How to deal with snobbery?

[ProgRocker]

Spotted this thread on Martin Lewis's MoneySavingExpert.com website and thought that it might strike a cord with some of you Autoshite-ists. Perhaps on a sociological level.

 

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3458025

 

I've recently been given a car by my dad to help me get back to work. It's not the best looking car to be honest as it's a bit tatty with a few dents etc.

I live in social housing which forms part of a private cull-de-sac in a small village. The other houses have smart cars parked up and put my car to shame.

I feel really ashamed to have it parked on my drive but as it's been given to me I feel obliged and it's better than nothing. Do you think people will take much notice or am I just overeacting?

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

He's probably imagining it. But if the neighbours do take exception, then if it's not on fire, leaking oil all over the communal grass or covered in graffiti then fuck 'em.

[andrew e]

The blokes a ponce. I reserve the right to change this view upon recipt of subsidised vehicles/shelter.

[maxpower]

if he is that bothered i am sure his legs still work long enough to reach a bus stop the ungrateful twunt!

[barrett]

Christ, that makes me want to smash my own head into a pulp on my desk. People need shooting.

[dollywobbler]

Wow. Some refreshingly sensible posts in that thread! (well, the first page. Got bored then!).

 

It is a bit like some sort of nirvana discovering that you don't need a modern car. Most people don't give a stuff anyway. It's a car! Do you ever look at someone in a modern/flashy car and think "wow, I'd like to spend time with them!" I don't. I'm not on about running Autoshite - to be honest, not everyone wants the inevitable tinkering that we end up doing, and the gaffer tape bills etc - but some people genuinely won't entertain the idea of driving anything older than a couple of years.

 

Don't know if it's a recent thing. I was chuffed to bits when I was given my first car by my parents, despite it being a very shabby Ford Fiesta Popular. That was in 1995. I didn't cry that it wasn't a brand new Corsa. Maybe it's because I was grateful. A word that doesn't seem often used these days...

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

DW, it is to be expected. Most of the people on MSE are well-meaning, and there are a lot of useful, sensible tips on there. However, some of the posters are thick beyond belief (like the original poster of the linked thread) and it's managed a bit like a cult (how would you like a financial forum where you aren't allowed to talk about shares? It'd be a bit like Autoshite banning any FIAT-related discussion), so it ends up being quite annoying as a forum.

[RoadworkUK]

.... but some people genuinely won't entertain the idea of driving anything older than a couple of years.

 

It genuinely scares the shit out of me. We took in an 11 plate Alfa Guilietta last week, and a 60 plate Insignia today. Because the owners didn't like them.

 

Just think of all those thousands of quid being pissed away. Hey, keeps me in a job tho', I best shut up lest people realise their idiocy.

[Angrydicky]

What a turd.

[wuvvum]

DW, it gets better on page 3 - they start talking about holding things together with gaffer tape.

[stuboy]

if i drive shite i park shite were i like sod them

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

It genuinely scares the shit out of me. We took in an 11 plate Alfa Guilietta last week, and a 60 plate Insignia today. Because the owners didn't like them.

 

Well, that's no surprise. I suspect most people here wouldn't like them, either. Did you try flogging them a real car such as a Å koda Estelle or a Citroen XM?

 

The really worrying thing about this trend is that such people tend to work in positions of relative responsibility- middle managers, doctors, senior engineers (business owners normally are more sensible with their money, and the independenty wealthy don't tend to care as much about cars). If those people have such a serious common sense deficit, what hope is there for an economy/country that mostly consists of people whose mental prowess is not as highly appreciated? Would you trust your doctor's choice among complex treatment combinations when he can't even choose a car (I know he is not a professional car-chooser, but this is decision-making at its most basic)??

[dollywobbler]

To be fair, this is the world we live in. I may have been grateful for my first Fiesta, but it only took a few years before I blew a load of borrowed money on a Daewoo Matiz, then a Subaru Impreza and a Pug 306 DTurbo. (just to prove that I was entirely clueless with that mix!). Adverts and magazines keep feeding the apparent need to own a new car and it was only when I met my wife that I realised that trying to impress her with the 306 was a mistake. She was much more interested in my 2CV! She also ran a very shite Citroen AX that got a yearly MOT and service and received little car aside from that. I had to agree - that made much more sense financially than my finance-deal Pugrot.

[andrew e]

Well I love the feel of a new car, chosing the colour, bartering the works. I love buying a new motor!!! Is that bad? Really? I regularly argue with the bloke who smokes a pack of Marlboro lights every day at work. That's £200 a month, and he tells me repeatedly I'm wasting money

[RoadworkUK]

Did you try flogging them a real car such as a Å koda Estelle or a Citroen XM?

 

 

You can't imagine how much I'd love to. But our MBUK bosses would get narked if we did!

 

I absolutely love seeing the Rover in the car park mixed in with the CLS's ad S-Classes (and taking up almost as much space). A few of the guys rib me a bit, but it's only banter and they know I do it out of choice because I love the car. It must say something that I drive new cars of various descriptions every single day, and still have zero temptation to own one. Not even as a company car.

[fotorabia]

This is how disgruntled folk deal with posh new car phenomena in Berlin

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/au ... -elections

[ashmicro]

The blokes a ponce. I reserve the right to change this view upon recipt of subsidised vehicles/shelter.

 

+111111111111

 

What a dick. I lived in South Ken when I had my gaffa taped Quattro. I'm sure the neighbours didn't like it much but my firm was paying the same rent as them.

[Justin Case]

I have seen one 61 reg car today, the first day as if anyone cares (that is anyone who isn't selling them ); a large lumpy-looking Audi sort of coupe made worse by being white but with engine note and wheels that would have been more suitable for a tractor (although you couldn't say the same for the rubber bands round them. ) Can anyone explain the appeal of a new car, especially bought with your own or the finance company's hard-earned? If you like a nice fresh car, down to the new-car smell, then a £200 valet from real professionals will do the trick just as well, which is probably just a couple of weeks payments or depreciation?

[George-Roper]

What a flange and I bet its a better motor than a few here.

[Station]

What a buffoon. Is this a sign of the times that it is acceptable for someone to moan about being GIVEN a fucking car? What a difference, if someone offered my parents in 1970 a 10 year old car, it'd be like winning the lottery/pools.

What an ungrateful shit that person is, and the rest of those types, I'd love to sign up on that place just to vent my spleen. I bet it's a 1998 Astra or an Escort, or something from the 90's. Argh.

[Albert Ross]

I'd go round and dent the neighbours' cars. That way, they'd all match. Strangely I drive the oldest car on my Street, nobody seems to complain, conversely, I am in demand for towing dead cars, helping fix things, popping to the tip for elderly neighbours in return for cake/beer etc....... It helps to have a vehicle where appearance doesn't matter.

[Lord Sterling]

Kin 'ell, yet another example of how society has fallen into the its all about appearences malarky. I was given an F-reg Sierra back in 2005, I was well chuffed, even my mates were impressed (Then again, not alot of them drove then)

 

I really dont understand this 'must have new car/clothes/other crap to impress others I dont know' mentality that sems to be sweeping the nation of late, then again, I dont care. I've had 'new plate' company cars in the past and while they are Ok, I just prefer older, cheaper to buy and run barges.

[Pete-M]

I was given a K reg Peugeot 405 GED back in 2001.

 

I had to go to Tottenham to collect it, but it was a free car with tax'n'test so I went and got it. I was skint, and spent my last £100 on the train down and fuel back. Kipped in it near Newmarket on the way back. Took a Walkman™ as the radio didn't work. It was a white, non-turbo, ex-Police ex-London illegal minicab and had something like 200k on the clock. It had quite possibly never been valeted and leaked diesel into the alternator.

 

Ran it for a short while as it was free, cheap to run, cheap to insure and worked. Spent two days valeting the bloody thing, about £80 getting the pump fixed and sold it for £400 to a motor trader who needed a car he could leave parked anywhere and go to various auctions in. He had it for ages.

[Albert Ross]

Bosch pump throttle spindle syndrome. I know it well.

[Guest]

Why do people worry so much about what other people think of them?

 

Furthermore, why do people think they are so important that others will even stop to consider them? If I died tomorrow, the majority of people on my street wouldn't give a toss, they don't know me. About the only thing we have in common is living on the same street. Even if they don't like the cars on the drive, are they really going to be bothered to pursue it? What's the worst they're going to do, make a catty comment to someone else I have nothing to do with? It won't find its way back to me, so it doesn't even exist as far as I'm concerned.

 

There's loads of things in the world I dislike, but also have no plans to tackle. For example, there's a woman down the road who often wears stupid grey leggings, I don't intend on making a formal complaint. A few doors down, someone has a dog which has a really dumb-looking face, I'm not going to bray on their door to let them know it bothers me. When I'm turning around at the end of the street, I can see someone's TV and it often has shows on I hate, they're not going to get a terse memo about it.

 

Ultimately, nobody cares about your R-reg Punto, your crappy curtains, last generation mobile phone and George at Asda jeans. Anyone who does is an absolute sadact and if your life revolves around impressing said sadacts, you might as well climb inside an old fridge and suffocate yourself. In any case, what on earth would you stand to gain from currying favour with someone like that? It's not like if you meet their requirements they're going to come round your house and award you with £50, a great big medal and a nice trophy with a little golfer on it.

 

It's a hell of a lot easier to get on with your life if you don't spend any time worrying about how other people might perceive it (if indeed they care, which they near-definitely don't).

[garethj]

Strangely I drive the oldest car on my Street

So do I, and it's a year 2000 car!

 

When I'm turning around at the end of the street, I can see someone's TV and it often has shows on I hate, they're not going to get a terse memo about it.

I think you should reconsider this

[Cavcraft]

People like that can't be helped. If he's such a turd he's worried what the neighbours might think then instead of lambasting him we should join up that website and suggest he does what we know he will anyhow: give his job a few weeks then whang down to Carcrap and sign up for a polished up, clapped out ultra high mileage German company car. I'm glad that wanker doesn't live near me, he sounds like a right nightmare.

[Albert Ross]

Hirst. I must write of my displeasure at reading that you disapprove of my £4 denim trousers from Asda. I wear them because I prefer wind-up windows. Thus proven because the zip is shit and keeps displaying my bollocks at inopportune moments (when IS a good moment to display bollocks?) You can't go round telling people you think they are cheap just because you are the hub of fashion in W.Yorks! Honestly! If I could find a shiny brown suit that fitted off the peg at Asda, I would wear it.

[andrew e]

You George denim people make me sick. Do you not know for £15 you can get Marks & Spencer cords now???

 

Saying that last year I crashed a motoring event, and one the manufacturer P.R. gaffer was wearing the same cut George brown cords as me

 

Sorry for the cordroy thread drift...

[scooters]

the problem is that in the lasy 10 years car manufacturers have given up selling cars and instead sell finance. They make cars (Renner are good at this) which are deisgned to last 3/4 years - certainly no more than ten and tell the masses that they need a ne4w car after 3 years. EG my mother uys a picasso - on tick - 3 years later she gets contacted and told she can get a new car for an extra £20 per month....seems daft not to but she doesn the sums and realises she is locking herself into another 3 years worth of payments. But you see, most of us don't actually look at how much somthing costs in total but rather how much somthing costs us every month as that is the more important figure with immediate fiscal impact.

 

I have seen this change in the last couple of years. I have been contacted by six mates in the last month who are all looking to buy a second hand car and are scared of doing so and want some advice. I find it extraordinary wen people say "I'm not mechanical" "I need the seller to reassure me" What other pirchase costing 10 grand would you buy WITHOUT equipping yourself with all the facts.

 

I am no expert on Sicily but I can tell you, if I were going to shell out £5k for a holiday there I would bloody well make sure I knew exactly what to expect, warts and all.

 

I was discussing this with friends the other day - they were taking the piss out of the 306 - until I pointed out that it cost less that a tyre on a Q7 and cost sweeties to run. "What if it brakes down?" they clamoured - it could cost you thousands...no...says I I make a call on the cost of the repair and if it is not worth it either sell it on or weigh it in and buy another...But that means you could be off the road while you look for another ...says them....well, says I, I could have a fleet of them for one month's running costs of the Q7 and A6 you drive...so I can afford to run a couple of them just in case...

 

there was silence as they all did the sums..."Bloody Hell" was all the Q7 chap said..he was quite quiet after that especially when I showed him a 2001 Volvo V70 D - top of the range with £80k on the clock for sale for £900 on my phone....

 

vanity