Meguiar's Carpet & Interior Cleaner
Price £4.99 (473ml)
Contact tel 01208 269746
Performance 8/14
Worth the money? 5/6
Overall score 13/20
Comments Meguiar's is still fairly new on this side of the Atlantic, but its results on ink and oil were amazingly good. Both stains practically dissolved when treated, although the jam needed a good scrubbing to come out completely and the dreaded chocolate needed a second application. One handy point is the nozzle, which had several choices of spray pattern.

Ambersil Auto Groom Foaming Upholstery Cleaner
Price £4.49 (500ml)
Contact tel 01278 424200
Performance 6/14
Worth the money? 4/6
Overall score 10/20
Comments Some people will love this, while others will hate it: only because all Ambersil's Auto Groom range has been formulated to smell like apples, to disguise chemical odours. This foamer will spray everywhere until you learn caution with the nozzle. Cleaning results are reasonable on chocolate, oil, ink and ingrained grime. Bizarrely, jam proved the most difficult to remove.

Screwfix 11367
Price £1.89 (400ml)
Contact tel 0500 414141
Performance 6/14
Worth the money? 6/6
Overall score 12/20
Comments Cheap and cheerful with a tendency to spray out a bit too enthusiastically, so you'll probably end up with more foam than you need until you're used to using the can. The chemical smell also means you might not want to clean all your upholstery in one go. It worked best on oil, but ink, jam, chocolate and ingrained dirt all came out with a single application and a lot of agitation.

AutoGlym Interior Shampoo
Price £4.99 (500ml)
Contact tel 01462 677766
Performance 6/14
Worth the money? 4/6
Overall score 10/20
Comments AutoGlym products are good but they're often perceived as rather pricey – except this one, at just under a fiver for 500ml. This cleaner has a fresh, neutral smell, but the lack of chemical whiff doesn't seem to have reduced its cleaning abilities. This did the job on chocolate, ink, jam and our ingrained dirt on the seat. However, oil was the stumbling block, taking several applications before finally being dispersed.

Screwfix 16477
Price £2.79 (1 litre)
Contact tel 0500 414141
Performance 6/14
Worth the money? 6/6
Overall score 12/20
Comments One litre of cleaner for less than three quid? Is that a bargain, or what? Well, yes, but only if it works effectively. This isn't the most thorough compound available, but it is good enough. It has a slight smell of chemicals, but this soon dies away after application. Results on chocolate, ink, oil and jam stains weren't bad. Each needed a lot of scrubbing, but this Screwfix product managed the job without the need for a second application. Only the ingrained dirt remained stubbornly in the fabric.

CarPlan Interior Valet
Price £4.99 (400ml)
Contact tel 0161 7645981
Performance 8/14
Worth the money? 5/6
Overall score 13/20
Comments You could almost accuse this spray of being a little over enthusiastic. The spray comes out thick and fast, and foams up everywhere. But this is a small gripe because cleaning results are impressive. The brush, built into the top of the tin, really works the foam into the material. Ink came out easily and both oil and jam didn't offer much resistance. The ever troublesome chocolate needed a lot of foam and much work, but still came out on the first go.

Halfords Upholstery Wipes
Price £3.49 (25 wipes)
Contact tel 08457 626625
Performance 8/14
Worth the money? 6/6
Overall score 14/20
Comments I don't know what Halfords uses to make its cleaner but the stuff works almost as well in wipes form as it does in the trigger spray (see over). Shifting the chocolate stain and ink required a lot of elbow work but the wipes nevertheless did an admirable job by removing both contaminants without the need for a second application. For your cash you get 25 wipes, which are convenient to use. And they don't give off a lot of smell.

Comma Upholstery Cleaner
Price £4.75 (400ml)
Contact tel 01474 564311
Performance 5/14
Worth the money? 3/6
Overall score 8/20
Comments You need to leave this cleaner on the stain longer than the instructions suggest to get the results we achieved here. The cleaner quickly turned back the years on our ingrained section of seat and practically dissolved the oil. Jam and chocolate required a bit of agitating, but a second application wasn't necessary. The ink needed two goes, though, and even then it still didn't completely disappear.

Armor All Clean-up Wipes
Price £3.99 (25 wipes)
Contact tel 01422 205111
Performance 6/14
Worth the money? 5/6
Overall score 11/20
Comments Wipes are super convenient and can be quite effective. The first thing we noticed about these was the pleasant smell, but cleaning ability isn't quite up to the award-winners. These tackled, and made a reasonable job of, all our test stains, although chocolate was hard work. Using one wipe only just managed to erase the stain – two or three would make life easier. Peformance on ink, oil, jam, and ingrained dirt was better though.

Decosol Instant Valay Foam Upholstery Cleaner
Price £3.99 (500ml)
Contact tel 01422 205111
Performance 6/14
Worth the money? 4/6
Overall score 10/20
Comments The foam here quickly dissolves into the material and gets to work. We were impressed at how effectively Instant Valay got to grips with the ingrained dirt on the seat, and the ink came out really easily. Chocolate and oil needed a good scrub though, and the jam wouldn't budge at all, despite repeated applications.

Halfords High Foam Upholstery Cleaner
Price £3.99 (500ml)
Contact tel 08457 626625
Performance 3/14
Worth the money? 1/6
Overall score 4/20
Comments Despite having supplied two of the best products here, Halfords' third offering sinks to last place in this test. The foam is really watery, which makes it harder to control, but it sank into the fabric quickly, not that this seemed to improve its cleaning ability. Results on chocolate were poor, oil needed several applications, the jam remained where it was, and the ink needed lots of scrubbing before it vanished. The pungent smell was rather a turn-off, too.

Halfords Upholstery Cleaner
Price £3.49 (500ml)
Contact tel 08457 626625
Performance 8/14
Worth the money? 6/6
Overall score 14/20
Comments Definitely the best cleaner here. It easily tackled old grime and quickly left our test seat looking several years younger. On the tougher tests, chocolate needed a damned good scrub before shifting but a second application wasn't necessary. We were surprised to see how well this removed the pen mark, which came out almost instantly. Performance on the jam and oil stains was also impressive. Better still, being an own-branded product, it's economically priced and you get half a litre for your money.

Turtle Wax Interior 1 Dry Clean Upholstery Cleaner
Price £4.99 (400ml)
Contact tel 01695 716610
Performance 5/14
Worth the money? 3/6
Overall score 8/20
Comments Two things we liked immediately were the handy top-mounted brush and the fresh, clean, aroma. Unfortunately, the cleaning action wasn't as good as you might expect from Turtle. Results on the ingrained dirt were reasonable but the ink and chocolate took several applications and a great dollop of elbow grease. Oil and jam were easier to deal with, but neither simply melted away as they had with other products. Our last niggle is that you only get 400ml for your fiver.

CarPlan Stain Valet
Price £5.99 (300ml)
Contact tel 0161 7645981
Performance 9/14
Worth the money? 4/6
Overall score 13/20
Comments This is a heavier-duty version of the other CarPlan cleaner on test (page139), and our results prove the maker's claim of 'heavy-duty' is more than just hype. This time the spray is rather more liquid than foam and it has a slightly pungent aroma. Using the top-mounted brush, we were soon able to completely remove chocolate and ink. This also did a great job on the older ingrained grime. Jam and oil, as you might expect, disappeared quickly too. Ultimately good, but slightly pricey for only 400ml.