Nothing beats the feeling of sitting in your brand-new car for the very first time. Knowing that you’re the first person to take the car out and put it through its paces is an exhilarating feeling and an unmatched sensory experience. Taking in that new car smell, hearing the purr of the engine, and feeling how the car responds certainly adds to the excitement of purchasing a brand-new vehicle.
There are without doubt many reasons that people choose to buy a new, rather than used car. However, buying a new car does come at a significant cost. Depreciation is a major issue that new car owners can’t escape. It’s an unfortunate fact of life that a car starts to lose value pretty soon after its left the dealership and parked on your drive. While depreciation may be unavoidable, there are certainly plenty of ways that you can help to protect the value of your vehicle. Here are some ideas to help you:
Choose Your Vehicle Carefully
Reducing the impact of depreciation can actually begin before you’ve even parted with a single dollar. You see, the brand and model of car you choose to buy can have a huge impact on its depreciation rate.
While calculating precise depreciation rates is challenging, it’s estimated that the value of a new car depreciates by as much as 20% during its first year, and continues to fall by approximately 10-15% in each subsequent year. For most vehicles, the depreciation rate begins to slow down a little after the five-year mark.
Unfortunately, some vehicles simply depreciate faster than others. Certain brands of car are known for holding their value for a long time, and can achieve a depreciation that’s less than the average. This means that if you decide to re-sell it within a few years of buying it, you’re less likely to lose an eye-watering sum of money. Knowing which cars depreciate the most in value can help you to better understand what to look out for when purchasing your new car. This enables you to make an informed buying decision and allows you weigh up your options more carefully.
Take Care From the Start
When you’ve got a brand-new car, it’s so easy to get a little complacent. You may feel that as the vehicle is new, you can simply rely on it to work perfectly with minimal effort from you. As time goes on, it becomes even easier to get more relaxed about your vehicle and the way you treat it. This is a major mistake to make in terms of your car’s value.
To ensure that you can command the price you hope to achieve if you decide to sell your car in the future, you really need to take the best care of it from the start, and to continue doing so throughout. This means taking care if you eat inside the vehicle and clearing away those takeout wrappers if you do, so that you prevent greasy marks and food odor from penetrating the upholstery. Any potential buyer will attempt to talk down the price if the car’s interior is not in good condition, especially if it has stains that cannot be removed. This is especially true if your car is a luxury vehicle, as future buyers will expect to enjoy premium quality with minimal signs of the past owner left in the car.
As well as ensuring to take care of the interior of the car from the start, it’s also essential to keep the car in excellent working order. You car may be new, but it’s still crucial to take care of its mechanics. Scheduling it in for regular servicing will help to keep it in the best running order and ensure that it can perform at its best. Having a car with an up-to-date full service history makes it more appealing to buyers, and importantly, ensures you can command a higher price for the vehicle.
Protect Your Paintwork
Protecting the interior of your car from damage may be reasonably easy, as this is something you have a lot of control over. However, the exterior can be a completely different story. Unfortunately, all cars are faced with wear and tear over time, and even new cars are subjected to a host of potential issues that can cause damage to their exterior.
Loose stones can cause damage by chipping and scratching paintwork, other road users may drive or park recklessly, causing damage to your vehicle. These inconvenient events can leave your car’s paintwork looking less than its best and may even damage the bodywork. If left unchecked, even these small marks and chips on your car’s paintwork can progressively worsen. Depending on the climate where you live, you may even start to find that corrosion sets in on these areas pretty quickly. So, acting fast as soon as damage is caused to your car’s paintwork is essential. However, you need to be sure that the repair work is carried out well. Attempting to fix these issues yourself, or choosing someone without a lot of professional experience can cause the original damage to look so much worse.
To prevent further damage being caused, you need to use car detailing experts. The value of your vehicle and its future re-sell value make it far too risky for you to have anything less than a perfect repair carried out on your car. Once you’ve had the paintwork fixed so it’s looking back at its best, it’s wise to arrange for regular detailing to keep the car looking pristine both inside and out.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, protecting the value of your car requires you to take the best care of it from the start. Some level of depreciation will always occur, but you can actively preserve its value with a little time and effort. Taking care of the interior, exterior, and keeping it in the best running order will ensure you can get the best re-sell value for your vehicle.
