Selling Your Older Car: Why a New Paint Job Matters
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Selling Your Older Car: Why a New Paint Job Matters

Last year, I bought a new car. Rather than trade in my old one, I decided to sell it myself. Before I put it in the market, I took the car to a local shop and got my old baby a new paint job. The new paint made all the difference with the car. While operationally it was sound, the outside was not all that great. After the fresh coat of paint, the car generated a lot of attention from prospective buyers. I even had a bidding war going on between two parties who really wanted it. If you have an older vehicle to sell, it pays to invest in a new paint job. Let me tell you more about why this strategy works. Follow my tips for selecting the color and the paint type, and you'll get a great price for the old jalopy.

Selling Your Older Car: Why a New Paint Job Matters

How Improper Wheel Alignment Can Affect Your Car And How To Fix It

Nora Boyd

Car wheel alignment is an important part of the design that allows the car to drive safely and comfortably. The handling of the vehicle is important, and if the alignment is off, the handling can also be off, and the car may try to pull or wander on the road, making it hard to drive. Dealing with alignment is difficult, but a professional repair shop can correct problems and help make your car pleasant to drive again.

Front Wheel Alignments

Every vehicle on the road has a specification for the front wheel alignment and the steering angles required to ensure the car drives correctly. This alignment can change if the vehicle hits a pothole or object in the road, suspension parts wear out, or steering parts are in disrepair. 

If the car wheel alignment on the front end is off, you may start to notice the car pulling left or right as you drive. A car with a proper alignment should travel straight down the road without any movement to either side if you were to remove steering input. 

Often a car that is out of alignment will begin to show wear on the tires, and the technician can tell a lot from where that wear is. If you notice changes in handling or irregular wear on your front tires, take your car to a shop that offers car wheel alignments and have them check it for you. 

Laser Alignments

When your car goes into the shop for an alignment, the technician will use a machine that measures car wheel alignments with lasers and sensors to get the most accurate numbers. Some shops will only look at the front wheels, while others offer four-wheel alignments, and these provide greater accuracy and will show the tech if the car is going down the road straight or not. 

If the car has a warp to the frame or the rear axle is slightly out of alignment, the wheel track from the front to the rear can be off and cause the tires to wear prematurely. This can often indicate a bent frame that you didn't know about or a car that was damaged and repaired incorrectly. 

The car wheel alignment machine is computerized and can show the tech the variance of the alignment, indicate if it is unsafe to drive, and if it is a frame issue or if just an adjustment issue that needs dealing with. Often an alignment issue starts with worn parts like ball joints and tie rods, but until the inspection is complete, it can be challenging to know what needs repairing or adjusting on the car.

To learn more, contact a car wheel alignment service.


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