The Super Valet in Stevenage

What it puts right

A year of a Stevenage car, undone in a half day

Outside, the Super Valet starts as the Deluxe does, with a two bucket wash, the wheels and arches, the tyres and the glass, and then goes further: the paint is waxed, which on a car that lives under a Norway maple is the difference between honeydew that rinses off and honeydew that bakes on. The wax also carries the paint through the salt that Hertfordshire's gritters lay from October to April on the A602, Fairlands Way and the bus routes through Chells and Pin Green.

Inside is where the Super Valet earns its name. A Deluxe cleans a cabin; a Super Valet restores one. The seats and carpets are shampooed and extracted rather than vacuumed, which lifts the Fairlands Valley mud and the winter's salt tide marks out of the fabric instead of flattening them into it. Leather is cleaned and fed. The plastics on the dash, the doors and the centre console are cleaned and dressed back to a matt finish, not a shine. The door shuts, the boot lip, the fuel flap and the seat runners, the places that tell a buyer whether a car has been cared for, are done. The inside glass is finished so the low winter sun on the A1(M) stops being a problem.

Where it happens in Stevenage

Nearly half of Stevenage's homes are terraced, and a lot of its cars live in the Radburn garage courts behind them or in the parking squares of Bedwell and Broadwater. A Super Valet needs room for every door to open and the washer brings water and power, so a court bay works as well as a Great Ashby drive. The one place it cannot happen is the verge, which the borough now fines in most of the New Town neighbourhoods; your own space is the space.

When to book it

April, September, and the week before the lights

Hertfordshire's winter service launched on 1 October and runs to the end of April, so the two Super Valets follow it. The spring one goes in the first dry fortnight after the gritters stop, when the wax goes onto paint that has just lost its salt and the carpets lose their tide marks before they set. The autumn one goes in September, before the clocks go back, while a half day still fits in daylight; after the change, the 10am window is the one to take, and the washer starts with the outside while the light is good.

This year has a third date. 2026 is Stevenage 80, and the New Town lights go on at the Island on 21 November with the Old Town's at the Bowling Green on 28 November, which is the fortnight when relatives start arriving and the car gets seen. A Super Valet in the week before is the car ready for December. For a car that has gone more than a year without any care, the Deep Clean is the right first booking, and the Super Valet becomes the habit afterwards.

The cars that book it in Stevenage

The 2021 Census found 38 percent of Stevenage households with two or more cars, and the second car is usually the one that needs this: the family car that does the school run, the woods and the Saturday sport while the first car does the station. Both can go on one booking.

• The family estate in Shephall: Super Valet in April, the winter out of the carpets, and again in September.
• The car that lives under a maple in a Pin Green court: the autumn Super Valet first, for the wax before the honeydew and the salt.
• A Great Ashby SUV on a lease: twice a year, with the dated photographs kept for the hand back.
• A car going on sale: the Super Valet the week before the photographs, because a restored interior sells a car.
• A car that has gone a year without care: the Deep Clean first, then the Super Valet as the habit.

More on this: the deep clean explained and every Stevenage neighbourhood we cover.