Here we are again. Every person that has touched my MINI has damaged it. I'm beginning to wonder if there's a competent human left to work on our MINIs. In late December/early January I had a flat. I went to get it fixed. I'm embarrassed to say, but I haven't really washed the wheels until today. I washed the car and did a quick brushing of the wheels...and one time ran down to the car wash to clean them. Neither did a good job of course. Well, today I actually squatted down to clean the wheels off, and to my amazement the very wheel that had the flat tire on it has scrapes on it now. At first, I thought who drove my car into a curb? I knew it wasn't me. Then I realized that this definitely wasn't road rash. These are around the inner edge of the wheel and could never come in contact with a curb without damaging the rest of the wheel. Some of them are down to the metal. I'm not even sure what to do. I'm so sick of idiots who don't care about anything. Do these people have no pride in what they do?! Give me a break. Does anyone know what this is going to cost? I suppose I'll need to add it to my fix-other-moron's-mistakes list. Maybe my car is just extremely unlucky. It's unbelieveable how many insanely stupid things have happened to this car since I picked it up 9 months ago...only 9,000 miles on it.

I've thought about selling it because of all the heartache it's caused me. I'd rather own an old piece of crap beater that I don't care about than deal with this. The only thing that keeps me from selling Simon at this point is that I don't like the thought of walking away from him for the last time. The thought of looking back one last time makes me sad, and I'm really not sure why. I know it's just a car. Am I completely out of my mind?

 

You are out of your mind.

It is hard when many things happen to the same car, but if it is the people it could have happened to any car. I don't much believe in luck, good or bad.
Things happen and we just need to understand why and deal with it.

If your car is problem prone then you may have a reason to sell it. If it is the people who work on it, use different people.

 

Sorry to hear about the damaged rim. That's part of the reason I'm so hesitant on buying a new MCS. I've had my current car for 11 years and it has cheap plastic hubcaps. The car is in great shape for it's age and I still worry about door dings etc. like it was a new car. Maybe I Should just get the basic MCS without any of the options. If it happened to me I would complain to the shop manager of the place that fixed your tire and see what he can do about it. You could even report them to the Better Busines Bureau.

 

unfortunately, people are savages, and all you can do is repair things when they get damaged, and do your best to catch things when they happen, as this gives you the best chance of being able to get THEM to pay for it. I ALWAYS thouroughly inspect my car when I get it back from anybody. Heck, the MINI dealer scratched my wife's wheel when we had her car in for service this weekend. Luckily, we caught it RIGHT away, and pointed it out, and they paid to have it repaired. Unfortunately though, you can't catch everyone, and sometimes, you just have to chalk it up to "stuff happens". You can either have a nice car, enjoy it, and pay to keep it nice; you can have a nice car, NOT pay to keep it nice and watch it go to crap (this what a lot of people do and saddens me greatly); or you can get a POS and not care about it. I recommend either the first or the last, as the first and second plan both cost money (in the second, you just pay when you sell the car), at least in the first scenario you have a nice car. If you can't afford to though, option 3 is your best bet.

 

Who do I need to go to to fix this sort of thing? ...and how much does it cost? I'm tempted to leave it, because like I said, EVERY human being that has touched it has damaged it. This is including me taking it in someplace to fix someone else's mistake. So, right now, without this damaged wheel, I'm looking at spending over 1k to fix idiot's mistakes. This is after spending 1k to fix previous people's mistakes which ended in more things to fix. We're at 2k without the wheels. This is going to get old really fast. I baby this car; other people destroy it. What's the point of trying. I'm sure as heck not going to keep spending this much money to keep this car looking new. I have a Hyundai, and it's what I refer to as a "beater." Paint's peeling, tons of door dings, lots of scratches, etc. I've taken pretty good care of this car. Always kept it waxed, etc. I've just had it a long time...it's a 1995! ...and it looks pretty good for a 12-year old car. Especially considering the fact that it set outside all day every day throughout college. The point is, if this happened to the Hyundai, I wouldn't care. I don't think that makes me a bad person...cars get old. Old beat up cars are kind of nice in a way...they have character. They've been through it, and when I see an old faded BMW, Volvo, or even an old Honda on the road, I have some respect for that car. ...and, if they're lucky, they'll get restored, but most cars will have the same fate...of becoming recycled goods. The good thing about a MINI is that they're worth restoring. My Hyundai isn't...who would want a classic Hyundai?! My old college roommate is a Miata fan and has had one since college. He told me that I need to stop worrying about this car, and that I need to take it to the track and drive the heck out of it. If I get some dings in it, I won't sweat the little stuff. I wish it were 10 years down the road for the MINI, then this kind of thing wouldn't bother me. Anyway, back to the question at hand. Does anyone know how much this will cost? If it's crazy expensive, I'm not messing with it.