Scottish Elises

Left my car parked on uni avenue in the west end today for all of one hour between 10 and 11am and returned to find the car covered in that sticky silly string stuff, fired out of party poppers. Hate to point fingers, but I think it's a fair assumption given the area to say . . . little student barstewards!

Kinda funny TBH and no harm done to the car. Should have probably taken a picture and posted it! Maybe they just got excited when they passed my car and thought it was worth covering it in that sh!t.

Got me thinking though, if that's what they do in broad daylight in front of plenty of passers-by, what the hell will they do if I leave it parked up overnight in the West End? The funny thing is, I was just on my way to meet a friend to look at flats in the west end and had thought I'd finally got over my street parking paranoia. I've now 100% made my mind up that I must find a modern flat with off-street secure parking. Little did the barstewards think their bit of fun would affect a major decision in my life!

..or a very cunning ploy by the local estate agent

I have parked my car loads of times on street, and its fair to say it probably stands out more than a grey one; no probs so far. Sassy also had hers parked on-street in west end 24/7 and no bother.

Overnight JJ? What bit of west end? Just curious as this is a big paranoid dilemna for me.

I have no problem parking it on the street in most areas in daylight. Generally also pretty happy leaving it overnight in the street when staying at friends' flats in the west end, but trying to figure out where is okay and where there's risk of vandalism. I know Rob got his car keyed and I think that was in the west end?

I know that random car vandalism can happen anywhere though.

A few of my mates have had wing mirrors kicked off over night, on streets around byres rd. I never left my Liz overnight, but often till late at night, never had a problem. I kept mine outside 24/7 at my flat (Maryhill, but a quiet street) and never had a problem. Park it away from the night life & it will be fine.

Alix has a Flat on Novar drive. My car (granted, a more desirable S1) was parked overnight there with no problems at all. There were porkers, and classics parked there sometimes too with no probs. I reckon the whole of that area, Clarence Drive, Dudley Street, Polwarth Street etc would be fine for your motor - probably bigger fish to fry for the neds, if they ever got themselves that far from their natural habitat!

I agree with Greg and Dom!
THe only time I've had "bother" is when parking round the night life/route home from the night life!
Hyndland is fine - round Byres road you may have more bother but generally it's fine!

2p

Have to agree with what others have said Dezzy... there is an F430 that is parked overnight on one of the roads just off Hyndland Road... so I reckon your car would be unlikely to get specifically targeted.

Having said that, personally I'd avoid the main roads home for pissed people on foot. If they are just passing through and don't actually live nearby then its not unknown for an idiot to take a run at a row of cars but that goes for anywhere - not just the West End of Glasgow.

It would be a shame to write off living in the West End on account that your car may get damaged - for me it was more the '1 bedroom flat in the West End vs. 3 bedroom detached in the burb's for the same money' thing that made the decision for us a no-brainer.

Cheers,

John

GregR wrote:Alix has a Flat on Novar drive. My car (granted, a more desirable S1) was parked overnight there with no problems at all.

I had to read that twice before I noticed it was the word "desirable" . . .

Yeah, I think it's mainly the Byres Road-ish area that would make me nervous with the parking and that's unfortunately the ideal area we'd like to buy in, but going to start looking a bit further into Hyndland, etc.

John, I was caught between the dilemna of house with driveway/garage in the burbs vs. flat in the west end, but the friend I'm buying with is set on the west end, and now that I've had a good think about it, so am I. I go out there, all my friends live up there and I work not far from there. Spend almost all my time there, so might as well save the travelling and live there!

I'm just paranoid about the parking thing and need to get over it, but would hate to regret buying a flat because the car gets pranged or vandalised after a week or two of living there. Will just try to avoid the nightlife areas.

Cheers,
D

Don't worry after buying a flat and eating out everynight and spending your life in ashton lane you'll no longer been sober enough or have enough money to run the Elise you'll be purchasing a zone card

johncam wrote:Have to agree with what others have said Dezzy... there is an F430 that is parked overnight on one of the roads just off Hyndland Road...

That guy is a customer of mine, and they have had issues with keying, but then it is visible from Hyndland Road, if it was further into Dowanhill you`d be OK.

I'm a big believer in parking close to more expensive stuff to save your car

If you ever watch people going past a parked VX / Lotus you'll notice that there isn't usually any of the jealously or ill feeling you'd get with a porker or high end BMW.

My stunning example of the elise chassis has sat outside my house for the past 2 and a bit years in a less than perfect area of hamilton without any real issues.....i've even left it outside the Carling Academy with no probs. Oh and I'm about to move to the New Gorbals and i'm not that worried about it.........ish

Lets face it if you were going to nick something the a 2 seater would be rubbish for transporting you're 3 mates around in

NOOPS 160 wrote:

Andy G wrote:

GregR wrote:Alix has a Flat on Novar drive. My car (granted, a more desirable S1) was parked overnight there with no problems at all.

Funny how its S2s the Rif Raf go for

When do you get it and what are you doing with the S1???


mac