Replies

First, I don't think this is anything new. I have had any number of new cars. I have never had a car trade in without door dings or parking lot scrapes. This isn't a sign of modern times as much as it is of an immature ill-raised youth. They've been around as long as time.

Second, the reactions you are getting is proof of the declining maturity of our general population and how they react to such situations--of course much of that reaction is just pipe-dream bravado. Not many of those who say, "You should've . . ." would dream of actually doing so. I think it is venting a generally held frustration with the direction our society has taken.

It reminds me of the old W.C. Fields movie in which he gets rich and buys a bunch of new cars with drivers to follow him around. Every time someone makes him mad, he simply wrecks his car then gets out and moves to the next one in line. Or the dream that many have of buying a half-track and even a tank to drive through the traffic and teach bad drivers a lesson.

Stuff happens. The proper way to handle it is the way it has always been properly handled, confront the kid, get his driver license number and report it to your insurance company and his. File a claim against him--or simply come onto FR, tell your tale of frustration, and then with a minimum of grumbling, move on.

Life it too full to let some idiot youth's action give you ulcers.

In the spring in my state, when the snows recede and dairy farmers finally get to empty their winter manure pits, the roads can get a bit messy. One of my college pals hired his younger brother to drive the spreader in the islands - a normally busy route for NYers to get to Burlington. One particularly obnoxious gent in a flashy convertible got a bit too impatient traveling at only 25 mph for the three miles from farm to field and received a present he’ll never forget. A quick flick of the wrist engaged the PTO and sent a few hundred gallons of ripe Holstein manure in a gentle arc that turned the car from red to brown, front to back. Naturally, the car owner called the police, but the young operator claimed he got nervous and hit the wrong switch.
Case closed as an accident.