Maintenance! You have made the investment in a car and now you must take care of it. If you have the owner’s manual, there will be a maintenance schedule of repairs and replacements the manufacturer recommends and the mileage these jobs should be performed at.  I know it can be rather expensive to follow, but you will do two things: Avoid unexpected and costly repairs and keep your car functioning efficiently. I can’t prove it, but it seems like some parts on vehicles are designed to fail at a certain mileage. (I’m looking at YOU, Ford…) Keep these problems from happening by getting the recommended replacements. Fixing problems also applies to things that break unexpectedly on the car. Switches and buttons that don’t work look bad to a lot of potential customers. Once you have repairs and maintenance performed SAVE THE PAPERWORK. Keep all the oil change receipts, scheduled checks, and all work in a folder. It’s one thing to tell someone you took great care of the car, but it’s another altogether to prove it in writing.

Clean it up. While a bath won’t take out dents and scratches, a lot of times a little soap goes a long way. I see a lot of people come in with a car so filthy I just about can’t tell what the color is. Grimy seats and floormats, trash everywhere, dirty windows tell me that you probably took care of the motor as well as you took care of the rest of the car and I will offer you less for your trade. Not only that, but there are certain parts of the car that will survive longer if you keep it clean. Wipe the dash and seals down with a product designed specifically for it. If you have leather seats, use a product that keeps them supple and helps avoid cracking. Something with a UV protectant is great to keep most plastics from becoming brittle and faded. I look at all of these areas when I decide what to offer a customer as a trade-in allowance, because I know the next person wanting to buy the car will be looking at the exact same things.

No Smoking! While the smell of dank smoke may not bother you, it makes it extremely tough for a dealership to turn around and sell your car. Although they take your car on a trade and offer you a discount on your new or newer car, the dealer often needs to sell your old car before they make any profit on the one they are selling you now. If it smells like smoke it will be more difficult to sell and the dealer’s money will be tied up longer, therefore you will be offered less for the trade. The simple truth is you really cut down the number of people willing to buy your car by smoking in it.

Based on my experience, that’s pretty much all you need to do. Aftermarket add-ons don’t do too much, so don’t expect your $3,000 rims to add any value to the car. (Of course if it’s a specialized vehicle some extras are necessary and expected.) Take care of your car, keep it clean, don’t smoke in it and you should be able to get a really fair trade allowance. Hope this helps!

With the mercury regularly reaching above 100 degrees, you may notice your car running a bit hotter than normal. In a normally-operating car this is due to two factors. The first is that the air blowing over your radiator is much hotter, meaning it has less potential to wisk away engine heat. The second culprit is your air conditioning system. The added strain it puts on the motor means more heat created. Generally, you’ll notice any temperature increases while sitting at lights and not so much when you are moving simply because the forward motion of the car helps out the fan.

Make sure all of your fluids are at the proper levels. We are asking a lot of our vehicles in this heat, and it’s unfair to not give them what they need to get the job done. I recommend my friends and family to actually run a lower percentage of anti-freeze/coolant in the summer. Water absorbs and releases heat quicker than the alcohol in anti-freeze/coolant. Do not run straight water, though, you need the protective qualities of the coolant to keep the water pump, radiator, engine block, etc. from corroding.

I know this is going to hurt, but you may need to turn your A/C off if things start to get hot. If the gauge continues to climb and you can’t shut off the motor, you may actually need to run your heater. Yes, it’s uncomfortable, but until you can get somewhere safe to shut the engine off, you may give it some relief. The heater core and fan work together as a supplementary radiator and fan and just might save you a great deal of heartache.

The best way to make sure your car is running right is regular maintenance and to pay attention. You may notice a different smell or it may sound a bit off. Watch your gauges and listen to your car and you can often see problems before they get more costly to fix.