How To Clean Prius Seats

I recently bought a 2004 Prius, Black exterior, tan cloth interior. It is in pretty good shape inside and out, but there is some dirty areas on the interior (both driver's side armrests, and a few spots on the front seats)- what would be the best way to clean the dirty areas without making them look worse? I would just shampoo/steam clean it, which I have done with every other vehicle I've owned, but being such a light color, I wouldn't want to pull dirt out of the padding and make the seats look dirtier. I've also noticed the material has a temdency to water spot (couple places it got wet from rain or snow) and I don't know if cleaning will help or just water spot it worse. I could use a foaming upholstery cleaner, which wouldn't saturate the material, so no pulling dirt from behind, but the residue might attract dirt. Just wondering what my best plan of action is, and how to go about it. The interior is NOT filthy, just normal wear and tear type dirt. I always keep my vehicles spotlessly clean, so the little amount of dirt is becoming annoying. Any advice is appreciated!
Get a spray upholstery cleaner, not a foam based one. Spray it on the soiled armrest and use a clean wash cloth and wipe a couple times. Spray again and repeat with another "clean" spot on the wash cloth. Do this several times until you see the area look cleaner and little dirt/soil is lifted onto the clean towel.
I've done this quite a few times with great success. The area will look slightly dirty until it's dried. Let it dry for 1 day and you'll see a big difference. You can repeat the process after it has fully dried (so you can tell if it's actually clean or just a wet spot).

You want to test a single area and see the results. Then you can continue onto other spots if you like it, or not do it anymore if it turns out not the way you want.
Do you have a particular brand that you could recommend?
I use a cheap one from the local store, this one is very effective. I think any national brand cleaner will work.

SM-N900P ?
Joined:

Apr 30, 2016

25

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Location:

Texas

Vehicle:

2011 Prius

Model:

Two

Thank you for the pointers. I recently got a 2007 Prius, Driftwood Pearl (Tan) with Tan interiors and there a few spots that could use some good cleaning. I tried a stiff brush and shop-vac with little success, but was hesitant to use any liquids (worried I might make it worse).
Will follow your advice and try it on a small spot first before I go all out.
I finally got around to cleaning mine today, I realized we have a couple bottles of carpet/upholstery spot remover sitting around (they come free with the carpet shampoo we buy from Sam's club) So I decided to try it out. It's not a foaming cleaner, but it seemed to work great- I started with the center console, sprayed it on and rubbed with a clean dry white rag (an old raggy bath towel that has moved from the spare bathroom to cleaning rag duty) and it came out great- did it a couple times and moved on to the door armrests and a couple spots on the front passenger seat.. All left to dry and came out beautifully clean and soft. Also soaked and scrubbed my front floor mats, they came out like new as well. So it's looking great and I need to move on to the outside now.