Car interior cleaning across West London and Heathrow

Four corridors

What the M4, the A40, the Met line and the river leave inside a car

The M4 corridor: Hounslow, Feltham, Southall, Slough

These are the airport's cars. Heathrow is the largest employer in Feltham and Hounslow and a fair part of Southall and Slough, and a car that does the four in the morning run collects a week's breakfasts, a cup holder of cold coffee, receipts in every pocket and a film on the inside of the glass from heated breath on cold starts. Southall adds the Broadway's shopping to the boot. The Deluxe Interior every couple of months, with the inside glass finished, and because the clean needs nobody in the car once it is unlocked, it fits the morning after a night shift.

The A40: Ealing, Hanwell, Greenford, Northolt

Family cars. Ealing's school gates, Lammas Park and the Common, Greenford's Horsenden Hill with the dog, Northolt's playing fields: all of it comes home in the footwells and the boot, and the Western Avenue's brake dust settles on the dash where it only shows in low winter sun. The Full Interior Detail in September, after the summer, with the hair lifted properly and the boot carpet shampooed; the Essential Interior between for the quick tidy.

The Metropolitan line: Harrow

Commuter cars. They do the station car park in the dark, the Hill's school traffic and the weekend supermarket, and they carry a working week: newspapers, gym kit, a child seat that has not been lifted since the spring. The Deluxe Interior as a habit, the Full Interior Detail the week before a lease car goes back.

The river: Staines, Twickenham, Sunbury

Damp cars. A car that lives between the Thames and the Colne, or on the Twickenham riverside, fogs its glass every winter morning and by February smells faintly of the river. Steam lifts the damp out of the fabric rather than perfuming it; the protectant slows it returning. A morning window, so the carpets dry through the afternoon.

When

Salt from mid November, sand from June, shifts all year

Hounslow Highways' gritters go out from mid November, Bath Road and Staines Road first, and Ealing, Harrow and Spelthorne salt their main roads with them. The salt walks into every car in the west on wet shoes and dries into pale tide marks on the mats, which a vacuum spreads and a shampoo lifts, so April is the first Full Interior Detail. September is the second, after the Thames beach at Staines and the parks have filled the carpets with sand and grass. The airport's shifts do not follow a season, so the Deluxe Interior on the M4 corridor is simply every couple of months.

The clocks went back on 25 October; the inside of a car does not need daylight, but shampooed carpets dry faster in a morning window. Rain is no reason to rebook. A car that has gone a year without care, with food, sand and dog in it, starts with the Deep Clean, which takes two slots. A car about to go back to a lease company belongs on the end of lease page, where the inside is half the inspection.

Cabins we see across the west

• Night shift car in Feltham: Deluxe Interior the morning after, glass done, driver asleep.
• Southall car after a year of the Broadway: Full Interior Detail, boot carpet shampooed, seat gaps cleared.
• Ealing school run SUV in September: Full Interior Detail, the summer out of the carpets.
• Greenford dog's estate car: Full Interior Detail, hair lifted properly, protectant on the boot.
• Harrow commuter's lease car with a year left: Full Interior Detail now, so the hand back is a formality.
• Staines car that fogs up every morning: Full Interior Detail with steam, morning window.

More on this: interior cleaning in Hillingdon and the interior deep clean explained.