Sandra Supecar Supermodel

[Thrust Washer]

Hi Guys , Ive been a member on here for some time and rarely comment.

So your asked to provide a car for a local fun night charity event and upon collection noticed your car damaged , scratched windscreen surround , bent wiper arm and scratched bonnet.
2 weeks pass by and then you see this on the photographers social media site. The woman in question has been contacted via social media (its the only contact I have) and my telephone number provided requesting she contacts me.... still waiting her call. :umm:

Ive resided to the fact that she will never call. Its not about money its ALL about the principal.
We all accept that people take certain liberties at times with our cars ...but this gal purely takes the cake. I consider myself to be a fair & patient guy but have to say guys I am sick to the teeth of this kind person who doesnt give a damn about anyone elses property. If the door or T panel had been severely damaged a legal battle would no doubt be pending.

Im sure many of you have experienced same at some point... just so happens this gal got caught on camera and made worse by the photographer allowing it to happen.

Have to admit a very different approach in future with the car :mallet:

[DavidProehl]

Sorry to see this. You shouldn't have to babysit the car, especially when a photographer is there as well. I'd like to think people just don't realize this isn't only rude but vandalism, but maybe I'm giving humanity too much credit. It makes me wonder, do these same type of people crawl on other people's non-DeLorean cars in parking lots?

[Drive Stainless]

Hi Guys , Ive been a member on here for some time and rarely comment.

So your asked to provide a car for a local fun night charity event and upon collection noticed your car damaged , scratched windscreen surround , bent wiper arm and scratched bonnet.
2 weeks pass by and then you see this on the photographers social media site. The woman in question has been contacted via social media (its the only contact I have) and my telephone number provided requesting she contacts me.... still waiting her call. :umm:

Ive resided to the fact that she will never call. Its not about money its ALL about the principal.
We all accept that people take certain liberties at times with our cars ...but this gal purely takes the cake. I consider myself to be a fair & patient guy but have to say guys I am sick to the teeth of this kind person who doesnt give a damn about anyone elses property. If the door or T panel had been severely damaged a legal battle would no doubt be pending.

Im sure many of you have experienced same at some point... just so happens this gal got caught on camera and made worse by the photographer allowing it to happen.

Have to admit a very different approach in future with the car :mallet:

She's not going to call. She would be foolish to call and risk incriminating herself.

I did an event once where this same thing would have happened had I not been present for the entire duration. You would be wise to purchase insurance if you're going to use your car for this purpose. Insurance would resolve damage to your car with near-immediacy. If you had to track this person down, sue in small claims, win a judgement, appeal, get affirmed on appeal, and then attempt to collect a judgment, you could very easily have YEARS invested in the pursuit. Years invested in what would probably amount to a few hundred dollars in paint-less dent repair.

tl;dr version: Buy insurance targeted to using your car for this purpose.

[Thrust Washer]

Admin ... I have obscured & kept the identities of the persons from the post..if for whatever reason you feel the photo is not required or inappropriate by all means remove it...:thumbup:

[David T]

This is exactly why you need the person running the event to supply insurance or you must obtain it yourself. You will never get the individual responsible to pay. Best you can do is file a police report but that won't get you anywhere. Any professional will understand the need for insurance and most often provide it. Failing that, they will pay for it and you get it. If they won't get it or pay for it don't do the event. Consider this an expensive lesson.

[Lwanmtr]

Admin ... I have obscured & kept the identities of the persons from the post..if for whatever reason you feel the photo is not required or inappropriate by all means remove it...:thumbup:

If it had happened to me, I'd make sure to post the names, so that others might have some warning that x-person is not to be trusted with their car.

[DMCVegas]

Admin ... I have obscured & kept the identities of the persons from the post.

And by doing so, you are doing a great disservice to the community.

Be it purely for charity events, or as ways to supplement our restoration funds, many of us allow our cars to be used for events such as this one. Above all we need to be vigilant of course with our vehicles, and many here have already commented on that. However, once we do know of abuse such as this, we need to warn others who might have their cars damaged by these groups/event organizers/photographers/etc., if they come soliciting the other of us for the use of our vehicles. We need to know who these people are so that we may say no to them. Not just for DeLoreans, but for the other vehicles we own that can be used for events as well.

We need to protect our property, and not telling us which groups you know for a fact are willing to damage our cars isn't helping the rest of us.

Please post the information on who these people are, what group this was, who was the organizer, and who was the photographer. We need to know so that we can prevent damage to other vehicles.

[Michael]

Admin ... I have obscured & kept the identities of the persons from the post..if for whatever reason you feel the photo is not required or inappropriate by all means remove it...:thumbup:

Of course you did. After they jacked your car up, just go out of your way to defend and protect them. This thread is worthless.

[chris williams]

That's shocking Dave, Your showing far more restraint on this than I would have done. I blame the organisers though for not keeping an eye on your property. I do hope that you can get some come back, at the very least an apology and by rights an offer to fix the damage. Why the other people/photographer/organisers ever allowed this to happen is beyond me.
Chris

[Thrust Washer]

Can appreciate and accept the comments above... I live in a small town & word travels fast very fast ...Yes I have not named anyone I have no proof it was her that damage the car , the damage has been highlighted with the organisers & photographer.
Like Ive already said its not about money its purely principal to highlight the lack of respect some people have towards our cars. Lesson learned , no more public events ...its cars and coffee only from now on.

Non Delorean owners that like to take liberties ...take note.

[sdg3205]

This kind of behaviour isn't uncommon - it happens all the time. I couldn't even get an apology from a rep from a goddam PR firm for allowing herself into my my car and posting pictures of it on Instagram even though our contract forbid it. I have long pieces of PVC piping that literally say DO NOT ENTER and block the door that people still climb over. If you want to rent your car, you have to be there and you must have insurance.

The dullard that is sitting on your car doesn't deserve your grace. I'd plaster her face everywhere. Social embarrassment is about the only power we have these days when either people or the law isn't interested in what's actually right and fair.

[Lwanmtr]

The dullard that is sitting on your car doesn't deserve your grace. I'd plaster her face everywhere. Social embarrassment is about the only power we have these days when either people or the law isn't interested in what's actually right and fair.

Also the people with her including the photographer...clearly none of them have any respect for someone else's property..You'd think one of them woulda said 'is it really ok to sit on top of the special car we borrowed from someone else?'...

[DL4567]

Bad things happened at the last "event" I did, and even though my car (luckily) came out unscathed (which was only because my wife and I were with the car the *entire* time, literally policing and stopping people from getting on the hood and such), I swore off of doing such things entirely. It's just not worth the risk for a measely maximum few hundred dollars.

[DaraSue]

I'm not a lawyer, but AFAIK in most jurisdictions you can file a small claims suit for minimal cost and the burden of proof is "preponderance of the evidence" or 51% certainty of guilt rather than "beyond a reasonable doubt" for a civil suit. The unedited version of that pic should be adequate evidence of who damaged your car. Adults should know better than to damage somebody's property and then try to evade responsibility so maybe a little visit from a process server would put the fear of god into them...

[John U]

These cars seem to bring out the worst in some people. Rarely do you hear of these kind of problems with other classic car types. I can leave my Porsche 928 or mercedes 500sl in the Walmart parking lot with no worries, but my Delorean is never left unattended anywhere!

[Lwanmtr]

Sad to say its because Porsche and Merc are sooper common cars...people see them all the time so they arent as special (cept to people who like them)..Delorean is one of those that people dont see often and they think of movies when they do and become lil kids.

[papanoel]

Bad things happened at the last "event" I did, and even though my car (luckily) came out unscathed (which was only because my wife and I were with the car the *entire* time, literally policing and stopping people from getting on the hood and such), I swore off of doing such things entirely. It's just not worth the risk for a measely maximum few hundred dollars.

This is why when I do events I charge a lot. Wish everyone else would charge more as well.

I feel like many owners don't charge enough and lower the bar for everyone else.

[John U]

Sad to say its because Porsche and Merc are sooper common cars...people see them all the time so they arent as special (cept to people who like them)..Delorean is one of those that people dont see often and they think of movies when they do and become lil kids.

Less 1987 Porsche 928's in the world than Deloreans.
It's not the rarity. It is because it is a pop culture icon which brings out the idiot in many people!

[Lwanmtr]

enhances the idiot in people...lol.

Yes fewer 1987 928's...but the average person doesnt know the difference between a 928, 944, 924...Although I did enjoy seeing one drown in Risky Business....lol

[Nicholas R]

I dont think it's necessarily because they're DeLorean's, I think it's because they're stainless steel. The stainless steel does weird things to peoples minds. They see it and immediately assume it's impervious to any kind of damage. You dont see anyone crawling on Porsches, Ferraris, or even other classic painted cars because no one would risk damaging the paint job (something that would clearly happen if you climb onto the roof). For some reason people see the stainless, and in the same way that they assume it's super heavy, they think it's impervious to damage.

I would wager that in the same situation, if that had been a painted DeLorean, you would not have the same incident occur.

[Lwanmtr]

I still like the idea of putting one of them electric horse fence things in the car hooked up to the panels...that would stop that sorta thing...lol

[BladeBronson]

I dont think it's necessarily because they're DeLorean's, I think it's because they're stainless steel.

My theory is that it is known to most as a movie car - a movie prop. They bought the ticket, they bought the DVD, and they feel some ownership and entitlement. I think it doesn't occur to them that MY car isn't a theme park attraction for their enjoyment.

[blueshark66]

I still like the idea of putting one of them electric horse fence things in the car hooked up to the panels...that would stop that sorta thing...lol

Best idea yet!! :giddy:

[mluder]

Sort of what's been mentioned previously...

It's not the iconography of the care, it's not the stainless... It's the movie association. I've run into people who don't even know it's a real car (and assume the film one wasn't either). They think it's a prop that's been created for display purposes. As such, there is little value to it. I mean maybe a $1000 to make a fake car for a promotional event. So because it's just a prop someone made in their garage, they can treat it like a throw away item.

Just my take.

Cheers
Steve