poorly maintained cars

[andyman]

ok, where i work all we do is maintain the fleet cars and also do the odd private job too for a company, they are all owned and driven by company/workers,

but it really annoys the crap out of me when we get cars that are worth 40 and up to 70 thousand dollars and are treated like dirt, like the other day i serviced a ve with 30,000k's on the clock, the interior smelt like crap, had food stains in the roof lining, carpets where covered in dirt, grass etc, scratches on paint etc,


heres a pic of an engine bay of a vz with 45,000km its a bad pic cause of the camera phone but you get the idea of the dirt and crap all over it

a little anger in the above post, but if i was given a car with free petrol, insurance and all the rest id feel so privileged and happy and look after it with pride,

andrew

[Reaper]

a little anger in the above post, but if i was given a car with free petrol, insurance and all the rest id feel so privileged and happy and look after it with pride,
andrew

Trust me, you get over it quickly enough. Don't get me wrong, mine gets serviced and washed but at the end of the day it's just a fast truck that will be replaced in around 2 years.

Reaper

[J_D]

The problem is people dont give a **** about something that isnt theirs. Its the same with the company cars where I work. The one piece of advice I can give is never buy a car that has belonged to a company. Done it once, never again.

[andyman]

Trust me, you get over it quickly enough. Don't get me wrong, mine gets serviced and washed but at the end of the day it's just a fast truck that will be replaced in around 2 years.

Reaper

i guess, i go and wash the cars out in the wash bay, the other guys i work with cant understand why i do it, i just tell them it might the only time itll ever get washed, and some do look like it

[andyman]

The problem is people dont give a **** about something that isnt theirs. Its the same with the company cars where I work. The one piece of advice I can give is never buy a car that has belonged to a company. Done it once, never again.

yep, hello mr redline, every cold start

[pow3rslave]

jeez that vz's engine bay was scummy, what'd they do, leave the bonnet up in a dust storm?

[andyman]

jeez that vz's engine bay was scummy, what'd they do, leave the bonnet up in a dust storm?

dunno, a lot of dirt roads, it looked brand new when i was finished with it

[yobbo88]

Yeah same with where i work. Its not even that it isnt theirs or anything. I see it as no respect for anything that would be a privilege for pretty much anyone else. Then no respect for cars in general!!! i love cars i hate seeing them gettin smashed. I do what andyman does. after im finished working on a car if i can get away with it i wash the whole car not just the engine bay. Ive been caught doing it but man was my foreman angry

[Low_VX_Taxi]

ok, where i work all we do is maintain the fleet cars and also do the odd private job too for a company, they are all owned and driven by company/workers,

but it really annoys the crap out of me when we get cars that are worth 40 and up to 70 thousand dollars and are treated like dirt, like the other day i serviced a ve with 30,000k's on the clock, the interior smelt like crap, had food stains in the roof lining, carpets where covered in dirt, grass etc, scratches on paint etc,


heres a pic of an engine bay of a vz with 45,000km its a bad pic cause of the camera phone but you get the idea of the dirt and crap all over it

a little anger in the above post, but if i was given a car with free petrol, insurance and all the rest id feel so privileged and happy and look after it with pride,

andrew

My m8 works for Fleets (local council), He told me a story bout one of his 4x4 (toyota Prado i think) he had in his fleet.... The guy decided to take it off road, It handled it pretty good until he took it into a river, he got about half way in when the cabin started filling with water then the engine stopped. The guys family had to smash the windows to get out of the car (electric windows). In the end it took 5hrs to pull it outta the river (by 3 hiluxes with snorkels) and when my m8 started to take it apart he said there was mud in EVERYTHING! engine was slagged interior rooted Panels stuffed from the inside, even the air con was full of mud..... a 54thousand dollar car destroyed and he only has a certain budget per year..... The worst thing was that because he was high up in the council he got a brand new VE caprice.... which he "accidently" backed into a fence

[Reaper]

The problem is people dont give a **** about something that isnt theirs. Its the same with the company cars where I work. The one piece of advice I can give is never buy a car that has belonged to a company. Done it once, never again.

Overall I'd say you are no better or worse than buying it from any other owner. Most of them are well maintained and *not* thrashed. Like any near new car - check it's maintenance history and look for accident damage. Just because the guy doesn't wash under the bonnet or vac the interior wouldn't preclude me from buying the car - got some real bargains that way.


Reaper

[AttaBoy]

But sometimes a dirty engine can give you an indication of how well the car is looked after, I mean if people really care about their cars then they should at some point clean it thoroughly. For example the car may have been washed very rarely or in fact never and then when the time comes to sell it they clean it and and may have forget to clean the engine, who knows.

But just need to be careful when buying ANY used car.

[davey g-force]

I hear ya Andyman.

Like someone else said it's blatant disrespect for cars (or LCA - low car appreciation as I like to call it).

I've had a couple of company cars over the years and I still always washed and vacuumed them every weekend and generally treated them as if they were my own. Some of my colleagues couldn't understand why I did it, but at the end of the day, it's something that I have to drive around and spend time in, so why not look after it and take some pride in it?

This is probably a bit extreme, but I've even washed a couple of rental cars which I've had from time to time!

Anyway mate, keep doin what you're doin - take pride in your work and in your car!

[Huge]

Andyman your love of customers cars is awsome, nice one dude!

I lease a new car for work every 3yrs and "yes if you caught my car on a bad week it would look just like your customers". My car travels about 60,000 a yr and is usally covered in bugs, dirt roads and crap, inside looks like crap too, with the young fella making a mess and his old man making a bigger mess. But I give it a really good clean every 2 weeks weather it needs it or not, LOL, windows in/out, door jambs, detail wheels etc. comes up a treat.

Having said all that I'm not defending your customer, some people have no respect of cars at all, a real shame.

[Troy711]

same with hire cars, id never buy one. i know how people treat them because they dont own them