Anyone else get teased when their car is down?

[azasadny]

Whenever my Porsche is broken, my family and "friends" take great delight in teasing me and telling me what a money pit Porsches are and how "I could have bought a new 911 with the $ I've put into this old car"?

I am tired of defending my car and comparing it to their toys (boats, travel trailers, etc...). I do not tease others as I don't think it's funny or kind to pick on someone when they are already going through troubles.

My brother, sister-in-law and father are the biggest offenders and they seem to delight in each and every trouble I have with the car. I thought that by now (I've owned the 911 for 5 years this month) they would be past this, but it's just getting worse. Many of the comments they make are mean-natured and I really don't think I deserve them. I don't gloat or make a big deal of my car, it is just my favorite car and one that I really work to keep on the road. Reminding them that the car is 34 years old does no good whatsoever. even the fact that I drove the car 3300 miles to/from FL in March without any problems still hasn't shut them up.

I'm expecting everyone to be at our house for the annual July 4th pool party and I'm expecting more of the same and I'm planning my response. Any suggestions?

[the]

Originally posted by azasadny
Any suggestions?

Here's one: stop being such a crybaby.

[notfarnow]

If they give you a hard time about the $$ it costs to maintain, just ask them how much their cars have depreciated since last year.

[azasadny]

Originally posted by the
Here's one: stop being such a crybaby.

Waah!!!

On the "plus side", I have a couple neighbors who are understanding and help me out and they never make any snide comments,. Why is it that family members tend to be the meanest people you encounter?

[nostatic]

break a beer bottle over the head of the first person who says anything. Jab the broken edges into the next person who speaks.

Problem solved.

[TerryBPP]

Originally posted by nostatic
break a beer bottle over the head of the first person who says anything. Jab the broken edges into the next person who speaks.

Problem solved.

Has worked for me on numerous occasions.

[azasadny]

Todd,
Now we're talking!! I'll make sure it's a German beer, maybe a Haacker Pschorr...

[the]

That's what I'm talking about! Man up!

[red-beard]

Teased, no. Complained about, yes.

"Why don't you sell the piece of junk?"

[Super_Dave_D]

Its called Jealousy!

[legion]

Yep. My car has been in the shop for four weeks. I've been teased mercelessly by coworkers...

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Exactly.

Tell 'em you'd rather have a busted Porsche than a working Honda/Toyota/Kia/whatever they drive.

[Jims5543]

My RX7 has been off the road for over 14 months now. I knew when I took it to this particular engine builder it would take a long time to get the work done, I never expected 14 months more like 6 months, this is in comparison to other shops that take a week.

So yeah, the jokes have been flying,

- Is the car done yet? Followed by lots of laughter

- Do you still own that RX7? Same laughter

- So, I guess its going to make 1,000,000,000,000 HP when you get done with the worlds longest rebuild. Yeah, more laughter.

It goes on an on.

I still do not have it, its been gone since March 2006. Its running but needs a few more low RPM hours with low viscosity oil then the heavier oil goes in and I get it.

I feel your pain X10.

[Tim Hancock]

Ah family spats over trivial matters. Fortunately I enjoy playing such games and can easily whip out a few zingers to ridicule some aspect of their life to one up them. Why let it bug you? Have fun with it.... don't get mad, get EVEN!

[thrown_hammer]

Originally posted by nostatic
break a beer bottle over the head of the first person who says anything. Jab the broken edges into the next person who speaks.

Problem solved.

Ahhhh…The old quart of blood technique. Proven effective many times.

My (wife’s) 911 has been in the garage for over a year…no one has teased me yet.

[dtw]

My family's finally been trained. Just resurrected a Targa that hasn't rolled under its own power since '86 (drove for first time on Saturday, been working on it since February) - now I get respect. There were no snide comments during the build. When I got my '72T back on the road a few years ago, all jokes ended. Before it was on the road, it was "you're never going to finish that" and on and on.

Whenever the comments got out of control from anyone, I'd just say "one more dumbass comment like that and you go on the list". "What list?". "The list of people who don't get to ride with me, much less ever have a prayer of driving it".

Another tactic: Do not install a passenger seat. Anyone who merits a ride-along will usually have their own seat of choice to bring along. This actually covers all my friends who would ever want to ride in my 911s.

[BeerBurner]

I don't get teased for having a broken car, but I do have a lot of people tell me how I'm pissing away money on a Porsche when I should have something more economical like a new Civic or something. I respond by asking them how much they spend per month on car payments, insurance, taxes, etc., and then I give them my total monthly costs for both cars combined and point out just how much less I am spending at the end of the year than they are. I proceed to ask them why they are throwing away so much money on a new Honda Civic...

BB.

[Joeaksa]

Buy a Jaguar. We are used to it and grew a tough skin years ago...

[dd74]

Just ask them if they want to go for a ride - a fast ride. I've found the teasers usually back down when because 1) They're afraid they'll really like the 911; 2) They're truly scared of the car and are voicing their own insecurities and fear, by saying disparaging remarks about the car.

I ignore them. Everyone knows older 911s are probably one of, if not the most dominant car ever built.

[LeeH]

I was in my garage for a month when rebuilding the engine. Every day my neighbor came home from work he'd get out of the car and yell, "Start it up!" knowing the engine was spread all over the place.

He still asks, "Is it running ok?" on a regular basis. Let's see... 700 miles since the rebuild and 90% of those were on the track. Yeah, it's ok.