Avoid the Stress of that First Fender Bender, with a Pre-Dented Car

Psychologists have recently discovered that there is an incredible amount of stress associated with buying a new car. Not only is there the huge decision of which car to buy, with over 250 models of cars on the U.S. market, but there’s the financing, insurance, taxes and licensing to consider. All in all, the act of buying a new car is a pretty stressful endeavor.

But even with all that, there’s one stress that goes with the new car ownership, which outshines them all. That stressor is the idea of trying to keep that new car looking nice and new as long as possible. New car owners will go to great lengths to keep their car looking like it’s still on display in the showroom; everything from washing it every day to parking way out in the parking lot and hiking a half mile, just to make sure that the owner of the car in the next space can’t ding the pain job.

The day that the first nick, scratch or ding happens is a tragic day in the life of every new car owner. No longer is their pride and joy the pristine wonder that they brought home from the dealership. Now it’s just another old piece of junk for taking them from here to there.

To help reduce the shock of this tragic event, auto manufacturers have invested countless pennies and seconds of time into research into how to prolong or even eliminate that moment of time when a new car is no longer a new car. Finally, they found the answer.

Actually, the idea came from the manufacturers of denim blue jeans. Where it was once thought cool to have jeans that were a nice dark blue, without a single defect in them, it has now become the style to wear jeans which are “destroyed.” Just in case you aren’t sure what that word means, it means that the jeans are one step away from the trash can. Those are the cool jeans.

This phenomenon started back in the hippy days of the 60s. Whether from lack of money, or from lack of hygiene, many hippies ran around with messed up jeans. Hollywood actors and actresses, always quick to catch on to the latest fad, caught on to this idea and ran with it, making it cool to wear trashy jeans. Of course, once they did it, that make destroyed jeans the style. Nowadays, blue jean manufacturers take perfectly good pants, run them through the washing machine a number of times, with lots of bleach, rocks and pieces of broken glass, looking for that coveted “destroyed” look.

So, what does this have to do with cars? Simple, all the auto manufacturers have to do to eliminate the stress of that first fender bender is to have it for the new car owner. Trained test drivers can creatively ding cars as they come off the assembly line, just to take away that worry.

Of course, the intensity of the shock to these new cars will have to be carefully controlled as to not make the damage so severe as to cause functional damage to the car. However, with proper planning and thorough training of the test crashers, this problem should be easily overcome.

I’m sure that once the idea catches on, people will be willing to pay handsomely for this added service. After all, how much is stress elimination worth to them?