Why do people defend negative actions with positive results.?

I hear this all the time but here's a scenario. my g/f's father ran into something with the penger side mirror on his car. all it did was tear off the outer shell. the mirror is still usable. when I saw it I asked him if he wanted me to get a new one (I've replaced 2 for him) and install it for him. he said no and that it works better now. he also bumped into his sliding gate while backing out of his driveway. it sheared the main post clean off. it's a chain link fence so the rest of the fence still supports it. again, I asked him if he wanted it fixed. he said no and then showed me how much better (he say's) it works. I just said ok and shook my head. have any of you out there had similar exp's.?