Best kit for your car OVER 600
Over the next 32 pages, we pick out the top products and gadgets you can buy PRODUCTS TESTED
THE choice facing drivers who want to improve, maintain or simply clean their car is bewildering. There are hundreds of brands after your money, each with their own multi-product ranges. Trying every one yourself would be prohibitively expensive, which is where our annual Product Awards can save you time, effort and, above all, cash.
We test hundreds of products every year so you don’t have to. You can pick the products that suit you and your budget from our expert reviews, based on over 20 years’ experience.
Our tests have moved with the times, too, so while we still give our verdict on wax and tyre shine – products that have been around since the start – we also assess the latest smartphone apps and electronic gadgetry. And we’re still breaking new ground, as this year we include our first tests of HID headlight bulbs and all-season tyres.
Over the next 32 pages, we’ll bring you our top picks from the past 12 months, to help you keep your car in great condition and you and your passengers safe and secure. All prices are from a range of sources as we went to press.
Price: £19.99 Size: 200g Contact: www.nipponshine.com
THIS Japanese import impressed on its test debut last year, winning a Commended award. This time it goes one better. Wet rather than freezing weather gave it the narrowest of margins of victory over past champ Bilt Hamber. Both are superb products, beading water throughout the test, even when the panel was dirty. Although it comes in a tin, this is more of a sealant than a natural wax. We didn’t test its claims to deliver 12 months’ protection, but it starred over six weeks.
Price: £12.95 Size: 1,000ml Contact: 01277 658899, www.bilthamber.com
THE Essex producer was one of the pioneers of the ‘purple’ cleaners that change colour as they work on the brake dust built up on your wheel, but it hasn’t simply sat back and let the competition catch up. For starters, the bad egg smell of old now has a fruity edge that’s a lot easier to live with. Plus, auto-wheel acts much more quickly than it used to; you now only have to leave it to work for five minutes. And despite the changes, it’s still brilliantly effective, shifting the grime without the need for a brush – although Bilt Hamber supplies one as part of the big-value pack.
Price: £10 Size: 500ml Contact: 01782 623819, www.autobritedirect.co.uk
GROUND-IN chocolate is always one of the trickiest substances to remove, but this was one of the few cleaners on test to shift all signs. It also left precious little of the sticky fruit juice. Effective and it even smelled good, with an unusual lavender fragrance. And before you think FAB should be capable at that price, this is achieved with the solution diluted 1:10.
Price: £7.49 Size: One litre Contact: 0161 764 5981, www.tetrosyl.com
PART of the range spun off the long-running Demon Shine rinse aid, but this doesn’t just cash in on a name. The generous one-litre bottle is easy on the pocket and it works well. Although it struggled on the chocolate stain, the juice vanished, as did the grease. As with our winner, it can be used inside and out on hard surfaces.
Price: £8.95 Size: 500ml Contact: www.dodojuice.com
THE team at Dodo Juice promises to “wipe out” grime with this product, and it’s largely successful at it. There are several versions on the market, but we tried the already diluted simple spray and wipe formula. It worked well, and only struggled slightly with the grease in our test. Like other trim cleaners here, it can be used inside and out.
Price: £7.99 Size: 500ml www.angelwax.co.uk Contact: 0141 886 6732,
UNLIKE our winner, Angelwax Heaven for Leather claims to enrich as it cleans. And it exceeded our four-hour droplet test, plus left a leather smell. It says you should agitate with a brush, but even with our cloth and limited wiping, it lifted the colour and some of the ink.
Price: £6.49 Size: 500ml www.tetrosyl.com Contact: 0161 764 5981,
WONDER Wheels cleaner aims to give the leather a leather smell, and it’s quite pleasant. It was another droplet test star; the water was still there after four hours. Leather Clean & Feed also cleaned well, but fared better with ground-in grime than with our ink.
Price: £5.99 Size: 500ml Contact: 01283 222277, nielsenchemicals.com
NO hide smell from the Nielsen cleaner; just a pleasant aftershave-like aroma. Leather Maintainer impressed on its first test. It delivered on its claim to restore the leather’s appearance and suppleness. The droplet survived for four hours, like Wonder Wheels, and progress was clear on general grime.
Productawards
Price: £3.99 Size: 500ml www.halfords.com Contact: 0845 762 6625,
WE needed to try a little harder than with our winner to get an even finish initially, but Halfords Wet Look soon settled to a good shine. It was a match for our champion through the first five weeks of the test, right up until the final assessment, when its section wasn’t as dark as Tyre Slik’s. Even so, this was a good performance – and when you add its simple spray-and-leave application and keen price, it’s easy to commend.
Price: £5 Size: 500ml Contact: 0161 866 4800, www.holtsauto.com
COMPLETING our top three in this test is Back to Black, which has a new-look livery. Along with Tyre Slik and Halfords, this product has dominated our tyre shine tests for some years, but Simoniz has just released a reformulated version, too late for our test. Time will tell whether this can loosen Tyre Slik’s stranglehold on the class, but this outgoing formula proved durable and easy to use, plus versatile as it’s good for external plastics, too.
Price: £7.99 Size: 500ml www.armorall.eu Contact: 0845 602 1995,
A PROMISING test debut for the tyre shine in the US brand’s Shield range. It was a step behind our top three overall, with its section of tyre clearly more grey than our winner at the end of the test. Shield Tire Glaze also proved a bit more difficult to apply; achieving an even coat was tricky with the aerosol trigger. Nevertheless, it delivered a high gloss initially, and saw off more established brands to earn a commendation here.
Price: £29 Size: 400ml Contact: 0333 800 8004, www.ultimatefinish.co.uk
YOU need to put a fair bit of effort in to get the impressive protection Fabric Coat provides. Two coats have to be sprayed on with an hour in between, and the Gyeon formula needs to cure for 12 hours. But that wait is worth it as after all our tests the drinks or grease left no marks. Not the cheapest, easiest or quickest option, but for the best protection look no further.
Productawards
Price: £8.95 Size: One litre Contact: 0141 886 6732, www.angelwax.co.uk
ANGELWAX’S Fastfoam was test runner-up last time we looked at pressure washer shampoos. This is much more of a conventional soapy shampoo, and when blasted through a pressure washer – no special snow foam lance required – creates a thick white layer on the car. It needs 10 minutes to work on loosening the grit before rinsing, but it cleaned a panel as well as our champion.
Price: £13.95 Size: Five litres Contact: 0333 800 8004, www.ultimatefinish.co.uk
THIS own brand shampoo from online retailer Ultimate Finish is a former winner of our tests, but has been reformulated to improve the foam and the cleaning ability. Usefully, the formula doesn’t require a foam gun. It also claims not to strip waxes or sealants. The revised formula saw Ultimate Snow Foam return to the podium.
Price: £13.99 Size: One litre Contact: 01327 811015, www.gtechniq.com
LIKE Snow Foam, this promises to leave waxes and sealants intact. You can smell the pleasant citrus aroma as it’s used. As seems to be the pattern with Gtechniq products, it’s not a budget option, but it certainly works well. The foam that went on was appreciably thicker than rivals here, clinging on well to vertical panels. Cleaning was impressive, with only our top two shifting more grime after rinsing.
Price: £3.33 Size: 500ml Contact 01438 749501, www.blackdiamondproducts.co.uk
ANOTHER from the budget end of the market, and no worse for it. Super Clean is more versatile than our winner, as it can also be used on leather and vinyl, and proved very effective on our fabric seat. Like most products, the ink was hard going, but it shifted the chocolate and made good inroads to lifting the butter. There was an improvement in the overall grime, although our champ had the edge.
Price: £4.99 Size: 500ml www.armorall.eu Contact: 0845 602 1995,
DESPITE the name, this is good for not just fabrics, but plastics, rubber and vinyl roofs. Care is needed when spraying, as it goes on in a thick white foam. Like our winner, it needs time to penetrate before you wipe off with a damp cloth. The chocolate disappeared, and good improvements were made on the butter and overall grime. The ink yet again proved tricky, though.
Price: £12.98 Size: 500ml Contact: 01327 811015, www.gtechniq.com
THERE’S lots to like about this cleaner from detailers’ favourite Gtechniq. The formula has a pleasant menthol smell, and it claims to absorb odours, rather than mask them. It also kills 99.9 per cent of bacteria – handy if you’re carrying children. It cleans well, too, topping all our tests, including on the tricky ink. A strong performance, but by not a big enough margin to overcome that hefty price.
Productawards
Price: £127.84 Contact: 0121 306 6000, www.goodyear.eu
GREAT ability on snow cemented this win for Goodyear, proving the company has found a trick with its winter and all-season designs. But as we have seen so often, success in one area is not enough to secure an overall win. The Gen-1, which was launched lastt year, also starred at the pumps and was close enough to the leaders on dry and wet roads to come out on top. It did particularly well in the deep water of our aquaplaning tests.