Claudia keeps it clean

For most people it is a simple - and, one hopes, cheap - job. When the car is dirty, you take it to the automatic car wash and hope your windscreen wipers do not get mangled; or for a couple of pounds extra, get it done by hand.

But it's a different story for supermodel Claudia Schiffer. When her £70,000 Range Rover starts getting a little grubby - about every two weeks - she gets a couple of men to come from Hertfordshire in a hi-tech van to spend two hours outside her home in Bayswater soaping, rinsing, polishing and shampooing the car and then painting the tyres black.

The job is so thorough, the car even gets disinfected.

While most people would not think of paying more than £10 to have the car cleaned, Schiffer pays £120 for the fortnightly wash and brush-up - a total of £3,000 a year.

But she can probably afford it. Her husband Matthew Vaughn is the producer behind Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and Schiffer amassed more last year than any other supermodel (she is worth some £40 million).

Vaughn's friend Guy Ritchie and his wife Madonna were once photographed cleaning their car themselves - but

Vaughn and Schiffer do have an 18-month son, Caspar, and are expecting another child at the end of the year.

The men from Lellers Car Valet service were at work on the Range Rover yesterday.

Lellers promises to steam-clean the engine, treat the windows to "restore optical quality", clean and soften the interior leather upholstery with a glycerine-based cleaner, vacuum and shampoo carpets and upholstery, repair scratches to the paintwork and remove tar, buff chrome fixtures and use an air freshener.

A source at Lellers said: "Claudia is a regular client. Her secretary will book in the car the day before she arrives in town for an external wash and internal valet.

"We cater for the top end of the market and clean the cars of a number of highprofile individuals. Agreed, our prices are high, but the service is second to none."

The firm is used extensively by celebrities. It valets Victoria and David Beckham's fleet, Rod Stewart's supercars, Chris Eubank's £100,000 Hummer offroader, Simon Cowell's black Ferrari, Kylie Minogue's Mercedes and Gillian Taylforth's Range Rover.

The source added: "We have a policy of complete discretion and that's why celebrities know they can use us.