When did you start taking care of your car?

[Theroy]

I'm brand new here. Just found the site today. I'm 32 and I never used to care about the appearance of my cars until I recently bought one brand new. My first car was an old Audi with electrical problems ($600). I could honk the horn by pushing on the steering column and the ash tray had to be pushed all the way in or it wouldn't start (no joke). Suffice it to say, I really wasn't worried about how it looked. I washed it every couple of months but never polished it. It was dish soap and a rag. Succeeding cars didn't fare much better.

Now that I've paid top dollar for a brand new (albeit economy) car, I really want to take care of it. Other auto enthusiasts I've met seem to be the type that take care of all their stuff or have always been anal about details. I'm not like that, which made me wonder if I was a freak. Am I the only one who came to car care late? When did you start taking proper care of your cars (detailing, waxing, etc)? Was it a new car that did it or were you swabbing and waxing the old clunker when you were 18?

Glad I found this place!

~Theroy

[fidelfs]

First to Autopia.

Second: I always took care of my car but the difference is the knowledge I have now. I did not know about clay, MF, polish, PC, etc. I tried to do it but I was causing some damage at the same time. Don't be so hard with yourself. It is good that you found this place and be ready to learn.

Click on learn icon to begin with your training. How fun.

1st question: How did you come about finding out that by pushing in the ash tray, the car would start ??

19 yrs old, when I bought my first Toyota P/U....Was a whopping $7400.00, with a/c am/fm and a sliding rear window, even "wing" windows. Was perfect for racing thru the canyons to get to the beach to surf....I used Rain Dance religiously....
I quote my mother, "I wish you would spend as much time cleaning your room as you do your truck." Prior to that, I had a 65 Malibu, thats what I learned to drive in, nice machine, but out of style for a 16 yr old punk.....(((I WISH I STILL OWNED IT NOW))), course im in my 40's now....lol
Takes forever to learn common sense......

[Theroy]

Well, I was a teenage smoker and I was sitting there smoking, wondering how the hell I was going to get this car to start. I put the cig out in the ash tray, pushed it in to close it, then tried it again. It started. At first I thought it was a coincidence but I came to find that it would only start with the tray in! It must have put the right amount of pressure on some wiring somewhere. That car finally died a year later and no amount of ashtray maneuvering would make it start!

[pico]

I am also new to car detailing..... i am 26 years old. I never washed my vechiles more than once a year and never waxed. At the time I also used Dawn soap cause I didn't know any better. I now drive an old pickup that is paying the price.

We bought a new car for my wife and I didn't want to make the same mistakes again, so I started reading this site. Now a I am changed man, .

BTW, my first car was an old escort that i bought from a bank repo lot. It had been through a flood so you can imagine what it was like. It also had 3 13" wheels and one 15" wheel with an even bigger tire on it. It was hard to look cool driving down the road with my car tilted awkwardly, . Ahhhh, first cars......

pico

[GearHead_1]

I got my first car when I was 17. It was a cherry 70 Mach I. I could barely afford the car. Mom and Dad told me they would pay my insurance as long as My GPA was over a 3.5. I couldn't afford to have someone else fix or take care of my car so I started early. That was 20+ years ago and I've been taking care of them ever since. The story about the ash tray is pretty funny and reminds me of an electrical problem I had once. It was on a 79 Ford F-150. While the truck was at freeway speeds if you honked the horn the cruise control would automatically accel until you either hit the brakes or turned it off. This happened when the cruise control wasn't engaged. I did a little research and found out that the cruise control and the horn ran through the same relay and traced it back to a short in the steering wheel. Made for some interesting experiences the first couple of times I experienced this problem.

[Jeff Laughhunn]

I'm in my forties. Owned more cars than I care to count. Only drove them thru the occasional carwash. Bought a new Mazda in 1991, same treatment (only worse, counting the time I scotch-brited the entire thing to get overspray from work off). Fastforward 2002, bought a glorious new Mazda 626 Wifemobile (for our 20th anniversary). The (5 years) car payment was higher than our mortgage. It was at this point I got serious about taking care of an auto's finish. And, thanks to Autopia (and hard work on my part), I can honestly say the car looks better than new, nearly 2 years after we bought it.
I plan on still saying that when it's paid off, in 2007. In the mean time,
BLING BLING

[GearHead_1]

Originally posted by Jeff Laughhunn
I'm in my forties.

You had to bring this up didn't you?

[andriver]

Welcome to Autopia. I started taking care of my first car, a 66 GTO, when I was 15. I used 3M wax and powedered soap and also Turtle wax. Although the car was broken 50% of the time, I still have fond memories of the goat.

[Jeff Laughhunn]

Yeah, since he asked when did I start caring, I guess I did. heh
In my teens, I had more tickets (speeding mostly) than my age. I can remember two cars that I never changed the oil or plugs in, cause they didn't last _me_ that long... Sometimes it takes a while to catch on, doesn't it?
;-)

[sheep208]

just now after my first DWI.........

[madazskunk]

Always have Always will