When I bought the car I'd said I was going to rent a Vax or something similar to do a full valet on the interior. After two years I thought it was about time I got my act together.

I'm a bit behind with my blog posts - some of you may remember that thing called sunshine, well we had a bit of that in June last year. So I decided to look into the different cleaning methods available. Rug Doctor appeared to be the most readily available in my town and came recommended in a number of automotive articles.

After looking up all the stuff you need I took a trip down to the local Range store and it up.

It was quite the faff due to the staff member who ended up serving me, well I say serve that was probably quite low on her priorities. Nevertheless after around half an hour I'd got all the kit I needed.

I split the costs with a friend who used it to do his Z4 prior to sale. It doesn't make it clear how much of the fluids you'll need to clean a car's interior, turns out the amount I bought is good for two car's easy or a very thorough clean of one.

After a brief period of trying to workout what goes where and how much of each fluid is required I got started.

I thought I better start with a part that I wouldn't mind getting ruined if the cleaning fluids didn't agree. Out came the boot liner, bring on the suds. There were a couple of muddy marks that I wanted to get out, so these got most of the focus. To be honest it didn't get the marks out completely, but it did freshen the liner up quite a bit.

Satisfied the colours weren't going to run everywhere I moved onto the seats, starting with the front so they could dry for longer.


The suds do get everywhere when you're doing this, so make sure you have a clean cloth to wipe any plastics.

You can see the before (left) and after (right) for the front seat below.


You're probably thinking, well yep I can't see any difference there. On the face of it you're quite right, the seats were visually quite clean anyway. However, when you see the crap left in the Rug Doctor you might be quite surprised.

I carried on and did a thorough job on the rest of the car: boot side trims; mats, rear seats.

It was a pretty hot day so when I was done I left all the doors open to let the car dry out and air. Meanwhile I packed the Rug Doctor away. Here's what greeted me in the tank.



Still think the seats were clean before? Yeah me either.

Although not making a massive difference visually, it was definitely noticeable. Everyone that saw the car after noted how new the interior looked. Along with the visual aspect, it also smelt a lot fresher in the car, not that it smelt bad before just a lot fresher now.

So would I recommend doing it yourself? Yes definitely, even if you think your car is quite clean, this is the best way to clean your interior thoroughly. In fact I'd recommend you do the whole car twice (depending on how old it is) that way you've got peace of mind knowing it's truly clean.

Next summer I'll be hiring another one and giving it another go.