Re: Side-swiped last night 
Hey man, I feel you on this one. I was in NYC last Saturday (the first time I was in NYC with my GTI, its three weeks old) and some bum hauling a big box started crossing on a red light. The bad part was that on the left of me there was a big bus, which had a head start because I waited for the guy to go abit back to the sidewalk with his box. The bus then cut me off just as I started driving and that bum wank kinda twisted the box so it scratched my entire left side. I didnt even notice it up until later that day, I was so bummed :/ I so love my black GTI!
Next day, I went to a car wash in my small town and there was some hispanic guy that barely spoke english there, but the place had a big "tunning shop" sign on it so I said, what the hell... I used some hand signs to show him the damage and he made me pull my ride into the small "tunning shop" shack, he then took some sort of device (english is not my native tongue either, I'm european, but bare with me) that looks like what you usually use to cut metal with (it has a disk that spins really fast), put some fluffy thing on it and then smeared some white paste on the scratched part. After going at it for a few minutes, he polished that big scratch until there was only a slightly noticeable scratch on the actual finish but not the paint. I gave the guy twenty bucks, even though he didnt want any money for it, and he gave me a free wash too.
I used to own a Mazda 3 a 2006 before I moved to the states, and being that it was my first car, I took it to the wash every week and took good care of it. I have a personal motto that if you like your car, you have to find your personal carwash guy that loves your car just as much as you do and then you tip him well so he gets the job done!
