#Detailing

Car vacuums are often very affordable, they list cool features and have great reviews. Then they usually don’t work. The best car vacuum promises to make car cleaning easy: Just plug it into your 12V port or pick it up off the charger, and in just a few seconds you can clean up your seats, floor mats, cupholders, and console. Your actual experience is likely to be a lot more disappointing: When we started testing, we were surprised by just how bad they were. After testing, we didn’t find any 12V car vacuums we thought were worth your money. Struggling to remove dust, crumbs, and dirt, and absolutely failing against pet hair.

We included this McCulloch steamer in our Best Steam Cleaners article based on over 11,000 positive reviews. As it’s the best selling canister steamer on Amazon (and probably the world), and tied for best-rated on our list at 84%, we bought one to find out not only if it’s as good fans of the model say, but how useful a steamer really is for both interior and exterior automotive cleaning.

You may have an image of washing a car in a driveway with a hose and a bucket of suds, but the best foam cannons are a much easier way to do it. Not do they take less time and water, they also takes out some of the risk of rubbing grit into your finish. Even if you’re not that passionate about detailing or washing your car, owning a pressure washer and a foam cannon to use with makes the job a lot faster, easier, and can give you better results.

Steam cleaners clean differently from any other method you might use. Because of this, they are often the only tool to get rid of stains and dirt that nothing else will touch.

Getting the best ceramic coating on your car was once only a job for the very best specialty car detailing shops. They were only introduced in 2010, and for the first years weren’t really available for home users. Only professionals used the best ceramic coating for cars, and if you ever visited a shop for a quote, you might have left shocked with an estimate that can easily be over,$1,000 for a quality ceramic coat using products from a professional-only brand such as Ceramic Pro. Few normal people can spend that much money on ceramic coating, so thankfully, car detailing brands have formulated their own products at a much more affordable price.

Just as you don’t get great results washing your hair with dish soap, when it comes to washing your car, you’ll be a lot happier using a proper car wash soap. Dish detergents and other household soaps are designed to remove grease, which means they will strip wax or any other protective coating from your car.

There’s more than one example on this Earth of entrepreneurial people needing a product, discovering a suitable item doesn’t exist, and inventing something of their own to fill that gap. The same can be said for businesses as well—particularly your author’s local performance shop that was founded 25 years ago by a gearhead unhappy with the selection of speed parts in town.

Want to keep your vehicle shining like the day it was built? If not, what’s wrong with you?

Spring is officially here, which means at long last, another winter is history. Summer, complete with pool parties, abundant sunshine and road trips is fast approaching. Is your car ready for the warmer months ahead?