When it comes reselling or trading in your vehicle, there’s only so much someone can do on their own to preserve the trade in value to as close as the original purchase price as possible. Along with even seemingly minor car dents, there are many aspects of your vehicle whose attention necessitates professional facilitation.

• Get that vehicle washed once a week. Green, water efficient car washes are popping up everywhere recently. It’s better to go to one of these places, as opposed to doing it yourself, because they use adopt the use of eco-friendly soaps and water saving technologies unavailable to the everyday driver. The important point here is: Removal of the film of dust that collects on your car, even when parked in a garage, ensures that the miniscule ‘sandpaper-like’ grit is periodically removed from your car’s paint finish. The clear coat of your paint finish will remain bright and showroom fresh (well, nearly). A regularly washed car will also ensure that a purchased Scratch Pad installed in your garage will do the very best that it can in preventing scratches, car dents, and swirl marks in your car’s paint finish.
• Regular maintenance is pivotal. Keep your maintenance records as well, as buyers will require proof of when work was done, and what the work was. If your records are uncollected, or if they’re from multiple shops, create an excel document that aggregates them in a visually pleasing fashion.
• Buying tires? Buy four at a time instead of two at a time. This, coupled with regular rotation and balancing, will stretch your maintenance dollars, give you a better, more comfortable and quieter ride, and better preserve your car’s internal mechanics.
• If unfortunately you do suffer a chip or ding on your car’s finish, have the damage repaired without delay (to avoid body rust beginning), and either use matching factory touch-up paint (if a very small blemish) yourself, or have a qualified body shop repair the more substantial chip or ding; however, avoid if at all possible the complete re-painting of the car body panel. The reason for avoiding a re-painting of a panel: it appears as if your car was involved in a minor crash; resale dealers always look for body panel parts (fenders and doors) which indicate re-paint “overspray” or a slightly mismatched color. It is, to them at least, proof that the car was in a crash, and a substantially reduced trade-in value is called for. So, why suffer the ‘self-inflicted wound’ of a re-painting when a careful blemish “fix” does the job just fine?