5 Care Tips for Luxury Cars
Congratulations on your luxury vehicle ownership! It might be your first one, stepping up in the world, or it may be just the most recent acquisition of several that you currently own. Either way, owning luxury cars is an exciting proposition but it doesn’t come without hazards.
Let’s face it, if you drive a high-end vehicle like Land Rover, Porsche, Ferrari, or Lamborghini (among many others) you’re going to draw attention when you drive your car in the regular situations. Unless you’re driving in Dubai or on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach, a luxury car brand is going to be the focus of many stares.
So don’t you want it to look pristine? Don’t you want it to work at its peak performance? Here are five ways to best care for your luxury car, for your sake and the sake of others.
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Protect Your Vehicle’s Condition
What this doesn’t mean is being the pompous jerk who takes up three parking spots so nobody parks their vehicle close enough to ding it. That doesn’t protect your car – people go out of their way to scratch or ding ‘those guys’. What that means is to be mindful of what the environment does to your car.
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The UV rays from the sun can and will cause extensive damage to your car whether it is a $1,000 Toyota clunker or a $500,000 Lamborghini supercar. It beats down on your paint, your exterior trim, your tires, and your interior components and degrades them. If you’ve seen cracking on dash or door panels, that’s from exposure to the sun’s UV rays. Same with faded paint, whitish-looking plastic exterior panels, and weather cracks on tires.
Park your vehicle in a garage wherever possible, out of the direct sunlight. Use a car cover if your car is going to be sitting for any length of time longer than a few days. This will protect your car’s exterior finish and interior plastics from degrading due to the sun’s powerful effects. Just don’t be the guy who uses a car cover when they head into the office for a few hours. Nobody likes that guy.
Perform Your Scheduled Oil Change
This sounds like one of the most basic, useless tips, but in fact is an area luxury car owners fall down regularly. Luxury car manufacturers use top quality components and fluids so your vehicle won’t need to be maintained as often. For example, fully-synthetic oil is used in many Porsche models including the 911 GT3 and only needs to be changed every 2 years or 15,000 miles.
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The problem is that more often than not luxury cars are driven far less than the average vehicle. If you only drive 5,000 miles per year, you may think you can get away with changing your engine oil every third year. Don’t fall into this temptation!
Your engine oil degrades whether you drive the car or not. Moisture forms in the crankcase. You need to get the contaminants out of your engine so they don’t cause lasting damage. Err on the side of caution and get your oil change (expensive as it may be) performed at or before your service interval.
Perform Your Annual Maintenance Checkup
Even if you drive very few miles every year, corrosion, rust, and degradation can occur just from sitting. Your car is designed to be driven whether you own a Maserati or a Nissan, partially to keep moving parts lubricated and clean.
Your annual checkup notices conditions you may not expect to see on low-mileage cars like:
- Cracked tires
- Seized wheel bearings
- Worn belts
- Leaking seals
Things happen as your vehicle ages. You may not be able to prevent them from occurring but you can address them before they become a major issue for you.
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The only thing worse than your car breaking down on the side of the road is having your luxury car break down at the side of the road. Every eye is on that exotic sports car’s hood open, wondering what happened to the car that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. And when it’s on the flatdeck tow truck, it’s like a walk of shame.
Prevent unnecessary (and definitely unwanted) breakdowns by having an annual vehicle inspection performed regardless of your vehicle mileage.
Detail Your Car
It should go without saying, but keeping your luxury car clean and appearing pristine helps it to hold value. Whether you’re planning to sell your car or keeping it clean for your own pride, you display its true worth when you keep it clean.
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Have the carpets professionally cleaned at least annually, more frequently if they get heavily soiled. Wash your car weekly to get dust, dirt, bugs, sap, and tar off the paint, glass, and metal. Have your paint power polished every six months or so to keep the luster and shine and to remove any scratches that you’ve picked up along the way. Pride in ownership goes a long way toward your vehicle’s retained value and combats depreciation.
Drive It Like You Mean It
Within limits, of course. Luxury cars almost always have a component of performance built in. Your car almost definitely has higher horsepower than the average joe driving down the street, and it needs to stretch its legs once in a while.
If you have a supercar, sports car, or luxury sedan, head out to the highway and punch it to blow carbon buildup out of the engine. Idling and low speeds can cause carbon to accumulate and eventually cause running or emissions issues. If you have a luxury SUV, put it through its paces on slightly rougher terrain than the concrete jungle provides to ensure everything is in working order.
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Not only does it exercise your car’s functions, but it can be great fun as well. Ever off-roaded in a Land Rover? Ever taken a Ferrari for a spin on the interstate? Well, me neither, but I’m sure it would be a blast!
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