Our Two Cents: Least Favorite Automotive Smells
A promise was made in our last installment of Our Two Cents, and today that promise is kept. It’s only natural to ponder the worst automotive smells after discussing the ones that most satisfy your nose. Sometimes you gotta take the bad with good, as cars are always a mixed blessing. It’s the contrast between the sweet aroma of certain gasolines and putrid 90-weight gear oil. Or the smell of a new car with a cheap interior versus one with really expensive bits and decadent leather trimmings.
So that’s how we kicked the question back to the staff here at Hagerty Media. Let’s see what are their least favorite automotive smells!
Interiors
“The VW Jetta (Mk IV) crayon smell in the interior: GROSS! Why? Because it’s just that unpleasant!” – Matt Tuccillo
“For me it was toxic new Hyundai smell from the 1990s. I wanted to enjoy seeing South Korean cars getting better and better (looking at you, Hyundai Scoupe) firsthand, so I’d try to check them out at the annual auto show. It took serious commitment to do so, even with the windows down. ” – Sajeev Mehta
“Faux leather that hasn’t finished off-gassing, a smell we recently experienced in a press car. Come on now, go cow or go home!” – Grace Houghton
Critters
“The smell of mouse encampments in spring after you so diligently tried to prevent them the previous autumn.”- Eddy Eckart
“The easy answer here is ancient rear differential oil. And it’s not just the stink, it’s that it seemingly never goes away, especially on clothing. However, there is not a single thing on earth that smells worse than cleaning rotten animal guts off the underside of a vehicle.
Thankfully, I have only had to do this twice. To clarify, I was not the one who ran over the already very much deceased animal in the middle of the road, but when that vehicle comes home to park in my driveway, I am the one that had to clean it!” – Ben Woodworth
Rental Cars
“Diesel exhaust. And most rental cars.” – Cameron Neveu
“And the backseat of every Uber.” – Sajeev Mehta
“Hey Sajeev, are we graduating this from smells to stains?” – Matt Tuccillo
“Oops, my bad. Ubers are bad because of the stains paired with the masking smells of car air fresheners. You can see the sins but you can’t quite smell them anymore.” – Sajeev Mehta
“We once had a Camaro convertible rental car in Colorado for a Barn Find Hunter shoot many years ago. (I got a convertible to shoot video from while wandering through the mountains). Had the top down when we got it at the airport. We put the top up when we stopped for lunch in Denver since we had some camera gear in there.
An hour or so in the hot, Colorado sun left us a nice surprise when we returned to the car. The thing smelled like vomit. Like, so bad the whole car may as well have been filled with vomit. It was awful. We quickly removed our things (while holding our breath), called the rental agency and told them to bring us a new car.”- Ben Woodworth
Cigarette Smoke
“I was a kid who grew up riding in the back seats of cars driven by cigarette-smoking adults, and that nauseating smell is unshakable because not only is it in the upholstery and carpeting and headliner, it quickly gets in your clothes and hair. These days, any time I get into a car that has been smoked in (which is not often, thankfully) I try to breathe through my mouth to avoid it.” – Stefan Lombard
Grab Bag
“Fire, for obvious reasons.” – Andrew Newton
“What about the smell of, “Huh, I wonder what that smell is? It’s probably fine.” – Ben Woodworth
“Trapped farts.” – Molly Jean
Gear Oil
“The answer is, obviously, diff oil. Sweaty gym sock filled with goose droppings, left overnight in a neglected bathhouse. Gives me chills just thinking about it.” – Eric Weiner
“Differential oil. Look at a picture of an axle draining diff: Can you smell it? I bet you can. Cam’s entry of diesel exhaust is up there too. I’m talking like an old indirect injected machine, that smell just gets in your clothes and takes a while to come out. Or a coal rolling tune on a bro dozer pickup. . .no thanks.” – Greg Ingold
The old cooked varnished oil smell inside an old engine. Usually combined with sludge that seems to concentrate the smell. Not unrelated to gear oil, but different. Gear oil has the sulfur compounds that make the stink unique. Gear oil is probably worse, but already mentioned numerous times.
Another one is old moldy musty carpet and backing smell in an old car that has leaked water inside. Just get it all out of the car and throw away. No salvaging that once it has that moldy and musty smell.
Friend’s father gave him a fresh leg of lamb that he dutifully placed in the trunk for the ride home. It was promptly forgotten. He called me for suggestions.
The indescribable smell from that car has forever been burnt into my sinuses. Nothing removed it. Car was eventually sold to a scrap yard for parts.
I can’t decide between these first hand experiences: 1. Previous heavy smoker. 2. Seashells gathered at Sanibel Island and stuck in a box under the seat. Who knew they still had critters in them? 3. Wet dog on the seats. 4. “Little Tree” air fresheners on the mirror. 4. The spilled milk not wiped up. 5. Unique but horrible- a car with a noisy rear end. The owner admitted he had heard jamming bananas into the diff would quiet it, and it did. But the noise came back. And draining hypoid oil mixed with rotten bananas was just the worst.
I was a Subaru service manager in the mid Eighties. Know how most of us love that new car smell? Not in an 80’s Subie. Somehow Subaru managed to take that sublime scent, and turn it into something very close to rotting used diapers.
How about when a male cat gets into a car and leaves that odor that can only be gotten rid of by getting rid of the vehicle.
Classy guys, tomcats! Not a golden toilet, exactly, but my new interior…
Yes. NEVER park with your windows down. Crack them about 2” to keep the toms out.
One of the wonderful things about getting older is that our sense of smell diminishes, and we don’t even notice all the bad odors!
Don, that might be because of our own reeks? Ben Gay, CBD oil, and Old Spice! Wick, just turned 79… and showers A LOT! :-<)
I am there, and lost the smell of most things. Life can be good.
The list should be top 20 or 25. One of my favorites is a bit more specific. Castrol Hypoid gear oil draining out of a blown diff in an MGB race car. Got some on my driver’s suit and it never came out.
I know that I am older but no one has mentioned that smell at a stop light back in the day when all the cars had “ road draft tubes “ many people will not even know what I am talking about but ona hot summer day with no breeze it made for an interesting aroma.
When catalytic convertors were first put into use getting use to the exhaust fumes, especially in the fall when it started to cool off. Also, moldy french-fries and other fast food under seats of cars with dirty socks. Use to hate working on those cars in the 70s
Not many hobbyists may be familiar these. The smell from somebody living in their car and the smell of food, especially fish, left in the car. As a professional mechanic and former wrecker service owner, I’ve smelled it all and tell my customer clean it out or don’t bring it back.
Not me, but a friend bought some fine wines in NYC and drove home to PA one hot summer day, He put the wine behind the driver seat so it would be cooled by the AC. He forgot one bottle. Next afternoon, he was assaulted by a hideous odor. The bottle had boiled and blew its cork and wine all over the floor of his new Grand Cherokee. He called me over to his house and asked what he could do to rid the stench. I told him take it to the dealer. He did and they replaced all the carpeting and more after a detailer rip out stuff and washed the interior. The smell weakened but didn’t go away completely. He sold that car two weeks later.
How often should you change rear differential fluid? Or 4WD?
Wet dog smell. I’ve had the displeasure of having been driven by a neighbor who owned a Saint Bernard cross who diligently took his dog (rain or shine) to an off-leash park a couple of times per week. A close runner-up to gear oil and diesel exhaust fumes.
Old RV.
It’s a combo of mildew, unemptied black tank, random mouse poo, and the bad oil smells.
As I run through my third GMC RV (this one not parts, but restoring/updating it) I’m becoming immune to it, but it’s a powerful smell.
All the worst of an abandoned car and abandoned house, rolled into a convenient package.
I had the unfortunate experience of relocating a vehicle that the owner had committed suicide in. The deceased was not recovered in a timely manner, the car was quite a high end model and almost new. Even after the refurbished interior and complete detailing was completed, the stench would return if the vehicle was parked without windows left open.
A gallon of milk spilled in the front passenger footwell. Despite many soaking and detergent flushes, the smell of stinky spoiled milk never left. The odor of spoiled milk nauseates me to this day.