Hammer Time: Fetid Distraction
by
Steven Lang
What’s the first thing you notice when you step inside a car? Some folks look at the seats. Others will set their eyes on the carpet or the far side of the dashboard. For me… it’s smell. I swear at times I can actually tell what auction a car came from given the smell on the inside. Brands also give forth their own odorous emanations. Fur starters . . .
I’m sure some would confuse that smell with quality and a well held together machine. If that was intentional for the long run, kudos to the Koreans. They smelled their way into people’s hearts.
Today’s Rooney-esque question, “What else has your noses noticed?”
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I like the smell of fine, soft leather (not the Ford type which may as well be vinyl), but I hate it when the car gets older and the smell changes to something I do not know what. 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?
One of the nice things I noticed about my BMW was that it didn't have a lot of "new car smell"...which dissipated pretty quickly. Compared to a Jeep I once owned, which outgassed for a very long time and gunked the windshield. 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.
You know what really stinks? All weather mats. You've got to give them a good scrubbing before you put new ones in cars. I always tell people this.
Never buy a used pickup with cloth seats from a Septic Tank cleaning company. Ever. What were they thinking? What was I Thinking?