Owning a car in more expensive than you think. In addition to the initial cost, the cost of insurance and gas prices, you are looking at hundreds of dollars each month. Those are common and obvious expenses, but stupid choices will not only cost your money, but could potentially ruin your car.

Here are how people are ruining their cars and how you can avoid being one of them.

• Leaving your window open when it rains. This is classic. You go into work and crack a window on a warm summer day. Unbeknownst to you, it begins to pour. By the time you run out to close your windows, your entire car is soaked. No big deal, you can just let it dry, right? Wrong. That water can ruin leather seats, make your fabric seats lumpy. And this does not even begin to mention the moldy smell.
• Window paint. Window paint, which is popular for decorating a bride and groom’s getaway car, is meant only for windows. Unfortunately, well-meaning friends of the happy couple often get overzealous with their decorating. And the decorating often makes its way off the window and onto the car paint. Let me make this clear: window paint is only for windows. It will peel off, stain or lighten car paint. Repainting a car is a pricey purchase that I am sure the bride and groom did not register for. Be kind to your friends and keep the paint where it belongs.
• Eating in your car. We had a rule growing up that you could never eat in my dad’s car, but you could in mom’s. Dad’s car stayed spotless and required minimal cleaning while mom’s car was always a mess. It would not be unusual to find a soda stain on the seat or a mystery french fry from an unknown date. Plain and simple: eating in your car is going to ruin it. Sure, you might think that you will never spill, but then you would be kidding yourself. You will spill. And if you won’t, your kids will. And there is something about fast food smell that always seems to linger. Save your car and leave the eating for the kitchen.
• Not putting down rubber mats in the winter. Cars made be made for winter on the outside, but most cars will not stay in pristine condition once winter hits. One of the worst culprits is dirty slush after it snows that is tracked into your car. This slush works just like mud, staining your new carpet with just one storm. Save your car with rubber mats purchased at any car supply store or big box store like Wal-mart or Target.
• Smoking. Smoking is bad for you in so many ways, but smoking in your car will make it virtually unsellable. The smell, no matter what you do, will linger forever. Even if you get it out of the seats, the smokey stench will come out when you turn on the air conditioner. Don’t smoke in your car. Or better yet, don’t smoke ever.

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