Why Your Vehicle's Logbook Is so Crucial

It's an unfortunate fact of life that vehicles depreciate with age. Yet as they are important, if not crucial, to the average Australian family, everybody needs to invest in a car or a truck, so they can function in everyday life. The key here, therefore, is to ensure that you manage that depreciation as much as possible, so that you can estimate how much money you will get for the vehicle when you sell it and can factor this level of expenditure into your annual costs. You'd be surprised that many people do not look at transportation in this light, however, and exhibit behaviours that even work against them. Are you one of their number?

Managing Wear and Tear

Vehicles depreciate so much because they wear out with time. These are complicated machines composed of many thousands of parts, many of which go through a great deal of wear and tear on a daily basis. Certainly, manufacturers build these vehicles to be resilient, but they also understand how much money there is to be made in selling you spare parts, so you can expect a level of failure to be built in. If you want to ensure that your vehicle does not lose too much money, however, you need to keep up with maintenance and – importantly – have the proof as well.

The Importance of the Logbook

Your biggest asset in this fight is going to be your vehicle's logbook. Look at this as its "bible" in many respects, as a future buyer will want to see that you have kept up with recommended service intervals and that no big problems were encountered. If you don't have this type of document, then they may have to take you at your word, and this is not a good bargaining position when you are trying to negotiate the value of your car.

Watching Those Dates

If you've just purchased a vehicle, get to know your logbook intimately and make sure that you mark down the scheduled service intervals in your diary or on your smartphone app, whichever works for you. If you miss these dates, expect the vehicle to become more inefficient and for a future buyer to raise their eyebrows when they look at your inattention.

Catching up

Of course, if you've already missed one of these crucial dates, then you need to catch up and get back on course. Book the vehicle in for the missing logbook services now, to protect its future sale value.