We’ve had some pretty bad weather here recently, with snow and freezing rain and everything that comes with that. Specifically in this case, the “everything that comes with that” means frozen windshields. As you may already know, there are two major schools of thought when it comes to ice-covered windshields that result from a car being left outside overnight in cold, inclement weather: raise the wipers or leave them down.
Wipers up or wipers down. It’s the sort of question that has torn families apart for centuries. There are pretty valid reasons for either choice, I think, but I think fundamentally it comes down to personal preference. And that brings us to the ethical conundrum I was recently informed of by a friend of mine. This person lives in a place with a good-sized communal parking lot where the tenants of the complex park. On one of the recent nights where we got snow and ice, they noticed a neighbor walking from car to car, raising people’s wipers off their windshields.
My friend is not someone who subscribes to the wipers up school of thought; they’re a wipers down person. And while nobody doubts that the motives of this wiper-raiser were anything other than altruistic, the act of raising those wipers was nonetheless not a welcome act to my friend, nor would it be to many people. Some people may appreciate it, but overall, I have to ask: automotively, is this ethical?
I don’t think the actual details of wipers up versus wipers down really matter here; the question is whether or not doing something one firmly believes to be beneficial to a car you don’t own is okay or not. The wipers up/down example is a good one because it’s not universally agreed upon; even if the unbidden wiper-lifter believed he was saving people the hassle of freeing their frozen-to-the windshield wipers and protecting them and their wiper motors from damage, others believe that he could be exposing the wiper arms to more damage.
For example, I have several old cars with fragile or finicky wiper setups, and someone unfamiliar with them lifting them up could cause damage. Lifting people’s wipers, I think, is a fundamentally presumptuous act, one that blindly assumes that your own methods for dealing with an icy windshield are the best. There’s an arrogance to the act at worst, and an ignorance at best.
In this case, I think it’s wrong to mess with someone else’s car, even if your intentions are good.
That said, personally, I’m not someone who is particularly fussy about my car being touched or anything like that. If someone thinks my car has an interesting detail and runs a finger along it, I don’t mind at all, but I know people who do, so, generally, I try and treat people’s cars with the assumption that their owners are fussier than I am. But I do think if there’s a situation where you can provide a clear and unquestionable benefit to someone’s car by physically interacting with it, you can and maybe should.
The most invasive example I can think of may be if you’re walking by, say, an older car with open wind-up windows, and a heavy rain starts. If that were my car, I would be thankful if someone opened my door and rolled up my windows. But what about an open convertible in the rain? That’s a worse situation, but I do not think I’d be comfortable putting up someone’s manual convertible top, simply because that’s an operation that may be significantly more complex than rolling up a window, and has more possibility for me to break something. But if I had a tarp, would I throw it over the open car? Probably?
It’s a pretty murky area. Now, if a car’s parking brake popped off and a car started to roll away, I think most of us would at least see if a door was open to try and get the car stopped, right? That’s a much more dire situation than a wet interior, and comes with some public safety risks.
So where’s the line, there? Is it ever okay to mess with a car that’s not yours if your intentions are good? I’d love to know what we, as a community, are thinking. If you saw an Autopian sticker or badge on the car, would that change things? Let’s think this through and show our work here; this is more of a subtle problem than it seems. Except maybe for the wipers guy; I think that dude should just leave his neighbor’s cars be unless asked.
Here, you can pick a stance in this poll before we get into it in more detail in the comments:
I owned a car where doing this created a real possibility that the wipers would fall out of their mountings. So no.
I have, but I also knew the person whose car I was doing it to.
Random people’s cars, absolutely not.
If I’m going to leave the car sitting for a week, I don’t want the wipers pointing up exposed to wind and wind blown debris.
The top shot as a gif is *chef’s kiss*
Let me be perfectly clear here.
Keep your dirty friggin hands off my damn car.
I don’t need you doing me any favors.
I own it. You don’t.
Leave my shit alone.
Don’t touch my car.
Yeah nah
You don’t touch someone else’s car unless the thing you’re attempting to solve is objectively a safety issue. That’s where I land.
So the wiper thing, as noted, it not objectively yay or nay. So it shouldn’t be done.
There are two times I’ve messed with other peoples car where I didn’t know the owner and had no way to ask.This is one of them.
It was a VW cabrio with a manual top. A buddy of mine had the same car, I knew it was purely manual latches and I had put the top up and down dozens of times
The other time was a case where the ethics is easier.
3 in the morning, it’s raining lightly, and someone honked the horn. A few minutes later they did it again. About twice more I got up enough to try and see who was doing it and the horn stopped before I got to the window, when I did look out I didn’t see anyone.
About the 5th time the horn went off it didn’t stop. It was clear from the window there was no one in the car. By the time I got out there were 4 or 5 people standing around an empty car with the horn going off.
After a minute I tried the door and it was unlocked. I pressed the horn button in-case that was stuck and that didn’t do it. I popped the hood and started looking for the horn. I didn’t find it immediately and someone who had grabbed a wrench disconnected the battery.
I left a note saying that we had disconnected the battery and left my apartment number then went back to bed. A couple days later I got a note in my mail box apologizing for the disruption.
I do not feel bad about this in the slightest.
It unexpectedly snowed about 16 inches the night after I bought a convertible, and of course the top was down.
Ouch. Not as much, but yeah I’ve shoveled out the interior before.
I’ve left the top down at the wrong time plenty of times. The one I’m most embarrassed about was the time I parked right in front of the office door with a Frank Zappa mix tape playing on repeat in the stereo that didn’t turn off with the key.
Bobbi Brown Goes Down was playing when I went out for lunch and noticed it. I wish someone had done something
It was april 15, and I was living out in the country. I had to take my tax return to the post office, the extension form actually because there were 18 cousins who had to get their act together to file this hideous partnership thing that had $200 in it. Anyway, all I could do was dig out the drivers seat and the pedals and drive to the post office. After that I went to the truck wash and used the coin operated steam cleaner on the interior.
It was a 15 year old Chevy Malibu with hardly any fabric left on the top and some missing hardware, so it would have been much worse if the top were up. I spent the summer driving from junkyard to junkyard exchanging parts with other 68-69 GM a body convertibles.
Even I, with a relative immunity to embarrassing spectacle, thought that driving around in a car filled with snow was probably going make me ”that guy in the car” for a couple months.
As in “oh, you’re that guy in the car?”
Only intervene if it’s a clear safety issue. Otherwise, leave other people’s property alone.
When on a motorcycle, if I see someone who has an issue with their car, I will definitely knock on their window to alert them to it and if it is fixable right there I will do it for them. So, for example, cars that have 2 out of 3 brake lights out, I will do my best to get next to them at a stoplight and alert them that they are a driving safety hazard. Fuel door open – ESPECIALLY for ones that are door&cap in one – I will try to get that back closed. Otherwise, if it’s not a hazard I’ll leave strangers be.
Nope, don’t touch my car. And I don’t touch anyone else’s. My car actually has a mode where it flips the wipers up to be changed, rather than just pulling them up by hand. If some random did that and ended up breaking something I’d be pissed.
Don’t touch mine and I won’t touch yours.
I’m in the No, Don’t Touch Their Car camp.
Unless someone asks you, leave it alone. Don’t raise their wipers, don’t close their gas door, trunk, car doors, or hood. You don’t know what’s going on. If you’d concerned, say something to them. If you don’t know whose car it is, leave a note or just walk away.
Exactly. I was behind someone at a red light and their fuel door was open. I put my car in park and waved at their window and told them it was open, then got back in my car without touching theirs.
No. Don’t touch someone else’s car. It could be a shitbox and lifting the wipers could render them inoperable. Don’t take the chance of ruining someone else’s day.
I’m in the “not raise wipers” crowd, mostly because I’ve had the wiper blade come off on my old ZJ, and the bare metal arm came down and smacked my windshield, spider-webbing it. If someone’s sunroof is open in the rain, and I have a towel, I’ll throw it over, and I will help clear snow for someone, but I don’t touch other people’s cars without their knowledge.
LOL My wife had that happen on her old 97 Jetta while changing the blade. She just got one long horizontal crack across the windshield
If you try to lift the wipers on my car from the parked position, you’ll run the arms into the cowl (there’s a way to get them to point straight up so you can clean, replace or lift them, but it can only be done from inside the car).
Absolutely not. Do not touch my car. Thanks.
No. You could go to prison…
Is it a friend’s or relative’s car? Then yes as long as you tell them and explain why. A rando car? Nope.
Jason’s car? Only if you tie balloons in the end of them.
DO
NOT
TOUCH
MY
CAR
Wipers: no
Trunk left open: it depends
Convertible top: likely no unless you know the owner
“Trunk left open: it depends”
It really does. Questions like this are very situational and get complicated fast. Is there precipitation? How safe is the area? What’s inside? Is the body someone you know? Does the car belong to someone else you know? Which person do/did you like better? Are there cameras nearby? Something as simple as an open trunk lid can become a Bayesian quagmire in moments.
Is there a body inside the trunk? Is decomposition going to be hastened by the rain?
No. Just no.
Please don’t touch my car.
No if only because that wiper might smack back down and crack the windshield.
100% this.
Generally, no, do not touch.
Work parking lot when I know every car owner, sure. Neighbor I know, sure. Rando car, nope.
If you know the level of crazy, act accordingly.