The inside of your car is where you spend most of your time with it, hence the importance of getting the best car interior cleaning products. Whether it’s a shampoo or interior dressing, they can help keep your cabin in good order. While it’s therapeutic to clean and detail the outside with every last drop of snow foam and every last wipe of a microfibre towel, the inside matters just as much.
If you’re reading this, chances are you do a lot of driving, and you may notice that your interior will become less clean over time. Whether it’s skin oils on the steering wheel, stains in the seats, or dirt embedded in the carpets. Once in a while, your interior will need a deep clean. However, you will need more than a vacuum cleaner in order to fully replenish some life back into it. The use of a steam cleaner can come in handy with picking up embedded dirt, but there are a whole load of other options to consider.
Different interiors use different materials, and it’s important you get car interior cleaning products that are suitable for your vehicle. As nice as leather cleaner is to use, it’ll be pretty useless on cloth seats. You’ll also need to consider how much of the respective product you might need, depending on the size and contents of your vehicle.
The best car interior cleaning products at a glance:
Editor’s pick: Autoglym Interior Shampoo – Buy from Amazon.
Best leather cleaner: Autoglym Leather Clean and Protect – Buy from Amazon.
Best air freshener bomb: Holts Car Air Sanitiser – Buy from Amazon.
However, the sheer choice of products out there can be overwhelming. So, we’ve made things easier by compiling our favourite car interior cleaning products into this guide and sharing a few important tips towards the end.
The best car interior cleaning products
Editor's pick
It also deals with bad odours as well. It contains deodorising agents which help eliminate bad smells that may be lurking within your seats and carpet. It's a versatile shampoo that can be your main go-to when deep-cleaning your interior.
Pros
- Versatile interior cleaner
- Works on a number of materials
- Useful for carpets, too
Cons
- Not suitable for leather
- 500ml will be easy to get through in a deep clean
Best leather cleaning kit
It also comes with Leather Care Balm which helps moisturise and nourish the leather to prevent it from drying - which stops the material from cracking. You also get an applicator pad and a synthetic chamois, although we'd prefer to use a microfibre towel ourselves.
Pros
- Very comprehensive little kit
- Great quality products for leather seats and trim
- Good value for what you get
Cons
- Microfibre towel not included
- Requires patience
Best interior detailing brush
It has an adjustable handle collar which stretches out to make the bristles shorter or longer. The length of the brush stays the same, which is slightly annoying, but the longer bristle setting allows it to reach further into awkward crevices. It has ultra-soft bristles for a careful touch and a rubber-coated handle which makes it easy to hold.
Pros
- Soft, comfortable hold
- Adjustable length
- Very soft bristles
Cons
- The extension only moves the collar, not the actual brush
- Needs product to be truly effective
Best air freshener bomb
Once finished, the air-con vents and tubes should be clear of any lurking bacteria or any other cause of bad odours within the system and throughout the vehicle. They're incredibly strong, and the Holts car sanitiser is our pick of the lot. It does its decontamination job in ten minutes and represents great value compared to some other manufacturers of car air freshener bombs.
Pros
- Easy to use
- Fights against bacteria and bad odours
- Good value
Cons
- The interior needs to be fully cleaned out before you start
- 150ml isn't an awful lot
Best interior dressing
It's suitable for plastic, rubber, and vinyl surfaces as well as offering UV protection against sunlight. This is especially useful during the summer as there is less chance of your dashboard cracking, which often happens when cars are exposed to direct sunlight for prolonged time.
Pros
- Designed to kill bacteria
- Protects the dashboard against UV rays
- Useful on a range of materials
Cons
- Quantity is tiny
- Needs treatment every four months
Best steam cleaner
You get 17 attachments included in total, including six tiny little brush nozzles, which are perfect for tackling stain spots. It will run up to 50 minutes per fill-up and has a two-year warranty. It's a perfect companion for steam cleaning your car's interior and an even better tool on carpets.
Pros
- 50-minute run time
- Plenty of attachments included
- Large water tank
Cons
- Not too effective unless you vacuum first
- Cable storage isn't brilliant
Best cordless vacuum for pet hair
The Gtech Multi MK2 K9 is perfect for it. It comes with a pet attachment brush and weighs just 1.5kg which makes things easy when moving it around the cabin of your vehicle. It effortlessly picks up embedded pet hairs both in your car and home and generates 140W of power. The only downside is that it only has a 20-minute run time, which may fall a bit short for larger cleaning jobs.
Pros
- Lightweight
- Easily tackles pet hairs
- Large storage capacity
Cons
- Relatively short 20-minute run time
- Takes four hours to charge
How to deep clean your car interior
You cannot start deep cleaning your car and using your upholstery cleaner without a good vacuum. You need to get rid of the top layer of dirt and dust before attending anything else. A good corded (with a decent cable length) or cordless unit with a long running time will be good enough. Begin with the carpets, as you’ll likely find the dirtiest sections there. You bring the elements of the ground into your car every time you get in it, so it will be full of nature’s detritus.
Next, you begin systematically cleaning the seats. They’ll be the next dirtiest thing as you and your passengers’ clothes and body oils will have been rubbing and transferring elements onto them. If you have leather seats, ensure you’re equipped with a leather cleaning kit, or if you have fabric, a decent upholstery cleaner will be ideal. Follow the process on each product’s instructions and have your applicators and microfibre towels at the ready, depending on the process. After all, a car air freshener like a FUMEBAR Boost won’t work its best in a filthy interior.
Next, proceed to the dashboard and door cards. You can use an all-purpose cleaner to spray onto an applicator and begin cleaning that way, or a soft interior detailing brush will work just as well. You could even employ a steam cleaner in some sections where it’s safe to do so before drying and treating the dashboard with interior dressing, such as Gtechniq’s C6 Matt Dash. This will protect it from UV rays and prevents it from cracking. If you’ve ever been to a hot country and seen a cracked dashboard of a 20-year-old car, that’s the effect UV rays have.
Aaron Hussain is a commercial content writer at Bauer Media writing for Parkers and CAR. He is obsessed with classic cars and anything with a fascinating story to tell.
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