When you spend money on a car, whether it’s a luxury sports car or a family-friendly sedan, you hope that it’ll hold enough value to be worth something if you ever want to trade it in or resell it. If you have a car you’ve always wanted to sell, now is a very good time to trade or sell your car.
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The prices of used cars have skyrocketed to new-car prices, in some places. Re-selling your car to a private buyer could get you a lot of money to put toward a new vehicle or just stash in your savings. But, there are a lot of factors that could affect how much resale value your car could have.
What is Car Resale Value
Car resale value is the overall market worth of your vehicle and it’s determined by various factors. One of the most common is the condition of the vehicle followed by the brand of vehicle you’re also trying to resale. As a car owner, if you plan on ever re-selling your vehicle, it’s important to start paying attention to various things that could help it maintain a good resale value.
Things Destroying Your Car’s Resale Value
1001 things could tank the price your car could be worth in the market. While the type of car you use and the model year contribute to this. However, other things reduce the resale value of your car.
- Broken or Burnt-Out Lights Affect Resale Value
If a buyer is paying market value for a car, they don’t want to spend extra time and money fixing things. Broken headlights or taillights that don’t work are a particular pain because your buyer will need to schedule a service appointment immediately after purchasing. As such, this could be deducted from the price of the car.
- Cracks or Chips in Your Car’s Windshield
This factor affecting resale value is similar to the first one: Buyers paying potentially a lot of money for your car don’t want to deal with repairs. If you don’t want to spend the time and money to fix a windshield chip or crack, chances are they don’t either. At least not without taking some money out of your car’s resale value.
- A Manual Transmission Could Affect a Car’s Resale Value
People who love driving stick, love driving stick—people who don’t, don’t want to pay for it. Most buyers cruising the market for a used car are looking for a vehicle with an automatic transmission. So, if your car uses a manual transmission, chances are the resale value will go down.
- Differences in Tire Brands, Ages, or Conditions Scare Off Buyers
Tires can be expensive to replace. But if your car is running on a set of mismatched tires, expect to see your vehicle’s resale value flatten out. Buyers may be concerned that you’ve bypassed or delayed other routine maintenance and repairs.
- A Car’s Fuel Economy Could Be Tied to its Resale Value
This one should come as no big surprise. Cars that mean expensive trips to the filling station in this economy can scare away buyers on a budget. This is especially true due to the current fuel prices in the country. Buyers will not be willing to buy a car with poor fuel economy.
How to Improve Your Car’s Resale Value
Maintaining the initial value your car arrived in isn’t easy, especially for drivers in Nigeria who have to navigate poor road conditions daily. Maintaining a car in this country requires patience, effort, and lots of money. But with perseverance, you will be rewarded with a car that could easily be resold at a similar price to what you got initially.
If you are committed to maintaining your car’s resale value, here are things you should be regularly engaging in to improve that resale value.
- Always Perform Car Routine Maintenance
The amount that you need to budget for routine maintenance is different for every car. You will likely spend less on a more reliable car, like the Toyota Corolla, Camry, Lexus, Honda Accord, and many others. However, if you own cars like the Mercedes or BMW, then there are higher chances of spending more on regular maintenance.
If you are in the market for a car, put this into consideration before choosing a car, because, the real cost of a car is in its maintenance. Here’s an article that explains the real cost of owning a Toyota Corolla in Nigeria.
- Maintain Car Tires Regularly
Having properly inflated tires will improve your fuel mileage by as much as 3% in some cases. It doesn’t cost much to regularly pump your tire to ensure your vehicle maintains good fuel mileage.
Rotate, balance, and align your tires frequently to avoid unnecessary wear on your car. If your tire tread is worn out, invest in new tires because this will help you get a higher trade-in value for your car if you decide to sell it later on.
- Get New Car Brakes
Always replace your car’s brake pads every 25,000 miles, as it’ll help improve its resale value. Invest in semimetallic or ceramic pads that last longer and perform better. Brake pad replacement is a simple job that can be done at home if you are confident in your abilities. If not, still visit a regular car mechanic as it’ll still be affordable. Do your car a favor and keep your brakes in good condition to retain your used car’s trade-in value.
- Do Some Minor Car Repair Yourself
There are so many car repairs you can do by yourself to help improve the value of your car over time. They include:
- Changing the battery yourself: Check the date on your car’s battery. Usually, they will last four to six years. Once it’s time for a change, quickly change yours.
- Changing your engine oil: If you want to save money every year and keep your engine functioning, use YouTube to learn how to change your car oil.
- Check your spark plugs every 30,000 miles: High revs will wear out your spark plugs fast. Make sure you have the proper tools to do them yourself. You’ll need tools like a gap gauge, needle-nose pliers, ratchet set, spark plug wire puller, swivel socket, torque wrench, anti-seize compound, and spark plugs.
- Change your transmission oil, coolant, brake fluid, and power steering fluid: Regularly change all the fluid in your vehicle that requires change as this helps improve its condition.
- Fix Windscreen Chips and Cracks
Driving with a cracked windscreen is dangerous to yourself and your passengers. If you intend on selling your car with a windshield chip or crack, you could be losing value on your car. Always fix car windscreen cracks as they keep the car looking decent.
- Buy a Car That Has a High Market Value
Buying a car that best retains value is one of the easiest ways to keep your car’s value high. Toyota, Lexus, and Honda cars are some of the best brands with great resale value in Nigeria. So, if you’re in the market for a car, consider buying vehicles of these brands.
Conclusion
Most car owners don’t think about resale value until one day when they decide to resell their cars. You must not wait until you want to sell a car to start maintaining it. Regular car maintenance adds up the resale value over time. So, start now to maintain your car and watch its resale value go up shortly.
