Dirty! Study reveals the most germ-ridden parts of your car

Are you guilty of a slack cleaning routine? It turns out you could be letting mould and germs breed in your car, especially if you’ve got young kids and pets hanging around. 

A new study has revealed the most germ-ridden spots in your car — and the results are truly nasty. The study, administrated by auto retailer Motorpoint, swabbed 20 different areas inside a used car and found that while the rearview mirror and steering wheel were relatively clean, the boot was a different story. 

In the car Motorpoint tested, the boot was crawling with germs and grime that couldn’t be seen by the human eye, but proved very dirty when put under the microscope. Motorpoint said the “car owner regularly transported their two pet dogs in the boot, indicating that our four-legged friends are partly to blame for bringing germs into our vehicles”.

The other areas with the most visible bacteria were the driver footwell, seatbelt button and handbrake. And cleanest areas were actually parts owners come into contact with the most. These included the gear stick, steering wheel rim and rear-view mirror, all of which came as a surprise to the team conducting the tests. 

Alison Weatherley, head of marketing at Motorpoint, said: “The results definitely revealed that maybe we need to clean our cars a little more often that we currently think is acceptable. Many drivers eat or drink in their vehicle, as well as chauffeuring young children or pets, and these can also have an impact on dirtiness in cars.”

According to the survey of 1050 car owners in the UK, people only clean the inside of their car an average of 10 times a year — approximately once every five weeks, and one in five of drivers only clean the inside of their car three times a year or fewer. 

And, when it came to opinions on frequency of car cleaning, men were more likely to focus on gleaming exterior, whereas women focused on maintaining a clean interior. 

Considering that 94 per cent of the panel said they eat and drink in vehicles — and 58 per cent transport pets, it suggests drivers might need to pull out the vacuum cleaner more often.  “To avoid excessive grubbiness, we recommend that people action regular car cleaning – both inside and out,” Motorpoint said. 

Did you know this? How often do you clean your car?