I live in an apartment complex with some stray cats. I have multiple sets of scratch marks on the side doors of my car. I am unsure if these are from cats or from someone keying my car. Is it possible for cats to scratch car paint?
Here are some of the pictures.
I have more pictures but stackexchange will only let me post two links.
It's hard to be sure, but that looks like single-stage paint (without a hard-wearing clearcoat).
If so, it is relatively soft paint that could easily be scratched. Judging by the angle of attack (and prior knowledge of feline behaviour), I would say that those are scratches made by cats that went into hill-descent-control mode.
My experience with cats is that they do enjoy sticking their claws into something soft to sharpen them. Cats will completely destroy furniture this way. The scratches you are showing are on hard metal surfaces, so not likely to be cats sharpening their claws.
Also, the pattern of the scratches makes it unlikely that they were left behind by a cat climbing on the car and using their claws for grip. The scratches are too long, the wrong number and too far apart.
Finally, in my experience, someone keying your car would usually make the scratch mark horizontally on the door, and they would press enough to dig into the paint. These look like surface scratches that are on the paint, not all the way through to the metal.
My conclusion is that these are scratch marks from someone or something rubbing against the car. It is probably unintentional.
I saw my sisters cat attempt to jump up on my car and then slide down the side leaving scratch marks where there were non previously, so to answer your questions, yes, without a doubt cats can scratch car paint with their claws...unfortunately :(
Yes, they technically can, but no, it's not the case in your pictures.
A cat does have sufficient power to scratch a car (given certain criteria are met), but it will not do that unless the cat lands from high up and tries to 'claw' the car to get a support point. In the presented case, the marks are inconsistent with any type of cat scratch, so that excludes any for being at fault in this case.
In India where I live there are many stray cats in the area and I have seen them scratching the roof and bonnet of our car, but like in the picture their scratch patterns are different and usually on our car it is generally 3 or 4 nail marks, and as many suggested that these seems like they might be fighting each other and they slipped or they are terrible in jumping or in falling
My cat sits on my bonnet a lot and I am noticing discolouring and what looks like picking marks like its been picking at the bonnet like it does with a cushion.
