When it comes to properly maintain and caring for your vehicle, one of the most overlooked areas of car maintenance is car interior cleaning. Interior detailing is often an afterthought to car owners, as the vehicle’s exterior is usually viewed as being the more important area to maintain. However, without regular maintenance, your seats, console, carpets, and other interior materials can degrade to the point where the overall value of the car itself decreases.
This article will explore why car interior detailing is so important, as well as recommending products every car owner should have in their interior cleaning kit.
Why Interior Cleaning is Important
Prevents Unnecessary Wear and Tear
While it’s natural for your vehicle’s interior to experience some wear and tear during its lifespan, car interior cleaning can dramatically increase the longevity of the interior materials of your car. When the inner surfaces of your vehicle are neglected, they often build up accumulations of dust, dirt and other particles that gradually wear down the sensitive fabrics that cover your seats and other surfaces. Regular interior cleaning can go a long way to reducing these particle build-ups and maintaining the durability of your car’s interior.
Value Retention
If you plan to sell your car in the future, the exterior of the car isn’t the only aspect of the vehicle that will be keenly scrutinised by a prospective buyer. While an immaculate exterior will immediately attract buyers due to it being the first thing they see, if the interior of the car isn’t equally as immaculate, buyers will walk away from the sale just as quickly as they walked in.
Regular car interior cleaning, in combination with exterior and mechanical maintenance, will help preserve the value of your vehicle in the long run and ensure you get a fair price for the sale. A car that’s in great cosmetic condition will signal to buyers that other important aspects of the car have been properly cared for too.
Protection of Vehicle Upholstery
Cars that don’t have window tinting are especially prone to sun damage to their upholstery. This may not be a major concern for most car owners, but if you value the aesthetics of your vehicle, discoloured seats and interior materials as a result of sun damage will likely bother you every time you use your car. While car interior cleaning alone won’t protect against sun damage, regularly cleaning the upholstery of any spills, crumbs or other contaminants will help increase its overall lifespan.
Which Products Should You Use to Clean a Car Interior?
As one would expect, cleaning the interior of a car is quite different from cleaning the exterior. As such, a different set of cleaning products must be employed in order to get the best results.
Some products that should be in every car owner’s car interior cleaning kit are high-quality microfibre cloths, a premium glass cleaning solution made specifically for vehicle windows, a premium vinyl cleaner, and a decent vinyl brush. If your vehicle has any custom special materials or third-party electrical equipment, it’s important to only use cleaning products that are compatible with these components to avoid potentially damaging or destroying them.