The Demo Site

Among all of the aftermarket parts and electronics at SEMA, there were plenty of new car care products on display. It's easy to walk by them in the same way you would at the local auto parts store since most of them look the same, and as far as most of us are concerned, produce the same results. Most of them make ridiculous claims and come in ridiculous packaging.

But there are some car care products which yield better-than-expected results, or are easier to use than others. In the case of our 2008 Best New Car Care Product winner, it's both:

Vulcanet's motto is "Wash Without Water" - and that's precisely what it does. It comes in a large white cylinder and contains 80 wet wipes which will do 8-10 complete washes.

I used Vulcanet on my very dirty Nissan 300ZX, and was shocked at the results. This stuff really works! The package contains the wipes and a microfiber cloth. After rubbing down a part of the car with a wipe, simply wipe the car off with the cloth and it's clean! Like, really clean.

Each wash takes around 8-10 wipes (mine took 8,) and it cleans the body, plastic, glass, wheels (chrome, steel and aluminum,) headlights - all of it. Even takes off bug guts easily, and cleaned much better than any regular car wash I've been to. It does the interior as well - vinyl, plastic, glass, but don't put it on your leather.

My only beef with it? It has a very strong alcohol smell, which also means it's very flammable, so no smoking while cleaning. I could also see the wipes drying out quickly if left in a dry area, so be sure to close the container completely and keep indoors.

Vulcanet has been selling in Europe for some time now, and is only becoming available in the States now thanks to a distributor in Las Vegas. The product isn't for sale here yet, but expect it to cost about $40 per bottle once it finds its way to your local auto parts store shelves. Expensive, but consider how expensive 10 good car washes would be.

I don't know how they did it, but Vulcanet has figured out the secret formula for car care.