Car shampoo is a simple thing, but there is a bewildering array of options ranging from pricey, premium brand products through to budget, bulk-buy options. We got the bucket and sponge out to find out which car shampoo is best; or, to be precise, we got two buckets out as we used the ‘two bucket’ method - keeping one bucket with clean, soapy water, and another separate for rinsing out the dirty washing mitt or sponge. The cars we tested our products on were cool to the touch when we washed it, and then we dried them off with a clean microfibre so that we could properly assess the finish across all of the car’s finishes.
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Top 10: car shampoos
1. McLaren Ceramic Shampoo - BEST BUY
Price: £7.24 (for 500ml)
Buy from: www.amazon.co.uk
Min price per litre: £14.48
As you’d expect of a supercar-branded product, the McLaren ceramic shampoo is reassuringly pricey. It does, however, deliver the performance that you hope for given the name on the bottle. It smells great, for a start, and more importantly the cleaning power is good enough to make light work of most dirt, and even dried-o bird muck and bug guts needs minimal elbow grease. More than that, it left the best finish here, with the ceramic coating really leaving a great shine and impressively water-repellent finish. The paintwork felt really smooth to the touch, and we barely needed to dry the car, it was so effective. It really is good enough to justify the price.
Autocar says 5 stars
2. Autoglym Ultra High Def car shampoo - RECOMMENDED
Price: £16.95 (for 1l)
Buy from: www.amazon.co.uk
Min price per litre: £16.95
This is our priciest shampoo, but it gives fantastic results. It foams up really nicely, smells good enough to wash your hair in and melts away dirt and dust including dried-on brake dust, and even bug splatter only needs light scrubbing before it’s soaped away. The Autoglym dries quickly, and is almost streak free even if you don’t dry it with a microfibre – although doing that does, as ever, deliver usefully better results. With or without a final buff, it leaves paintwork feeling glossy, and water beads and runs off to help keep the high shine for longer. Expensive it may be, but it really is a noticeably better clean and finish than almost any other we tested.
Autocar says 4 stars
3. Turtle Wax Zip Wax - BEST BUDGET BUY
Price: £7.09 (for 2.5L)
Buy from: www.amazon.co.uk
Min price per litre: £2.84
The Turtle Wax Zip Wax is a really familiar name in car shampoo, and it’s still one of the best. It’s great value, available in a bottle that’s not going to take up an entire shelf in your garage or shed, and you only need a small amount in a bucket of warm water to get great cleaning power. It did a fine job of rinsing away grime without needing much agitating to loosen the dirt, Paint, glass and metalwork all came up with a bright, clean, smear-free finish, and the wax gave a great shine helped to keep the car looking smart for days after the wash. It’s a really good, affordable shampoo that’ll do for your routine maintenance wash as well as your concourse detailing job. Autocar says 5 stars
4. Williams Racing Car Wash and Wax
Price: £22.99 (for 10L)
Buy from: www.amazon.co.uk
Min price per litre: £2.30
Being branded with a Formula One team’s name, there are serious expectations for this product and we weren’t disappointed. It foams enthusiastically and eats away at the dirt on the car, so you need minimal sponging and buffing to get good results. It leaves a good shine that lasted well, but it wasn’t up there with the really glossy finish that the Autogylm and McLaren delivered. You also have to buy the Williams as a pair of hefty five-litre bottles – not the smaller bottle pictured. That helps to make it great value, but it’s not always ideal to have to store two big bottles of long-lasting car shampoo.
Autocar says 4 stars
5. Simoniz Car Shampoo and Carnauba Wax
Price: £25.99 (for 10L)
Buy from: www.amazon.co.uk
Min price per litre: £2.60
The Simoniz is a really powerful shampoo that did a great job of cleaning our test cars, soaping away even the dried-on filth around the sills and wheelarches, and leaving paintwork, chrome, alloy and glass looking smart and streak-free with very little buffing. It doesn’t leave quite the water-beading, glossy finish that other pricier options achieve, but at the price, it’s hard to beat. Autocar says 4 stars
6. Holts Car Shampoo and Wax
Price: £9.94(5l)
Buy from: www.amazon.co.uk
Min price per litre: £1.99 (5l)
Yes, it looks like washing up liquid but the Holts shampoo has good cleaning power, working well on most general dirt and then rinsing away easily. The wax aspect of it doesn’t seem to do much, mind, as there’s not the same water repellent finish that you get with some others here. Even so, it does a great job of rinsing away the dirt, and at this price it’s a great option for a budget shampoo.
Autocar says 3 stars
7. Meguiars Gold Class Shampoo and Conditioner
Price: £9.99 (for 473ml)
Buy from: www.amazon.co.uk
Min price per litre: £8.83
The Meguiars left a glossy, smear-free finish and melted away most of the worst muck, with only the usual elbow grease required over dried-bugs around the grille and brake dust on the wheels. It leaves a coating that helps water to bead and run off freely, so while it didn’t offer the same level of shine that we got from our pricier range of shampoos, it’s still a decent result. It’s usefully cheaper when bought in the bigger 1.8-litre bottle but is still a pricey option.
Autocar says 3 stars
8. CarPlan Ultra shampoo
Price: £12.99 (for 5Ll)
Buy from: www.amazon.co.uk
Min price per litre: £2.60
Again, this does the job of soaping away the dirt and residue of life on the road, but it’s a basic shampoo that doesn’t deliver the glossy finish and water repellence of some others. It smells good, and works just fine even if you use it as a weak dilution so will last a good while, too, and it didn’t leave any smears or residue. It’s perfectly fit for purpose, then, even if it didn’t leave as much of a shine as some others.
Autocar says 3 stars
9. ArmorAll SpeedDry car wash
Price: £6.99 (for 1l)
Buy from: www.amazon.co.uk
Min price per litre: £6.99
The ArmorAll is a straightforward shampoo that does what you want it to do. It’s got a nice, citrus smell that’s not too overpowering and it stays foamy for a long time, leaving you plenty of suds even if you like to take your time when you’re washing the car. It makes fairly light work of loose much, although dried or baked-on dirt will need a bit of scrubbing. As the name suggests, it also dries quickly, although you’ll still need to buff it with a chamois or cloth to avoid watermarks. It’s a perfectly good shampoo, but it doesn’t leave the shine and longer-lasting results of some others.
Autocar says 3 stars
10. Mer High Shine shampoo
Price: £10.15 (for 1Ll)
Buy from: www.amazon.co.uk
Min price per litre: £10.15
The Mer shampoo has very masculine branding and even smells like something you’d splash on yourself rather than your car. Which isn’t to say that it’s unpleasant, but dousing your car in something that smells like aftershave is a bit peculiar. It is got decent cleaning power, though; it foams well, melts through the much and rinses off easily for a clean, fresh finish. The problem is that it’s not really any more powerful a cleaner overall than plenty of equally effective yet much more affordable alternatives. ]
Autocar says 3 stars
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