INTERIOR

INTERIOR AWARDS 2009

Your car may not be the most powerful or quickest on the road, butyou can put up with a lot if the interior is a pleasant place to be. Afew 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 isclean. And, of course, in these difficult economic times, it needs tolast, too, preserving your car’s trade-in value. Once it’s allsparkling, you can think about adding a few extras to make it a homefrom home.

Leather Cleaner

WINNER - Turtle Wax Premium - £4.99
Thiscleaner and conditioner from the us giant's premium range offers topperformance, and has long been one of our favourites. The thick, creamyliquid is easy to apply and work into the hide, and required much lesseffort than most rivals to shift our stains, completely removing thedrink mark. A class act at a great price.

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

COMMENDED - LTT Leather Care - £15
Ifyou require a premium leather cleaner, look no further than LTT. Thispremium product has a watery appearance, but when dispensed, resemblesshaving 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
Big750ml pack gives Comma the edge over most rivals when it comes toprice, 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 shiftsgrime like few others. It proved, yet again, to be one of the best atshifting general dirt, removing all signs of the grease and chocolate,and being only just defeated by the ink. Great performer at a superbprice.

COMMENDED - AA Upholstery Cleaner - £4.99
Recoveryservice’s car care range, put together by Comma, goes one better thanthe maker’s own offering with a one-litre pack. But like Comma, it isnot here on price alone. Upholstery Cleaner works well, only fallingbehind on general grime.

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

Trim Cleaner

WINNER - Simoniz Foaming Dash Cleaner - £4.99
Victoryfor this foam cleaner marks a first, as previous winners have all beensprays. When first used, it looks a little odd, but it’s no more messythan a conventional trigger or aerosol cleaner, and works just as wellwhen applied direct to a cloth. And what a performance – none of itsrivals could match the stain-busting power, and it left a clean mattfinish. This newcomer from Simoniz could set a new trend for trimcleaners, judging by this impressive result.

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

COMMENDED - Halfords Advanced Interior Trim Shine - £5.99
Formerwinner 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 ourmarks, only struggling a bit on the chocolate.

Car Vacuums

WINNER - Black and Decker Dustbuster Pivot Auto Vac - £39.99
Youwant for little with our champion, which proved to be one of the finestall-rounders in our test. There’s a neat case, long 12-volt powercable, and a range of accessories that should leave no part of the carout of bounds. It made short work of our sugar test, and weparticularly liked the extendable nozzle, which helped tackle thoseawkward spots

COMMENDED - Philips FC6092
Internalrechargeable batteries mean there’s no power cable, making this one ofthe easiest vacs to use. Battery life was impressive, and it scooped upour sugar effectively. A range of accessories adds to this excellentpackage.

COMMENDED - Dyson DC16 - £88.07
As you’d expectfrom Dyson, cleaning power is brilliant. It has a decent set ofattachments, and sounds like a jet engine. Sadly, you pay for that hugeability, and battery life could be better. But for shifting grime, it’stough to top