The Cellar / Cars -just everyday shit, nothing technical here

**Posted by monster** 11/25/2023 11:21 pm

1) How often do you wash your car (including going through the carwash)
2) If you have a garage, do you park your car in it?
3) Does your car have a name?
4) On a scale of 1-10 where 1 is "It needs to get me from A to B in a way I'm OK with" and 10 is "It reflects me and needs to project what I want to see", what role does your car play in your life?

The day before thanksgiving, I was driving home around 3pm, and the line at one carwash I passed (and there are many within 2 miles of my house) was maybe 20 cars long. WHY???? Are you hosting and want it to look pristine sitting on your drive when your guests arrive? Or are you about to drive a long way and make it filthy again? You think clean cars reflect the magic rays of speed guns?

I live in Michigan. The snow is coming. Houses in my neighborhood have double garages. yet so many cars are parked in the driveway even in the nastiest weather (and not because they have more than 2 cars). Like mine -because my garage is full of crap. like FULL. And I know that's not uncommon. But my next-door neighbor, hers does have stuff in it, but it's small piles of seasonal items with lots of space in between.....why in the hell does she not scoot it over a bit and put her car in there? And the neighbor across the street has room for cars in the garage but parks in the drive. Some sort of quick getaway thing? They keep the trash cans in there, so I can see in when they put them to the curb. Empty. Maybe they shoot porn in there or something?

My car is called cognito. and that's my license plate too. 'cause it makes me laugh

3 maybe?

**Posted by Clodfobble** 11/26/2023 8:27 am

1.) Never
2.) Never
3.) Never
4.) 1

Our garage is actually filled with woodworking tools, rather than junk storage (not claiming we don't have any, it's just all in the attic.) But even if it were pristine and empty, I wouldn't park my car in there, except maybe to pull it in briefly during a hailstorm. For one thing, entering the house from the garage is a pain in the ass, just due to the layout of our house, and for another, I have this uncomfortable sense of trapped exhaust fumes--like maybe they're negligible and it's all in my head, but I can't help but think about how I'm probably getting a little brain damage every time I step out of car that's just pulled into a tiny garage and closed the door.

**Posted by monster** 11/26/2023 9:19 pm

Clodfobble, love it and I could have totally predicted your answers. You are my hero.

TBH most of the crap in my garage is tools etc., but they're not particularly brilliantly organized. and then there's the welding table.

**Posted by Limey** 11/27/2023 5:49 am

1.) Never
2.) Never
3.) Never
4.) 1

**Posted by Diaphone Jim** 11/27/2023 12:47 pm

Car (owned for 31 years): Washed occasionally, always garaged, "Bud" sometimes, not sure of scale, but over 5.
Truck (53 years). Very seldom, carported, not really, 8 or 9.

**Posted by Happy Monkey** 11/27/2023 1:33 pm

1) Very seldom, and gas station carwashes only, but since I don't ever really do it, they don't do anything but put wax over the dirt.
2) No garage
3) No
4) 3. It's a hybrid, which counts for two points, and it's got red reflective tape on the rear bumper which was added for purely utilitarian reasons (assist alignment during parallel parking at night; my car is a dark color and the bumper is invisible at night in the rear view camera), but it looks sort of like blood dripping from my trunk, which I find mildly amusing, so I added another point.

**Posted by glatt** 11/27/2023 3:30 pm

I wash it when there is birdshit at eye level obstructing my view out the windshield. I start by washing the shit off, and then it looks unusually clean in that spot, so I wind up quickly washing the whole thing. I spend typically 5 minutes at most on a wash, unless it a beautiful summer day and I'm having fun playing with the hose. One time, I even took the wheels off and scrubbed the brake dust off the inner wheels with barkeeper's friend. That was during the pandemic though, and it was cheaper than putting on an addition like all my neighbors did. I washed it about 2 weeks ago very quickly because it was cold out and I wasn't having fun, but one of those vacuum leaf trucks was apparently idling next to it and blowing particulate leaf specks all over the place, coating it with a thick dusting of wet leaf specks that would brush off onto your clothing as well as obstruct the view out the windows. Not happy about that.

I typically wash it 1 or 2 times a year in the driveway with a hose and a bucket of soapy water.

No garage.
No name. (unless "the Honda" counts)
I love love, love, love the heated electric leather seats. Thank you Mary! (The neighbor that died and we bought the car from.)

I'd like a smaller hybrid or electric car for my next vehicle. We rented a Honda Jazz in Scotland and I mostly liked it.

**Posted by griff** 11/28/2023 6:56 am

1) rarely but I do wash the road salt off in the winter
2) No garage.
3) No, what do you think it is a bike?
4) 1 It's for work

**Posted by TheNeverWas** 11/29/2023 8:28 pm

1. I try to wash it with bucket and a sponge once a week weather permitting. It has really nice paint.

2. No garage, but I put it under the carport when hail is a possibility; I have a ginormouos glass sunroof. Rly, it's huge.

3. The Scarlet Pimpernel

4. 5

**Posted by xoxoxoBruce** 12/04/2023 9:54 pm

I don't wash it and the last decent car wash around here was grabbed by eminent domain and given to the university next door. The rest are squirt at you driving through which are only good for dust, not dirt.
In September I had it detailed for it's 18th birthday.

I spent $20,000 and went up as high as I could go in the states courts trying to get a permit to build a garage from the republican assholes running this fiefdom, without success.

No name... no permanent name although many temporary names when it gives me shit.

7, I guess. I care what it looks like when I look at it, but don't care what others think when they do.
It's mine and what we do in privacy ain't nobody's business but our own.