I live in South Central Texas and have a '98 Caravan. I have just invested $1500 in fixing oil leaks, tune-up, tires, wipers, etc. It is now mechanically excellent. It could use a little body work and a paint job. Will these 2 things increase the value enough to warrant the investment?
No, the value of the car just isn’t high. The repairs won’t add more value to the car than the price you’ll have to pay the body shop.
So if you plan is to fix it and sell it, answer is no.
If your plan is to fix it and keep it for 2+ years perhaps it pays off. Now you could drive it as is for 2 years and save even more money. The value of the repair makes no sense in terms of finances. It does make sense if you feel better about the car and therefore keep driving it rather than spend more money on a new(er) car.
You are not approaching this the right way. A 98 caravan is worth very little, whether it looks like new or whether is runs perfectly. The best “investment” you can make is to maintain it by the book, and drive it till it has a very major repair, and then basically sell it for parts. You might get another 4 years out of it that way.
If there are some rust spots, buy a can of touch up paint for $10 or so, and make it more appealing. Any decent paint job with body work will exceed the value of the car.
I once had a car repainted by a national chain (MAACO), mainly because I needed to fix a crumpled fender. The total cost was $1400, while the book value of the car was $2000. The reason for doing this was that the car had relatively low mileage, (95,000) and was in close to new condition mechanically.
A 1998 Caravan is not the most reliable vehicle and at that age and mileage you can suddenly face a major repair that will not be worthwhile to do. If you have religiously changed the transmission fluid and filter every 30,000 miles and flushed the cooling system every 50,000 miles, you MAY avoid the transmission failure that plagues most of these vehicles, and sends them to the wrecking yard.
Yes, these are not ‘investments’, they are expenses. Do them if you want a nicer-looking vehicle to drive, but you won’t make money on them.
Except for a pile of cash in the passenger seat, nothing will increase the value of a '98 Caravan. Drive it as long as you can, but don’t waste you money on paint or body work.
Vehicles are not investments, they are expenses.