A Guide for Buying and Maintaining Your Car for the Best Resale Value

There are many things you can do before and after you buy your next car to ensure the best resale value to get when you want to sell it. The first thing you should not do is to use dealer financing to buy your car. Your credit union or bank will have lower rates. When you go out to look for a car, the best time is after the first really severe winter storm of the year. The car dealerships will normally be slow at this time and they want to move their cars as fast as possible.

Deciding on which options to purchase for your car will help keep the resale value high. What options to purchase will depend on where and how most of the driving will be done. Safety features should always be added in preference to decorative options. Steel-belted radial tires, day/night mirrors, disc brakes and cruise control are examples of safety features. Air conditioning is essential for comfort especially in warm climates, and is a great advantage when selling your car. Hardly anyone will buy a used car without air conditioning nowadays! An AM/FM radio with a CD player will also help greatly in the resale. And power seats, electric door locks, power windows a tilt steering wheel are also good options for the resale trade.

When buying your car, check for any kind of leaks on the ground. An old trick is to put white shelf paper down on the ground that is large enough to encompass the entire car and drive it over the paper. Leave the car there for the night. Look for any leaks the next day. Clear spots will just be moisture which could result from the air conditioner, and are not to be concerned about. The leaks you need to look into are transmission leaks, which will usually show up as oily pink leaks, and dark leaks which are engine oil leaks. Antifreeze leaks will either be yellow-green or pink, and dry pink leaks are gasoline. If you see any of these leaks, you should have a mechanic look at the car.