Your Car Versus The Elements
We’ve all been there. We’re in a hurry. Alternatively, we think we have too many grocery bags to get out of the car. The garage in our home might be filled with bikes, trikes, kayaks, dressers we started to refinish, strollers, boxes of detergent from the wholesale club that are actually too heavy to carry…well, you know what’s in your garage. However, when it comes to what’s best for your vehicle, there’s no contest at all. It should be in the garage. It is the hands down winning choice. We’ll show you why and what to do about it.
Garaged Cars are More Secure
Your car is safe from falling tree branches, bird droppings and the horrors of hail damage if it is tucked neatly into its garage space. Bugs are also much less of an issue indoors, and that is good news for your car. In the winter, cats, squirrels, and even possums and raccoons, often crawl into warm automobile engines thinking they have found a nice cozy spot. Waking them up when you start your car is not something you want to experience.
Garaged cars are also safe from rogue baseballs crashing through windshields and misdirected spiral passes denting side panels. Vandals and thieves also have to keep cruising the neighborhood to find trouble to cause. Your auto is not an easy target if it is behind closed doors.
(Side Note: There is some debate if a car parked in your driveway is a theft deterrent compared to garages. An argument can be made for or against, but security specialists say that most home burglaries are planned ahead of time. That makes having a car out front irrelevant: burglars will already know household patterns. Having automatic motion sensing lights and home security systems are much more efficient theft deterrents than parked automobiles.)
Garaged Cars are More Reliable
In the winter, garaged cars have undergone less severe temperature variations, so their plastic and rubber parts do not shrink and crack as much. Just like humans, they are happier when they don’t have to live outside in Minneapolis in the winter. The opposite is true, too. No one wants to go camping in Houston in the summer. Protect your car from the sun’s damaging UV waves and the adverse effects of extreme heat by letting it come inside.
The Value of a Garage
Did you know that a garage is worth approximately 13% of the value of your house? That means a $300,000.00 house has a big hole in it worth $39,000.00. So, next Saturday, why not use the full value of your house and protect the investment in your automobile as well? Clean out the stables! Get your garage door inspected if it has been a while and get to using your house to get the most out of all those bucks you put into it!
Garaged Cars Look Better
They just do. The paint looks shinier and so do the tires. Dashboards, steering wheels, and seat coverings benefit from being indoors, too. In general, garaged cars are worth 50% more than those left on the street or in the driveway. That is a huge difference because sun, wind, rain, snow and the rest do quite a number on the exterior surfaces of automobiles and reduce their value and attractiveness equally.
Garaged Cars Need Their Home Back, Please
You should get the point by now. Let’s get our cars back where they belong, people! If you don’t know what to do with all that other stuff claiming the garage, invest in a small shed or new garage storage systems available. They can store your off-season sports equipment up and out of the way. Wall hooks for bicycles work well, and as for refinishing dressers, it is better for you anyhow to do that in a well-ventilated area, such as a porch or on a tarp in the back yard.