What Are The Best Car Washing Products For Lazy People?
If you’re anything like me, you’ll enjoy washing your own car rather than entrusting the job to someone else. But you’ll also be short on time to get the job done to your satisfaction. Filling up a bucket with soapy water, hosing the car down, shampooing, rinsing then drying… it’s not something you can do particularly quickly. Thankfully, for those with little time - or those who are just a tad lazy - there are products out there to lend a helping hand. So which should you buy? We brought together a selection and put them to the test over a few weeks - using our Skoda Octavia vRS longtermer and other cars as guinea pigs - to see what’s what.
Triplewax Shake & Shine
Like most of the products we’re looking at, Shake & Shine is what’s known as a ‘waterless wax’. All you have to do is spray it on, give it a wipe with a microfibre cloth, then buff with another clean cloth. You have to be very careful with it, though; if you get any overspill onto the plastic trim or your tyres, you’ll then have to use another cleaning product to get the smears off. The label is full of all sorts of warnings and suggested precautions like wearing gloves and - believe it or not - eye protection. And after using it, my driveway ended up spattered with white blobs - which you can just about see in some of these images. It does claw back points because it leaves a lovely glossy finish on the cars and because it’s good value and comes in a big one-litre bottle.
Typical UK price: £12.99
Typical US price: n/a
Car Plan Demon Foam
The only problem with waterless wash products is that if your car is exceptionally dirty, they aren’t the best thing to use. If that’s the case but you don’t want to faff about with regular car shampoo, Demon Foam - a product from the same parent company as the Shake & Shine - might just be the answer. It’s intended to produce the same effects as snow foam shampoos, but in this case you don’t need a pressure washer - it works using a regular garden hose.
Water comes out as soon as you plug it into the hose - which can be a pain - but there is a switch to stop the flow, letting you rinse the car first. Initial coverage is pretty good, but unlike proper snow foam, this stuff doesn’t stick around for long, and it quickly starts to run off (see above). You can’t just leave it there to do its thing like the pressure washer-delivered stuff either; you have to work it into the bodywork with a sponge or wash mitt before you rinse it off again. The finish is reasonable but you won’t get the nice beading effect like the other products here.
There’s a lot not to like about Demon foam, but don’t discount it entirely. It’s a unique product and is an undeniably quick way of cleaning a particularly mucky car. It should last a while too, with it apparently being good for up to 20 washes.
Typical UK price: £14.99
Typical US price: n/a
Meguiar's Wash and Wax Anywhere
When I first clocked eyes on this product, I was immediately drawn to the bit of label that says ‘Safely Washes & Waxes 3-4 Cars’. That doesn’t really sound like much, but it’s a very conservative estimate - judging by how much we used to wash all of our Octavia, it’s good for more like seven to eight washes. And each of those times you’ll be left with a superb water-resistant finish.
It’s easy to use, too, with minimal buffing needed even if you’re being fairly stingy about how much you put on.
Typical UK price: £14.99
Typical US price: $14.99
Autoglym Rapid Detailer
In our experience, Autoglym products tend to perform solidly, and the Rapid Detailer is no exception. There’s very little to separate the performance and finish of Rapid Detailer from Wash & Wax Anywhere: both don’t require a huge amount of elbow grease (the same can’t be said for Shake & Shine) and give exceptional results that’ll see your paintwork beading like a boss for weeks. It is worth bearing in mind, though, that the Autoglym product (in the UK, at least) is better value.
Typical UK price: £8.99
Typical US price: $20
Tamz Gold Turbo Quick Detailer
I have to admit, I hadn’t heard of Tamz Vehicle Detailing until a few weeks ago. Both Tamz and Car Throttle sponsor BTCC driver Kieran Gallagher, prompting the small UK-based firm to get in touch to see if we’d like to test some products. As it happens, they also do a waterless wash called Quick Detailer, so we popped it into this group test as a late entry.
The product doesn’t make much of a visual impact - it’s in a plain black bottle with a rather basic printed label on the side. It doesn’t have a slick design like the other products here - particularly the Autoglym and Meguiar’s - that’s for sure. However, in a classic case of not judging a book by its cover, when we used this stuff, we found it was actually the best of the lot.
It leaves a finish that’s as good as the Rapid Detailer and Wash and Wax Anywhere, but is better at cutting through dirt, requiring less wiping to clean up panels. It’s ruddy impressive stuff, this.
UK price: £13
US price: n/a
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
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