Are birds costing you to pay more on your car? Quite possibly. In a recent press release Zurich stated that bird droppings cost Britons a staggering 57 million per year in car-related expenses. The figure is so high for several reasons.
The first is that if the droppings aren’t cleared off immediately, there is every possibility of a permanent stain occurring. Bird droppings are unsanitary, and like any fecal matter they have powerful acids that have a corrosive effect on any metal (such as the body of your car). If the matter is left alone, it will literally eat through the paint and discolour it.
The droppings are also not easy to remove. Many drivers make the mistake of trying to scrape off hardened droppings: the effect of this is usually just to scratch the paint and have no effect on the actual discolouration. Of course, if you want to repaint over this discolouration it will not be cheap. It is possible to shrug off this discolouration as mere aesthetics: however, these aesthetics will definitely lower the price of your car should you wish to sell it later. Few car owners make insurance claims on bird damage either, since it then terminates any no claims discounts they are enjoying: bird dropping costs then normally are paid quietly (if grumpily) by the car owner. All these related costs add up the 57 million quote’s Zurich.
The Zurich press release gave several tips on guarding your car against bird droppings, from the commonsense (i.e. not parking under trees) to the fairly impractical (i.e. not purchasing cars of certain colours that birds find attractive). Possibly the best advice they gave is simply to cover your car up when you park it. This would not only protect your vehicle from droppings, but from other environmental effects that wear down the body and particularly the body paint. It also shields it from the prying eyes of thieves (both the kind that might steal your vehicle and the kind that might smash the window to quickly grab the vehicle’s contents). Many might say that car covers simply indicate to a thief that your car might have something worth stealing. To date, no-one has done a study on that.
Most importantly, the Zurich article reminds car owners to treat their car as they would any other investment. When the car is treated with care (including its outward and inward aspects), your insurance premiums over time should go down. Accidents, which inevitably raise your premiums and put you in physical danger, are a product of random chance (i.e. the rash driver who speeds through a red light and hits your car) and of the way you operate and maintain your vehicle. The former can’t be controlled, but the latter can. Careful maintenance of brakes, tires, engines, windscreens and other car components makes your car safer on the road and gives you, as a result, lower insurance premiums.
When the car is treated properly, too, more of its investment value is retained. Cars do depreciate substantially and quickly after purchase, but if treated carefully there will usually be a residual value left when you are ready to sell it. That selling price will be related not only to the internal systems of the vehicle such as the engine, but external aspects such as the body and tyres.
Guarding against bird droppings might seem trivial or even comical. In fact, however, it’s part of a virtuous cycle: it ties to the car owner’s overall view of car maintenance – and this in turn links to car safety, car resale value and insurance premiums.
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