I need to know if it could be possible that rodents may scratch the hood of a car. After a year of working for this client, I was just fired because of scratches on the hood of his Porsche parked in the garage after being out of town. He lives in a very rural area in a brand new home. The only answer I could come up with is that rodents scratched his car. I would never do such a thing.
Yes, that is possible. Or a cat could do it. A cat chasing a rodent across the hood, definitely … lol … In a rural area there’s probably possums and raccoons too that could be the culprit.
I used to have a big dog that jumped on top of the hood of my Corolla from time to time. Even though a Corolla is a very good car, a dog is more important than any car, so I never complained. The dog jumps created some hood scratches, but as long as the wax job was in good condition, they would buff right out and become invisible upon the next wax job.
Another common cause is when the owner uses a car cover. If there is any dust on the car surface, it will be rubbed against the paint while putting on and removing the car cover, and dust is harder than paint, and will cause scratches.
A little philosophical reflection is in order maybe. Surface scratches on cars are part of the entropy in the Universe. There’s just no stopping it; scratches will occur eventually no matter what you do. You can take some common sense precautions, but the rest is pretty much guess work. Getting fired b/c of some scratches on the Porsche? Who’s more important, you or the car? I think you are better off without this client.
I agree with George on this one.
Those scratches may have been there when the client last parked, but he never noticed.
I’d say good riddens to this snob!!!
Yosemite
Yeah, say goodbye forever to that Bavarian Bloviater!
IMOO I would say not likely from a rodent but photos would tell me more.
With that said, don’t fret about getting sacked. More than likely it was simply an excuse to relieve his wallet from your pay.
Yeah who knows. In my experience cats leave foot prints but not scratches but raccoon? At any rate the guy is a jerk and good riddens. He parked his precious car in his or your garage and got scratches on it and blames you? I’ve known people like that but not for very long.
@GeorgeSanJose “Surface scratches on cars are part of the entropy in the Universe.”
I can not imagine a better answer. I am going to have that tattooed on my body.
I would not be surprised if it’s cats. The herd of cats has thinned out around here over the past couple of years but I’ve got scratches on my Lincoln, had scratches on my other Lincoln, and have scratches on other cars due to those stinking felines.
Sometimes I’ve walked outside and the cat, or cats, sitting on the car will take off suddenly.
Even with my lousy hearing I can hear their claws raking the paint and especially so when they lose their grip and slide off. My Lincoln probably has 30-40 scratches on it right now. Ticks me off…
It’s very pathetic to blame you for the actions of critters though. Sounds like the Porsche owner is “one of those…”.
I have had cats do that to my cars. Always stray cats (not sure why), seem to be skiing on the hood, they are having fun at my expense!!
Perhaps he has surveillance video of a blond tonic driving around the property with an extension ladder strapped to the roof/hood of the car. Did you clean the gutters while he was away?
But really, how can anyone speculate on the cause of the scratches without knowing what they look like?
Most small animals can cause scratches. Most large animals can cause deep scratches. I have a pair of Labs that can go right to the metal if their nails have not been clipped and smoothed in a while.
I still don’t understand why you were fired. Is there more to the story than you’ve disclosed?
My boss fired his cleaning lady once. Claimed she wasn’t properly cleaning under the bed. So he put a penny under the bed and when it was still there he fired her. Nice guy but ended up going blind. Karma. I told him I thought pennies were pretty hard to pick up with a vacuum and they make quite a racket and can break the fins on the fan on the way to the bag. How do I know? Getting under a bed is pretty hard to unless you use a shop vac with a wand or something and that’s not good for carpet. I think some people just enjoy firing people.
My wife was complaining about ‘‘vandalism’’ of the sides of our trucks while looking at horizontal scratches.
Then I showed her.
Went to the garage…
got out one of the boy’s bikes and walked it over to the side of the car…
Bingo !
The ‘‘vandals’’ are our own two rambunctious boys, 10 & 12, threading their bikes between the three trucks in the drive as they leave the garage, scraping the handle bars along the way.
I’ll BET you those hood scratches are animals.
When I stored my small collection of vintage/collectable cars in a 100 year old barn in rural Vermont, they were always stored with thick blankets/bedspreads (from garage sales) that covered the entire car to protect from varmints.
Trouble is…
We’ve had many unscrupulous customers who pull a fast one like that just to get some free
repairs.
Things like that are not something we can always document every time as the car comes in to the shop…they know that …and play it for all it’s worth.
Cats are particularly bad about climbing on the hood of a car. They enjoy the warmth radiated by the motor. In the OPs case,however, the motor of the Porsche, isn’t under the hood in the front. The back cover would be too slippery for a cat.
I think MountainBike is right to be suspicious, there has to be more to this story.