When the temperature drops during winter, our natural inclination is to stay indoors and keep warm. But there are occasions when it is necessary to escape outside into the fresh air; one of these occasions is giving your car a clean to protect it from what the UK winter tries to throw at it.
Winter tends to conspire against us; often quite literally freezing us out of our cars. But no ice cube is a match for Autoglym De-Icer spray, which takes the effort and numb fingers out of manual ice-clearing by swiftly melting through frozen windows, windscreen wipers, door seals, and locks without fear of them immediately freezing up once again.
The de-icers super-concentrated, water-free formula will not harm any vehicle surface, so you're free to get trigger-happy creating more than just a tiny porthole to peer through until the car warms up. All you've got to do is remember to think ahead by keeping the product at home and not leave it in the car!
Having unfrozen your vehicle, attention can now be turned to restoring its pristine appearance. We always start with the wheels, simply spray Autoglym Magma onto your dirty wheels, agitate and watch them turn red as the ingredients react with the dirt on the wheel. Then just pressure wash off to uncover your fresh clean wheels.
Autoglym's Polar Series products are designed to speed up the car-cleaning process by letting the pH-neutral chemicals do most of the hard work and minimise the risk of us unintentionally contaminating the precious surface finish with swirls and scratches.
These products can now be trialled in a beautiful new Polar Collection pack that allows you to 'test-drive' the innovative and highly effective pre-wash, wash and protect sequence before buying the full-size bottles.
Each Polar Series product has been developed to do its job within just 15 minutes, but that is more than enough time to enjoy the cathartic pleasure of obliterating your car with snow foam from a pressure washer. And for the best winter wonderland experience, we recommend attaching Autoglym's Polar Blaster foam gun as it will create the correct coverage and consistency for each product, from a thick, clingy foam to a free-flowing hydrophobic coating.
If you have another spare 15 minutes, why not use that time to tackle the interior. After all, why should the paintwork get all the attention? And besides, a winter lockdown is an ideal time to cleanse the inside of your car from all the dirt and contaminants that have accumulated over the summer.
Following a thorough vacuum, a bottle of Interior Shampoo is your one-stop product for all interior surfaces from headlining to carpet mats. Hard surfaces require nothing more than a spray-on, wipe-off action, while fabrics need to be gently agitated to release trapped dirt. But within no time that dubious mottling on the seat squab will be gone, leaving nothing but clean cloth and a fresh fragrance upon which to perch yourself. If your vehicle has leather or faux leather seats, we recommend using Autoglym Leather Cleaner to deep clean and freshen your upholstery.
Having practiced the spray-on, wipe-off routine, you can perfect the action with a couple of passes of Fast Glass on the windows – inside and out. Though tough enough to cut through road dirt, there are no abrasives, waxes, or silicones in the formula, which means it won't leave any residue on the glass. So, this is another grab-and-go product that will help you tackle another job in no time at all.
Before closing the door on your car-cleaning efforts for the day, let us pass on a tip from our professional detailers. A quick spritz of Vinyl & Rubber Care over the rubber door seals will prevent them from sticking in freezing weather. This product will also restore and protect faded plastic and rubber surfaces on the interior and beautify a freshly washed engine bay. For the exterior, we recommend Autoglym Bumper & Trim Gel which will restore your trim perfectly. But maybe those 15-minute jobs are best left for the following weekend. A new box set is calling.
Autoglym may not be able to do anything about the outside temperature but by choosing the correct car-care products, a cold winter needn't mean that we must get cold or wet keeping our car clean and ready for action.