I may have made a huge mistake

[AkioOhtori]

Went to pick up the Disco from the body shop. Looked good, but there were a couple issues they're attending to before I pick it up for real real.

But.

On the walk around... I'll be honest... the car looked like crap.

Not the work they did. That looked great. But they also cleaned and shined it and it.... really highlighted all of the failing plastics and other issues with it.

All fixable but like... weren't really on my radar and are now SUPER DUPER on my radar!

Also the hood has more paint damage (bird poop etching) than I remember so that shakes my resolve to get the PDR done soon.

Shit, FML, etc.

I'm going back to bed.

[Chariotoflove]

@akioohtori Once you focus on body flaws, as one does when getting body work done, your brain starts zooming in on every tiny defect. You need to get your brain out of that mode again. Now, how to do that, especially if you're OCD like I tend to be? Not sure. That's individual brain dependent. Good luck. I feel your pain.

[AkioOhtori]

@chariotoflove I think the method of fixing this is "drive though mud puddles" but... well there are some thing I need to look into like the gutter finishers (took a beating in the hail)

[aremmes]

@akioohtori Get drunk. That often helps.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

@akioohtori What exactly did you have them do? Just a detail?

[ttyymmnn]

@akioohtori

Just stand about 40 feet away. It'll look great!

[AkioOhtori]

@dr-zoidberg They painted the roof but apparently cleaned it first (which like... thanks but arg)

[flatisflat]

@chariotoflove This is why I don't regularly wash my car. All it does is make me address its 10 year old physical maladies.

Not really. I'm lazy. But this sounds better.

[Tripper]

@chariotoflove said in I may have made a huge mistake:

@akioohtori Once you focus on body flaws, as one does when getting body work done, your brain starts zooming in on every tiny defect. You need to get your brain out of that mode again. Now, how to do that, especially if you're OCD like I tend to be? Not sure. That's individual brain dependent. Good luck. I feel your pain.

I like to do mental gymnastics with myself to get out of this:

Me: *starts noticing defects, gets all stressy, notices more

Me: *kind of sadly starts mentally tallying up the work and cost involved to get them fixed

Me: *really tries to resign self to spending that time and that money... for a few minutes

Me to Me: "I just saved a TON of money on my classic car by continuing to drive it!"

Me to Me: "Way to go bro!!!!!!!"

Me:

[facw]

@aremmes But don't get drunk and then drive through mud puddles. Probably fun, but probably also a bad idea.

[Chariotoflove]

@tripper
I actually see how that could work.

[RamblinRover]

@akioohtori
Shop: cleans car

[aremmes]

@facw Definitely no drink driving. But the drink does adjust one's vision in order to conceal superficial blemishes.

[Nauraushaun]

i don't like when they clean your car for you. you're paying for their time, so no matter how you slice it it's costing you money for something you can do yourself. i bring my car to a shop so they can do the stuff i can't do myself.

also, they do it so you feel like their service was better. which feels scammy. they're spending your money on something you didn't ask for, so you feel better about them. from their perspective it's a win win.
it's like if you ordered a standalone burger, and they gave you chips as well and also charged you for them. except in this system the charging system is opaque so it feels like it's free.
it's not free. their time is money. your money. this takes time. even if it's "free", it's not.

last time a shop washed my car they parked it under a tree that was shedding wattle. so it was sort of clean, but also dirtier than when i left it there. i paid for that.

[TheBarber]

@nauraushaun On the flip side of things you'd be shocked to see how many people complained when we stopped washing cars after service. It was non-stop bitching. People literally would just leave and go somewhere else, it was wild. We ended up outsourcing it via vouchers in the interim. We now have bids for two new car washes. People like their "free" stuff.

[AkioOhtori]

@nauraushaun @Nauraushaun I usually ask them not to wash my cars if I know they plan to. Not for the reasons you pointed out, valid as they are, but because I don't want some minimum-wage employee doing a half-assed job and doing more damage than good, grinding the grit into the paint and so fourth.

[Bloody-the-resident-LandRover-apologist]

@akioohtori I have convinced myself Land Rovers look better with scratches.

Me when I see what I think is a mark from someone opening a door on my Defender:

But it turns out to be bird poop and now I have bird poop on my finger...

[Nauraushaun]

@thebarber said in I may have made a huge mistake:

@nauraushaun On the flip side of things you'd be shocked to see how many people complained when we stopped washing cars after service. It was non-stop bitching. People literally would just leave and go somewhere else, it was wild. We ended up outsourcing it via vouchers in the interim. We now have bids for two new car washes. People like their "free" stuff.

ugh. this is a good reason for them to wash cars: because it's better than losing business. this is capitalism doing bad for us, whereby people insist on receiving something they perceive to be free, and competition is such that all must provide this shitty service or lose to those who do.
SUVs are another example. people want cars that are far bigger and heavier than they need, so there's untold innovation in that space. capitalism doesn't work when the people are fools.

[Old Busted Hotness]

@nauraushaun Capitalism works GREAT when people are fools.

Remember the 80s, when fuel economy was the biggest selling point? Everyone had a Dodge Omni Miser, or a Chevette Scooter or Sentra MPG, or similar stripped-out econobox with a little decal telling the world how thrifty they were. That ethic went away pretty quick once automakers realized they weren't making money on cheap cars.

Pepperidge Farm remembers when you couldn't park a pickup truck overnight in some neighborhoods without some blue-nose calling the cops. Now we're at the point where pickup trucks are $90,000 luxury vehicles that can't actually do truck stuff. I see the Lincoln Blackwood's carpeted cargo box making a comeback.

People are great at selling themselves on unnecessary things. All they need is a nudge. And if that nudge is perceived as free, so much the better.

[Nauraushaun]

@old-busted-hotness it works great on the people, but not for the people. it's meant to work for the people. it's meant to lift up society but instead it's leading to the death of our planet

@old-busted-hotness said in I may have made a huge mistake:

Remember the 80s, when fuel economy was the biggest selling point? Everyone had a Dodge Omni Miser, or a Chevette Scooter or Sentra MPG, or similar stripped-out econobox with a little decal telling the world how thrifty they were.

no haha. none of the cars you mentioned were sold where i live. like most of the world, we weren't hooked on huge cars so we didn't have to pivot hard into awful small cars.
and luxury pickup trucks are still extremely niche here thank god