Peace of mind from driving a beater?

S

SZR48207

Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Messages
4,962
I know some here are very OCD about their vehicle finishes and are the types to park at the back of the lot, away from other drivers and shopping cars and foot traffic.

So for that crowd: Have you ever purchased a crappy beater car that you drove for times when you didn't want to constantly worry about door dings or severe weather?

Or is the hard truth that you're better off accepting defeat and letting the car take the hits?
 
We have to take the older stuff whenever we go somewhere because my mom has a fear of her 2017 Camry getting scratched which is understandable until it’s 20 degrees outside and we are in it and they park about 400 feet from the Walmart away from everyone then we come out and someone is parked next to it. One of her coworkers hit the door on it with their door and had to fix it too. Yet when we are somewhere in me or my dads cars it doesn’t matter to her lol typical. I don’t want scratches on my beater either because the beaters are the better cars of the fleet lol.
 
I'm not too picky. I drive the Genesis most anywhere. It gets rock chips and everything in the freeway, it's just whatever at this point.

But for the last 6 months or so I've been driving the Camry to the grocery store to avoid door dings. What's funny is when I park the Camry, people will pull in next to me and then pull straight through to the other side, rarely do they park next to it. I don't blame them, it's a Mad-Max mobile.

I welcome door dings at this point!

9B5099D5-EACE-4EA0-9D0B-348105B6021E.jpeg
 
I have my 2000 Blazer for my airport beater. Since I fly every week it spends its life at the airport. It's a tank in the snow and always starts though, so all good for its purpose.
 
I was driving an old 1972 Skylark on the 22nd street bridge south bound and a totally pimped out big shiny well polished pink Cadillac with the driver in a suit with a brimmed hat with a feather was to my right coming down an entrance ramp on my right, right beside me going the same speed I was going on the North side of the bridge, and I was already on the bridge and had the right of way, and the old Skylark I was driving was a couple of weeks away from going to the bone yard. He kept on coming over like he expected me to move over and get out of his way. I though you really want to swap paint with me while I'm driving this old car and you are driving your shiny Cadillac, come on over, and I did not move over one inch. He got on the brakes.

Sometimes driving something that is disposable has its advantages.
 
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My gas getter is a 94 Tercel that is far from perfect and my daily driver is an 86 K20. I don’t own a single vehicle that most here would describe as even decent but I still worry. I get fighting mad over door dings in anything. It’s not the door ding it’s the lack of respect for other people’s stuff that irritates me. I worked really hard to own the stuff I do for some cranky old cow to dent it at the grocery store because she’s got to get her beach bag purse out.
 
Driving a beater does relieve some OCD worries compared to driving a prestine new car, but I still would treat it well and park it careful. If it got door dinged or sctratch I'd only be upset for 5 minutes instead of 5 days, lol.
 
I had a beater for a year and it was nice to use it on occasion and not worry about a thing. I also kept a Honda accord for 17 years and the last four years of its life it was my beater car...and yup, didn’t care what happened to it at that point

Right now I don’t have a beater car and I’ll tell you what...I tried “not caring” and parking it anywhere without worry. Well guess what happened? Got myself a good size ding and $700 dollars later it is “fixed”. Fixed as in, it looks good but not great.

So lesson learned...I won’t be parking my car too close to the store where people are jammed up against you and carriages fly freely.
 
Did I ever intentionally purchase a beater? No, but I always had one. Currently as much as I hate to call it a beater my 88 E-150 is the family beater. Where I live if you are a car enthusiast you should have a beater, there are too many people who are a-holes and don't care about someone's car and will not hesitate to ram a shopping cart into it, or slam their door into the side of your car. Sad.
 
Nick1994 said:
I'm not too picky. I drive the Genesis most anywhere. It gets rock chips and everything in the freeway, it's just whatever at this point.

But for the last 6 months or so I've been driving the Camry to the grocery store to avoid door dings. What's funny is when I park the Camry, people will pull in next to me and then pull straight through to the other side, rarely do they park next to it. I don't blame them, it's a Mad-Max mobile.

I welcome door dings at this point!

View attachment 49812
Click to expand...
I love the vanity plates. When I saw BTS I could only think of Beat to S**T! 👍
 
When I’m alone at a marsh lake 12 miles down a sandy peninsula … no peace of mind if I had a beater.
Better to have something fresher made to take a beating 😷
 
demarpaint said:
Did I ever intentionally purchase a beater? No, but I always had one. Currently as much as I hate to call it a beater my 88 E-150 is the family beater. Where I live if you are a car enthusiast you should have a beater, there are too many people who are a-holes and don't care about someone's car and will not hesitate to ram a shopping cart into it, or slam their door into the side of your car. Sad.
Click to expand...
Yeah … my wife pays the valet guy $20 so he can go away and get that pearlescent paint dinged.
 
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