DIY Tips for Cleaning Your Luxury Car
Once you have bought a luxury car you want to keep it looking pristine, inside and out, for maximum effect but what is the best way to clean something this expensive? Taking it through a car wash probably feels like the last thing you’d want to do.
The good news is if you are willing to put in the work yourself and invest in some specific products you can easily keep your luxury car clean at home – after all you’ve invested in buying the car so why wouldn’t you invest your own time in keeping it shining?
Make no mistake about it, car care is essential whether you purchase a new or used luxury car.
Of course, you can pay to have it professionally cleaned and valeted by a luxury car specialist and while you may want to do that annually, you still want to keep the interior and exterior looking and feeling amazing all year round.
We caught up with Darren of Here are a few DIY tips for keeping your luxury car clean:
1- Keep the exterior dust and debris free
Every time you drive your car out on the road it’s going to pick up dust and particles from the road and scenery, which will become attached to the car’s paintwork and bodywork – if left for any length of time they will start to cause tiny scratches.
You should always wash any visible dirt from your car after every single journey, to help keep the paintwork pristine, but also try using a clay bar to help get rid of any lingering dust particles or other tiny debris on the surface which you might overlook.
2- Protect the exterior
Keep your car waxed to help protect the paintwork from any unwanted scratches and abrasions – it will help to prevent dirt, water, and other elements from the road from sticking so easily to your car’s paintwork.
It’s even more vital in the winter when there is more chance for your car to get splashed and pick up mud and road debris from the wet surface, to keep your car regularly cleaned and waxed to protect the paintwork and keep it looking pristine.
3- Polish the paintwork
As well as waxing the car regularly, you should purchase superior quality polishing cloths or sponges and make sure you buff and polish your paintwork after each clean as well. This helps to remove smaller scratches and abrasions which might have sprung up on your car.
By polishing regularly you will be able to buff out the smaller scratches, preventing them from getting worse and dulling the impact of your overall paint work. Not to mention adding a head-turning shine to your car’s overall finish. Make sure you choose car cloths and polishes which have been designed specifically for use on luxury cars.
4- Keeping the inside clean
One of the reasons for buying a luxury car has to be the quality of the interior so you will want to keep that looking and feeling pristine as well. If you have spent the money on leather seats and luxury trims then you need to buy luxury cleaning products to take care of them.
There are specialist leather cleaning and protection products available which you can use to clean up any issues on your seats, without damaging the material, so make sure you only ever use cleaners designed for leather.
The interior of cars can become dusty and muddy so make sure you vacuum the carpeted area and footwells regularly to avoid any build-up of dirt and to prevent dirt from getting ground into the fabric flooring. Use car floor mats to protect the car’s own upholstery.
The dashboard and gear stick can also become dusty and sticky very quickly so invest in some cleaning cloths which are able to lift dust and lint – ideal for cleaning every surface of the car quickly and easily.
Don’t forget to remove any litter such as old parking tickets or food wrappers which might have been left in the holders inside the car, and for that extra clean smell, look for an air freshener which won’t overpower the car but will create that just cleaned smell.
5- Keeping the glassware clean
As well as the bodywork, you need to keep all of your windows, windscreens, and mirrors clean and protected. Make sure you always top up the car with a screen wash so that you can always clean the windscreens of any debris while driving along.
An often overlooked feature in any car is the interior of the windows which can become sticky with handprints from passengers so every time you clean the car, make sure you give the windows a good wipe-over as well.
Check both windscreens regularly for chips or cracks as you will need to get those filled in and treated as soon as possible to prevent anything worse developing. Keeping your windows clean will make it easier to spot any potential chips as they arise.
