Windshield cards and etiquette

[Huw Powell]

> For a few years now, I've been laser-printing basic information about
> www.audifans.com (the URL, the benefits) onto blank business cards and leaving
> them under the windshield wipers of parked Audis. I got the idea from
> recruitment flyers that I used to have printed for various marque clubs I
> belonged to pre-Internet.

...

> I recently left a card on a 5000,  and when I got 6 or 8 feet away, the owner
> came into view and got rather surly about my having left it. I threw the issue
> out on the chit-chat forum of another, totally non-car-related website, without
> mentioning audifans.com by name, and sentiment pretty much ran against me. A
> couple of the comments were, "My car is my personal space, and that's an
> invasion. That's like the sticking the card down the front of my shirt without
> my leave," and "Why should I have the burden of disposing of the card?"
> 
> Any thoughts on this? Should I (and anyone else doing it) quit doing it? I
> certainly don't want to give the site a black eye.

On that non-car related website were they aware that you were basically 
leaving an invitation to join a club they were sort-of "entitled" to 
know about by the very evidence of their car's make?  (as opposed to 
stuffing nightclub ads under wipers on city streets)

I think if the cards were nicely done, tasteful, and friendly it would 
be hard to imagine someone really taking offense.  Although, I do think 
the wiper is a poor place to leave it - usually it is not noticed until 
one is buckled in and ready to drive (unless one happened to park 
illegally, in which case the wiper is always examined upon returning), 
and then one has to get back out of the car and retrieve the note.

Also having it be an obviously non-commercial thing should help smooth 
things over with the recipient.

These days, with this site a mere shadow of its former leviathan self, 
it might make sense to list a few urls, or at least "target" only the 
older (read: 5 zylinder) cars.  I realize there is some discussion of 
later models here, but it is almost all due to old die-hard fans having 
bought newer Audis.

-- 
Huw Powell

http://www.humanspeakers.com/audi

http://www.humanthoughts.org/