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?
Castrol R !
other than the exhaust from a non-cat vehicle, nothing beats the smell of a leather interior.
The smell of plasticizers used in vinyl and plastic parts in a new car from ages long ago. These slow solvents would dissipate over the period of about a year. But they reminded you the car was still fresh and new.
The smell of money – as in fine leather. When I was young, the smell of the right perfume on the right girl/date would have been the best; come to think of it, that would not be so bad now!
My girlfriend on date night. Going to work the next day I can still smell her perfume in my car.
Just that pure hot rod smell of oil, gas and sweat of an unairconditioned hot rod interior.
Burning Rubber……………tires
The best smell I’ve ever encountered in a car is still the perfume worn by a young lady who went with me to the drive-in theatre weekly in high school.
The smell of a classic British Car. One person said that when he bought a MGB and went to take his grandfather for a ride, his grandfather said it smelled like a WWII British tank!!
My daughter figured out that the inside of a 70s typewriter we have has the exact same smell as the interior of our 1986 mustang!
I worked for 30 years building aircraft engines so naturally I ran AV GAS in my modified stock car, in all my boats, all my race bikes and my Hotrods, including my restored 1958 Corvette! I had to stop for the RXR crossing in the Summertime, it was hot out and the people behind me in a convertible were hollering what are you running for fuel, they loved the smell but it was burning their eyes a bit. If you’re around it for so long, you get use to it and want that smell to be around you I guess.
Old Races when Castrol R (Bean Oil) wafted from the pits…..YEH I’m old, but that smell brings back many wonderful races.
The best auto odor to me is a high performance engine burning 100 octane racing gas.
Riding in my first car with my first true love and she let one go. It meant that she liked and trusted me!!
The smell of old mohair and wool interiors of a car from the 30s 40s and early 50s is only surpassed, for me, by the smell of the leather of an old Jag.