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Dashboard cleaners are a must for any car lover. They can bring the dashboard of your car back to life with a beautiful finish.
We’ve compared all of the top dashboard cleaners in the UK in this complete guide with recommendations for every type of interior so you can be sure it’s perfect for your car.
Buying Guide
If you’ve not purchased dashboard cleaners before, below are a few things to consider. We’ve taken these in to account in our reviews further down.
- Do-it-all dashboard cleaners – some dashboard cleaners can only tackle certain tasks. While they are fantastic at cleaning the dashboard, for example, they are not suitable for leather. If you like to keep cleaning your car easy, purchase a do it all cleaner.
- Hydrating – if you choose a lower quality dashboard cleaner, be weary that it could dry out the interior of your car, this could subsequently cause certain materials to crack. A conditioning or hydrating dashboard cleaner will prevent this.
- Wipes or spray – dashboard wipes are excellent for a quick cleaning job when you spill something. We keep some dashboard wipes in our car all the time. Still, for the deepest of cleans, a spray is the way to go.
- Restorers – if your dashboard looks a bit old, a restorer can bring it back to life. Good quality restorers can also be used each time you want to clean your dashboard not just when you want to restore it.
- Long-term protection – most dashboard cleaners claim they provide long-term protection, but not all do. The dashboard cleaners on our list do, but cheaper cleaners often don’t last too long once dry.
- Sticky residue – if you have kids, a dashboard cleaner that can handle sticky residue is basically a must. Certain cleaners will also work if you want to spruce up your car. Still, most are only designed for really sticky situations.
Top Dashboard Cleaners
Let’s jump straight in to our list of favourite dashboard cleaners:
Maddox Detail Dashboard Cleaner – Best Overall
A hydrating, premium dashboard cleaner that is used by the professionals.
This dashboard cleaner has been used by the professionals for a long time now. It provides a fantastic clean for most materials in your car. You can use it on vinyl, leather, plastic, even veneer. So, there is very little in your car that this cleaner can’t tackle.
It has a special formula that helps it lift dirt, once the dirt is gone, the cleaner has been designed to leave lasting protection for weeks to come. It also hydrates the surfaces of your car, so leather and plastic won’t crack. It restores shine to surfaces too. We could go on about this dashboard cleaner and how amazingly well it cleans, but you just have to try it and see how your car shines afterwards!
Autoglym Vinyl And Rubber Care – Best Value
You’ll need shades to protect you from the shiny finish this dashboard cleaner provides and all at a great value price.
We all know Autoglym makes fantastic car cleaning products, but this one has raised the bar with a superior clean for most of your cars surfaces. The formula is great for restoring faded surfaces and providing long term protection.
Bar leather and glass, this cleaner with clean every surface in your car and it’s hydrating effects allow for regular use without any damage. If you want your car to look like it’s come straight out of the showroom, this cleaner will easily help you achieve that! As dashboard cleaners go, this is one of the best ever made.
Meguiar’s Interior Dash & Trim Protectant – Premium Pick
Protects your dash from grease, UV rays, dirt and probably from bacon sandwich crumbs!
If you’re willing to splash out a little extra, this dashboard cleaner will leave a premium finish. The recipe has been developed so that it doesn’t leave a greasy finish as some cheaper cleaners do and will restore the plastic and vinyl to look as good as new.
If you want to take a car from a wreck back to showroom quality, this dashboard cleaner is really hard to beat. It provides some fantastic protection after cleaning amazingly well too. It keeps surfaces hydrated and has Scotchgard built in to keep dirt and grime away for weeks!
It also comes in a variety of scenes, including our favourite new car scent.
Armor All – Best Dashboard Cleaning Wipes
Cleans shines and protects with one wipe, and the wipes don’t dry out! These are the cleaning wipes you need in your car!
These dashboard cleaning wipes are perfect for keeping in your car for a quick clean. If you have dogs or kids in your car, these will tackle most of the dirt and grime in your car associated with these two car destroyers perfectly.
While these car wipes aren’t going to help with a deep, spring clean, they weren’t designed for that. These dashboard wipes were designed for those quick cleaning tasks that don’t require getting all your liquids and cloths out, and they work wonders for that situation.
BMW Car Interior Cleaner – Recommended for BMWs
Made by BMW to provide fantastic interior cleaning to all BMW models.
Few manufacturers have specific recommendations about car cleaning products, but one exception is BMW who went one step further and developed their own.
BMW market this cleaner towards 7 series owners, but it works well on all BMWs, it has far exceeded our expectations. It can also work on any other make of car, but don’t tell BMW that!
It is a gentle cleaner, so it isn’t designed for tough stains but works fantastically well to keep a car in good condition. It can be used all over the inside of the car too, bar the carpets. Overall, this BMW interior cleaner has surprised the whole cleaning world, it works amazingly and has a lovely scent!
Best Cleaner for Leather Dashboard
Autoglym Leather Cleaner
Invented for leather dashboards, but works incredibly on all leather upholstery. If you have anything leather in your life, this will clean and protect it!
For a leather dash cleaner that has a neutral pH formula, this offers an extremely powerful clean while being very gentle on leather at the same time. If you want to remove stains and bring a car back to life, use this on the leather!
Autoglym is one of the UK’s best makers of car products and we’re not alone in our love for this product as car fanatics across the country are raving about this product for cleaning their interior leather, and then used it in their home to clean every leather thing they own!
If you really want to make the most of the product, it works best when the Autoglym balm is applied afterwards.
Best for Plastic and Vinyl Dashboards
King of Sheen Dashboard Cleaner
Effortlessly enhance your car’s interiors with this plastic and vinyl dashboard cleaner.
Many people have purchased this dashboard cleaner for the free vent cleaning brush, but have fallen in love with the cleaner itself. The vent duster brush is good, but the dashboard cleaner is fantastic. It smells greats and not only provides a fantastic shine, but it also removes loads of dirt and grime as well.
A lot of dashboard cleaners claim they offer an all-round clean but aren’t up to the task. This dashboard cleaner, though, is. It might not be capable of tackling the toughest or stickiest stains, but it sure does a great job of removing general grime and leaving your dash shiny and new again.
Best for Sticky Dashboards
303 Surface Cleaner
Safe on most surfaces in your car and provides a superior clean and shine too.
This is not specifically a dashboard cleaner but if you look on any petrol head forum as we frequently do, the 303 range is the secret weapon of car upholstery cleaning.
The 303 surface cleaner is a great all rounder for getting rid of dirt or sticky patches and has been formulated for auto use. This is the ideal cleaner if you plan on letting the kids loose in your car.
That said, though, a lot of users have loved this cleaner in the car and then tried it in the home and had fantastic results there too.
Best for Black Dashboards
Meguiar’s Ultimate Black
If your black dashboard has seen better days, bring it back to life with this dashboard restorer.
Many people think that black dashboard restorer will be some sort of black polish, like for shoes, for example. However, the magical restorer in this bottle is white. Rather than polishing or colouring the plastic trim, this hydrates the plastic again and brings back the natural colour.
So, your dashboard won’t have a thin layer of black coloured stuff over it, it will be the natural colour of the plastic brought back to life.
Because this restorer brings back the natural colour of your dash, you can also clean your dash after you use this and it won’t rub the finish off. Many people use this dashboard restorer on older cars to bring them back to life, and it works incredibly.
Bonus: Add Protection Afterwards
303 Automotive Protection
This is one of the best protection sprays for cars, perfect for using after one of the dashboard cleaners above!
Here’s another secret weapon from 303. When an interior dashboard protector can prolong the life of your drive belt (many users have claimed this), you know it’s going to work amazingly on your dashboard!
Now, 303 aren’t suggesting you soak your drive belt in this stuff. Instead, they suggest using it on basically every part of the interior of your car. This stuff offers UV protection on all materials. It keeps leather supple, plastic looking new and carbon fibre looking like it was just made.
When used correctly, no one can fault this dashboard protector. It is way more than a dashboard protector too, it is a game-changer in protecting all of your car’s interior from fading, cracking or looking dull.
We hope you found our dashboard cleaner recommendations helpful and we’d hghly recommend the 303 protector too.
To find out about other amazing cleaning products for a showroom ready finish, explore our other articles on cleaning and detailing products.
Scott’s love for cars goes back as far as he can remember which is why he’s our go-to guy for all automotive product reviews. When Scott’s not at hotrod shows or drag racing events, he’s dreaming about that E-type drag that will hopefully appear on his drive one day.