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Do you take pride in your car?

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I have a '72 AMC Javelin my uncle gave me many many years ago. It's been garaged for 20 years at least. I still look at it with pride tho.
 
the car is a utilitarian cage that gets me from point a to point b. It isn't a status symbol, it says nothing about my personal worth or pride, it is merely a sometimes-necessary tool that i would prefer to never be necessary.

That being said, I don't purposely trash it and I don't rub my greasy fried chicken fingers all over my seats. I also rarely clean it. It does need to be cleaned, though. Certainly.

Exterior-wise--nature is perfectly sufficient in providing the needed cleaning.
 
zinfamous said:
the car is a utilitarian cage that gets me from point a to point b. It isn't a status symbol, it says nothing about my personal worth or pride, it is merely a sometimes-necessary tool that i would prefer to never be necessary.

That being said, I don't purposely trash it and I don't rub my greasy fried chicken fingers all over my seats. I also rarely clean it. It does need to be cleaned, though. Certainly.

Exterior-wise--nature is perfectly sufficient in providing the needed cleaning.
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I recently sold a car I'd had for ten years, and that's basically how I treated it. I had it detailed once for maybe forty bucks, it was worth it since by then there was around six years of ground-in dirt and it was starting to be a problem. I made sure the oil was taken care of and cleaned out whatever trash I generated while using it, it wasn't much but then it doesn't take a lot of effort to clean something that you never trash.

Now I have a motorcycle though, so I wash it sometimes to keep it sexy. It's still mostly more of the same, except now I enjoy my drives a lot more.
 
I keep my car as immaculate as possible. Especially the interior, I can't have anything moving around when I'm taking a turn at speed. I keep little-to-nothing in there. Exterior I wash every 2-3 weeks roughly and use a spot detailer when I get home.

I take a lot of pride in it, despite the fact that it is only mine because I paid/pay for it. I like to get compliments on how clean it is and how nice it is, often saying it looks more expensive than it is. Yeah, I like my car (White 2015 WRX)
 
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Used to, outgrew it. I now prefer that my car remain unobtrusive. Not expensive enough or crappy enough to attract attention and if you're driving a stealth vehicle there's no incentive to keep it detailed. I'm not a slob, so fast food bags and empty soda cans are not going to pile up in the foot wells, but if there's a candy bar wrapper on the passenger seat I'm not going to get anal about removing it.
 
I dont take pride in my car per say, but, I try to keep it decently clean. I dont like to be surrounded by garbage, so a clean car is more comfortable of a setting for me.


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I only keep the interior clean. Exterior gets coated with salt or mud or whatever, and the rain eventually washes that.
 
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I bought an 04 Mini S with 30k on it 5 years ago. Car still looks great (some subtle mods and wheels) but its just a disaster maintenance wise. I used to keep it clean, washed and enjoyed the car overall but I'm totally over it.

In 70k of mostly highway (100k total) I have a dictionary worth of repairs, recalls, issues. Just now it failed inspection for some knock sensor code that is $500 to fix. Also the windshield cracked for the second time in 6 months yesterday (bad luck, but still annoying).

It still looks nice is a blast to drive but I'm just... over it.

Going to buy a Porsche Cayman and when I get presented with random $1000 repair bills every 3 months like with the mini I'll at least be able to tell myself 'well it IS a Porsche.'
 
i think i know how to make myself care about my car

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I keep my cars clean inside and out. It's not super clean but presentable; such as if a work associate needs a ride? I wouldn't be embarrassed to offer my car.

My kids eat in my cars from time to time and it's fine. I will clean that up in a day or 2.

The cars do tell something about their owners. After all there's only one chance for a good first impression.
 
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nope. i rarely wash it and thats just usually through an automated wash. i have never waxed any of my cars. inside is usually dusty and have trash on the passenger side floor.
of course it's a 12 year old saturn too, so nothing special.

rarely does anyone else get in my car. my car is for getting me from point a to point b.
 
Pride like keeping it clean-ish and not with a bumper coming off? Ya.

Pride like buying the most expensive piece of shit that goes 0-60 in 3 seconds to only keep it at 60 so my dipshit "friends" "respect" me... no.
 
Do i take pride in it? not sure what you mean.

It's a car. it's a tool. It lets me get grociers and take my kids where they need to go. We just got back from MI for region 5 gymnastics championships. long fucking drive.

I do make sure my van is in top shape. i clean it both inside and out. NO sense in riding in a dirty vehicle.

But am i proud that i own whatever? no. never have.
 
My dad was a car salesman for the longest time, he always took huge pride in cars in general, and gets mad if he sees someone not take pride in them. I'm not quite like him, but do take enough pride to at least keep it decently clean inside. Right now mine is kinda dirty, like mostly dust/sand etc, and whenever I get in I always think to myself I need to clean it. Eventually I will. 😀

I have a few spots where paint is pealing that I should fix too. I just spray paint it so it tends not to last, but it at least protects it for a bit longer than if I left it alone. Last year I did kinda a quick job of it, this year I'll try to clean it better and sand it better and maybe put on more coats.

Other than that though it's mostly just a tool for me, I don't see it as a status symbol. If I won the lotto I'd maybe buy a nice car, but unless I can afford to pay cash I'm going to stick to used cars and drive them to the ground. A new car is going to be "used" in a few year or so and start having misc issues that require repairs anyway. Rather pay to get my car fixed a little more often than having to make payments each month.
 
My SS is never driven in the rain or during the winter. I wipe it off before driving and after driving. There is always detail spray and micro-fiber towels in the car wherever I go. It's always spotless.
 
I don't care about my current car. It's 14 years old. Paint is shot in some places. Small dent on the fender.
It's a station car. It's occasionally used transport the kids.

The inside of my car is clean. Trunk is clean. Exterior despite being worn looking is free of filth. Inside it's in great shape.

My wife's car on the other hand is an embarrassment. We only allow close trusted friend or her parents to view the inside of that shithole.
 
Well, yeah, but let's be reasonable. I'm not what I drive. That car is 19 years old and has under 30k on it. I spent half a week a couple months ago fixing the leaks in the trunk.

My other cars are a pair of quad roller skates and an old bought-used commuter 12 speed.
 
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I keep the inside pretty clean, but I rarely wash my car, I'm pretty sure in 15 years no one is going to want a pristine 2013 outback anyways.
 
I drive a Miata, so every time I keep the receipt from the gas station, I have to lean over to the side a bit. Junk isn't an option.
 
JulesMaximus said:
Even when I was driving a 10 year old Nissan I would wash and wax it periodically
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This right here is a key word 🙂 Depends on the size of the 'period', no?

I take my car through a car wash monthly normally, though all it takes to go back to square one is a single drive down a country road when it has rained recently, or one time when I pulled out of the car wash only to end up behind a tractor that was carrying muck to another field. Switch off all air vents, and watch ~£5 wasted.

I don't clean the car internally much, though food-related rubbish is immediately disposed of. Occasionally I bag all of the things like parts of petrol receipts I don't need. Sometimes I clean the inside of the windscreen if it is becoming a problem. Very occasionally I vacuum it out and get rid of the dust.
 
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