Interior smell is hard to hold, we kept our “new-car-smell” for around 1.5 years by simply keeping it clean (no detergents, just good ol’ dust rag), and no drinks nor food in it. Didn’t even get takeaway in it. For the outside, hand wash of course. Protective coatings are a bit misleading, most of the stuff they sell you isn’t actually a coating as such – a “real” ceramic coating, which does last for 6+ months (you’ll still have to wash the car though), will cost you a lot more than the tenner for a bottle of some random stuff. For us, basically “the usual”. Handwash only, decent foam lance, wheel brush, two buckets. For foam i use Autoglym Polar Blast, served me well so i don’t bother looking further. For Shampoo i use Autoglym Polar Wash, also applied through the foam lance – you CAN get away with one bucket that way, if you desire. I still use two, but it’s more habit. For coating, it depends. I have had great results with Autobrite MagiSeal, but i’ll give you the best tip ever: realise that the paint on new cars is actually awful, and the best thing you could do is to give it a paint correction. Even just claying will do wonders, i promise you. I clayed the Golf top to bottom, and it was night and day. After that, as mentioned, either MagiSeal if you’re lazy, or a (good) wax. I’d suggest Soft99 Fusso Coat dark (japanese brand) – it’s amazing. Pretty dear for a wax, but worth the weight in gold, genuinely. Going to be one of the first things i’ll do to the car as well, once i’ve read into waxing pearl paints (not sure if there’s something to consider, haven’t looked into that yet). I didn’t put as much effort into a decontaminator, i just got an Amazon grade Iron/Fallout remover, never really felt the need to go balls to the wall on that front. Important is a decent snow lance for pre-wash, decent mitt for washing (and decent microfibre towels for drying), and some good ol’ elbow grease. If you’re confident, definitely clay the car down, too (i know i will). If you do, get a reasonably decent detailer spray for lubricant (something like Meguires Quik Detailer is good enough, and it’s spelled correctly).
All of @Rene recommedations.
Joss
Current car: BMW X2 sDrive 20i M Sport 5dr Step Auto In metallic Portimão Blue. 04:10:2025
Previous car:Peugeot 308 GT Premium 1.2 Pure tech Petrol.