Has Your Car Been "Atlanta-fied?"
Driving in Atlanta is a harrowing ordeal, long commutes for some, bumper to bumper traffic and loads of accidents every day. Yes all of that is bad but a more stealth danger has haunted me during my stay here. That is the hit and run dent on your car while parked and flying rocks.
I’ve never been able to keep a car nice, new and dent free in this town. That hasn’t been my fault. Once while parked at The Stacks visiting a friend, I walked to my car and noticed the hood of my Dodge Stratus was dented and scratched with white paint. It looked as if a white truck backed up and ran over the top of the hood. I asked around and no one saw anything.
The next incident happened right in front of my house. I sold the Stratus to Carmax and drive a Toyota now. I have a driveway at the house but one day I had to park in the street. I walked to my car to leave and couldn’t get the door to open. I looked down and saw that a car had backed into the door leaving a football sized dent. I yanked and got the door open. There was no note, nothing.
One day while driving the connector north, I was behind a cement truck. I was a safe distance from the truck. A small rock fell from out of the truck and cracked my windshield. I was unable to get the plates of the truck. The crack started small but eventually spread costing me $260 for a new windshield.
So I ask you readers, have you had similar experiences driving in Atlanta? Am I alone in meeting bad parkers and flying rocks? Is it possible to keep your car dent free in this city?
My wife was using my car for a while, and parking at Emory. The college kids couldn’t care less if they dent your door with their new BMW – they’ll get another one when they graduate. But the car looked like a target after a few months. Her new Lexus hasn’t been dented, and she likely parks on a higher level. And we always park far away when were in lots, and try to park up hill. Those shopping carts can really roll (unless you are putting groceries in them, and a wheel will mysteriously flatten).
I was working in Houston after IKE, and I’ve never seen such traffic! It made Atlanta look like a Mayberry. The ABS got a workout there. Once I just missed a washer sitting in my lane. No other cars were swerving, and I just noticed it in time. Another time I looked down, then up to see a pickup and semi stopped dead in my lane. I stopped 30′ short. A minor collision – hidden from me – caused the two trucks to stop.
BUT – if you put your turn signal on, people will let you in immediately – like you were in Vancouver – not Atlanta. The roads were always crowded, and debris was common, tho it may have been added by the overburdened debris removal trucks that all looked like they came from Mexico.
[…] A blogger over at Atlanta.Metblogs.com posed the following question today: “Has your car been ‘Atlanta-fied’?” […]
My poor car features plenty of door and bumper dings, and the inevitable paint-chipped dent from where someone must have attempted a parallel park behind me. My parents, though, came to meet me in the EAV for dinner one night a year or two ago – they were driving a big ole new volvo SUV and came out to find a good sized dent right smack in the center of the hood. I don’t particularly like the car either, myself, but it looks like someone punched it. The jerks.
All the cars I’ve ever own were purchased pre-dented. I say, let someone else roll the car off the dealer’s lot and watch it depreciate 30% in seconds…