INTERIOR

Text: Kim Adams Date: May 2009

INTERIOR AWARDS 2009

Your car may not be the most powerful or quickest on the road, but you can put up with a lot if the interior is a pleasant place to be. A few cabin creature comforts will make up for your motor’s shortcomings, so it pays to look after it.

Top of that list has to be ensuring it is clean. And, of course, in these difficult economic times, it needs to last, too, preserving your car’s trade-in value. Once it’s all sparkling, you can think about adding a few extras to make it a home from home.

Leather Cleaner

WINNER - Turtle Wax Premium - £4.99
This cleaner and conditioner from the us giant's premium range offers top performance, and has long been one of our favourites. The thick, creamy liquid is easy to apply and work into the hide, and required much less effort than most rivals to shift our stains, completely removing the drink mark. A class act at a great price.

COMMENDED - Simoniz Leather Care Cream - £4.85
Also one of our long-time favourites. It as it cleans, and made light work of our drink stain, although it couldn’t match rival Turtle Wax on the chocolate. Big 500ml pack also makes the Simoniz easy on the pocket.

COMMENDED - LTT Leather Care - £15
If you require a premium leather cleaner, look no further than LTT. This premium product has a watery appearance, but when dispensed, resembles shaving foam. It’s clear to see why Auto Ultra is the pros’ choice, easily shifting our stains.

Upholstery Cleaner

WINNER - Comma Interior Cleaner - £3.99
Big 750ml pack gives Comma the edge over most rivals when it comes to price, but it’s not our winner on cost alone – it cleans like a dream. Interior Cleaner is no stranger to our Product Awards, as it shifts grime like few others. It proved, yet again, to be one of the best at shifting general dirt, removing all signs of the grease and chocolate, and being only just defeated by the ink. Great performer at a superb price.

COMMENDED - AA Upholstery Cleaner - £4.99
Recovery service’s car care range, put together by Comma, goes one better than the maker’s own offering with a one-litre pack. But like Comma, it is not here on price alone. Upholstery Cleaner works well, only falling behind on general grime.

COMMENDED - Armor All Multi-Purpose Cleaner - £4.99
Another trigger spray, this can be used on plastic and fabric, and really digs the dirt out. Loads of grime came off on the cloth with just a few wipes, and it made good progress on the other stains. Pricier than our winner, but still a great performer.

Trim Cleaner

WINNER - Simoniz Foaming Dash Cleaner - £4.99
Victory for this foam cleaner marks a first, as previous winners have all been sprays. When first used, it looks a little odd, but it’s no more messy than a conventional trigger or aerosol cleaner, and works just as well when applied direct to a cloth. And what a performance – none of its rivals could match the stain-busting power, and it left a clean matt finish. This newcomer from Simoniz could set a new trend for trim cleaners, judging by this impressive result.

COMMENDED - CarPlan Flash Dash - £3.99
For a more conventional cleaner than our champ, check out Flash Dash. As the name suggests, the finish is glossy, but not excessively so, and it extracted plenty of grime from our panel, making good progress on our marks. Few will also argue with this great price for 500ml.

COMMENDED - Halfords Advanced Interior Trim Shine - £5.99
Former winner is still well worth seeking out. Like CarPlan, it’s an aerosol, and delivers a fine spray that really gets into the plastic’s grain – our cloth showed the evidence. It made a good fist of shifting our marks, only struggling a bit on the chocolate.

Car Vacuums

WINNER - Black and Decker Dustbuster Pivot Auto Vac - £39.99
You want for little with our champion, which proved to be one of the finest all-rounders in our test. There’s a neat case, long 12-volt power cable, and a range of accessories that should leave no part of the car out of bounds. It made short work of our sugar test, and we particularly liked the extendable nozzle, which helped tackle those awkward spots

COMMENDED - Philips FC6092
Internal rechargeable batteries mean there’s no power cable, making this one of the easiest vacs to use. Battery life was impressive, and it scooped up our sugar effectively. A range of accessories adds to this excellent package.

COMMENDED - Dyson DC16 - £88.07
As you’d expect from Dyson, cleaning power is brilliant. It has a decent set of attachments, and sounds like a jet engine. Sadly, you pay for that huge ability, and battery life could be better. But for shifting grime, it’s tough to top

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