1.Keep Your Vehicle Clean
By ensuring that the inside and outside of your vehicle is cleaned on a regular basis, you ensure that your vehicle remains in the best possible condition. Not only will keeping your vehicle clean help maintain its resale value overtime, it also provides you with a clean and hygienic space during your daily commute. Try to avoid automated car washes that use large rotating brushes or wheel-mounted guide rails. Instead, opt for a touchless-wash or even a specialty hand car wash facility to ensure that your vehicle’s paint & wheels don’t receive any unwanted scratches.

2.Keep Track of the Mileage
It’s a well-known fact that a used vehicle’s value is greatly dependent on its condition, with its odometer reading being one of the most important factors to consider. In general, a vehicle with lower kilometers on the odometer is considered to be in better condition and is thus worth more than a comparable vehicle with higher mileage. As a rule of thumb, the typical driver averages about 20,000 km of driving in a year. By staying on top of the amount of kilometers your vehicle drives in a year, you can help maintain your vehicle’s value by following or staying under this kilometer threshold.

3.Ensure Regular Maintenance is Performed
Make sure to keep detailed records of your vehicle’s maintenance history. As a car owner, it pays to hold on to all documents related to your car’s service history including periodic inspections, oil changes, tire swaps, and any repairs performed on your vehicle. By doing so, you have proof of your car’s maintenance history, complete with date and odometer readings of when these services were performed. These records serve as physical evidence of your diligence as a car owner,and help to justify a high resale value.

4.Fight Rust
Living in Northern Ontario means facing the unpredictable weather of the Canadian winter. With the snow comes salt and other debris that coat the roads and inevitably, your vehicle. When road salt mixes with your car’s metal components, the development of rust is almost unavoidable. It goes without saying that a car with rusted out body panels are unattractive to potential buyers and as such, are worth less than a comparable vehicle that’s devoid of rust.
A common method used to fight the development of rust is by applying a coating of oil and chemicals to your vehicle’s undercarriage and engine bay to prevent salt from corroding any metal.

5.Avoid Eating, Drinking or Smoking in the Vehicle
Although drive-thrus provide easy and convenient access to food while out on the road, eating and drinking in your vehicle may lead to spills, food getting into tight crevices and other unwanted accidents in your car’s interior. As much as possible, try to avoid eating in your vehicle and opt to dine indoors or out on a patio. Furthermore, avoid smoking inside your vehicle as the smell of smoke tends to cling to the vehicle’s fabrics such as the seats and headliner. No one wants a car that has a lingering scent of tobacco smoke so if you want to maintain your vehicle’s resale value, smoke outside.

6.Avoid Excess Wear & Tear
Avoiding excess wear and tear in your vehicle goes hand in hand with the previous tip about keeping track of your vehicle’s mileage. As cars are tools used to take people from one place to another, there’s an acceptable amount of wear and tear that’s expected. However, excess wear and tear reduces a vehicle’s resale value as the overuse of a specific part or system of a vehicle may bring about doubts as to how well it was taken care of by the previous owner.

7.Choose Your Parking Spots Wisely
This may seem like an odd tip but hear us out because this piece of advice could save you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars down the road. Although parking in a spot that’s as close as possible to the entrance of where you need to go is convenient, these spots come with a certain level of risk. These high demand spots experience a high level of traffic as everyone else wants these prime locations. As such, these spots are more prone to other motorists opening their cars and accidentally denting, scratching or accidentally hitting your car. The same goes for tight parking spots that leave little room on either side of the vehicle. Instead, find a corner parking spot where you’re only adjacent to one other vehicle, or better yet, park in a spot that’s further and devoid of any other vehicles nearby.

8.Avoid Damaging the Wheels
This tip goes hand-in-hand with the previous one as the main cause of wheel damage is by accidentally hitting your wheels on a curb while parking, also known as curb rash. Although some drivers might be oblivious to their vehicle’s wheels, these four pieces of metal and rubber are a vital part of your vehicle. A vehicle with excessive amounts of curb rash and wheel damage may be off-putting to potential buyers as it once again brings about doubts about the amount of care that the previous owner placed on the vehicle.

9.Fix Scratches, Dents & Body Damage Immediately
Should the previous two tips be ignored and you find yourself with a vehicle that’s dented, scratched or received damage to its bodywork, it’s in your best interest to repair these as soon as possible. Bring your vehicle to a specialty automotive body repair shop and opt for a paintless dent repair service, have them buff out any scratches or ask them to repair any bodywork damage before rust can develop.

10.Think of Your Vehicle as an Investment
Although cars have a reputation for being a depreciating asset that “loses a quarter of its value after it’s driven off the lot”, the discerning vehicle owner knows better than to treat their vehicle without care. Granted, a vehicle is never worth as much today as it was yesterday, it’s still worth hundreds, if not thousands of dollars when it’s sold or traded-in to a dealership. With this in mind, it helps for owners to think of their vehicle as an investment, one that they plan to get some money for once they decide to sell it or trade it in. This mindset can go a long way to having drivers treat their vehicle with care and respect.