Car Interior Cleaning and Care
The inside of a car is a dozen different materials, each with its own way of being ruined.
Interior work is where generic advice does the most damage, because a car interior is not one surface. It is leather, coated leather, perforated leather, cloth, Alcantara, hard plastic, soft-touch plastic, piano black trim, glass and carpet, and several of those are permanently harmed by what safely cleans the others.
The mistakes that cost real money
Piano black trim scratches from any dry contact at all. Wiping dust off it with a dry cloth is enough to leave visible marks in the right light. It needs to be flooded with a lubricating product and touched only with a plush microfibre.
Perforated leather traps whatever you spray into the holes, where it stays wet, works its way into the foam and eventually smells. Product goes on the applicator, never onto the seat.
Headliners fail from over-wetting. The adhesive holding the fabric to the backing board releases and the whole panel sags, which is a far more expensive problem than the stain you were trying to remove.
Alcantara is not suede and does not want conditioner. It mats permanently when saturated.
These are the specifics that the well-ranked interior guides gloss over, and they are the difference between a clean car and an expensive repair.