[s-cars] Mud Flaps Must Be Stopped.

[CyberPoet]

OK, this is a sore subject...

If the PO had put mud flaps on the front, the other half's Audi 100S
wouldn't have black streaks of (tar? paint? sealer? something
permanent) looking for all the world like dark colored mud on the lower
half of the quarter panel and door with no way to remove it except
removing the factory paint. It would be a permanently stained mud flap
instead...

If the majority of cars had mud flaps, then I wouldn't be eating quite
as much dirty road-mist when I'm stuck out in the rain (or post-rain)
on the motorcycle. For that, I'd even forgive some of the stupidity on
the road by various drivers that keep trying to kill me in traffic with
their ignorance :P

As for the usefulness of mud flaps -- they're not useful at all, until
you get into MUD (gee, imagine that) for the most part. But execute a
hard left on a muddy back road with the window down, and suddenly find
yourself eating mud. Window up? Great, loss of visual clarity to one
side or the other. Explains why people with mud-covered vehicles seem
80% more likely to pull out in front of me on the motorcycle...

As for gravel, rocks -- sure, you have an Audi, so you see the benefits
of zinc coated panels. But sooner or later something big and sharp
enough to remove that will come along and remove both the paint and the
zinc somewhere. Not appropriate if you live in suburbia with good roads
and never leave the pavement... but one day you might have to [leave
the pavement] to avoid an accident.

Snow? Well, mud flaps are actually a bit of a PIA with snow of certain
consistencies (because snow can then build-up in the wheel well and
freeze there overnight), but if your location spreads sand, salt,
gravel you'll be happy to know that previously exposed scratch isn't
there -- and isn't going to get these compound exacerbating the
problem. Nor will there be fresh scratches from the same
gravel/sand/salt.

But mostly, you're being nice to the guy behind you (which one day
might be me) -- and that helps keep them from rear-ending you (by
helping keep their windshield clear enough to see out of).

=-= Marc Glasgow
www.cyberpoet.net
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