People who smoke in their cars could be knocking up to £2,000 off the sell-on value, according to vehicle valuation experts.
HPI says that many smokers are unaware of the smell and physical damage to the interior that smoking can cause, putting off future owners.
It also suggests that giving the car a deep clean can cost up to £150, but doesn’t guarantee the smell will be gone. In some cases, the smoke can work its way deep into the fabric, requiring a complete retrim to fix.
Furthermore, repairing marks, stains and cigarette burns that may have appeared can knock profits further down.
Fernando Garcia, consumer director at HPI, said: “Smoking in cars is bad news as far as re-sale health is concerned. The first thing a car dealer will do when looking at a car being sold by a smoker is knock down the price of the part exchange.
“A car for part-ex has to be made fit for re-sale and this becomes considerably more difficult and expensive when that car was previously driven by a smoker.
“There is often no obvious visual damage, but the smell of smoke is a major problem for motor dealers. Smoke becomes ingrained in the fabric of the car and climate control system, requiring a professional valet and a specialist tools to clean the air conditioning.”