What’s the Best Smell in a Car?
The internet is littered with content that suggests that what smells good to some people evokes the exact opposite reaction in others. The latest According to You question will likely add to that, but first, I owe you an explanation: This question’s origin wafted up from a very non-automotive source.
It stems from my personal wake-up call that osmophobia is real. Smells can trigger headaches in some folks, and I’ve discovered that one spice (cumin, probably) is the trigger for painful sinus headaches for yours truly. As a South Asian American, it’s unfortunate that such a delicious part of my culinary heritage does this to me, but I’m thankful it only happens when the smell is very strong.
Be it spices, freshly cut grass, a light rain, or chemicals in vehicles, we all have different reactions to smells. It’s been suggested that not everyone smells things the same to everyone for valid physical reasons. And for this very, very personal reason, I began to think about the positive angle of this topic—what’s my favorite smell in cars?
Allow me to pick the lowest-hanging fruit. Leather seats smell absolutely wonderful to my olfactory nerves. (Thank goodness they don’t trigger my headaches!) And, for me anyway, leather paired with new car smell is downright addictive.
There are other smells I enjoy, like the contrast of old engine oil versus fresh synthetic oil after performing an oil change in my own driveway. That’s the smell of satisfaction for a job well done. But it can’t touch the smell of leather in my book. So I kick the question back to you, dear members of the Hagerty Community:
What’s the best smell in a car?
A new set of carpets in a 50 year old car car can help it smell younger again.
90W gear oil!
A fresh cup of coffee
The smell I will never forget is the smell of the storage area of my uncle’s distribution center he owned back in the 50’s. Playing on the storage tanks, going back in the warehouse to get a bottle of warm Dr Pepper. The smell of old oil and lubricants, old leaded gas. Can’t do that in today’s world!
No smell is best. Just clean, fresh, air, saturated with oxygen.
80/90W gear oil,
Mid winter and missing the excitement of the race season, l would go to the shed and pop the bung on a barrel of 118 octane av gas l ran in my dragster. A good snort of those fumes would actually give me an adrenaline rush!
Connelly leather. Not leather like you find in a Ford or Toyota. REAL leather, like in an English car. Also, mix it with a whiff of tailpipe unburnt hydro carbons and you are all set.
Now add the exhaust note….
Best Smell in a Car: A warm bag of White Castle cheeseburgers.
Worst Smell in a Car: About two hours later, as they’re digesting. (Hint: open the windows)
It took 5 pages, but here on page 6 is what I would have added. (Do farts have lumps? Uh Oh!)
The best smell was the Little Tree Spice air freshener that is no longer sold.
Who knows why they stop making.
I got lucky and found 100 of them on eBay a few years back.
Any smell that doesn’t relate to an important part of the drivetrain failing.
Best smell in the car? No smells for me also.
Best smell outside? Race Gas exhaust. I love the smell of Race Gas in the morning. :^)
New tires
Air cooled Porsche.
Warm oil, clutch/brake pad, old leather(or vinyl) all mix together with the raspy, metallic whirring that flat six orchestrates.
Memories, light the corners of my mind. Misty, water-coloured memories…
The smell inside my 1969 Camaro. I don’t know what it is but I like it.
1969 was a good year. I know ,I was there.