Best car shampoos 2023

It’s not advised that you douse yourself with it, though, but dousing the car is just fine and it’s a good shampoo that foams up nicely. It cut through the worst of the dirt on our car and washed away easily for a clean finish.

It leaves paintwork and glass slightly water repellent, but the truth is that there are other products here that cost less yet deliver even better results.

Classic & Sports Car says 3 stars

9. ArmorAll SpeedDry car wash

Min price per litre £6.99

ArmorAll SpeedDry is a straightforward car shampoo that does what you expect it to do.

The pleasant citrus smell isn’t too powerful, the shampoo creates a nice, fine foam very quickly, and doesn’t lose the suds even if you take a while to work through the bucket of water.

It shifts the grime with relative ease and, as the name suggests, dries quickly for a shiny finish. Mind you, it’ll still need a wipe with a cloth or chamois to avoid watermarks, so the quick-drying format is actually not very helpful if you’re after the best possible finish.

It’s a perfectly good shampoo, but it isn’t worth twice the price of the Simoniz and Turtle Wax.

Classic & Sports Car says 3 stars

8. CarPlan Ultra shampoo

Min price per litre £2.60

The CarPlan shampoo is excellent value and does the job just fine, but there’s not really any sheen or water-repellent coating left; this is just a basic shampoo, which is fine at the cost.

The Turtle Wax and Simoniz shampoos offer more for a similar amount of cash, because they left a noticeable sheen that the CarPlan didn’t achieve.

It is perfectly fit for purpose, though, and we it didn’t leave any blooms or residue to complain about.

Classic & Sports Car says 3 stars

7. Meguiar’s Gold Class Shampoo and Conditioner

Min price per litre £8.83

The Meguiar’s car shampoo delivered a really nice, smear-free finish and glossy look to the paintwork. It also leaves a coating that helps water to run off freely, keeping the paintwork looking smart for a while after you shampoo it, hence the ‘conditioner’ part of the description.

Some of the pricier shampoos offer a better finish overall, but this is still a really decent mid-range shampoo.

It’s also much cheaper if you buy it in the bigger 1.8-litre bottle that’s available, and you don’t need lots of it to get some really good suds going so it should last a while, too.

Classic & Sports Car says 3 stars

6. Holts Car Shampoo and Wax

Min price per litre £1.99 (5l)

Yes, it looks like washing up liquid, but the Holts is perfectly effective car shampoo that also leaves a nice shine thanks to the wax.

It didn’t make water bead and run off as well as others here, nor did the shine last as long, but this still feels like you’re getting great cleaning performance for the money.

It even did a fine job of removing stubborn bugs with only a little elbow grease thrown in.

Classic & Sports Car says 3 stars

5. Simoniz Car Shampoo and Carnauba Wax

Min price per litre £2.60

This car shampoo is very affordable, and did a great job of getting the mud and grime off the sills and around the inner wheelarches without too much sponging and scrubbing on our part.

It didn’t tackle brake dust on the alloy wheels quite so well, but it still left a smart, bright finish to the paintwork that a dry microfibre brought up nicely.

Simoniz Car Shampoo doesn’t leave quite the water-beading, glossy finish that our favourite options deliver, but it’s still a really effective shampoo.

Classic & Sports Car says 4 stars

4. Williams Racing Car Wash and Wax

Min price per litre £2.30

The premium name attached to this product brings very high expectations, but we’re pleased to say that it lived up to them.

Williams Racing Car Wash and Wax foams enthusiastically and melts away dirt on the car, including baked-on brake dust on the alloy wheels and dried-on bugs around the grille.

The result is a residue-free finish and high shine, but we’d still rate the Autoglym and McLaren products as delivering an even greater, longer-lasting shine – hence the Williams’ more middling place here.

Not only that, but it’s only available in a pack of two, bulky 5-litre bottles, which makes it very decent value but also potentially a pain to store because it takes up so much space.

Classic & Sports Car says 4 stars

3. Turtle Wax Zip Wax

Min price per litre £2.84

The Turtle Wax shampoo is a fantastic all-rounder that’s great value yet also very effective.

Even when heavily diluted, it foams up nicely and does a fine job, so it promises to last for ages, too.

It’s not just about thriftiness, though, the Turtle Wax was also a really effective shampoo that made light work of very tough, dried-on bug- and bird muck, and it also left the wheels and chromework looking bright and clean. Plus, the wax aspect works to leave a protective coat and a noticeable shine.

Turtle Wax is just a very effective shampoo at a good price.

Classic & Sports Car says 4 stars

2. Autoglym Ultra High Def car shampoo

Min price per litre £16.95

Surprisingly, the Autoglym Ultra High Def car shampoo is more expensive than the McLaren, but it is the brand’s premium shampoo option, and you can tell from the results, too.

Autoglym Ultra High Def smells good enough to wash your hair in, takes very little product to have enough soapy water for a whole, large car clean, and even with quite a weak dilution it soaps away the dirt and dust, even working well on hard-to-remove brake dust and bug splatters.

It also dries rapidly and doesn’t leave streaks even if you haven’t got round to buffing the water residue off, leaving the paintwork feeling smooth and glossy to the touch.

The shiny, water-beading effect didn’t last quite as long as the McLaren shampoo, but for sheer performance this is a very close second.

Classic & Sports Car says 5 stars

1. McLaren Ceramic Shampoo

Min price per litre £14.48

As you’d expect of a McLaren-branded product, this car shampoo is reassuringly expensive. However, it also lives up to expectations when it comes to performance.

It smells great and stays foamy even if you take a long time over cleaning the car, and more importantly it leaves a really noticeable, glossy, protective layer on the car that has water beading off for many days afterwards.

We barely needed to dry the car, it was so effective, and it was very noticeable in the days that followed that the McLaren Ceramic Shampoo really did help to keep the paintwork looking glossy and free of muck for longer than just about any other.

If you’re not fussed about spending a bit more for the best product, especially if you want to show-prep your classic car and have it looking its absolute best, the McLaren shampoo is the one for you.

Classic & Sports Car says 5 stars

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