Products: Turtle Wax ceramic wash review

• Rating: ★★★☆☆
• Price: £53.96 for bundle (£20 a bottle)
• More info: IdealWorld 

Any car cleaning product that claims to give bodywork a “glistening shine” that lasts for up to six weeks has to be worth putting on the cleaning mitt for. So when IdealWorld offered a bundle consisting of two bottles of Turtle Wax ceramic wash, a washing mitt and a chamois for review, we grabbed our bucket and hose and applied some elbow grease.

Click to read car REVIEWS or search NEW or USED cars for sale on driving.co.uk

The pack costs £53.96, plus postage, which seemed expensive, and we had our doubts that a bottle of ceramic wash would last as long as was claimed.

We were wrong. Washing a four-year-old large family car, we hosed off the exterior and then filled a bucket with water to rinse the mitt. A large panel, such as the roof, needed only four or five squirts, as did the bonnet and then the sides of the car. So the initial scepticism was ill-founded: each bottle should last a year if you wash your car every other weekend.

The ceramic wash is claimed both to clean paint and bond with its pores to form a clear coating that protects against ultraviolet light, rain, bird droppings, tar and salt. It’s said to have a hydrophobic effect, so water runs off.

It cleaned well – as well as the Autoglym bodywork shampoo conditioner that we usually use. The hydrophobic effect helped dry body panels quickly, leaving fewer streaks, and there’s a smooth finish. The weak link was the poor-quality chamois.

We’ll report back on whether the ceramic wash really does last six weeks – and whether it’s worth the premium price.