Ever.

What were they thinking?

What was I Thinking?

mhadi, I do have actual cloth seats. You can still get them in BMW but you have to special order the car. Six years on they still look great and the cloth is way more indestructible than the 2500$ leather or the “free” naugahyde.

I would buy cars with REAL fabric seats if it were still available (I am talking about luxury cars), but unfortunately the only options are leather or some obnoxious plastic that smells. I am very senstive to smell, and that is one of the first things I notice.

Cars where people eat in them smell. Since when did our cars become lunch rooms?

It’s the smell of a thick coating of Connolly hide. Why can’t you get that smell elsewhere? Cause most carmakers outside of Jag/Bentley/Rolls didn’t/don’t bother getting the good stuff.

Honestly, the leather they use in German and Japanese cars might as well be vinyl. It has the same texture and hardness, sometimes a worse smell, but doesn’t last as long. The W140 S-Class was the last German car I recall having leather that screamed quality.

Often you don’t need to see the water stains on the headliner around the rear window or on rear door upholstery to know that a car has leaked…it’s difficult to get rid of the smell that will invariably accompany these symptoms. And, if you are looking at an A-body Mopar car, there is about a 70% chance that water leaks into it through the windshield wiper pivots. Even otherwise rust-free cars are subject to front floor rust for this reason.

None of the following are dealbreakers for me, but I also tend to check out the location of gas filler (perfer driver’s side) and the presence of an auxillary input on the radio…er, “sound system” (should be standard on all vehicles today, IMO). After an experience owning a Jeep Liberty I should check for sharp plastic edges on the interior and cargo area bits, but somehow don’t; I sliced my finger open more than a few times while cleaning the Jeep, which may have been an unconscious factor in my decision to dump it after a year of ownership.

I had one 1957 Plymouth that had been the car of a heavy smoker. Oh, what a job cleaning that interior! The water came away brown rather than gray as usual when cleaning a dirty interior.

My 1960 220S sedan had something in the interior that would coat the insides of the windows and windshield with some organic grime that was very difficult to get off. This could happen in a day if the car was parked in the sun with the windows closed. No other Mercedes owners I talked to had this problem; it must have been some “protectant” or wax or cleaner that a former owner had used.

One of the first things I touch in a car is the dashboard. In fact I knock it to see if its hard plastic or soft. I hate the hard plastic ones.

Instruments are also something I see. In SUVs, trucks and sport cars I like to see full instrumentation. When I saw the new Cherokee here (Liberty there) and found only 4 gauges I was dissapointed.

For new car smell… I already forgot how our cars smell. Got used to it.

They need to invent a car that smells like the skin of the lapdancers at the old Runway 66. They’d sell them all day long.

They do, indeed. Go to eBay and look for item number 390102594520.

The day I brought home my then-new Honda CBR motorcycle I parked it in the garage and I swear to god it smelled like Honda new car smell. I was sitting on it and the warm air coming off of the thing smelled like the inside of a Civic. I thought it was just my imagination until a friend sat on it and said “hey this smells like a Honda!” Weird.

The first thing I always pick apart in the interior of any car is the instrumentation. Or lack thereof, depending on the cheapness of the manufacturer. I blame one very long year of instrument systems school and three years of humping the flight line being a 325X1 Avionics Instrument Systems Specialist in the Air Farce for my affliction.

Cars owned by some women stick of too much perfume. Anyone who takes a perfume bath should take a regular one once in a while.

I have noticed that some car HVAC systems grow mildew.

As some here know, I do embroidery for a living. I source my varsity jackets and other leather apparel at Reed Sportswear in Detroit. Best smelling factory I’ve ever been in, and they make really high quality goods (disclaimer: the Reeds and Silvers are old family friends). When I’m embroidering leather, my shop smells great.

Best smelling job I had was working in Eden Natural Food’s warehouse.

Oddest smell was a cigar-permeated Subaru Outback. Cigars smell nice, but not when the smoke stagnates in the leather. It wasn’t like cigarette smell, it was something unique and not at all pleasant.

Most neutral smell – my old Q45. I smoke cigarettes. I smoke cigars. I rarely clean the carpets and give the leather a wipe maybe once a month. And yet, as long as I don’t leave butts in the ashtray, it magically eradicates the smell of smoke after a day or two. I’ve never encountered a car that could do that.

that’s after opening and closing the door several times to see what it sounds/feels like.

the old saab 9-5’s smell really odd, definitely like crayons as mentioned above

Every Prius I’ve ever been in stinks of cow dung, too. Ditto every current gen Camry I’ve ever been in. It’s weird.

I’ve had several Hondas over the years that always had a distinctive smell I could never put my finger on. It wasn’t unpleasant, in fact it was kind of a calming odor. Ditto the VWs I’ve owned. I don’t get the crayon vibe exactly, but it’s a pretty close analogy.

Volvos always smell of wool blankets and leather, sort of a horsey smell. BMWs fall into the same category.

Most other modern cars in my experience just have a generic “plasticy” smell.

Old British and Italian cars smell like heaven – a mix of good leather, oil and fun.