Which car glass cleaner is best?

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5 mins read

11 April 2024

There’s a huge variety of glass cleaners on offer, so we’ve tested a broad range from the more affordable options through to the premium products. The cloth is often half the battle, so to ensure a fair test we used an identical, new, ultra-fine microfibre cloth with each product. Then we did what you’d do when you clean glass… We applied a fine spray to the dry (yet appropriately filthy) glass of our test car, and judged how well it removed dirt and grease for that crystal clear finish.

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BEST BUY:

NAME: RainX 2-in-1 glass cleaner and rain repellent

Price per litre? £8.00

Enthusiasts such as yourselves, dear Autocar readers, are probably familiar with RainX; ever the friend of old cars, in particular, this stuff helps the water to bead up and run off. So it helps to keep your screen clear of rain even if your wipers are a bit, well…. vintage. Which makes it all the more impressive that it was also one of the best just as a glass cleaner, leaving a bright, smear-free finish with very little buffing and wiping. At this price, and given that it really can help with visibility out of your windows and windscreen, RainX is a must-have.

Autocar says: 5 stars

Runner up:

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NAME: King of Sheen Glass Sparkle

Price £8.99 (500ml)

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Price per litre? £17.98

The King of Sheen cleaner smells a bit strong, but we’ll forgive it because it makes such light work of the interior and exterior of our car’s glass. It hardly needs any buffing to get greasy fingerprints and a film of dust of the inside of the car, and it cuts through mud splatters on the outside for a spotless finish. It’s not the cheapest, but it’s still good value - especially when you consider that you get a microfibre included in the price. You don’t need much spray to do a lot of glass, too, so it’ll last a really long time.

Autocar says: 5 stars

Budget buy:

NAME: Autoglym Fast Glass

Price £9.44 (500ml)

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Price per litre? £18.88

Autoglym’s glass cleaner does a great job of clearing greasy fingerprints, and even dried-on dirt and bird muck. It can also be used on touchscreens, and even plastic or acrylic windows. It’s not cheap, but of the premium cleaners this is up there with King of Sheen for effectiveness and crystal clear results with very little effort. It only missed out on the top spot here as King of Sheen is better value.

Autocar says: 4 stars

NAME: Turtle Wax Clearvue Glass Cleaner

Price £3.59 (500ml)

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Price per litre? £4.20 (5l bottle)

This is one of those ‘does the job’ cleaners. It took a bit of repeated spray-and-buff efforts on very dirty glass, but it still did a fine job overall and this is the cheapest of our products. It leaves a stringent, vinegary smell for a while afterwards, but ultimately it does what you want glass cleaner to do, and at a very good price.

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Autocar says: 3 stars

NAME: Car Gods Glass Perfection

Price £10.99 (500ml)

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Price per litre? £21.98

The Car Gods glass cleaner removes grime and fingerprints from glass without much effort, and the subtle scent is a pleasant change from some of the others here, too. It’s a shame that the bottle leaked a bit in transit, so the packaging could definitely be better - and it’s not cheap. There’s no doubting the effectiveness of the cleaner itself, though.

Autocar says: 3 stars

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NAME Armor All Glass Cleaner

Price £6.00 (500ml)

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Price per litre? £12.00

If you don’t mind the rather chemically smell, the Armor All does a decent job even on very dirty exterior glass, as well as on the typical dust film that builds up on a car’s interior. It does need some heavy buffing to get it streak free, so the cloth is doing some of the heavy lifting, but overall it’s not bad at all.

Autocar says: 3 stars

CarPlan No.1 Super Glass Cleaner

Price £9.00 (600ml)

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Price per litre? £15

The CarPlan cleaner was virtually scent-free, which is an unusual and refreshing change for a glass cleaner. It also does a good job of getting the glass fresh and clean, but while it does the job you expect, it also doesn’t really seem to cut through the dirt more easily, or leave any more of a shine than some of the cheaper alternatives. It’ll clean your glass, for sure, but others are just as good if not better - and they’ll cost less, too.

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Autocar says: 3 stars

NAME Simoniz Clear Vision Glass Cleaner

Price £5.50 (500ml)

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Price per litre? £11.00

The Simoniz glass cleaner produced similar results to the CarPlan product, in that it needed a fair bit of buffing to get good results even on interior glass. It also took a number of repeated efforts to get exterior muck and grime off the glass. Ultimately, it does the job, but others do the same for less money.

Autocar says: 3 stars

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NAME Meguiar’s Perfect Clarity Glass Cleaner

Price £10.49 (473ml)

Buy from Amazon

Price per litre? £22.18

The Meguiar’s was very smeary compared with other premium glass cleaners; it needed a lot of buffing to get the glass properly clean as it seems to spread around rather than wipe off. The odd Play-Doh smell might not be for everyone, too. It did leave the glass clean, but the other premium products here (and a few of the non-premium products) justify the cost much better.

Autocar says: 2 stars