Autocar product test: What is the best interior trim cleaner?

Others to consider

Gyeon Q²M InteriorDetailer (+ Q²M PolishWipe)

Price: £14.00

What’s included: 500ml

Buy from: Amazon

After you’ve cleaned your car, the last thing you want is to be blasted with fragrance every time you sit inside. Fortunately, Gyeon’s InteriorDetailer has a fresh and clean scent that doesn’t stray into overpowering air freshener territory. It left a matt finish that was streak and smudge-free, it was effective on lots of different materials and finishes, and it made light work of the many fingerprints all over the piano black trim in our car. 

Autocar says: 4.5 stars

CarPlan No.1 Super Valet

Price: £8.99

What’s included: 600ml

Buy from: Amazon

No.1 Super Valet can be used on all hard surfaces in your car, including plastic trims, rubber, metals and dashboards. The smell reminded us of clean laundry, which is always pleasant. CarPlan recommends applying this product to a microfibre cloth before wiping across surfaces. We found it kept the surfaces looking exactly how they should: glossy finishes remained glossy, while matt surfaces stayed that way.

Autocar says: 4.5 stars

Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions Streak-Free Mist Interior Detailer

Price: £15.00

What’s included: 500ml

Buy from: Amazon

This can be used on all plastic, vinyl, rubber, glass and leather, so it’s nice and versatile, although it is the most expensive product we tested. You can use the Flairosol trigger to disperse the product in short bursts, or long ones and cover a larger area more quickly. Turtle Wax suggests you massage the product into surfaces to remove all traces of dust, continue until it’s been absorbed, then wipe away any excess. Our car was left very clean, and smelling fresh.

Autocar says: 4 stars

Sonax Xtreme Interior Cleaner

Price: £8.59

What’s included: 500ml

Buy from: Amazon

Whether you want to tackle tougher stains, or give your car’s interior a quick spruce up, this is a good-value product. It can be used on all sorts of surfaces, and didn’t change the colour of seat fabric where we’d used it on a small patch. Do note that Sonax recommends applying it over entire surfaces to avoid colour and brightness differences, though. It did a great job on our roof lining, and got rid of odours and muddy paw prints from a dog we’d had sat in the car.

Autocar says: 4 stars

Liqui Moly Auto Interior Cleaner

Price: £7.33

What’s included: 500ml

Buy from: Amazon

Liqui Moly’s Auto Interior Cleaner can be used on all plastics, fabric and trims in your car. While using, you’ll need to give it a few minutes to take effect, but don’t let it dry out. Liqui Moly suggests you spray directly onto surfaces, then wipe with a damp sponge or cloth, although we found it better when we applied it with a cloth so we could control the amount of product used. The scent isn’t particularly long lasting, but smells like apples, and we were left with a lightly polished and streak-free finish. 

Autocar says: 4 stars

Car Gods Interior Detailer

Price: £10.99

What’s included: 500ml

Buy from: Amazon

After cleaning our interior with Car Gods’ Interior Detailer, we were left with a pleasant apple smell, which wasn’t too overwhelming. The product also comes with a 2-in-1 vent cleaner and hard brush, which will help you get to those hard-to-reach places. That makes it good value for money, even if the price of the product is more expensive than some others tested. It can be used on all hard surfaces in your car, including metal and wood, but not fabric or leather.

Autocar says: 4 stars

GTechniq W2 Multi Purpose Cleaner

Price: £8.50

What’s included: 500ml

Buy from: Amazon

You can use GTechniq’s W2 cleaner to tackle everything in your car, apart from leather, which may mean you need more than one product. You can either use it neat for some seriously powerful cleaning, or diluted when you’d just like a quick spruce. It worked well for us, removing dust and fingerprints, and working wonders on a rogue ketchup stain we’d acquired on a fabric seat (no judgement please). It’s easy to apply: spray on, leave for a few minutes, then rinse off.

Autocar says: 4 stars

Turtle Wax Dash and Glass

Price: £6.29

What’s included: 500ml

Buy from: Amazon

Turtle Wax’s Dash and Glass left all our interior plastics with no greasy feel and a lovely matt finish. The glass was also streak-free, and everything had a pleasant, fresh and clean fragrance. Honestly, it smells better than most car air fresheners, and we could still smell it a week or so after cleaning. You can use this on all hard surfaces in your car, but not fabric or leather.

Autocar says: 4 stars