[Chetan_Rao]

Parking issues causing fights/vandalism is becoming increasingly common. I rent a secure parking spot in another building a few minutes away to avoid parking on the street (it's a closed street so no public inconvenience to speak of, but I probably care too much for my car) and also avoid arguing with low-life idiots, but on the off chance I park the car on the street overnight if I need it early the next day, I've had to fend off my own building dwellers threatening violence/vandalism if I didn't vacate 'their' spot. My car has various scratches/dings that mysteriously appeared overnight in such instances. I write it off to 'cost of living with morons'.

[fine69]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

I write it off to 'cost of living with morons'.

I think I mentioned something similar, not sure whether it was on this thread though.

I have lived in one of the most notorious localities of Delhi when it comes to parking - Lajpat Nagar, Part-1. I'm very happy though because I'm shifting next month simply because I was tired of dealing with parking issues for the past 1.5 years.

One time I had parked my car besides the road, adjacent to another house, and found one of the tyres deflated next morning. Was I upset? Absolutely not! I was just glad he didn't break the windshield, probably more thankful that he didn't break my nose.

Am I sounding too much of a wuss? Well, its what I call the cost of owning & driving a car in Delhi (or India).

I have ample proof on this website (my old posts) that would prove that I used to love my car a lot, probably way too much that I even cried when I found that someone had dented my car's fender while it was parked peacefully.

I used to spend a lot of time detailing it, worrying about it when leaving it unattended (which was every night) and just looking at it. Then, as fate would have it, I came face to face with reality. My car was treated like a piece of metal by all others and trying to change other's outlook towards it was probably not healthy for my body.

Undue stress when driving, undue stress when parking, undue stress finding out a new dent or scratch....!

So I decided that I would only keep my car healthy, mechanically! Aesthetics are secondary and for someone who used to detail it every month now gets the regular car wash guy to wash it, you know with that heavy duty, baap of all cleaning cloths, the orange one!

But I digress, there have been umpteen instances when I had the choice of parking my car adjacent to a house but I never do. Its these acts of vandalism that have warned me enough to not take any more chances. I would walk upto a kilometer but wouldn't risk parking my car adjacent to a house wall, unless I see the owner and he/she confirms its ok to park it.

When going to any market, though I'd never leave the car key with the parking-wala, I'd still park it only in designated parking spots or where I've spoken to someone about parking it. My wife used to complain of the long distance she had to walk because of my decisions but she's a learned person herself now.

Lastly, I will not be heartbroken or get sad if someone vandalizes my car. No loss of anything material in my life, now, has the control on my emotions. If its broken, fix it. If it can't be fixed, get a new one, even my beloved car!

Just be careful, calm and make enough money to take care of the 'cost of living with morons.'

EDIT: Another important point I missed. Smile, smile unnecessarily! Smile like an idiot always. Smile when you talk to people. Smile when you request them to let you park there. Worst case, they still don't let you but it is impossible to ruin your mood when you are consciously trying to plaster that ridiculous and silly smile on your face! I'm surprised doctors don't advise it more often. It works and how!

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by fine69

.......I decided that I would only keep my car healthy, mechanically! Aesthetics are secondary and for someone who used to detail it every month now gets the regular car wash guy to wash it, you know with that heavy duty, baap of all cleaning cloths, the orange one!

I can understand. The only difference is I loved my car too much to disregard even cosmetic blemishes, and the constant stress of driving in crazy Bangalore traffic plus non-driving worries (parking, vandalism, rat infestation, you name it) was becoming too much. So what did I do? I sold it! I found a good buyer with plenty of parking space and a clean driving record, and handed over my 9 years young, good-as-new prized possession. Moving elsewhere wasn't practical or affordable for various reasons right now, so I've decided I won't buy another car until I absolutely can't do without one.

Smile, smile unnecessarily! ......It works and how!

I can vouch for that too. Recently had to deal with RTO folks for the car's transfer paperwork. A smile and 'much obliged saar' to every guy I came across and I managed to get work done during lunch hour, of all times! Blasphemy in a govt. office

[shankar.balan]

Vandals attacked my poor innocent car just the day before I was due to return. The car is parked outside my home because I ve converted my garage into a room.
It is always covered and checked by my attendant twice daily when Im away.
The infidels attacked at night and left an evil scratch on the rear hatch.

As soon as I got back I took the car to Dinesh of Trend Auto and attempted to get it fixed but the scratch was too deep to handle without a complete repaint job.
So I got it done as best as possible and then covered the damage with a lovely
"I Drive Safe" Sticker from TBHP.

Seemed the simplest most elegant solution!

[sumeethaldankar]

Someone broke off both the Civic and I-Vtec logos on my Civic. Now only half words of each are remaining. I can understand if just one or two words were missing they could have fallen off but both monograms in half is pure vandalism. God knows what these losers get out of doing such a thing?

[naveen.raju]

"How hard can it be"? Caught on camera. Made me sad and angry at the same time. .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG_JTQQWD_g

Source - Youtube

[princey]

Sick weirdo's. Probably drunk too. Hope they got arrested and fined for what they did.

[vkarthikvkn]

Note to Mods: Please do move this to an existing (if already) topic (I could not find, but it might be my bad)

Allow me to set the perimeter before entering into the main topic.

My brand new Honda City i-vtec, suffered the following because of competition in the car cleaning business.

The story goes like this. In our apartments, which is massive, there are two or three 'Head' car cleaner boys, who control about 10 or 15 odd kids who clean our cars. Costs range from 300 to 600 per month depending on the type of car. These boys wash almost 300 odd cars every month. Each boy has to wash almost 10 to 15 at least. Needless to say, the washing of each car happens randomly and obviously, not daily.

Now, I have been out of town for a month, and my friend has been watching over my car (in addition to two of his own).

There is a new semi-corporate type of car cleaner in town, who charges a premium but does a very professional job (I have not seen this yet since I am out of town). A lot of the car owners promptly changed over to this service provider. Soon a lot of the cars (especially the new ones) bore the brunt of the fury of the disgruntled ex car cleaners (mind you I am still with them).

Now mine was the few ones with lesser damage (probably because I did not change cleaners), some have suffered damages extensively, including breakage of number plates etc.

Point of this long post is,

1. Please see attached pic and advise if its fixable.

2. Any such weird experiences any one else has faced?

[speedmiester]

This is clear case of vandalism, why don't you and other residents file a police complaint and have these vandals taken to task.
Don't ignore these initial issues, this can lead to far greater damage if you let this slide by.

[ghodlur]

+1 to speedmiester. This incident needs to be reported and highlighted to the cops. The Housing society too can play a role in this by ensuring that only ethical guys are let inside the society premises.

Sad to know that after spending sums on cleaning now additional amount needs to be spent to restore.

Even my car is washed by a local boy but I had made it very clear before commencing that this would be a short term agreement till the monsoons are over and ends in September month. After that I am on my own for washing the car. It was mutually agreed.

[abirnale]

I agree with @speedmiester. you should approach the apartment association and work on this. Summon the car wash contractors, ask them to pay for this and with immediate effect terminate his services. Lodge police complaint if needed. If hopefully you have CCTV coverage in parking area, things would be much easier.

Things to note - if you are in the apartment staying as tenant, forget this. Getting consensus from owner group and to act on these things is too difficult unless everyone is facing the heat of this.

Also be careful that all these car wash guys have the support from local hooligans and bad elements that can cause the trouble. So whatever actions you are taking, ensure you have support from other residents and association specifically.

This is major reason why apartments does not prefer to have multiple vendors for the same thing. In the name of healthy competition sometimes this is ignored but it comes back to haunt you like in your case.

[Dieseltuned]

I also get my car cleaned from a local guy in my locality. He cleans the exteriors everyday and the interiors every sunday. Every Sunday i specially make it a point to meet up with him and do the cleaning alongwith him. This makes him more responsible towards the job.

I suppose instead of going all the way to police which might even agriviate the situation, try to resolve the same with the boys who clean your car. A short stern warning could also do the job.

Even if you approach the police the first they ask is 'Evidence' as in 'who did it ?'. Does your society have security cameras to catch the culprit who did it ?

We must also remember that most of the car cleaning guys who work locally are from lower strata of the society and do it to supplement their low income and it would be huge trauma for them (mentally, physically and even financially (if police asks from bribe to drop the charges) to answer the police. The trouble that they might face with the police is very well known by all of us.

I know that we all love our cars and worship them and spend a lot on them, but this surely does not call for police inolvement.

My humble suggestion. Talk to them & Solve it amicably

Regards
Dieseltuned

[sumathindra]

Honestly I never understood this concept of "getting the car cleaned" by an unknown person! Are we so busy that we cannot attend to our own car? This trend obviously has become a market and there are scores of kids/people who do this activity probably as an additional income.

I would rather clean my car myself over a weekend or take it for a wash once in a month (if laziness gets the better of me)

Cleaning the car would take a good hour or two and also doubles up as a good workout! My son also joins me in this extremely bonding exercise, both for man and machine. These are just my thoughts and others can disagree

[lamborghini]

Honestly - file a complaint with the cops (as a society, not as an individual). It is ridiculous that if they cannot do a good job, they will go and bring those who do good work down with them.
Speak to the society, who is responsible for the safety and security of its residents and get them to take action against the errant people. If nothing else, get the society to cover the damages - maybe that will prompt them to take action.
I am sure others who's cars have been damaged will also be livid, so join hands and work together as a group.

[hybridpetrol]

Originally Posted by sumathindra

Honestly I never understood this concept of "getting the car cleaned" by an unknown person! Are we so busy that we cannot attend to our own car? This trend obviously has become a market and there are scores of kids/people who do this activity probably as an additional income.

I would want to ask you a question: Why are many of us have maids at our homes to wash vessels and sweep, clean our houses? Are all of us at our homes so busy, that we can't do these simple works on our own? It would hardly take half an hour to one hour per day!
Same reasoning is with the car. In the initial days, we wash our cars and take care of it well. But as few days pass, and the love for the car wanes, and we find other more interesting things (such as a Creta launch ) in our lives. But still it is our car, and we want it to be clean right? Here is where these kids come in.
They know well that we love our cars, and it would deeply hurt us to see the scratches. We definitely would not want to drive around in cars that are scratched and fixing such big scratches would set us back in 5 digit sums.
I serious don't understand the motive behind these guys. Will that money we spend in the body shop cause any improvement in their lives? Probably they get a high feeling seeing us crib.
Similar "threats" for our cars are there everywhere. On a short visit, if you park your car / bike unknowingly in a place someone else usually parks, you might get big scratches, or worse you might miss one or both your ORVMs.
These are problems with our own culture, and it is impossible to hand over these small time criminals to police as you wouldn't be left with any kind of proofs.