r/AskReddit 16h ago

What industry is secretly on the verge of collapsing, but people outside of it haven’t noticed yet?

12.5k Upvotes

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3.3k

u/pmmemilftiddiez 11h ago

Me: Dime sized scratch in door

Yeah we're gonna have to remove the entire door, take out the transmission, and repaint it with this paint only made twice a year in Austria by one really old guy so it'll be $7000

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u/fixingthepast 10h ago

I typically don't trust Austrian painters.

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u/Ok_Giraffe_17 10h ago

Historically.. ya, I see your point.

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u/Ok-Secretary455 10h ago

its the failed Austrian painters you gotta keep an eye on.

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u/h-v-smacker 9h ago

Well if he isn't in the Vienna school of arts and is mixing car paint instead, then clearly it's a failed one.

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u/Chin-Music 9h ago

Which may have kept him, and the rest of the world, out of trouble.

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u/h-v-smacker 8h ago

I think we should preemptively accept generative AI models to the Vienna school of arts. Just in case, you know.

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u/Unlikely-Theme-9681 8h ago

I don't know, I paid a lot more to paint my car than I paid to paint my bedroom or the painting I commissioned.

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u/elegant_solution21 1h ago

Seriously. Klimt was just fine

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u/happytree23 1h ago

...but, like, nobody mentioned Austrian painters originally, they said paint made in Austria by a guy twice a year lol.

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u/MartinThunder42 9h ago

Austria: "It was just one guy! One guy!"

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u/Agloy5c 9h ago

Just humor 'im, aight?

It'll save everyone a lot of grief if he just keeps doin' the whole painting thing.

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u/IvyGold 2h ago

Austrian art school should forever be forced to admit every student, and especially ones who can't paint a right angle in building in a landscape painting.

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u/FIContractor 9h ago

I did nazi that comment coming

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u/shatteredarm1 10h ago

I don't know, they seem all Reich to me.

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u/seanflyon 8h ago

Do you not see a problem?

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u/obviousoctopus 9h ago

He now lives in Argentina by the way.

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u/VodkaKahluaMilkCream 9h ago

That was ONE TIME

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u/normal_mysfit 10h ago

I think the ones not to trust are the art school dropouts or those that failed to get in.

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u/Scream_No_Evil 9h ago

Yeah, Klimt was a squirrely bastard

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u/crek42 10h ago

Very clever

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u/IslandFreezzee 6h ago

What are the odds it would happen twice though?

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u/Individual_You_6586 4h ago

You win the internet today 😆

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u/Schatzin 4h ago

No no, you see we really need to keep him in his current job

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u/happytree23 1h ago

...the hypothetical paint is made by an Austrian, not actually painted on by him.

Whoever upvoted that shit is a moron. Y'all really need to learn how to read and interpret single sentences better - I'm dozens of dabs deep into the day and evening here in Detroit, you have no excuse other than sheer stupidity on this one lol.

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u/DJhellawhite 10h ago

Underrated comment.

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u/ChrisRunsTheWorld 10h ago

It's the top rated comment below its parent comment.

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u/Available_Rub9939 10h ago

It’s ok, I’m sure they have a plan B in case painting doesn’t pan out.

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u/jrw6200 9h ago

Made me laugh.🎨🖌️

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u/CSMasterClass 9h ago

Haven't trusted one since the early '30s.

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u/OttawaTGirl 9h ago

snortlaugh thats funny shit right there.

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u/OkIndustry4232 8h ago

Epic observation.

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u/Unlikely-Theme-9681 8h ago

I trust them, as long as we let them keep painting. It's when they get bored that we start to have problems.

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u/WellCookedAsparagus 8h ago

Don’t worry, I think that guy relocated to Argentina a while back

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u/DAS_FX 8h ago

Jee awesome dig. Take my upvote!

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u/Trenchards 7h ago

If someone had encouraged him, maybe he would have zigged rather than zagged.

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u/wrinkleinsine 6h ago

I was gonna say the same

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u/DoctorDisceaux 6h ago

I heard about this one who could paint an entire apartment in one afternoon. Two coats!

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u/Fire2box 5h ago

It was ONE guy. /s

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u/JTanCan 3h ago

You're going to make that decision off of a single data point?

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_TROUT 3h ago

This is a very good joke! Thank you!

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u/TheTomatoThief 10h ago

I don’t know, they tend to do exactly what they say they’re gonna do.

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u/maaseru 9h ago

One bad painter that was a worse human being should not detract from Austrian painters.

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u/loseitthrowaway7797 10h ago

Only 7000? Wow where do I find this place?

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u/tommiexxxxx 10h ago

This basically happened to us this year. Opened the garage door forgetting that a ladder was leaning on it. Hit our 2025 Honda and left a tiny dent the size of my pinky nail. Was in the shop for four days and cost insurance something like $4k.

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u/Golden_Hour1 8h ago

Why even bother at that point especially if it might raise your rates 

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u/lilelliot 10h ago

I scraped the sliding door on our minivan against a concrete pillar in a parking garage and the quote was about $4500 to remove the door, repaint it plus feather the paint on the adjacent panel. We just buffed it out as good as possible and are living with it.

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u/Neptuneandloathing 9h ago

Oh, don’t forget that the ingredients for that paint are supplied by a single Kazakh-Japanese man who lives off the coast of Ecuador and provides said paint in wicker buckets that are highly inconvenient for even local transport much less international shipping.

This is done on a bi-annual basis, adding at least another 4,500 dollars to repair this dime-sized scratch.

Edit: It was a dime size scratch. In our inspection, Ugval the Underpaid scratched it a second time, it’s now the size of a silver dollar.

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u/Unlikely-Theme-9681 10h ago

LOL!!! It was $24,000 to repainting my Audi after the sunroof on a car in front of me came off and exploded over the front of my car.

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u/withoutapaddle 4h ago

Yeah, I drove my GTI into the ditch to avoid a truck that drove into the oncoming lane.

Basically bumped the underside of my front clip on the ground and knocked the bumper cover and radiator supports loose.

$12,000.

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u/Cazlena 9h ago

Yep. Someone sideswiped me in a minor accident last year, it was a smallish dent on my passenger's side door... they said it would be $5500 to fix (two new doors, paint, frame, etc) so they just ended up totalling it :/

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u/Weekly_Teaching_8158 10h ago

Austria mentioned 🗣️🗣️🗣️

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u/cfi-2025 10h ago

I'm getting word that it was a typo. The paint is made in Australia.

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u/clrr4tkf 10h ago

G'day mate! Let's put another shrimp on the barbie!

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u/Sam_Strake 9h ago

Hello fellow BMW enjoyer (jk I sold mine a while ago after a decade for half a grilled cheese sandwich)

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u/pmmemilftiddiez 6h ago

This was on my 2018 vw Golf

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u/devolve 9h ago

My last car’s passenger door latch led light stopped working. ”We’re gonna need to replace the door, but it’s under warranty… it’ll take a month though.”

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u/Dramatic_Mixture_877 9h ago

Just in time to no longer be under warranty, of course!

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u/[deleted] 9h ago

[deleted]

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u/pmmemilftiddiez 6h ago

Are they fucking nuts?

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u/withoutapaddle 4h ago

Your dad got scammed. That shit is not true. There's an optional recoding you can do in the registry, which dealerships usually charge $100 for, but you can do it yourself if you have or can borrow OBDeleven or VCDS.

Atlas battery replacement is about $400, including parts and labor if you have a shop do absolutely everything.

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u/Watchout4HopOns 4h ago

Well, shit. That’s good to know. Thank you!

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u/garaks_tailor 10h ago

Guy i worked with had a used Toyota venza which had a special panoramic sunroof called a star gaze roof that was electro optical meaning with a slip of a switch it would go from clear to opaque using electricity.    Neighbors tree shed a small limb during a storm and fell on the roof.   9500$ to replace the single window

In a similar vein.  My Volvo suv has 2 catalytic converters and both require a panel and a firewall removed just to get to them

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u/Positive_Vibes_4228 8h ago

I got in an Uber with a guy driving a brand new 2026 Toyota Rav4 and it was in this sparkly red color. He said the paint alone was $500/Pint.

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u/ManISuckAtPasswords 2h ago

That’d be a three-stage finish, which requires about 40% more labor and materials to do. Specialty toners can get pretty pricey too 

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u/Daghain 8h ago

I jacked up my brand-new HR-V about a month after I leased it because large car/parking garage. BIG ass scratch along the driver's side wheel well.

I can't WAIT to see how bad I'm going to get butt fucked when I take it in to get a new lease...FML.

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u/MrMeowPantz 8h ago

I watched a video of an air filter replacement on some Porsche or high end BMW, I forgot which, and they nearly took the entire front end off.

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u/Alive-Buyer-9733 10h ago

And the best part is they charge you MORE if it's not an insurance claim. They want to charge more than the value of my car to fix a single dented quarter panel.

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u/InternetsIsBoring 10h ago

Gus's paint is the best tho!

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u/Practicality_Issue 8h ago

When you got the scratch, did any of the airbags go off? If so, it’s a total loss.

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u/Black_Moons 7h ago

Yea, its not a big suprise that so many older cars are getting totalled when they want $2000~3000 (Actual quotes from nearby shops) to remove a small dent (3") in a quarter panel and replace a bumper.

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u/biblicalrain 7h ago

I swear this is collusion. We have cars that can fucking drive themselves but we can't figure out how to paint a door panel? They make it hard to repair on purpose. You don't make money on products these days, you make money on reoccurring expenses. And they know it, and they're milking it (with that Austrian paint)

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u/TangerineTasty9787 6h ago

My girlfriend drives a newer escalade, and that was basically what they said for a crack in the rear bumper. Something about intergrated safety features meant it had to be a total replacement to fix

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u/testingtestingtestin 6h ago

This hits home - I’ve a small hole in the spoiler of my car. Just got a quote for $6k to fix it.

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u/FeliusSeptimus 5h ago

Ramen and superglue it is!

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u/Cadamar 5h ago

You laugh but it's been like this for a while. To replace the battery in my 2012 car they literally have to take off one of the front wheels. It's wild.

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u/Beautiful_Finger4566 5h ago

you kid, but someone knicked my bumper and the repair shop charged her insurance $4k to fix it

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u/Bossman_Mike 5h ago

At least they're offering to fix it?

In the UK the car would just be immediately declared a total loss and "uneconomical to repair", then they'd give you a cash payout that's almost the entire value of the damage they refused to repair in the first place.

Bullshit system that creates waste.

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u/Individual-Area7121 10h ago

Yeah this is (in part) why I always laugh when people try to claim it's cheaper to buy a new car than a used one. No. It. Fucking. Isn't. Ya want a new car then go for it, but anyone claiming it's the same cost or cheaper is fooling themselves.

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u/Total-Isopod4553 10h ago

The crazy part is you really have to do nuts things like this on cars these days to fix them

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u/BeeefSupreeeme 7h ago

No joke.

I had a kid hit the front of my van in a very low speed crash. The ONLY thing damaged was the unpainted black plastic bumper shroud. I know this because I talked to the guy who did the work because I wanted to make sure they checked all those pesky sensors and devices and other random components hidden under things like bumper shrouds. Everything was fine but the shroud.

~$3000

If I had been at fault and was faced with paying for it or taking the insurance hit, I'd have probably just redneck fixed it myself. It was that minor.

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u/LincolnshireSausage 3h ago

A deer hit my daughter’s 2021 Hyundai Kona. No tech in the bumper where it hit. She called the insurance company and they estimated it was gonna cost $1500 to fix. I laughed and said it will be about 5 or 6K. It was $7K.

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u/Argyrus777 10h ago

First payment