What actually IS New Car Smell?
A little drive around the nauseating world of brand-spanking new motors.
The latest AutoTrader campaign makes me feel nauseous.
Their TV ad features an assortment of happy, smiling faces who sit down in their brand-new whips before using their full lung capacity to inhale the distinctive and widely adored new car smell. It’s a smart piece of advertising that manages to unlock your sense memory without the need for music or dialogue; just the sounds of deep in-breaths which conjure the scent in your mind.
Now, I would like to think of myself as an open-minded individual. I’m not the type of snob who only likes expensive scents and, as a professional in the fragrance industry, I am very well acquainted with the furthest reaches of artistic perfumery. Over the years, I have grown to love and appreciate the dirtiest of ouds, found the beauty in the most piss-sweet florals, and even signed a peace treaty with my former perfume arch-nemesis, Chloë by Chloë.
But whilst I believe that you can learn to love even the strangest of scents, I am supremely confident that new-car-smell will never be welcomed into the bosom of my nose. It makes me feel physically sick.
I’m not just spewing hyperbole at you. Something about it prompts a genuine stomach-turning sensation in me and conjures images of bubbling bile or burning plastic. It’s the scented equivalent of my friend’s endlessly hilarious aversion to the sound of socks on wood. Pretty unusual, but never fails to get me right in the gut.
So, as I watched AutoTrader’s portrayal of delighted customers driving off the forecourt and my stomach instantly got the collywobbles, I felt compelled to find out what it is and why I find it so retch-worthy. Here’s what I learnt;
New car smell is the result of a chemical process called ‘off-gassing’1 where the adhesives and plastics release as many as 50 to 60 VOCs (volatile organic compounds) into the air as they settle into their new home.
Chemicals such as Toluene (found in nail polish remover) and Ethylbenzene (from coal tar and petroleum) make up a complex cocktail that starts very intense and slowly decreases at a rate of about -20% a week2.
It’s widely thought that it’s not so much the smell itself that many people find attractive but the associations attached to it. To many, it represents a clean slate - a fresh start. To others, it is the scent of success; a reward for their hard work and toil. And of course, to some, it is associated with money.
Whilst these associations make it a powerful sales tool (and companies like Fiat Chrysler are so interested in this concept that they employ a panel of judges to evaluate their cars’ odours - poor them) it has also raised concerns about toxicity3. It’s thought by many to be a form of air pollution, so most car manufacturers have been working towards eliminating it.
But before people like me let out a sigh of relief that we might all be freed from its clutches, sadly it doesn’t end there. So many people have a subtle yet profound emotional connection to the scent that many companies have it replicated and then added to their new cars. That also means that there is potential for the scent to last much longer than it would have done through its natural (can I call it natural?) off-gassing process. Sigh.
I’d never get in the way of people enjoying what they enjoy so if, as in Monica Geldart’s TikTok post, sitting in your car to imbibe the scent for 45 minutes is your kind of thing then good for you. However, if you ever think of inviting me to join, thanks but I’ll wait a few weeks.
https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a36970626/science-new-car-smell/
https://auto.howstuffworks.com/under-the-hood/auto-manufacturing/what-causes-new-car-smell.htm
https://wwwn.cdc.gov/TSP/MMG/MMGDetails.aspx?mmgid=157&toxid=29#:~:text=With%20more%20serious%20exposure%2C%20toluene,eyes%20can%20damage%20the%20eyes.