The tenacious ability of car carpeting to retain its grip on hair, grit and other unpleasant particles is a cause of no little anguish to those who favour a cleaner cockpit. Indeed, compared with all that messing about with buckets, hoses, potions and lotions we do to keep the outsides of our cars looking good keeping it hygienic inside is a somewhat more challenging task.
Which is a pity, given that's the bit you actually have to sit in and interact with.
The Animal vs real animals - ultimate test beckons
If you favour a builder's van aesthetic to your cabin stop reading now but if you're of a slightly more OCD bent Dyson's latest little cordless vacuum cleaner might be worth adding to your Christmas list.
We were politely baffled when asked if we wanted to test the DC58 Animal out. OK, it's got a 'V6' motor and various other exciting sounding tech (for a hoover) you can read about here. But while the world of PH is pretty all encompassing branching out into product tests of domestic appliances is something new.
Still, seeing as they were kind enough to send us one... A claimed three times the suction power of any other cordless cleaner and a McLaren P1 style 'push to pass' power button (cuts battery life from 20 minutes to just six) for really stubborn dirt has shown impressive results and the PH fleet has benefitted considerably. Never have our footwells been so clean!
The motorised brush wins the fight against those tricky carpets but is a bit harsh to use on fragile leather, plastics and other scratchable surfaces so watch yourself there. Whether it'd be enough to win the fight over the Harris family hound remains to be seen - a test to work up to perhaps.
By now you may well be thinking 'great, sign me up!' And then you reach the bottom line. What price in-car cleanliness? Er, £229.99. One for the true obsessives then. But pretty nifty all the same.