How long do you plan to keep your car? Some people keep a car for a couple years. Some people get five or 10 years out of their vehicle. Others stick with their car to the bitter end – until it’s ready for a tow to the scrapyard. If you’re not in that last category, there are some ways to keep your car’s value up.

Even if you’re in that final category – someone who drives a car until it crumbles around them – maintenance will postpone the ‘bitter end’ a little longer. But most of us don’t keep a car that long. 

According to RL Polk, on average, cars that are still on the road are 11.4 years old. On average, a driver keeps a car for 71.4 months, or approximately six years. If they take care of their vehicle during that time, they’ll get a better trade in or a higher price if they sell the car outright. Even if someone only keeps a car for a couple years, maintaining the vehicle will pay dividends when they sell or trade.

What can you do, in terms of maintenance, to get the best value for your vehicle when it’s time for a new car? These principles generally apply no matter how long you keep your car.

• Be fastidious about cleaning spots on the carpet or upholstery. Try to avoid them but if (when) you can’t, clean them up promptly before they leave permanent stains. Use protective products on vinyl and leather surfaces. These will help to keep the sun from drying them out. Over time, the sun will dry them to the extent that they harden and crack.
• Don’t smoke in your car. The smell of a smoker in a car tends to linger. It’s very difficult to conceal. The residue from smoking covers the interior of the vehicle. This is a rough choice if it’s your way to smoke in the car. If you do, using air fresheners and having the interior detailed will help to mitigate the damage smoking can do to the car’s value.
• Clean and Wax your car several times each year. Maintaining the exterior of the car, obviously, is at least as important as maintaining the interior. One of the chief enemies of your car’s finish is the sun. Waxing the car will go along way to combatting the UV rays of the sun that can do so much harm. They also protect the vehicle from road salt, nicks and scratches.
• Keep your car in good running order. Whatever regular maintenance is prescribed in the Owner’s Manual, do it. Do it on time. If repairs are required, don’t put them off. 
• Change the oil as prescribed in the Owner’s Manual. This fits into the last point but it’s so important that it deserves its own bullet point. There’s probably nothing you can do, other than avoiding running your car into a tree or another vehicle, that will do more to preserve the value and longevity of your vehicle than changing the oil.
• Investigate any noises or strange behaviors your car develops. Don’t assume, ‘It’s nothing.’ It might be more than you expect. Keep after it before it leaves you stranded somewhere.
• Avoid sudden starts and stops. In other words, don’t beat on the car. Treat it as though you want it, and its value, to last.
• You could try keeping the mileage down. This, however, is somewhat counter intuitive. You’ve purchased your vehicle to use it to take you where you want to go. If you park it in the garage and never drive it, that will certainly help to keep the mileage down and the value up. But why buy the car in the first place?
• Speaking of the garage – keep you car in the garage whenever you can. As long as you don’t drop anything on it in there, the garage can go a long way to maintaining the condition and value of your car.