Tested: Best Car Scratch Removers

Uh-oh. If you’re here, you’ve probably discovered an irritating scratch on your vehicle. Perhaps it came from a rebellious shopping cart, a bike in the garage, or a tree branch that reached out just a bit too far. Have no fear! This doesn’t necessarily mean an expensive trip to the body shop—there are over-the-counter scratch removers you can buy for cheap.

One day Car and Driver‘s 2022 Ram 1500 TRX long-term test vehicle returned from an off-road escapade with a (thankfully) light scratch that stretched along the entire passenger’s side, all due to a pesky bit of foliage. The Gear Team was summoned, and we decided to perform a side-by-side comparison test of some popular car scratch removers. Here’s how they fared.

Our Top Picks

Will these products take out all scratches?

No. These scratch-remover products are designed to mend light, minor scratches. These typically occur when the clear coat is damaged, leaving a faint scratch. If a scratch is too deep, particularly down to the bare metal, it’ll likely require a professional fix. One easy way to determine this is to run your fingernail across the scratch—if your nail gets hung up in the valley of the scratch, these products likely won’t take care of the problem.

A scratch remover uses extremely fine abrasives to smooth the jagged edges of a scratch, then blends the clear coat together to fill the valley until the scratch is no longer visible. Some heavier-duty scratch removers will actually get down into the primer coat and meld the paint back together. For our test, we avoided scratch removers that come with paint correction for two reasons: The Ram TRX is a loaner vehicle, and we wanted to keep the test as simple as possible.

To determine which car scratch remover was the best, we taped off seven even sections of the scratch on the TRX. We then rubbed in the various compounds, with even pressure, for 30 seconds each. Most of the removers just required rubbing in the compound with a microfiber cloth, while others featured a few extra steps. After testing, we present the best car scratch removers for your vehicle.

Tested: Best Car Vacuums for 2022