 Car Care Tips: Maximizing The Value Of My Car
Posted by carsandtrucks on Monday, January 14 @ 06:55:23 PST
Today’s automobile will easily get 100,000 miles and more providing you do the proper preventative maintenance. If you do the simple oil and filter services, change the air and fuel filters, and take care of the little things before they become big things you can expect your car or truck to stay on the road for a long time. In my opinion, that is the only way to get the full value out of your vehicle. Automobiles depreciate in value by thousands of dollars per year for the first 5 or 6 years. Then the depreciation slows into the hundreds of dollars. So the longer you can drive it the better return you have on your investment. If you find yourself at
the end of your car payments this should not signal you to go out and buy another vehicle. This is a time to evaluate what you already own. If your current 8 year old vehicle is worth 2500.00 and the maintenance and repair bills for the year have been averaging 1000.00, then you are better off keeping what you currently own. You should take your old dependable car or truck to the shop that you trust, and have them look for current or potential future problems. If the car or truck is structurally sound and has some minor mechanical issues you can set up a budget and time plan to get the repairs performed. You will find this approach much less expensive then a visit to the showroom. Now, on the other hand, if the repair shop tells you the repair cost will exceed the value of the vehicle then it makes sense to consider replacing the old ride. I see so many customers coming through the doors with 100,000-200,000 miles on their vehicles and they are all avoiding huge monthly loan payments. The other thing they all have in common is they are in for routine maintenance and take care of the little things. A customer recently said to me “When I bought this car I hoped for 100,000 miles, now that I am closing in on 300,000 I don’t think it will ever stop.” His 2000 model year car was paid off in 2004. That means he has had 4 years of no car payments. That’s kind of like buying one and getting one free!
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