Are you one of those people that is crazy about keeping their vehicle clean? While studies have shown that most vehicles resale value is enhanced if the cars are clean at time of sale, one has to wonder just how much it is worth for all the effort and energy associated with washing and vacuuming your car every weekend!
The statistics will indicate that all things being equal except the cleanliness factor of a vehicle, the dirtier car will only have a price depreciation of about 7%. That’s seven percent less than the sparkling clean car.
If we break this down to dollars, let’s see what we get. On a vehicle that resells for $20,000, seven percent is right at $1400. If you owned that car for 3 years and only washed it once a month (the really clean folks wash it every week!) and you paid for the cheapest wash, say $10 how much did you spend? Approximately, $360.
So far so good. But you are most likely one of those folks that go beyond the cheap rate, so once every 3 months or so, you get the $30 super detail package. That’s $120 a year, times 3 years, so another $360.
We’re up to $720 now. And we’ll stop there; round it down to having spent $700. Subtract that from the $1400 and for all that work, you made $700 more than the slob who washed his car once a year, whether it needed it or not!