Everybody does standard maintenance on their car – oil changes to keep the engine running, new tires so that you don’t slide all over the road, and even an occasional car wash. But have you ever stopped to consider how important taking care of the interior of your car can be? Whether you want to keep it forever or just be able to resell it at a premium price, a clean interior in excellent condition goes a long way towards keeping your car looking better and worth more money.
Here’s a list of some simple things you can do to make the interior of your car stay looking good:
Window Tinting: Often overlooked for anything other than affecting the look of a car, window tint actually has some great features that make it a worthwhile investment to preserve your investment. It helps block damaging rays from the sun, which can cause fading of dashboards, cloth seats and carpet. The sun’s rays can also cause cracking and drying of leather seats, and even other parts inside your car. How many faded dashboards have you seen?- Seat Covers: Especially if you have kids or pets, seat covers are a great and inexpensive way to protect your seats from tearing or stains. Whether you have leather or cloth seats, tears are no fun to have repaired, and usually require a costly professional automotive upholstery shop. While stains may sometimes be cleaned, that’s not always guaranteed, and ugly stains will always affect your car’s value. Simply preventing both by purchasing seat covers for your vehicle is an inexpensive solution that will increase the value of your car in the long run. An added bonus to seat covers is they will also help protect your seats from being faded by the sun. Visit a professional paintless dent repair shop for more information.
- Steering Wheel Covers: Covering up the steering wheel is not something a lot of people think about, especially now that there are so many buttons that control so many different things there. But, especially with leather or vinyl covered steering wheels, a $10 steering wheel cover can save you a whole lot of hassle at selling time. Vinyl and leather are generally considered to be easy to care for in many ways. However, exposure to sunlight and things like rainwater that may be on your hands sometimes can make the steering wheel chip or flake over time. It’s far easier to just slip a new steering wheel cover on than to take the car into a shop to have the entire wheel replaced, especially if it is wired into many electronics on your vehicle.
- Cleaners and Protectants – Professional detailing shops like Westside Detail don’t use just anything they find in the cleaning aisle on cars, and neither should you! Not only will any cleaner they use be specifically formulated for cars, they will also generally apply protectants to many of your interior car parts. Different protectants may do different things. For instance, one for vinyl or plastic may be applied to your dashboard to help keep it from cracking. A different one is used on leather car seats to help keep them supple. And a different one may help prevent stains on cloth or carpet. You can find car interior specific cleaning and protecting products at your local car parts store, usually with all the things you’ll need to take care of the outside of your car.
Preventing stains, fading, cracking, and tearing will help you avoid costly car interior repair and replacement. Your interior will last longer and look good. And that will pay off for you in the long run!
