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whats the point !

John Peerce

Active Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2003
Messages
176
Location
London, UK
Car
C43 AMG
Some of you recall that i posted a couple of weeks ago in a very pi$$ed off mood about my rear bumpers being scuffed by some monkey drivers (on two separted occasions) a mere one month after i had that the bumpers fully and proffessionaly sanded, repainted and lacqured.

This morning i woke up to find (yep you guessed it ) my bumper scuffed again, this time so badly the black paint of whatever car hit mine wont even come off, its sort of embedded in the lacquer.

I am in a very despondent mood today .. thinking whats the bloody point of having cars that one can be enthusiastic and care about if someone else can so carelessly inflict damage on it this way. My car is not new, but it might as well have been (the bumpers were looking shiny new after the repaint).

I happen to live in a flat, which doesnt come with a designated parking spot or garage, so i have to park it in the street (like most London residents do).

My mistake is that i got rather attached to my car, and such incidents (scuffed pannels, door dings) tend to have an over-proportional effect on me. I now really wish i hadent bothered buying this car, and just got a 10 year old fiat or some other banger that i couldnt care less about, at least until i live in a property with its own garage/off street parking.
 
yes happened to me lots
http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=4057

But to be honest, i would never dream of keeping something as valuable on london streets. My CLK is in an undergound secure car park and now i keep my 123 in coventry in a heated garage.. Ive learnt my lesson when it comes to london and parking.. The first day i moved to london in 2000, the stereo was nicked from a 'secure' ncp car park...

I would consider finding somewhere more secure. A lot of people advertise in the loot etc.. Some of the old ex council flats have garages that no one ever uses, if there are any estates in the area, bet someone would be willing to rent it out...
 
Really sorry to hear your news. I guess its difficult when you cant get the car off road.

Try not to let morons ruin your enjoyment of a car that you really like. Dont be dragged down to the lowest level aim high. You've worked hard and have achieved your goal of owning a Mercedes Benz. In the words of Norman Stanley Fletcher "dont let the Buggers get you down"!
 
thanks for the words of support. Sorry to see the damage to Jaymanek's W123, which is far worse than mine and somewhat puts things in context.

I am going to investigate hiring a parking spot/garage in my local area, although on first thought the maths may not be in favour of this : a garage in London is likely to set me back £1500-£2000 pa, while the cost of having the bumpers re-painted came to £150 last time.. Maybe i should just set aside £150 every year or two as an inevitable cost to have the bumpers regularly repainted? then again having a garage protects the car from vandalism/stealing etc, and not just bumpers scuff.

The irony is that I park my car on a narrow street five minutes walk from my flat. On the entrance to that street there is a guards "hut" with 24 hours private manned security and several surveillance cameras along that street. They built a row of private and v. expensive homes across that street few years ago, and that security is really meant to protect those house owners and their cars, but as it happens, because its a public street, they are also protecting anyone else’s car that happens to be parked there, including mine. So in effect, i am already getting top class security for my car for free and there is very little risk of anyone breaking into my car. That also perhaps explains why cars tend to get scuffed there more often as everyone who lives locally tries to "squeeze in" , even if the gaps between cars are small, and park their car on that street and benefit from this "free" security.
 
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John - that is a really annoying thing to happen. As well as protecting your car - a garage may well lower your insurance so I would give them a call worth factoring into the costs equation anyway :) Damned annoying when you have to incur extra costs because of the idiots out there :(
 
pammy said:
a garage may well lower your insurance so I would give them a call worth factoring into the costs equation anyway :) (

Well noted Pammy, i havent thought about the insurance benefit of having a garage. It could be worth at least c.£200 in inusrance premium saving, not to mention keeping my beloved merc in pristine rust free condition. :)

I heard of an insurance company called Future Classics, which apparently offers low insurance premiums for cars whose owners treat them like classics, even if the cars are new or not that old. To benefit from this, the owner must declare and adhere to low mileage (which is fine by me, i do about 4500 miles a year) and must also have a garage to store the car...
 
John Peerce said:
I heard of an insurance company called Future Classics, which apparently offers low insurance premiums for cars whose owners treat them like classics, even if the cars are new or not that old. To benefit from this, the owner must declare and adhere to low mileage (which is fine by me, i do about 4500 miles a year) and must also have a garage to store the car...
Ive just done a search on this and found:http://www.firebond.co.uk/firebond/specials.asp#futures
I`ll give them a call too as my CLK only does about 4500 M a year also.
 

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