Does detailing a car increase its value? Many people have asked me that question in the last few months, and that’s why I decided to write this article and answer this question in detail.
Key Takeaways:
- Detailing your car increases its resale value
- It’s easier to sell a car that’s regularly detailed
That’s the short answer, but I want to dive deeper into this topic and explain everything so you can understand it properly.
Detailing Your Car Is an Investment
You shouldn’t look at auto detailing as just spending money. And yes, while it does cost a significant amount of money when compared to typical car washing, it’s actually an investment.
Car detailing is an investment into your car’s longevity, appearance, and resale value once you decide to sell it.
Through years of my experience and passion for cars, all the cars that were regularly detailed are in much better condition, they look appealing, attract views on the street (Especially if they’re sporty), and I’ve seen thousands of ads with detailed cars selling for a higher price.
Why Does Detailing a Car Increase Its Resale Value?
Here are five reasons why detailing your car will increase its resale value:
- Improved Aesthetic Appeal. Detailed cars often look almost new, which is a great selling point for potential buyers. When you have clean paint, engine bay, wheels, dressed tires, etc.. All that will make your ad stand out from other cars being sold.
- Paint Condition. Because detailing involves compounding and polishing, and also protecting the paint with wax, sealants, or ceramic coatings, the paint condition will be much better, and there won’t be oxidation or fading that happens to most cars after they’re more than 10 years old.
- Interior Preservation. Detailing also includes making sure that the interior keeps its factory look. Regularly detailed cars will have preserved upholstery, carpets, dashboard, and other interior surface. The car will also smell better because it’s clean and maintained, which will again attract more buyers, making the resale value higher.
- Mechanical Maintenance. Even though car detailing isn’t about mechanics, it actually helps to keep your car mechanics working better and longer. For instance, undercarriage car wash helps protect and keep clean all the parts in the suspension, exhausts, hoses, etc. That contributes to a mechanically better vehicle.
- Builds Buyer Confidence. When a potential buyer sees a nice, clean, and preserved vehicle, it builds confidence that everything with the car is great and that there won’t be a need for additional investments. This is a psychological factor, but it really influences buyer’s choice between similar vehicles. They’ll look at your car as a “safer” purchase.
Those are the five most important reasons, but of course, there are tons of other reasons I could write about.
Is It Worth Detailing Older Cars?
Even older cars deserve regular detailing, especially if we’re talking about some extremely old vehicles that are already considered “oldtimers.”
In my opinion, every car should be regularly detailed, no matter its price. The goal is to preserve its original condition as much as possible, which saves you a lot of money in the long run.
For instance, you can buy a wax for $30, and you can use that wax and reapply it regularly to protect your car’s paint for the next 3-5 years. Then, buy another one, and it’s a $60 investment for almost 10 years of paint protection.
Then, compare your car to some unprotected car. Your car will look 10x better, while the car that hasn’t been detailed will probably already need a paint job, which costs a fortune.
Learn DIY Car Detailing
If you learn some basics of auto detailing, you can DIY everything, making the cost of auto detailing much smaller.
Here are a few things I recommend you learn:
- Proper methods of washing cars.
- Basics of paint protection.
- Basics of paint restoration (compounding and polishing).
- Interior detailing (deep cleaning carpets and seats).
You can learn all that through various YouTube videos, and it’s pretty simple. Start with the basics, and then gradually learn new things. Personally, I recommend starting out with simple things such as washing the car, doing paint decontamination, cleaning the interior, etc. And then, once you acquired those skills, go and learn some tougher skills, such as deep cleaning and polishing.
Final Words
I hope that now you realize that detailing your car really increases its resale value and, even more importantly, that it’s not expensive to detail your car if you learn to do it yourself.
