I Paid £1500 To Clean My 2019 Mini – It Was Worth Every Penny

Stick or twist? To replace the car or keep it?

It's a dilemma with which many car owners are familiar. One solution is to obey that old motor trade saying: 'Buy at two years, sell at four.' The argument goes that by its second birthday a car has suffered its steepest depreciation.

It's now much cheaper than it was new but still feels fresh and has at least 12 months of its factory warranty to run. It's a smart buy. Two years later it still looks current and is probably showing no more than 40,000 miles but has depreciated more slowly. It's a smart sell.

The trouble is, regularly changing a car like this condemns the owner to a biennial round of test drives and fresh finance deals. Not only that, but cars have also become more expensive to buy and to maintain.

Add wider concerns about the economy, and sticking with something familiar and affordable looks like an attractive option.

Four years ago, in April 2022, my wife bought a three-year-old Mini Cooper Sport automatic from a Mini dealer. It was registered in 2019, had done 7500 miles and cost her £21,895.

Finished in black and fitted with a JCW kit, panoramic roof and heated seats, it was her dream car. Today, with 39,000 miles on the clock, it's worth around £12,500; also today, the same model at three years old and with 7000 miles still costs around £22,000.

My wife struggles to accept her Mini has lost £9500, but while it will carry on depreciating, she hasn't the stomach to hand it to a dealer, along with £9500, to replace it. In any case, she's maintained its Mini service history and, well, she's rather fond of it (another motor trade aphorism: 'Never let your heart rule your head').

The Mini is beginning to show its age, though. In bright light it's obvious where I've tried to polish out light scratches. Algae is growing around the badges and the boot hinges. Sap deposits pepper the roof. The plastic wheel-arch trims are greying.

For Autocar, a few years ago I spent a morning watching leading valeter and detailer Richard Tipper of Perfection Valet at work. He would be the right chap to sort it out, but as I scrolled alternatives on my computer, I spied a company called New Again, based in Chelmsford, Essex.

"Restoring your car is the cheapest way to get a new one," stated the blurb. "We can breathe new life into your vehicle, making it look and feel like new again, without the hefty price tag that comes with buying a replacement." I called them.

"When buying a car, obviously a chunk of what people pay is pure dealer margin," explains Gary Wray, who founded the business 13 years ago. "If people are only selling their car because it looks a little tired, why don't they save themselves money and, instead, improve it? It's a car they know and trust, and upcycling rather than replacing it is better for the planet."

He explains what he and his team would do: "We'll jet wash your car with warm water containing a solvent that loosens wax, grease and grime. Then we'll detail it, getting all the dirt out of the hard-to-reach places including the wheels and grille, and use a clay bar to remove ingrained contaminants before machine polishing it to remove fade and swirl marks and restore the shine.

Finally, we'll apply a ceramic coating to the body and the wheels. Anyone can valet your car, but it's the ceramic coating that will lock in all the polishing and paint correction work and preserve your car's looks so your wife won't want to sell it."

It would, said Wray, take a couple of days to valet the car, prepare the body and wheels and apply the ceramic coating. Then he dropped the bombshell: including the interior valet, the bill would be £1500.

I had to sit down, but my wife reasoned that, weighed against part-exchanging her perfectly good car in which she had invested money, plus finding £9500, it was worth a punt. I gave New Again the go-ahead and a few weeks later delivered the Mini.

Three days later, Wray called to say it was ready for collection. A good vac, wash and polish by yours truly has always seemed sufficient to me, but Wray and his team had taken the Mini to a whole new level, far beyond a conventional valet. I'd be surprised if it looked this good when it left the factory. Mrs E declared herself delighted.

How will she feel in 2030 when her Mini has done 75,000 miles and the cost of replacing it will almost have doubled? Stick or twist?

I'll get my coat

A ceramic coating provides a hard, clear coating to a car's body intended to protect the paintwork from the effects of weather, washing abrasion, chemicals and environmental contaminants. It is bonded to the paint and guaranteed not to crack or wear off.

New Again used Autosmart's trade-only Matrix Black, said to provide shine, definition, enhanced hydrophobicity and dirt repellence for up to eight years. In reality, it should last far longer. However, as for all coatings, proper preparation is key, and the process isn't cheap.

Alternatively, there are coatings you can apply yourself, ranging in price from £10 to £120. They include Shelby Ceramic Coating, Sonax Profiline Ceramic Coating Evo and VP Ceramic-Eaze. However, some only guarantee protection for a year, and again, for the best results, all require thorough preparation of the car's body.