A luxury car is beautiful when you bring it home. It’s wonderful to drive. The questions you need to ask yourself are: how will it drive in three or five years? And how handsome will it be once you or your family get through with it? These are important considerations because eventually you will want to sell it. At that point, you’ll want to get maximum value out of your investment.
There are some key ways you can maintain your luxury car investment and see it pay the biggest dividends on the day you decide to sell it. Here are the x ways to do that. If you manage to cover all of these angles, you are sure to get the best price when you trade some day.
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Put it in a Garage
No matter how well made, luxury cars need to be protected from the weather. Extreme heat is bad for engine parts. A blistering summer sun may fade the exterior or interior. Rain and snow take their toll. Winter weather is especially bad with the threat of hail or sleet. All of these elements are avoided when the car is parked in a garage.
Each night it is protected is one less night that a bird can leave its mark on the paint job. It limits the opportunity for branches to sweep down and scratch the roof or sides. It stops raccoons, possums, and other rodents from finding the car and making their own entrance into it.
Of course, a garage just about guarantees that vandals won’t be able to mess with it and thieves won’t take advantage and try to break into the car.
In addition to parking it in a garage at night, you should favor covered parking wherever you go. This is especially true if it’s available at your job, where the car will spend a considerable amount of time. It’s also true for shopping trips and other outings where a multi-tier covered parking lot is available.
If all else fails, keep a cover in the trunk and use it! As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
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Let the Manufacturer Repair It
Of course, you can’t return it to the factory, but you can bring your new Lexus to your brand dealership. Their mechanics should be the best equipped to handle maintenance and repairs. They will use the parts and fluids that are required by the manufacturer to maintain your warranty. If this is a bit more expensive than you wish it was, just remind yourself that it will pay off in the end.
Good maintenance like this is also the surest way to keep your vehicle running as well as it did on the day you brought it home. Keep a record of everything you do for your vehicle. Some day you may want to present proof to a buyer that your luxury vehicle really is in the best possible condition.
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Keep an Eye on How Many Miles You Drive
Your luxury vehicle is worth more if the mileage stays low. To get the most when you sell your luxury car, you should try to keep the mileage to around 12,000 miles on average per year. That means your three-year-old car would have 36,000 miles. Your six-year-old car would have 72,000 miles. If you find yourself averaging over 15,000 miles per year, you should look for ways to reduce your future mileage.
For instance, this may mean taking a plane instead of driving cross county. It may mean using a different car for your regular commute. The goal is to keep your luxury car mileage down. This approach should also save you money in repairs and maintenance.
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Clean it Regularly
Of course, you want to keep your luxury vehicle as clean and shiny as possible. This means regular car washes and waxes. It also means wiping down the interior regularly and having the seats and carpets professionally cleaned.
As suggested with repair and maintenance, keep your receipts. That’s sure to impress when you get ready to sell it. Also, consult your manual and other sources to find the most appropriate cleaners for your car’s surfaces.
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Don’t Get a New Paint Job
It seems obvious, but you can’t alter a luxury car in any way. You can’t change the color of the paint, get off-brand off-road accessories, or do anything else that is permanently altering how your car looks or operates. This also means you can’t add racing stripes or other decorations. In fact, you shouldn’t use those big magnets promoting your favorite team. You may remove them one day to find tell-tale circles where the magnet used to be.
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Start Checking Resale Values After the Warranty Expires
Using JD Power and Kelley Blue Book, you should start watching your luxury car’s resale values. Of course, they will go down, but at a certain point, they tend to level off. If you know what your car is worth, you are more likely to recognize signs that it is time to sell it.
If you follow these guidelines, you are sure to get a better deal when you go to trade your car.
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