Here are the 10 tips to protect your car in wildfire and save your investment:
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- Choose your parking area
- Use a protective cover
- Wash your vehicle
- Consider waxing your car
- Clean the interior
- Inspect your car
- Consult your mechanic
- Review your insurance policy
- Consider an auto insurance claim
- Decide your options
You've probably heard in the news about the wildfires in Colorado, California, Oregon, and Washington this year. Unfortunately, thousands of people are impacted by these wildfires, and the air quality still suffers in these areas.
Wildfires caused significant damage to people's lives, including those related to the automobile industry. While many people got their vehicles completely burned, others had to deal with long-term issues with the cars, which impacted their investment.
Since your vehicle could be one of our most expensive investments, you need to understand how to survive the wildfire and ensure that your vehicle doesn't turn into junk.
This article provides you with 10 important tips to keep in mind on how to protect your car in a wildfire. Of course, you need to implement as many of these tips as possible to get the most out of your vehicle and save your investment.
How to Protect your car from wildfire?
The Internet is filled with recommendations on what to do to protect your car during a wildfire. However, not all these recommendations could work, so you must be careful about your resources and be mindful about which tips to implement.
Our team reviewed all available articles and recommendations from automotive experts. As a result, we provided you with a list of the 10 most important tips to help you protect your car from wildfire.
Let's take a closer look below:
- Choose your parking area
The first and most important thing you must do when dealing with wildfires is to choose your parking area. If you know that there is a wildfire nearby, you expect that things will be carried in the air, and these things could be some particles or other contaminants that could damage your vehicle's exterior.
That's why if you live in an area where you know you have a covered parking place, consider parking your vehicle inside. This way, you prevent exposing the car to the external particles carried with the air as much as possible.
As a result, you don't have to worry about how to remove ash out of your vehicle's exterior because this is not going to happen to you, assuming that you're protecting the vehicle and closing the windows to make sure that the external air doesn't come inside and damage the vehicle's exterior.
- Use a protective cover
While the previously mentioned tip is great for those with a protective and covered garage, it's not an option for other people, especially if you have multiple vehicles and only have one covered garage.
Another pro tip you could implement is investing in a protective cover. Again, there are tons of examples in the market that you can choose from; many of them are designed specifically to protect your vehicle from ashes carried from wildfire.
Obviously, some of them could be more expensive than others, and that's why we encourage you to look into the main pros and cons of each one of them. Also, you might want to look into a customer's reviews and see which of these protective covers will be the best for you for your situation.
- Wash your vehicle
If wildfire happens nearby, you want to ensure that you wash your vehicle Frequently. This is because the air will not be clean now, and the mentioned particles and ashes will be carried continuously as the wildfire grows.
Experts indicated that you shouldn't leave the ash on your vehicle's exterior for long. There's a very high chance that this ash could dig through your vehicle's exterior and allow for chances to create rust.
Rust is one of the worst enemies that could damage your vehicle and can easily spread like cancer. Therefore, you want to ensure that you wash your vehicle continuously and don't leave any ashes on the car's exterior.
- Consider waxing your car
Some experts might even take it to the next level and recommend wax in your vehicle. By applying a wax layer to your car, the chances are that ashes will not stick to the vehicle's exterior and will repel with water when it rains or when you wash your car.
Even if you decide to go with wax, you want to make sure that you're choosing high-quality car wax because not all of them will provide you with the best protection to withstand the vehicle ashes coming out of their wildfire.
- Clean the interior
Wildfires will not only impact the vehicle's exterior and if your windows are open, but there are also chances that some ashes sit on the upholstery and impact the leather or the cloth seats.
That's why you want to consider cleaning your vehicle from the inside and using the recommendations by automotive experts on how exactly you can do it so you don't leave these ashes sitting and causing damage to the upholstery.
- Inspect your car
In some areas, wildfires could significantly increase the temperature and impact your vehicle's overall condition. That's why we highly encourage you to inspect your car and ensure everything is working properly if you are aware of a nearby wildfire.
Many of your vehicle's components are designed to stay within a specific range of temperature; if the temperature increases, some of the internal components might get impacted and will support Lee; the fluids might evaporate.
Therefore, you want to look at everything that could be impacted by wildfire and try taking care of it immediately before things get more complicated and cause significant damage.
- Consult your mechanic
If you have identified any issues or feel that your vehicle is acting up, you might want to consult your mechanic, who has better experience, to identify what's happening.
Your mechanic has enough experience to know where the problems in your vehicle are by just listening to weird noises or monitoring any strange smells.
If you feel your car is not acting as before, it doesn't hurt to get your mechanic to check it out and see if he can fix it to save the vehicle and prevent any expensive repairs.
According to automotive experts, the faster you detect the problem, the cheaper the repair costs and the fewer chances you need to install new components. As a result, although it will take you some time to talk to the mechanic, it's much better than dealing with situations where you must install new components and pay for expensive repairs.
- Review your insurance policy
Reviewing your insurance policy is another thing you might want to consider when dealing with wildfire. If you think that the wildfire is very close and you expect that your vehicle might get impacted significantly, you might want to consider upgrading your insurance policy or speaking to them about what offers they have.
- Consider an auto insurance claim
If you think that your vehicle got impacted by the wildfire and there are significant repairs that you have to make, you might want to start with an auto insurance claim immediately. This, of course, depends on what insurance type you have and whether these damages will be covered under the current policy.
Before you file the claim and spend all this time, it's worth talking to your insurance company first and seeing if they have the coverage in the first place. Your company might provide recommendations about what needs to be done and what goes into consideration when reimbursing any repairs.
The other thing you want to consider is comparing how many repairs you want to do versus how much the distractible is. Sometimes the deductibles could be more expensive than the actual repairs. In that case, you might want to do your peers without consulting your insurance company.
- Decide your options
Finally, we like to provide you with some general recommendations for deciding your options. For example, if you think that your area has ongoing wildfires, you might want to think of switching and moving to another area so you don't have to worry about your life and your investments.
The other thing you might want to consider is that if your vehicle got damaged completely by a wildfire, it could be the only time you must consider selling it. Of course, many people might be interested in buying any car, but the chances will be less if it's impacted by wildfire.
The good news is that some companies like cash car buyers would be interested in buying your vehicle no matter what site we're conditioned on. The process is very simple, and if you need more details, you can consult our team at 866-924-4608.
Is it worth fixing my car after a wildfire?
There are scenarios where things get out of your hands, and your vehicle gets impacted significantly by wildfire. In that case, you might step back and ask whether it is worth fixing your car after a wildfire.
The answer to this question depends heavily on many factors that have to do with you versus other people. For example, you explored the overall repair costs you have to pay to fix your vehicle.
If you realize that repair costs are getting close to the value of your vehicle, that's when most experts recommend selling your vehicle rather than spending your time and effort trying to make it work.
You also want to consider that you plan to upgrade your vehicle anytime soon. If that's the case, selling your vehicle makes the most sense, then spending time trying to fix it and make it work.
Of course, if you're planning to sell your car and your vehicle is exposed to wildfire, it's worth investing some time cleaning the vehicle, at least so people don't think the vehicle is completely damaged. This way, you increase your chances of receiving an almost higher profit than showing it to the potential buyer as is.
However, if you're planning to sell your vehicle to Cash Cars Buyer, you don't have to worry about how it looks, or you don't need to invest any time trying to improve your vehicle's look. At Cash Cars Buyer, we buy any vehicle no matter what side or condition or what history it's been through.
Final thoughts
Wildfires are one of those natural disasters that could cause significant damage to our lives, the environment, and our assets, like our vehicles.
If you're living in an area where wildfire is expected to happen continuously, you might want to invest some time exploring how to protect your car in a wildfire.
This article gave you general recommendations on 10 tips to protect your vehicle from wildfire. We highly encourage you to implement as many tips as possible, so you don't lose your investment.
If you decide to sell your car because of the wildfire or any other problem, why don’t you consult Cash Cars Buyer?
Cash Cars Buyer is one of the top-rated car removal companies in the nation that guarantees to pay you the top dollars and provide you with free towing despite your living location around the United States.
Our process is very straightforward and doesn't take more than a couple of days to get your car removed safely and for the most money.
All it takes you is to:
- Describe your car's type and condition
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To learn more about our process and our team, you can reach out to us by calling us at (866) 924-4608 or by visiting our home page click on the free instant online offer.