End of lease car clean across Hertfordshire

Town by town

What three years in each town does to a lease car

St Albans and Harpenden

The county's biggest lease market. Three years under the limes on a Harpenden avenue leaves honeydew rings in the lacquer that read as paint damage until the paint is decontaminated, and three years of the M1 from St Albans leaves brake dust rusted into the alloys as the brown shadow an inspector photographs first. Exterior Detail a week before, End of Lease clean three days before, and the wheels are the part to watch.

Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City

Hatfield's lease cars have done the A1(M) and, often, three years of a university car park; Welwyn Garden City's have lived in the shade. The outside wants the Exterior Detail for the iron and the sap; the inside, if there have been students, children or a dog in the car's history, wants the Full Interior Detail the week before and the shampoo add on on the day.

Hertford and Ware

Three winters by the Lea put salt tide marks in the carpets and a damp note in the fabric that an inspector's nose catches before the torch does. The shampoo add on is not optional here, and a dry morning window three to five days before collection gives the carpets the afternoon to dry.

Hitchin, Letchworth and Baldock

Chalk in the arches and the footwells from the Chiltern lanes, sap from the garden city's trees, and the A1(M) at Baldock. The End of Lease clean alone is usually enough for a car that has been washed through its life; the Exterior Detail first for one that has not.

Knebworth and the villages

Mud, sap, dog and a hedge or two. The Exterior Detail for the sap, the shampoo add on for the footwells, and a week off the lanes before the collection so nothing new gets in. Hedge scratches are damage, not dirt, and the photographs will show them as they are.

Across the county

The week the car goes back

Work backwards from the collection date. Seven days out, if the roof feels gritty or the alloys have gone brown, the Exterior Detail; if the cabin has had a dog, children or three damp winters, the Full Interior Detail. Three to five days out, the End of Lease clean itself, in a morning window so the carpets have the afternoon to dry with the windows cracked, which in a Hertfordshire November is most of a day. After that the car stays off the lanes and out of the rain as far as life allows, and goes to the hand back on a dry day, or is collected from the drive with the photographs already taken. The postcode goes into the booking page first and confirms a Network washer covers it; the price for your car's size is on screen before you pay.

On the day someone unlocks the car when the washer arrives, and the washer brings water and power. The outside gets a proper two bucket wash, the wheels and arches, tar off the sills, tyres dressed, glass finished and plastics restored. The inside gets everything vacuumed, the plastics and leather cleaned, the inside glass, the boot cleared, the door shuts wiped, and the shampoo add on where anything has soaked into the fabric. Each stage is photographed with the time and date. Damage is not touched: a scratch, a dent or a kerbed wheel is a different job, and the photographs will show it as it is.

The returns we see across Hertfordshire

• The Harpenden Thameslink commuter: Exterior Detail a week before for the honeydew and the M1, End of Lease clean three days before.
• The Hatfield car with a university term in it: Full Interior Detail the week before, End of Lease clean with the shampoo add on.
• The Hertford car after three wet winters: End of Lease clean with the shampoo add on, booked for a dry morning.
• The Letchworth family car that has been washed all its life: End of Lease clean alone.
• The village car with a hedge scratch: End of Lease clean, and honest photographs of the scratch.
• The car you are buying at the end: the Super Valet instead; it is yours now.

More on this: end of lease cleaning in Stevenage and what a mobile valet includes.