What’s the first thing you notice when you step inside a car? Some folks look at the seats. Others will set their eyes on the carpet or the far side of the dashboard. For me… it’s smell. I swear at times I can actually tell what auction a car came from given the smell on the inside. Brands also give forth their own odorous emanations. Fur starters . . .
The Brits are the best. Leather as rich and distinctive as a well oiled saddle. It’s hard not to appreciate the intent of quality with the smell alone. Of course they now have other nationalities to help them on all the other sides of the equation (thank God) but we do have to give credit where it’s due. Koreans . . . stunk. Until recently, every Korean car I walked into had that smell of plastics that needed more time to fully ferment. 100k later the smell would still be there. Blech!!!
I’m sure some would confuse that smell with quality and a well held together machine. If that was intentional for the long run, kudos to the Koreans. They smelled their way into people’s hearts.
Today’s Rooney-esque question, “What else has your noses noticed?”
They built a new YMCA in town and the stairwells smell like new Volkswagen.
I notice a difference between cars owned by singles vs. cars owned by married people with children. Cars of singles don’t smell like Happy Meals.
Volkswagens smell like crayons (most European cars do tend to have a bit of crayon smell but it’s strongest in VWs.)
Chryslers in the past 10 years smelled like cigarette smoke- they just had the rental car smell built in and stays with it throughout its life. This isn’t true of the mid-90’s Chryslers- they actually were fairly pleasant.
Hondas have always had this really distinctive smell- they still do to this day too which is odd, and it sticks with the car throughout its life.
Nissans have a very strong new car “gunmetal and tennis ball” smell. Fords tend to smell similar too, but to a lesser extent. These smells tend to dissipate within a few years of car ownership.
Toyotas have always had this stench too- like dirty socks or diapers. It’s very very very subtle, but it’s amplified if anything rancid is left in the car (to really get a feel for it, go in a Previa where a toddler has thrown a fit.)
Subarus tend to smell like grocery bags. Totally unsurprising.
GM products tend to smell okay but then smell like “dirt” after a few years. It’s a weak enough scent so that any conditioner you put on the leather or shampoo on the carpet will completely overpower it. Then again, all of my GM products after a few years began smelling like their problems (coolant leaks, etc.)
Sort of an aside, but I hate when I look at a car and it has either one of those “tree” air fresheners, or has been gone over with Febreze. I’m allergic to a lot of perfumes, and those two products are murder for me!
I love the leather smell in the car. One of the best-smelling leather upholstered cars I ever owned was a Citroen SM; it was about the only positive thing on that car! The leather in the XJS I once owned was great too, after being thoroughly cleaned. My GTO has a good leather smell too, and using a high-quality restoration cleaning/protectant on it makes all the difference.
Oh, my Prius smelled like cow dung from day one. It’s just one of the reasons I got rid of it.
I have to agree that Rolls and Jags have the very best leather smell of all. Why no one else can duplicate it astounds me.
I notice the shifter first. That is what I look at. Maybe I’m weird ? :) I like to see right away if it’s stick or not.
@Uncle Pete
Every Prius I’ve ever been in stinks of cow dung, too. Ditto every current gen Camry I’ve ever been in. It’s weird.
I’ve had several Hondas over the years that always had a distinctive smell I could never put my finger on. It wasn’t unpleasant, in fact it was kind of a calming odor. Ditto the VWs I’ve owned. I don’t get the crayon vibe exactly, but it’s a pretty close analogy.
Volvos always smell of wool blankets and leather, sort of a horsey smell. BMWs fall into the same category.
Most other modern cars in my experience just have a generic “plasticy” smell.
Old British and Italian cars smell like heaven – a mix of good leather, oil and fun.
The first thing i notice is the steering wheel. If i hate the design, it doesn’t matter how much i like the rest of the car, i wont buy it. The smell is the second thing i notice. I won’t buy a Korean car because of the smell. Well that and several other reasons.
when i first get in i stab all the plastics with my finger to see what’s hard and what’s soft
that’s after opening and closing the door several times to see what it sounds/feels like.
the old saab 9-5’s smell really odd, definitely like crayons as mentioned above
Worst smell ever? Brand new E-class in the showroom, about 5 years ago. It was a putrid petroleum stench that was eye watering as soon as you opened the door. Something along the lines of cheap leatherette, fermented inside a hermetically sealed interior. I was so surprised I pointed it out to the salesperson, who didn’t respond. He probably had to deal with similar comments all the time. As far as I know, it had a leather interior – I’m pretty sure it wasn’t MBTEX (I’ve never smelled that coming from Mercedes’ superlative depleted-uranium-strength vinyl).
Oddest smell was a cigar-permeated Subaru Outback. Cigars smell nice, but not when the smoke stagnates in the leather. It wasn’t like cigarette smell, it was something unique and not at all pleasant.
Most neutral smell – my old Q45. I smoke cigarettes. I smoke cigars. I rarely clean the carpets and give the leather a wipe maybe once a month. And yet, as long as I don’t leave butts in the ashtray, it magically eradicates the smell of smoke after a day or two. I’ve never encountered a car that could do that.
Don’t like the smell? The New ones are over there.
best. Leather as rich and distinctive as a well oiled saddle.
As some here know, I do embroidery for a living. I source my varsity jackets and other leather apparel at Reed Sportswear in Detroit. Best smelling factory I’ve ever been in, and they make really high quality goods (disclaimer: the Reeds and Silvers are old family friends). When I’m embroidering leather, my shop smells great.
Best smelling job I had was working in Eden Natural Food’s warehouse.
Just be glad we’re past the bad old days of open warfare between UAW workers and shop floor mgmt in the 1970s. People would complain of bad odors in their cars and the dealer techs would remove interior panels looking for the human turds stashed inside the car by line workers.
I have noticed that some car HVAC systems grow mildew.
Oh, and how come wet lumber smells like dog shit?
I attend college full-time and valet park at a saks fifth avenue store. Needless to say I experience plenty of cars, and maybe it’s just me but I always find that older vw’s and some mercedes smell like crayons.
Korean cars smell so toxic. I’m afraid I’ll get cancer or something after visiting my last Hyundai dealership.
Smoker cars are obvious but also the fast foot machines. French fries down the seats, big mac wrappers in the back.
Cars owned by some women stick of too much perfume. Anyone who takes a perfume bath should take a regular one once in a while.
Do they make that Air Freshner Costume in Adult Sizes? If so, where…I must have one…!
Interesting. I equate smell with the general hygiene of the interior. There’s no missing the fallout from discarded Burger King/McDonald’s wrappers. Or ciggies. Or the occasional doob legacy. Some of the perfume-y smells that ladies install are, er, unique. When I purchased my latest pre-owned Crown Vic it had had the interior seating surfaces shampooed by the dealer (Thanks Cricket Manderbach at Manderbach Ford!) and that smell stuck around for well over a month. Wasn’t bad, actually.
The first thing I always pick apart in the interior of any car is the instrumentation. Or lack thereof, depending on the cheapness of the manufacturer. I blame one very long year of instrument systems school and three years of humping the flight line being a 325X1 Avionics Instrument Systems Specialist in the Air Farce for my affliction.
In regards to the Honda smell, I find it doesn’t apply to the ’08+ Accords. Civics and Fits and Insights still smell like Hondas but the Accords just smell like new cardboard or something. I find it kind of startling every time I get in one.
The day I brought home my then-new Honda CBR motorcycle I parked it in the garage and I swear to god it smelled like Honda new car smell. I was sitting on it and the warm air coming off of the thing smelled like the inside of a Civic. I thought it was just my imagination until a friend sat on it and said “hey this smells like a Honda!” Weird.
@B10er: Do they make that Air Freshner Costume in Adult Sizes? If so, where…I must have one…!
They do, indeed. Go to eBay and look for item number 390102594520.
Why does cauliflower smell like wet dogs?
They need to invent a car that smells like the skin of the lapdancers at the old Runway 66. They’d sell them all day long.
I hate air fresheners is cars. You name it: tree, glade, the round one on A/C regulators. They just make me allergic.
One of the first things I touch in a car is the dashboard. In fact I knock it to see if its hard plastic or soft. I hate the hard plastic ones.
Instruments are also something I see. In SUVs, trucks and sport cars I like to see full instrumentation. When I saw the new Cherokee here (Liberty there) and found only 4 gauges I was dissapointed.
For new car smell… I already forgot how our cars smell. Got used to it.
A few summers ago I stuck my head into the open window of a 1946 Ford coupe, and was immediately brought back to my youth when I had a 1946 4-door and a 1947 2-door sedan. The combination of the cloth upholstery and rubber window moldings smelled exactly the same.
I had one 1957 Plymouth that had been the car of a heavy smoker. Oh, what a job cleaning that interior! The water came away brown rather than gray as usual when cleaning a dirty interior.
My 1960 220S sedan had something in the interior that would coat the insides of the windows and windshield with some organic grime that was very difficult to get off. This could happen in a day if the car was parked in the sun with the windows closed. No other Mercedes owners I talked to had this problem; it must have been some “protectant” or wax or cleaner that a former owner had used.
I haven’t bought a used vehicle in years, but if I were to do so I’d check the smell for signs of a smoker. I’m allergic to something in tobacco smoke and most air fresheners, so it’s a lose-lose one for me if a vehicle’s been smoked in.
None of the following are dealbreakers for me, but I also tend to check out the location of gas filler (perfer driver’s side) and the presence of an auxillary input on the radio…er, “sound system” (should be standard on all vehicles today, IMO). After an experience owning a Jeep Liberty I should check for sharp plastic edges on the interior and cargo area bits, but somehow don’t; I sliced my finger open more than a few times while cleaning the Jeep, which may have been an unconscious factor in my decision to dump it after a year of ownership.
Those of us who live in the Pacific Northwest are familiar with the mildewy smell of an old car that’s lived outside all its life. With life there are always tradeoffs; cars here are seldom sunburned, and not many places salt the roads so body rust is usually not so much of a problem, but problems associated with dampness and water getting where it doesn’t belong do arise.
Often you don’t need to see the water stains on the headliner around the rear window or on rear door upholstery to know that a car has leaked…it’s difficult to get rid of the smell that will invariably accompany these symptoms. And, if you are looking at an A-body Mopar car, there is about a 70% chance that water leaks into it through the windshield wiper pivots. Even otherwise rust-free cars are subject to front floor rust for this reason.
Re: British leather –
It’s the smell of a thick coating of Connolly hide. Why can’t you get that smell elsewhere? Cause most carmakers outside of Jag/Bentley/Rolls didn’t/don’t bother getting the good stuff.
Honestly, the leather they use in German and Japanese cars might as well be vinyl. It has the same texture and hardness, sometimes a worse smell, but doesn’t last as long. The W140 S-Class was the last German car I recall having leather that screamed quality.
I like the smell of fine, soft leather (not the Ford type which may as well be vinyl), but I hate it when the car gets older and the smell changes to something I do not know what.
I would buy cars with REAL fabric seats if it were still available (I am talking about luxury cars), but unfortunately the only options are leather or some obnoxious plastic that smells. I am very senstive to smell, and that is one of the first things I notice.
Cars where people eat in them smell. Since when did our cars become lunch rooms?
One of the nice things I noticed about my BMW was that it didn’t have a lot of “new car smell”…which dissipated pretty quickly. Compared to a Jeep I once owned, which outgassed for a very long time and gunked the windshield.
mhadi, I do have actual cloth seats. You can still get them in BMW but you have to special order the car. Six years on they still look great and the cloth is way more indestructible than the 2500$ leather or the “free” naugahyde.
You know what really stinks? All weather mats. You’ve got to give them a good scrubbing before you put new ones in cars. I always tell people this.
Never buy a used pickup with cloth seats from a Septic Tank cleaning company.
Ever.
What were they thinking?
What was I Thinking?