A leading car dealer in the U.K. has conducted an experiment to find out which part of the car interior are covered with germs.
Auto retailer Motorpoint took swab samples from 20 different areas in a car that people regularly come into contact with.
The results revealed that the most contaminated areas are the boot of the car followed by the driver footwell.
The parts that were least covered with germs were the steering wheel despite being the most used part of the car, followed by the rear-view mirror and the gear stick.
The test was carried out on a borrowed car that was used by the owner on a daily basis. Motorpoint found that the boot had collected a large amount of bacteria and germs because the car owner regularly transported two pet dogs.
Other germ-riddled parts of the car were the seatbelt button and the handbrake. The results also found that there was an accumulation of mould on the cup holder, inside door handle and radio volume button of the vehicle.
Motorpoint said cars should be regularly cleaned inside and out as they can become a breeding ground for bacteria.
"The results were quite revealing and showed that maybe we need to clean our cars a little more often that we currently think is acceptable," Alison Weatherley, head of marketing at Motorpoint, said, as reported by the Daily Mail.
"Many drivers eat or drink in their vehicle, as well as chauffeuring young children or pets, and these can also have an impact on dirtiness in cars. To avoid excessive grubbiness, we recommend that people action regular car cleaning - both inside and out!" she added.
In a survey of 1,050 drivers, the auto retailer found that Britons on average clean the outside of their car eight times a year and the inside 9.6 times a year.
Eighteen percent of drivers clean the inside of their car three times a year or less while nine percent clean the interior only two times each year.
The poll also found that men are more likely to focus on making the exterior of their vehicle shiny and sleek, while women are less inclined to get in a car with a grubby interior.
As many as 94 percent of drivers in the U.K. said they had consumed food or beverages inside their car, while 58 percent had transported pets.
