Rant: A Note About Manners In Another Man's Vehicle

[aahn]

I haven't posted in a while because it's been a while since my '00 RX

HASN'T been giving me a headache, and I have to thank this forum

because it's given me quite an education I wouldn't have procured

otherwise, but I'm going to share a story about events in my beloved

SC.

First of all, I'm in LOVE with my SC430. I've had absolutely no problems

with the car, and when I'm alone I feel as though the car is an extension

of my body, and that we are a single entity floating at high speeds. The

only problem I have with it though is with my IDIOT friends.

I apoligize in advance if I sound like a pompous !Removed!, but I believe that

passengers, when stepping into a vehicle such as an SC430 ('03 which

I keep immaculate at all times), should KNOW that they are not riding

in any ordinary vehicle. My RX you can set on fire, and I'll pay you to

do it, but for passengers who have ridden in my car, it should immed-

etely click with them to excercise discretion.

Unfortunately that has not always been the case, and countless are the

times where I've found bizarre oddities wedged in the nooks and crannies

of my vehicle, and countless are the times that I've cleaned greasy finger

prints off the controls, glass, and paint of my vehicle.

Maybe I'm too pressed about my car, but it is my belief that passeng-

ers to such a high calibre vehicle should know that the it is NOT okay

to treat my car like a waste basket, it is NOT okay to eat or smoke

without asking first, and most importantly, the NAV is NOT a toy!!!

I know to many I sound crazy and obsessed. Has anyone else had

problems like these?

[RX in NC]

I suggest you write up and print out a list of ground rules that all passengers must adhere to before they set foot in your car. Then pass these out to your friends as you encounter them over the next few days or weeks. Explain that you're only doing this because you value your car more than their friendship. You can bet that your messy car problems will disappear instantaneously because from then on, you'll be driving alone 100% of the time.

Seriously now, it's all about etiquette and respect. Are you hauling Third World refugees around? Most folks in the professional world have enough sense to know that they should not mess up someone else's vehicle....

[aahn]

LOL. Yes third world refugees.

No I'm 23 and my friends, while most of them

have professional jobs, are still very much in

a college kid frame of mind.

[SW03ES]

I know exactly how you feel, I'm in real estate so people are constantly in my car and I experience the same kinds of things.

But, its something you probably are just going to have to get over. Its not like they're perminently damaging your car, they're just riding in it. 95% of people don't care about cars the way we do, and as long as they're not doing things like eating or smoking, putting their feet up on the dashboard etc. They aren't going to understand and you're just going to make them feel uncomfortable being around you.

[LexKid630]

As soon as you have kids, it all goes away! :P

You just give up

[SKperformance]

Get a stylish Prada bag and find somewhere nice to make it stay in place to be used as a garbage. It will give your "friends" an idea of how far you would go to use a Prada bag for garbage in your machine.

Otherwise you are going to have a problem telling acquaintances to be careful.

Everyone i know ,knows about me and my cars . Women who could not careless ,always make sure to knock the dirt/snow off there shoes before entering . They do this not to anger or appease me but because the respect how much time i take to make each one of my cars "MY CAR" not just a car.

They always give me a smirk and glance when they do it but they understand at this point in my life i don't have kids i have cars.

[Lexusfreak]

As soon as you have kids, it all goes away! :P

You just give up

Lol, so I have heard.....should be interesting once I have little ones running around.

[RX in NC]

As others have said here, the best solution is for you to control your emotions better. Some things are simply not worth raising your stress levels for.

I'm meticulous about the interior of my personal vehicles. I don't eat or drink in them, I wipe my feet thoroughly before I climb in, I shake my floor mats out at least every couple of days even when there is no visible debris, I don't touch the interior glass unless it's with a clean rag, there are no onboard trash receptacles because there is never any trash, etc. etc. etc. It's an obsessive/compulsive thing, I know.

My wife is completely opposite. She's in her vehicle on-and-off all day long, so it becomes a rolling office. She often eats lunch in it, grabs a soft drink on the run, stickies up the cupholders with soft drink overflow, tracks dirt and debris onto the floor mats, loses drinking straw wrappers down into the seats, drops loose change, and generally manages to turn her interior into what I've long called the "pigmobile" within two weeks. So every two to three weeks I spend thirty minutes to an hour cleaning, vacuuming, and treating her interior in an effort to keep it reasonably well-conditioned. My only rule is that whatever money I find becomes mine. Sometimes it's just loose change, sometimes it may be a $20 bill. But that's the price she pays for being sloppy with her vehicle interior.

Her car interior sloppiness used to drive me insane and was the basis for many knock-down drag-out arguments. After a few years I realized that in the grand scheme of things, this just wasn't worth fighting about. So I made myself lose some of my interior meticulousness with the vehicle she drives and came to terms with the fact that I would have to expend much more effort cleaning her interior than I ever do with mine.

But I do manage to get her back from time to time. She's as meticulous with her kitchen as I am with my vehicles. So every chance I get to leave a big mess in the sink for her to have to clean up, you can bet that I take full advantage of it....

[LexKid630]

My wife is the same exact same way... Her LS looks terrible.

The back seats are COVERED in piles of papers and boxes full of files, the interior smells like a coffee shop, stains EVERYWHERE, rips in the leather, pen marks all over the place, an inch of dust over everything, piles of dirt and road salt on the floor, deep scratches all over the back trunk from putting things on it, scratches all over the car! She treats this thing soo poorly. You should have seen her 03 GS430 before we sold it... We've had this LS since last May, only 26,000 miles, and it looks more like ten years old! The car is covered in road salts; it looks gray! If i don't take it out to be cleaned, it never will! I can't really say anything to her since it IS her car and she works for it. She's the only one who's ever is in the car, so i guess it doesn't really matter... I really feel like taking it away though, and protecting it! :(

My Rx300 is perfect though. Well not perfect, i've already backed into a car with it, leaving a few scuffs The interior of the car is somewhat clean though; just some garbage thrown around...nothing an hours worth of work can't fix! This car was supposed to be my daughter's but i don't want her to have this Rx300; it's had so many mechanical problems. I can just imagine what she would have done to it :o

In May we'll have a new little one in the family so her LS will have to be cleaned!

[RFeldes]

Rips in the leather? Buy her a Honda!! Geez!!! I was just getting ready to say, don't sweat the small stuff and be sweet and clean it up over the weekend. Live and let live kinda like... Let it go.:whistles: Thought some of you guys were going over the top ..but a "Rip" in the leather would be like a Rip in my A$$. I'm at a loss for words, and some of you that know me find that hard to believe :whistles: but once again, my tongue is full of holes (tongue in cheek) :cries: But alas, It's only temporary.... "Rips in the Leather" Sorry Lexkid, "Honda" Just noticed she paid for it... Be "Very, Very quiet"

[nc211]

Getcha' one of these things, and I bet your buddies follow the rules from here on out!

"..is..is..is that dog crap on your shoes :o ? ZAP!! Here's yer sign, now get out of my car!"

And I can't figure out what happened to my social life?

[dcfish]

Getcha' one of these things, and I bet your buddies follow the rules from here on out!

"..is..is..is that dog crap on your shoes :o ? ZAP!! Here's yer sign, now get out of my car!"

And I can't figure out what happened to my social life?

[indiasfinest]

LOL :D