Yeah, hand held devices just don't have the power. I generally comandeer the household vac when a new one is bought, assuming you have the driveway and power to run a mains cleaner.

Or, have a look on Ebay for a second hand vac. Do a local search so you can collect.

If you're want to wet clean the carpets or upholstery, I can highly recommend this from Tesco:

www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=250393...8

You need a cylinder machine on wheels with a long hose and a flat, narrow crevice tool. Hard wired has far more suck.

My long experience of vacuuming cars is that a stiff brush used at the same time as the vacuum, releases far more dust and dirt. The best is a plastic, short bristled, floor brush without the handle.

Spot on, HB, on all counts. No vacuum cleaner can do enough to shift sand and dust from a car carpet without manual help from a scrubbing brush.

Like corax I have a B and D mains powered handheld. It is easily powerful enough and has all the tools. When you switch it on the torque of the motor makes the unit twist in your hand, a bit like my dad's Rover 3500 many moons ago when you blipped the throttle.

Good point about the fitted mats. I've usually gone for some generic carpet or rubber mats but the muck just spills beyond them, so have invested in some tailor made to fit ones for my car (ironically cheaper from Peuegot dealers than on Ebay!)

And they fit the entire footwell, so they can just be taken out and hoovered in the house rather than taking the hoover to the car.