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
Best comment section ever…
No story here but I hate the smell of PB Blaster. Good penetrant, bad smell.
I agree with that wholeheartedly! It smells awful!
I hate to be that person but, dead creatures and I agree with the old varnish gas
The interior of a stretched limo from LA. Hardly got it on the road in NZ when someone sniffed it and virtually gave the address of the previous owner. They claimed to have the same aroma in their clothes when they lived in LA.
Lingering farts from unknown sources
I agree diff oil takes me back to my youth going to the tire stores that did alot of that work. Back then some shops would let you in the work area and even teach you a thing or two. They didn’t mind if you helped and got your hands dirty to. I have a friend and his shop always smells of it and doesn’t bother me at all. Definitely not bottling it for cologne any time soon but was starting to think I was the only one who didn’t mind it.
Back when milk came in gallon bottles, my mom dropped one, which broke in my dad’s first new car. Years later, we could still smell the stench of rotten milk. The sulfuric, rotten egg odor added to natural gas is ethyl mercaptan, by the way, as natural gas has no odor. I fully agree with including ashtray stench on the list.
Absolutely nothing is as bad as the oil GM put in their superchargers, not even puke on a hot day.
OLd Tobaco smell and rotten egg smell of a bad battery and Catalytic converter smell UUUUUGGGGG!!!!!!!
Pre-cup holder days in my ’72 Fiat, after a carefully placed and supported latte tipped over. Sour milk smell all of that hot summer and the following winter. Sometime during the next summer, it finally faded away. (The little pine trees were a bit too potent and unpleasant.) I eventually found a clever gizmo at K-Mart–a double cup holder with a flap that fit between the seat and seatback to hold it steady. And it actually worked well!
Cracked old Bakelite steering wheels. They smell like vomit.
One of my coworkers bought and was extremely proud of a late 80s Camry. Nice car, but it stunk like ass.
Must have been the glues or padding of the interior…
Interior of 1978 Camry after the chipmunk had crawled into the air conditioning system and died two weeks ago in the Tennessee summer.
A hitchiker I picked up outside Lexington Ky. in 1970. My ’64 Comet didn’t have AC, it was raining outside, and I had said that I was going to Detroit before the stench hit my nostrils. Looooong ride to the Motor City that day!
I used to drive garbage trucks for a living. The old ones where you had to drag the carts by hand. You didn’t use the heater/defrost all summer because the doors were open all the time. Then the first cold snap you turn the heater on and get the mouse poop smell. Actually had mechanics change flexible ductwork a few times as it was worse than the smell of trash ( in the winter). Then in summer you would have carts full of walking rice ( maggots) and dog poop that homeowners threw in unbagged mixed in with rainwater for quite a stew. Oh and throw in a gallon of rotten milk that explodes while you’re compacting the load. Ah yes the good old days
having come back to this article’s comments section, i must have a sick sense of humor…or worse. anyway, i think “dairy air” has one of the most disgusting and colorful reads. congratulations!
although not a car smell, it’s indirectly related. some years ago, my son bought a house in late summer (temps still in the humid 90s). the previous owners (going thru divorce) left the house quite a mess. of all the leftover treats, the winner-take-all (although there was a full litter box upstairs with the a/c off) was the dead possum in the garage. it had to be hiding looong before the sellers moved out. after carefully removing the remains, many gallons of bleach, and a 4 ft commercial fan, the smell was almost tolerable enough to move in. oh, the remains was dumped in an overfilled 100 gal trash barrel. at least the trash trucks had in-cabin controlled grab&lift equipment 😊
Child vomit. my son vomited standing on a pew at church. We took him home with the windows rolled down on a cold night.