The finest care you can offer your automobile is professional maintenance, whether it be regular services, repairs, or expert cleaning inside and out. However, that doesn’t preclude you from giving it some love on your own.

For those times when you do decide to treat your car yourself or in between professional treatments, here are a few tips to keep it looking brand new without damaging the paint or sensitive inside surfaces.

Using vehicle wash soap to clean:

Unfortunately, doing it right is a prerequisite, which most drivers do not do. Even something as straightforward as cleaning your automobile may seriously harm the paint if done incorrectly.

This is why many vehicle owners choose a soft-cloth automated car wash that utilizes fresh, recycled water and soft foam brushes to remove dirt and impurities, as well as the fact that a car should ideally be washed once every week.

Avoid using dish soap on your car if you decide to wash it in the driveway since it might damage the paint and remove wax coats that are meant to preserve it. Instead, use a special vehicle wash soap that won’t damage the paint and is designed for the kinds of contaminants that end up on a car.

While you’re at it, use a multiple-bucket approach. Use two buckets rather than attempting to do everything with one. Three is superior. The soapy solution is put in one bucket. After touching the filthy automobile, the second is utilized to rinse the microfiber wash mitt.

Starting from the top and moving downward:

Along with utilizing the incorrect cleaning agents, individuals often start cleaning at random or with the worst regions of the automobile. A professional, however, is aware that it is imperative to begin at the top and work your way down. Make good use of gravity. In this manner, pollutants that have already been removed from surfaces are not introduced again.

Start by thoroughly rinsing the car, including the windows, hood, trunk lid, and roof. Why is there so much dirt and debris at the car’s base? Wash it off as you descend. Throughout the procedure, keep that concept in mind. Start scrubbing the roof with a sudsy mitt once you’ve washed off any loose debris.

Next, rinse. Rinse after washing one side of the glass. To stop the soap from drying on the surface, keep the washing and rinsing top-down in confined spaces. Additionally, avoid attempting to do so in the sun. Work in a shaded area.

Grease the hinges and latches:

The hood latch is one maintenance item that many drivers overlook until their hood won’t open. Maintain the latch’s cleanliness and sometimes lubricate it with some 3-in-1 oil or other safeguards. Likewise with the trunk latch. By applying a little amount of lubricant to your door hinges and swinging the door open and shut to work it in, you can take care of their hinges.

Your hood hinges’ pivot points are not always visible. A thin mist of white lithium grease applied sometimes, though, will prevent them from freezing up later on if you can reach them.

You might want to take care of any lock cylinders on your automobile while you are at it. Nowadays, the majority of automobiles have remote locks that are turned on by pressing a button on the key fob.

You probably never use the keyhole in your automobile, if it has one at all. So utilize it. To ensure that the key will still spin if you ever need to unlock the door, insert it and sometimes turn the lock cylinder. Sadly, a lot of drivers discover too late that the lock cylinder has “locked up” due to inactivity.

Retouch the paint scuffs:

It might be frustrating to discover a white-looking spot on your glossy black hood. It is simply terrible to see so many of them. Of course, a car of any color might have paint chips.

As you drive, rocks on the road scratch your paint, leaving little craters where the topcoat has peeled off to show the undercoats beneath.

Thankfully, primers used by automakers are quite resilient and frequently stay in place. But you should fix those chips if you want to keep your panels from corroding and looking ugly.

Clear the glass expertly:

Glass is the final thing on the list for cleaning your automobile. When done incorrectly, this is frequently the most common customer complaint. Additionally, as easy as it may seem, executing the work correctly is difficult.

Use an automotive glass cleaner to start. Ammonia, which may produce streaks and fog, is frequently used in household glass cleaning solutions. Additionally, it can ruin glass tinting.

Now, if you feel uncomfortable performing any of these tasks or if you feel like you would benefit from assistance from someone with more knowledge and expertise, by all means, seek out professional car detailing services.

Luxury car owners need to take greater care of their cars, as compared to the standard ones. Since they are an expensive asset, you should ensure that the look and feel continue to be the best.

Here is a look at some maintenance checks that you need to know before buying a supercar.

Car Service

Supercars require regular service checks to uphold their value. Any gap in the service history could sway the potential buyers away when it comes to selling expensive cars. Therefore, make sure you do not neglect the service timings.

In addition to this, make sure you are able to figure out the cost of service before buying the supercar. This service costs drastically vary from one supercar to another. This can also be a major contributing cost factor when buying a luxury car. While many carmakers have extended their service intervals on many models, the labor-intensive operations continue to increase. Therefore, make sure to ask the dealer for any maintenance offer. If they are available, you can easily get a monthly finance plan and an easy budgetable option.

Bodywork

Modern cars are painted with water-based paints for environmental reasons. Some dealers even provide paint protection add-ons to buyers for maintenance purposes. It is generally a ceramic coat, designed to protect paintwork, alloys, and bumpers from traffic pollutants, bird dropping, and weather changes. The acidity in these and the brushes at the car wash can cause irreparable damage to the car over time. Therefore, a ceramic coat ensures the protection of body parts against all such odds.

Proper Cleaning Method

Cleaning the supercar is a thorough step-by-step procedure. To begin the car cleaning process, it is first advised to remove the general road grime using hand. It reduces the chance of any scratches that it can cause to your supercar’s paint. Similarly, make sure to use only specific cleaning products and detergents. Using any other cleaner can affect the paintwork of your car. Try to use a soft cloth and clean water when washing the car.

An essential aspect of car care is to use wax to protect the paint. It is recommended to apply wax by hand. Another option is to visit a professional car wash but it comes at a price. After all, paying others for a premium wash on a premium car comes at a premium price. While it might vary from car to car, these professional washes include high-end technology to reveal and treat scratches, not visible to the naked eye.

Oil Change

Ferrari requires an oil change every 5000 miles. While the distance covered in miles is the same across different models, the estimated expenditure varies. For instance, Ferrari F430 can cost around $500, Ferrari 360 Modena can cost $800 and Ferrari F355 can cost up to $1100.

Changing the oil regularly ensures that your car has proper lubrication. It also reduces the amount of heat produced by the engine. With the oil change, signs of dirt and debris that slows down the engine are also eliminated.

Vehicle Repairs

Ferrari also requires other occasional repairs to keep it running. For instance, it costs an average of $3000 to repair the spark plugs. Signs of spark plug failure include engine misfiring/surging, high fuel consumption, trouble starting, etc. Also, you cannot drive a Ferrari with a broken spark plug, else it can cause serious car damage.

Similarly, engine belts are equally important. Poor running quality can wear the engine down and also cause the piston to slam into the valve, causing huge costs. On average, simple belt repairs are required every 15000 miles and cost around $4000. In addition to this, clutch repairs significantly vary and cost around $2500 for 6-Speed and $6500 for F-1. Yes, that’s a huge add-on.

Insurance

The insurance of the luxury costs that come along to beat the repair surges should also be taken into account. For a Ferrari, it costs a minimum of $7000 to around $10000 a year. And these are just the approximations of taking it to a car repair station. As talked about the costs earlier, they significantly vary from model to model.

The Takeaway

The overall cost breakdown of owning and maintaining a Ferrari is quite big. It is roughly estimated to be half a million dollars just to keep everything on the up-and-up. Better start saving those pennies and get hold of car financing options, because buying a supercar is just the beginning of the financial mountain car owners face.