Autoglym High Performance Tyre Gel, 500ml - High Performance Custom Car Wheel Cleaner and Gel For the Ultimate Gloss or Satin Finish

The durability is always a tough one to assess. It’s based on the how many miles are driven in a week, the conditions that the car is driven in, as well as what products are used to clean the tyres.

Other available products - King of Sheen Eco Tyre Shine

This did a brilliant job of rejuvenating our faded trim, plus the foam and sponge applicator is ideal for getting into awkward nooks around the wing mirrors or bumpers. You can layer a couple of coats onto tyres for extra shine, or it brings a more understated, clean-looking finish with a single application. It lasted well, too. The trim faded a little after a few days and needed another application, but it still bettered any others, and the tyres looked fresh for a couple of weeks and more. On balance of cost, and especially with the applicator included, this is a great product and a good price. This is another great water-based tyre dressing. Even old tyres look really clean and smart after one round of this, and it comes with a nifty applicator to make it easier to apply to awkward areas. It’s safe for any plastics, but it didn’t have quite the transformative effect on our greying plastics that the Diamond Shine did. Overall, it smells good and is effective on both trim and tyres. At this price, it’s one of the best all-rounders. Personally, I like a natural look when it comes to dressing tyres. As such, only a small amount of needed on the applicator pad. For those that prefer a glossy look, more of the gel can be applied to the applicator. If too much is applied, the excess residue can be removed using a microfibre cloth. For those wanting a natural look, two small blobs of the gel per tyre is more than adequate.

Polishing your car is a great way to fade small scratches and imperfections. Find out how with our handy guide.

Best buy - Diamond Shine Tyre and Trim Dressing

Tyre shine is one of the most popular detailing products because it adds the finishing touches to a detailed car. After using an alloy wheel cleaner to remove dirt on the wheels, the tyres will also need attention and this is where a tyre shine becomes very useful. They are available as a spray, gel or aerosol and take just minutes to apply to all four wheels. div>

As a test, I used Custom Wheel Cleaner on the sidewall of the tyre. This only caused a minor level of degradation to the dressing. However, since it does add a large degree of protection to the sidewall of the tyre, and therefore repel dirt, there isn’t as much need to use a dedicated cleaner to clean the sidewalls of the tyre. In fact, even using a normal car shampoo would be enough for it. Value for Money When it comes to applying this dressing, it has to be applied by some form of applicator pad. I’ve collated a list of the best applicators here. Any applicator will work, but I’d recommend a high quality one such as Autoglyms own offering. This is silicon-based product that you spray on and leave to cure. It leaves a really high shine on tyres and also did a fine job of restoring depth of colour to our faded plastic trim. It lasted best of all of our products, although we wouldn’t say that it lived up to the claims of it providing eight to 12 weeks of shine. Even so, it’s excellent stuff if a bit expensive. The fact that Instant Tyre Dressing comes in a spray bottle means that it’s ideal for last minute cleaning sessionsdata-src="https://cdn.media.amplience.net/i/washford/haluk-car-cleaning-spot1-step3-process-winter21-1382x867" To give you an idea of how easy tyre shine is to apply, we also posted a video on our YouTube channel that shows us testing the Meguiar’s Endurance Gel. As you can see, we were able to cover a large 21-inch tyre in less than a minute. On 100 miles a week, I’ve been able to get on average two and a half weeks off of this dressing before I need to reapply it. In that respect, it’s a bit more durable than Instant Tyre Dressing. This silicone-based tyre shine leaves a wet-look gloss that lasted a good few days, if not as long as some of our others. It’s of the ‘spray and leave’ school of application but doesn’t drip as much as some others and is easy to apply neatly. It did a good job of restoring the depth of colour to some faded trim when we applied it using a microfibre, too. Good all-rounder, but not the best value option. a>