New car smell

[Bren]

No , I hav'nt sold out and got one on 0% - I was wondering about the smell you get with a new car.

 

I take it is a combination of the materials and the stuff used to clean the car when new.

 

I know the smell does'nt seem to last, but I always think that my mother in law's F plate granada still has the smell of a new car - it's not just me, other people have made the same observation.

 

Any body else's chod still smell new?

[Pillock]

I distinctly remember the smell of late 80s Fords. We had a Mk4 Escort, my uncle had a Sierra Sapphire and I also remember a Mk2 Fiesta hire car around the same time. All smelt identical, and I'm not sure that other cars were the same.

 

I figure it must be the foam and glue in the upholstery because fast-forward many years and we changed couriers at work to DPD, who used to supply their own pink boxes to put laptops in. We had them kitted out with shaped foam inside - just foam bars glued into a certain shape - and it smelt identical. They say that the smell memory is one of the most powerful, well I was whisked back to Feb 13th 1988 the first time I opened one of those DPD boxes, sat in the back seat of E881HLU for the first time.

[Junkman]

How about the old car smell?

It should be sold in aerosol tins so you can get rid of the new car smell quicker.

[HMC]

I think it must have something to do with the glues etc curing.

 

Showing early signs of autoshiteism, as a kid the new car smell in the family escort mk3 used to make me feel car sick!

 

Confession: I sometimes go out to the garage just to sniff the jag interior

[Guest Tony Hayers]

I can still hear my father cry 'Tony, shut the door! Must keep the smell in for as long as possible'

[fordperv]

I love the Smell of 80s Ford's

[brickwall]

It's a whole bunch of chemicals and I'm led to believe some governments  say it is hazardous.  Basically it's fumes of all the man made stuff contacting and off gassing. Paints, anti rust gunk and oils are included too!

[twosmoke300]

Most of my cars smell of welding fumes and Shultz

[Timewaster]

Even at 46 years old, my Spitfire still has a whiff of old Leylands on a warm day.

[gary_davidson]

my car is only 4 1/2 years old, new car smell has been replaced by child sick smell

[mercrocker]

i wouldnt know what a new car smells like but I cannot imagine liking it very much.    Last new car that I enjoyed the smell of was Grandad's P6.  I have of course been in new stuff since then but mostly company chod like RWD Cavs and Fiat 131s (you can see how long ago that was...).   I can't remember them very much in the olfactory sense.  Here is a rundown (if anybody is interested!) of what my current fleet smells of -

 

Merc 190E - like a tarts boudoir, not because Mrs R. drives it but its just had its annual poke around at the local MB specialist and they valet it with presumably the contents of a whore's make-up bag. 

 

VW T25 camper- tends to smell of a kebab van mixed with slightly damp towels.  I am not proud of that but its homely...

 

Minor - usually smells of hot rust inhibitor but is disappointingly short of old car smell despite being lined with underfelt from scrapped Farinas.

 

Farina itself smells bloody lovely.  Every time I come back from running it up I can smell it on my clothes like waking up after a hot night with some married bird.  It doesnt smell like that, but lingers just the same!   Horse-hair, damp carpets, animal glue and weepy heater hose (hmm maybe that is somebodys wife I remember)

 

The Cowley also smells fantastic but in a different way.  The closest I can get to is how Beaulieu Motor Museum used to smell in the cedar shed era - sunwarmed metal, decaying rubber and hot oil.   It is absolutely unique to this type of Morris - I even smelt one out in a locked garage one day. 

 

One of my first cars was a Kestrel-engined Mk 1 Mini that had a stick on air freshener under the rear seat squab - WTF?   I have no idea what it smelled of but now and again I get a whiff of something similar and I am instantly back in 1978 and can almost hear The Stranglers backed by a Peco big bore....

[DSdriver]

Old cars have their own particular smell as well. A young lady got into the Safari and said "ooh, I love the old car smell"

Probably a  combination of rotting foam rubber and Jersey trim mixed with a healthy dose of LHM underseal. 

The smell of new cars is I think mainly the gases given off by the plastics as they age, it usually forms a residue all over the inside of the windscreen which is a bugger to shift.

[TimothyClaypole]

My Astra smelled of damp so a small blessing that it's knackered. 

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I love the Smell of 80s Ford's

 

Me too. They kept it through to the mid 90s at least. I'll never need a time machine to revisit my youth as long as there are 80s and 90s Fords with sun baked interiors. 

[Pillock]

Aah yeah my mum's Mk4 Escort Dash had the same smell. That was 92.

[Barry Cade]

Old cars have their own particular smell as well. A young lady got into the Safari and said "ooh, I love the old car smell"

Probably a  combination of rotting foam rubber and Jersey trim mixed with a healthy dose of LHM underseal. 

The smell of new cars is I think mainly the gases given off by the plastics as they age, it usually forms a residue all over the inside of the windscreen which is a bugger to shift.

Was just going to mention the residue on the glass, the Volvo keeps getting the number 6 on the screen when it starts to mist too-even though it's been cleaned weekly. Its now nearly 5 months old, and had very little new car smell at all. All new cars are shite and don't smell.

[Stanky]

I spilled some diesel in the back of my car the other day. combined with the '4 for 99p' lemon air freshener which smells exactly like washing up liquid makes for a fairly unpleasant driving experience currently...

[Station]

I reckon it's the same why the inside of cupboard always smells of wood, etc. It's enclosed to keeps the smell of the particles slowly evaporating from the plastic.

 

mk3 Cavaliers always smell the same!

[bub2006]

W plate escort,w plate Mondeo and the current 51 plate fiesta all have had the same smell asmy uncles g plate orion Ghia used to. Hard to say what it is. My reliant had a air of damp and cheap air freshener. Best smell from the reliant was the non cat carbed engine on a cold morning while i was scraping ice off with a Paul young cassette

[cobblers]

You can definitely tell an old car from the smell inside, maybe not a new one. MK2 golfs always smell damp, sweaty and like theres a bit of weed hidden somewhere, but not much. Mk4 escorts smell sweet, damp and like theres a bit of weed somewhere. Mk4 RS turbos smell damp, new car magic tree and like theres a lot of weed somewhere.

[Barry Cade]

I'm going to put a smell in your head- 100 Bonus shite points if you post a selfie of the face you pull whilst being taken back in time.

 

 

1970's Sprite Caravan.

 

 

3,2,1 :GO!

[overrun]

I used to carefully* drive new motors onto huge ships. The 'new car' smell that best relates to these was a honking, sickly rubber and plastic. Mostly from weather strips and dash/seat protection.

 

That aside, my favourite car air freshener as always been the blue Magic Tree.

 

90's Fords always smelled the same and still do, even now: Velour overload

[vulgalour]

My old car smells of disappointment, comfort and middle class ennui.

[CortinaDave]

When I bought my cortina 2.0S it had 37k on the clock and a definite new car smell.

 

It had lasted 26 years but only one day in my custody

 

I picked my then girlfriend up in it the next day from a night out and she barfed in it.

 

I've scrubbed it many times since then but that smell of chunder still wafts by me every so often when I drive it, I think some must have got in the heater vents.

[Jim Bergerac]

Me too. They kept it through to the mid 90s at least. I'll never need a time machine to revisit my youth as long as there are 80s and 90s Fords with sun baked interiors. 

 

Aye, they definitely had a distinctive smell. I've also always thought that mid-nineties Vauxhalls had a recognisable scent to them.

[pshome]

Keep that smell forver....

 

[Ratdat]

^ Those blue magic trees are one of the few air freshners I actually don't mind. They smell nothing like a new car though.

[wackywacerwill]

Damp and burnt veg oil is my new car scent. I use a combination of amber leaf, arse gas and the previous owners bottle of aftershave to combat this though none of them are particularly effective.

[Partridge]

I'm not a fan of air fresheners. Remember those yellow smiley faces Halfords used to give away? They were the worse of the worse. A glorious infusion of bleach and cat piss.

 

But as for the new car smell, I often use a 2002 Disco which still smells new despite being smoked in, bacon sandwiched in, and Red Bull can a la Basil Fawlty's fire extinguisher-ed in. Give it a good clean, and the new car smell comes back.

[brickwall]

My Astra smelled of damp so a small blessing that it's knackered. 

 

 

Same here. It's quite pleasant, though.