While living in the US, I owned several cars and drove them for years without having to deal with scratches and dents. Bought new Ford in January and within 8 months, got a few major dents and scratches on the back fender and on the passenger side just by PARKING it. It’s fecking frustrating to walk out of a movie or to start your car in the morning to find another scratch on your new car.
Is there any insurance in Taiwan that will cover this? Or should I just suck it up and admit that this is part of living in Taiwan?
You should have cover on that if it’s a new car. Once a year, just before renewal, you get all the dings taken care of at once. There’s a small penalty, but it’s worth it.
BTW, average price for a body shop to repair one panel is NT$3000 regardless of how many dings there are. It’s about 30k to have the whole car pulled/bashed straight and resprayed.
About the only advice I can give you as far as avoidance goes is always to park between two luxury cars if possible. The guy who owns a Jag or a Lexus probably cares enough not to throw his door open into yours, use his self-interest to your advantage.
“Better get used to it!” Kudos to Shin Gua for being such an Ugly Chinaman or Chinawoman. Say hello to Archie “Love it or Leave it” Bunker if you run into him in Florida.
Hey hsiadogah,
What do they charge for just a wax and partial paint restoration job without taking the plates apart since there is no dent. I’ll probably go to my car wash for a quote. The dealer is always expensive. Thanks for the advice. I’ll get the whole package when I renew my insurance.
[quote=“whiskas2”]“Better get used to it!” Kudos to Shin Gua for being such an Ugly Chinaman or Chinawoman. Say hello to Archie “Love it or Leave it” Bunker if you run into him in Florida.
[/quote]It’s good advice, whether you like it or not. There really isn’t anything you can do to prevent people from smacking your property up, because they just don’t care. Some strategies to avoid damage:
Parking in narrow alleys is begging for dents. Don’t park kerbside, use parking lots. Commute by public transport if possible, and use your car on the weekends.
In public lots like at the supermarket etc. try to park as far away from the store entrance as possible, since people are lazy to walk. Of course it helps if you go shopping off-peak.
If you have to park in a crowded lot, then sandwich yourself between two luxury cars.
Never, ever park next to a car that already has beat up bodywork, especially if it has Hello Kitty, housewife type paraphernalia on board. Sorry ladies.
You could hire some thugs to stand around and protect your ride, but if you could afford that, I think you’d be driving something a bit fancier than a Ford
[quote=“whiskas2”]
What do they charge for just a wax and partial paint restoration job without taking the plates apart since there is no dent. I’ll probably go to my car wash for a quote.[/quote]Car wash (hand) may be able to do a little polish job before waxing, but they aren’t pros at this kind of thing, and IMO there’s a 50/50 chance they’ll make it worse. The 3k per panel thing is an industry-wide price, and usually gets applied to any work in the shop whether it’s a full on dent pull / fill / respray, or just a touch-up. I would DIY if there’s no dent or primer visible.
[quote=“whiskas2”]The dealer is always expensive.[/quote]Uh… Ford service is about the cheapest of any brand. But anyway, body work is a fixed-price commodity, except for owners of fancy imports. Expect the Mercedes or Porsche dealer to rip you off for labor, but Ford etc. are fine on this stuff. Most of them contract the work to local bodyshops, very few do bodywork in-house.
[quote=“irishstu”]If there’s no dent, can you maybe t-cut it? I’ve managed to get some scratches out of my wife’s car by just using some fairly aggressive car wax.[/quote]If the scratches aren’t too deep, like less than half the thickness of the color coat, you can cut the surrounding area down to remove the scratch. Use metal polish since it’s basically the same ammonia based abrasive compound as T-Cut etc., and way cheaper.
Remember to wax afterwards.
There are some good forums for detailers, just search.
My friend got some kind of voucher deal from a place in Neihu. I thought it was very expensive until I saw what they did to his heavily scratched and dented Saab. Outstanding work! I’ll try to get the details off him soon.
Last week someone knocked over my brand new Sym motorbike while it was in my company’s carpark. It’s a pretty heavy bike with a very stable stand … we found out from the security camera footage that the girl actually drove her scooter head on into it, sent it flying across the basement, and then sat there and looked surprised.
After she’d picked it up again (with the help of two other people), she just drove off. Now I have dents everywhere.
[quote=“Brendon”]Last week someone knocked over my brand new Sym motorbike while it was in my company’s carpark. It’s a pretty heavy bike with a very stable stand … we found out from the security camera footage that the girl actually drove her scooter head on into it, sent it flying across the basement, and then sat there and looked surprised.
After she’d picked it up again (with the help of two other people), she just drove off. Now I have dents everywhere.
Kill …[/quote]
Sound typical. :fume: So if she was in your company lot, did you find out who she was???
I would love to approach her and ask her about it, only to have her deny everything and then make her watch the tape. :raspberry:
Yeah people here just don’t care. I parked my scooter near the MRT, came back 3 hours later and found it laying down on the ground. I really care less since its an older bike and nothing was broken/ But if I ever catch someone do that…oh man!
The best prevention is the patience of Bhudda and make sure that you get insurance that covers the dings.
Despite having underground parking both at my office and at home (at home is a sealed-off garage) and being very acreful about where I park, I find I have to repaint my car every 9 - 12 months. It sucks
