Top 6 tips to keep your car feeling 'like new'

Written on the 30 May 2022 by BumperTech

We all love that new car look, smell and feel and would love to keep our cars like that always. But as we know children, pets and the weather to name just a few factors, impact the newness of our cars.

But there are ways that we can address these issues and bring our cars back to that ‘like new’ feel.

Getting your car back to that ‘like new’ feel doesn’t need to be hard or expensive, and there are certainly a number of TikTok videos to show you some modern-day hacks but let us tell you our top 6 tips.

1. Regularly washing

There is nothing like a newly washed car, the paint sparkles, the rims are shining, and it looks squeaky clean.

The exterior of the car gets a build up over time of dirt, mud, dead insects, dirty fingerprints and smudges, which easily removes that new car look. Whether you wash it yourself, go through a carwash or get it professionally cleaned, regular cleaning will help ensure that the exterior of your car stays like new.

2. Interior Smell

There is nothing worse than jumping in your car only for it to smell like the takeaway food that you purchased the night before, along with the damp smelly sock smell from the kids sporting gear!

Deodorising your car regularly is a great way to keep those pesky odours at bay and keep the illusion of a new car. There are a few ways to keep your car smelling great.

1. The power of baking soda! Sprinkling baking soda on your fabric seats and carpets, let it sit for a few minutes while you wipe down the dash and doors. Then vacuuming up the soda along with those smells.
2. Another hack to neutralise the odours is leaving a bowl of white vinegar in the front and back of the car overnight. Ensure that you car is all closed up and by the morning your car will be smelling like new.
3. Lastly the trusty coffee bean! Keeping coffee beans in a mesh bag under the seats is an affordable deodoriser and freshener.

3. Vent it out

The air-conditioning vents are great at holding dust and dirt which over time starts to pollute the air going into your car, even growing mould that can emit a musty smell.

Regularly cleaning out your vents is an important step in keeping that ‘new car’ feel. You can get your vents professionally cleaned or use a car steamer to blow the dust out of your vents. To throw in another hack, use a make-up brush to brush out any loose dust followed by a foam paintbrush with a cleaning solution to remove any remaining built up dirt and grime.

The cleaning solution can be dish detergent and warm water or white vinegar and warm water with a squeeze of lemon juice.

4. Pet Hair

Pet hair is one of those things that is very difficult to get out of your car's fabric & carpets as well as time consuming. There are a few things that you can do to minimise the pet hair and to remove it from your car.

Firstly, give your pet a good brush prior to putting them into the car, this will remove some of the shedding hair. But to remove the hair from the fibres of your carpet, there are a couple of options.

1. Grab the rubber gloves from the laundry and sweep your hands over the fabric and carpets. Some of the strands of hair will stick to the gloves, while the rest should form into a pile which you will be able to vacuum up. Wetting the gloves can also make this chore a little easier.
2. Mixing 2-3 teaspoons of fabric softener in a spray bottle of water and spray onto the car's upholstery, the ingredients in fabric softener are designed to loosen hair. Once wiped with a cloth or paper towel run over with the vacuum to remove the pet hair.

5. Cup Holders

Cup holders are fantastic at catching every little crumb, spec or drop that is spilt in your car, making the interior look a little messy!

A great hack to keep your cup holders clean is to insert a silicon cupcake liner, great for catching those spills and crumbs which you can then remove to be cleaned and replaced. Silicon is now coming in all colours, so it doesn't even need to standout!

6. Fresh Paint

Lastly, our top tip to keeping your car "like new" is to maintain your exterior paint work. That means fixing those pesky paint chips and scratches! We would recommend using a professional rather than doing it yourself as you don't want to worsen the situation.

With BumperTech, we are the professionals and provide a mobile repair service that comes to you! We pride ourselves on providing a quality car paint repair finish every time. For a free quote call us today!