Love It or List It
Staying on top of regular cleaning can help extend your car’s longevity and resale value.
Whether you want to fall in love with your car again, or to sell it, we've got some handy tips for you to get your car back to looking its best.
Splash Detailing spoke to Moneyshake, who surveyed 1,000 UK motorists to see if drivers are giving their car the TLC it needs to go that extra mile and found many Brits are neglecting their cars.
According to ‘Buy My Car’, a well-cleaned and maintained car can add up to 10% to a vehicle’s value. To show this, the average used car price in the UK was £14,100 as of Q1 2021. That means taking better care of your car could add £1,410 in value, on average.
- A shocking 23% almost never clean the car – that’s 1 in 4 drivers
- Just 14% wash their car every 2 weeks, the recommended amount
- Over 1/3 said they cleaned their car less during COVID-19 restrictions
- What’s more, 11% revealed that they ‘haven’t needed’ to wash their car at all during COVID-19 restrictions.
Giving your interior a full detail can really impress potential buyers. After all, this is the place they'll be spending their time when driving the car. Take the mats out and give them a thorough vacuum. Removing the mats for a detail also gives you better access to the carpets of the car. Use a brush to lift the stubborn engrained dirt whilst you vacuum. A product like our CocoNuts Interior Dressing will really uplift your dash and interior trims, giving your interior a new lease of life.
An engine bay detail is probably one of the most overlooked areas of car detailing. It's not as scary as it sounds and a clean engine bay will show that real care and love the car has had during your ownership. Check out our engine bay detail blog for more info. A cover-up of some electrics and some Zest Citrus Degreaser partnered up with our CocoNuts Interior Dressing will work winders under the bonnet.
There's nothing worse than seeing scratches all over a car that you have gone to see. Fine swirls are often inflicted on the paintwork, usually by lack of care or knowledge on how to wash your car correctly. Ditch the sponge for starters and get yourself a high quality wash mitt, like our Wotsmitt Wash Mitt. Then a hand (or machine) polish will really brighten your cars paintwork and remove (or fill in) any scratches.
Now this step is just as important as the polishing stage. Once you've done all the hard work of polishing, you want to make sure you've protected your paintwork too. A good quality carnauba wax will always be a favourite with many people. The recent arrival of ceramic and graphene products has meant that many people who haven't had the expertise of applying these difficult to use coatings, are often making a mess of their paint. Our Golden Delicious Liquid Wax is extremely easy to use, whether you're a beginner or pro. It'll leave a stunning dripping wet-look on your paint and protect it for months.
Hopefully your wheels aren't in 'too bad' a condition. Make sure you wash them properly, with a safe non-acidic wheel cleaner like our Ocean Blast Alloy Wheel Cleaner. It'll safely fight brake dust on your wheels and leave them looking as new. You should also clean your exhaust if you have stainless tips. Our Clear Vue Glass Cleaner works really well on stainless exhausts.
Windows with smears all over can really make it difficult to see out of when a potential buyer takes the car for a test drive. Some people really don't like cleaning their glass, however, we've developed our NEW Clear Vue Glass Cleaner to make this job super easy. It has a high alcohol content which means it removes smudges and fingerprints, leaving your glass looking (almost) invisible. There's something special about a sweet, not overpowering fragrance for a potential buyer when they first sit in the drivers seat. We have our Envy Dark Cherry Spray fragrance or one of our orange soda or grape hanging air fresheners. It's all about the finishing touches here.
We hope you've enjoyed this guide. If you have any questions for us or advice, drop us an email or send us a DM on Instagram or Facebook.
