over a decade now. Now here is how the story goes.

#1 At the start i thought i would not drive the car to the office obviously being it brand new and because of the heavy traffic did not want scratches on my baby, now i had this open parking side by side with another person surprisingly that guy was not experienced enough and while reversing his vehicle left a big fat scratch at the rear side of the right fender. You would not believe i was angry as hell skipped office for a day to find out who did that gone through CCTV camera footage etc. since that day it thought it is better to drive the vehicle in traffic and get those scratches my self rather than some one hitting your parked car.

My car was around 15 days old by the time.

#2 at mumbai pune expressway toll plaza, put my car at rest pulled the hand brake have paid the toll was waiting to get the receipt and wam a stupid mahindra 207 driver did not brake and rear ended the vehicle, bumper cracked. This fella was driving at around 30-40km/h by the time he rear ended.

Car was around 2-3 months old.

#3 At hometown, road trip are fun right. Drove my vehicle all the way to my native a 1000km worth of drive man it was amazing. Here comes the nightmare parked my car in front pf my house. Some drunken stupid Scotty rider rear ended the car again, bumper cracked again. He was riding at around 50km/h when this happened.

Car was around 6 months old.

For Scratches there are endless stories. Don't worry about these thats what i have learned you can not control some of these events.

In all three incidents other people rammed but if you own a car there will always be issues like these so cheer up.

Happy motoring.

[Beingtraveler]

We all have been through this ordeal of our cars being scratched or dented, some due to our own negligence/over-confidence and some due to others' mistakes. I saw another scratch today on my 1.5 years old S-cross on the bonnet above the right side fender. I know that I did not bump it, but I did recall parking it in the market a day ago and this was the cost. Anyway, I always remember some fellow Bhpian's quote which his father mentioned to him. 'The exterior of your car is public property, and interior is your private property'. This quote has stuck with me ever since and has helped me a lot to not overthink about any new scratches. I'm thinking, but not overthinking

[HBK]

Recently we bought our first family car a brand new Hyundai I20 sportz on 22 Dec 2023. And on the very next day the driver side rear door got dented while parking. It got rubbed against a tree. This is how it looks now.

The service centre guys quoted 5000 for repair if i don’t claim insurance. However they tried to convince me that it is no big deal and I should keep it as it is for now but my heart breaks to see the car like this. What should I do? Should I claim insurance or is there any other way to fix this?
Please help.

[SixPistons]

This is disturbing since the car is just a few days old. But, I would agree with ASC guys. Since it is not a very big dent just deformations, it is better to keep the car this way. Over time as you munch more miles on it, the car will anyway pick new dings and scratches no matter how careful you are (If you live in NCR, it is inevitable).

You can remember this as a memory with the car and as it won’t hamper the car’s functions, it is better to keep it this way. It is better to get them corrected in batch periodically from time to time when there are a number of repairs to be done. Keep the body line factory as long as you can.

If it is too disturbing, then of course you can go for it and get the repairs done. If there is going to be dent removal, there will almost certainly be a repaint, do confirm the same with ASC guys. However, a manual repaint will never match up with factory paint and over time you will start observing the minor differences in a few years.