Preparing Your Car

Experts reckon that just by cleaning your car, you can add £100s to its value; a day's effort will be time well spent, and it shouldn’t cost the earth.

Outside

Your first step should be to clean off all the road grime, using a good-quality car shampoo. NEVER use washing-up liquid, as it actually helps promote rust, unlike car products, which keep it at bay. Work from the roof down, rinse off well, and dry with a chamois leather.

Now you need to deal with the details:

• Stone chips are unsightly, can rust if not attended to, and usually put buyers off. Repair them with a touch-up stick. These are not expensive and they can dramatically improve your car’s performance
• Wheels caked in brake dust look awful. On alloys, if it's particularly stubborn, buy an alloy wheel cleaner and treat them. If you've got wheel trims, consider replacing them - especially if they've been kerbed. Damaged alloys can be repaired too, but this is more expensive
• Missing trim or badges stand out like a sore thumb to used buyers, so buy replacements. Breaker's yards offer a cheap source of parts
• Clean less obvious parts such as sills, wheel arches and the inner panel of doors; this will impress buyers, and helps create a 'well looked-after' image

A good polish will create that 'new car' shine so many used buyers are looking for. Don't worry if paint residue appears on the cloth; this is just a layer of 'dead paint' you're removing - there'll still be plenty left on the car!

Inside

Cleaning the interior requires a little more hard work. Starting with the vacuum is always best - treat carpets, seats, dusty crevices and the dashboard itself.

• Use low-gloss cleaner on dashboards – don’t use household polish
• Clean the windows after the dashboard with a glass cleaner or damp chamois
• Replace any non-standard parts, such as racy gear knobs or alloy pedal covers. They won't impress buyers, who'll think your car has been thrashed. Standard is always best
• Holes, usually from mobile phone holders, can be filled in by specialists. They can also repair any damage to dashboards or door trims, and it doesn't cost the earth, either
• Avoid dousing the car in air freshener, unless you have smoked in it - in which case, buy an odour neutraliser. Spray the ashtray too, after giving it a good clean

Lift tatty old mats out; the clean carpets underneath will look much more attractive.

Mechanicals

Buyers love looking under the bonnet, even if they haven't got a clue what they're looking for. You should therefore make sure they like what they see.

• Steam-cleaning is much-loved by car dealers, but can arouse suspicion; are you trying to hide oil leaks? By all means clean the engine bay, but don't go overboard. Don't bother with older cars, though, as steam-cleaners can sometimes damage fragile parts or connections
• Oil changes are cheap, and clean oil looks far better than sludgy treacle. Make sure the oil level is correct too
• Fill all water and coolant bottles up, maybe using a sweet-smelling windscreen washer?
• Tidy up generally; attach alarm wiring correctly, clean out leaves from air intakes, and generally make the engine bay appear cared-for