What's so great about new car smell?

If you've ever sat in a new car, you've probably caught a whiff of that unique aroma found in new cars. But what exactly makes the smell, and why does it disappear? Join in as Scott and Ben illuminate the mystery behind that new car smell.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Go behind the wheel and under the hood on everything
automotive with high speed stuff from how stuff works dot com.
Hello everyone, my name is Ben. I write some videos
here at how stuff Works, and I just got the
go ahead to take it away. On the intro from

(00:21):
Scatt Benjamin, I'm the auto editor here at how stuff
works dot com. Also, and Ben, here's another topic that you,
I know, are fired up about because he came to
me with this one in the hallway one day and said,
this is something we gotta cover. Oh yeah, I had
a Eureka moment. Yeah you did. And you know, at
first it sounds like I'll be honest, when when I
first heard it, I thought, I guess it's okay. I mean,

(00:43):
it's an okay topic. But but after looking into this,
I find it as interesting as you do, I think,
or maybe not quite as interesting as you do. But um,
I still think this one's got I got some legs.
All right, Well, let's let's set it up and see
if it runs. Okay, what is it? It is? New
car smell? About it? We'll see a lot of people
are probably staring at their computer screen sand what are

(01:06):
they going to talk about? New car smell? It's just
it's simply a new car smell. It goes away after
a certain amount of time. It's not much interesting about that,
right or is there there is? Definitely? Yeah, yeah, as
as I found out, I had no idea when I
looked into this. Now, I've had a lot of cars
in the past, just used cars, no new cars. My
wife has had new lease cars, and I know the

(01:26):
new car smell. Our family had a couple of new
cars lease cars. Again. Um, I've had used cars that
have had distinctive smells. Where I had a British car
and it smelled like every other British car I've ever
been in real ever. Yeah, and this is thirty years past.
Um the point when his brand new thirty five years

(01:47):
pastor what type of vehicles I had had? An MG
and Um. I had a friend who friends father who
had UM an Austin Healy and his dad pointed out
to me, but I hadn't been in his car to
that point. And when I brought mine over to show
him my MG, he leaned in and he said, yep,
smells like a British car. And I said, what what

(02:09):
do you mean? And he went in his garage, got
in his car and it smelled exactly the same. This
is so interesting. Yeah, you know now, and I can
clearly remember the smell my trans am head. It had
a very distinct smell. It was probably just vinyl and
whatever else they used in it. But every trans am
in that era, there's a seventy eight trans am, and
every trans amin that era smelled the same way. And

(02:32):
this cuts rights what we're talking about. You know, you
sort of changed the course of my actions here. No,
not at all. This is crazy. I never considered, Scott,
the different generations of cars or different regions of car
manufacturing would have distinctive smells. Yeah. Yeah, it's not just

(02:52):
new cars, because that scent stays with the car. Um.
There's a lot of other factors that come into it
later went in a used car, but um, for a
new car, Yeah, that's scent. That's scent, that's there. Um.
It changes over time, it develops, and so many cars
that are the same or same make, maybe maybe the
same manufacturer, they end up with the same smell as

(03:14):
another car manufactured by the same auto company ten years later,
years later. It's wild. And one of the things that
is very interesting to me about this is whenever somebody
is a car owner, or whenever they have a new car,
or whenever someone gets into a new car. Everybody notices

(03:35):
the smell. Everyone that I've met, at least, whether or
not they know much about vehicles, whether they consider themselves,
you know, an afficionado or just someone who wants something
that doesn't break down on the way to the movies. Um.
And one of the reasons why uh smell is so
powerful to people, especially new car smell, is that smell

(03:55):
is actually one of the major avenues for our memory
encoding in our brains. And I didn't know this for
the longest time. I totally believe that I there's certain
sense to bring back memories for me and um, you know,
like I just mentioned the cars, of course, but there's
other There's I mean, foods, there's perfumes, there's anything. I mean.
It could be chemicals from a factory, it could be

(04:16):
the smell. I used to live near a bread factory
when I was It must have been wonder bread factory
when I was in Illinois. I lived in and I
was really really young at the time. But whenever I
smell fresh bread baking, because it always smelled like fresh bread,
near there is great smell. But um, I always think
of of being there, and I swear I couldn't have
been more than about four or five years old at
the time, maybe six at the most. It's a crystal

(04:39):
clear memory because of because of that scent. And we
were just talking with our producer Jerry before we went
on the air with this, and we were talking about,
you know why people may or may not like this smell,
and almost everyone does, and perhaps the psychological implications there
are self explanatory. You probably like this smell because you

(05:00):
associated with you having a new car. That's right, Yeah,
it's a new car. It's something nice, crisp, clean for you. However,
there's some bad news. There is some bad news. Hit
us with it, Ben, Okay, don't And isn't it funny
how when everybody gets in a new car, they take
a deep breath and they say, ah, the new car smell. Yes,
I'm guilty of this. Why why would you maybe not

(05:22):
want to do that? Well? Because new car smell, according
to the leading scientific research, is sort of a mix
tape of something called v O C s. Do you
know what v o C stand fard done? Well, it
doesn't stand for very ordinary chemicals. It actually stands for
volatile organic compounds, very ordinary chemicals, very important, it could

(05:46):
be important. I never mind, I'll come up with something. Well, well,
we'll each try one at the end of the show. Yeah,
it'll be fun. I'm trying. I'm trying to do every
things here. I can't. It's like chewing gum and york
if it comes up, try So what are v O C. Scott? There?
There are things that there are things that have different
names that are obviously chemicals. We're not talking about sugar

(06:09):
and spice. We're talking about different kinds of ben zene.
Stuff like polyvinyl chloride um phalates thalates uh spelled p
T h A l A T spelling to this. I
think I can help you out, help me out. I
think it's thalatesates. I think best gas. Anyways, there's a

(06:33):
lot of bad stuff in the cars and it all.
You know what THO lights are because I did look
that up, but I didn't know that they were called VOCs.
Lay it on me. Thalates are the softeners that they
use in plastic manufacturing, and over time, the thalates leach
out of the softeners that they plastics brother and the softeners,
and the softeners never really bond with the plastic I guess,

(06:54):
and someone will probably correct me on that, but from
what I hear that they don't, and so over time
these things kind of leach out and that's what you're
that's what you're smelling. You're you're smelling the thalt's escaping
or outgassing, which is outgassing. And what's the other term.
There's another one? Um oh, I just said off gas.
I've heard the term off gas as well, So outgassing
or off gas. I think outgassing is the more prevalent term.

(07:18):
But um, all of the materials within your car outgas
and that that's Unfortunately. These thalates are also suspected of
causing kidney and liver damage, but I don't know if
it's ever been proven. Yeah, there is that they there
is definitely a call for more research in that area.
But but I saw the same thing as well. And
what's interesting for people who say, well, you know, if

(07:40):
there's not any conclusive research, you know, thanks Scott and Ben,
but I'm gonna take another deep breath in my new car. Um.
Keep in mind that Toys r Us has pulled infants
teething toys from its shelves because of they because they
can contain the same chemicals. Okay, so they saw fen
the plastic that the kids tsue on. Huh. Interesting, I

(08:04):
didn't know that, UM one other thing that they have
been there. UM. I was just thinking about this fromaldehyde
from aaldehyde in in new cars as well. And it
sounds terrible, I know, but I think that fromaldehyde is
a bonding agent that they use in UM prestwood as well.
And the only reason I remember this clearly is because
I had a friend whose wife was allergic to formaldehyde

(08:26):
and it took them a long long time to determine that. Um,
she was getting progressively ill in her own home. And uh,
and I'm not exactly sure that this is what what
she was suffering from. But there's something called sick building
syndrome about sick building, so it typically occurs in newer buildings.
Oh okay, I didn't know that. Well, maybe I mean

(08:49):
that might have something to do with UM. While the
outgassing of the materials that we talked about, because there's
outgassing and buildings as well. It's not just cars, of course, UM,
but cars are much more confined their subject to UM
heat from you know, the sun of course, and just
you know, other conditions that cause the outguesting to maybe
be accelerated. And you're in this confined area. So if

(09:10):
you don't have fresh air coming through, like buildings, they
have heat exchange rates that they have to maintain. I
don't know if a car does or not. Maybe it does, possibly,
but I still, you know, we we understand that. Yeah. Yeah,
And so the idea was that this lady was getting
ill based on formaldehyde, and where the heck, because she's
allergic to formaldehyde, terribly allergic to it. It was just

(09:32):
making her progressively more and more ill. It's in pressed wood,
it's in you know, it's used in cabinets, furniture, the
sub floors of your house, countertops, um carpet, it's used
in everything. I mean is it turns out it's a
very expensive renovation. Had to fix your fix your house, yeah,
because they had to get rid of every bit of

(09:53):
um pressed wood. So they went from you know, the
the pressed wood subfloor to real wood floors, and they
went from you know, the the laminate countertops which had
pressed wood beneath them, they had to go to um,
you know, a granite countertop or something similar. I don't
know if it's hardwood. Maybe um the count you know,
the cabinets themselves were pressed wood. The there are some
items of furniture maybe that you know that that you

(10:14):
assemble at home, that kind of furniture, um, pressed wood
as well. But that kind of stuff finds its way
into cars, and you can imagine that if you're in
that environment day after day, it can make you sick.
And in fact, there's a lot of symptoms that people
can experience in cars. Yes, things like headaches, drowsiness, nausea
I knows, and throwed, irritation, and respiratory problems as well.

(10:37):
Not good for driving. Not if you're getting drowsy while
you're in your car, that's a that's a bad thing.
If there's a chemical reaction that's making that happen. The
other thing is that it's it's creating a you've probably
seen this before, this this this film that appears on
your windows. Yes, that is due to the outgassing of
the plastic in your car, and not just plastic, but
every other thing in there, the foam, the you know,

(10:59):
the any kind of rubber that's in there, even paint, carpet, padding, uh, cloth, leather. Um,
I'm not so sure about the grease, but that leads
to the smell again. Um, there's just this this whole
mix of chemicals and compounds in there that that are well,
it's it's again, it's you're just in this this confined
area with all of these sense happening and combined they

(11:22):
make that new car sense that everybody seems to love
because of our psychological associations with it. But if you
didn't associate it with a new car, and you just
smelled it on the street, and it's difficult to think
about this, well, what would you think? Would you think
that it smelled as good? I would I would wage
or not? I would think that individually maybe they would

(11:44):
be potent, and you know what, you probably would would
back away. But maybe mixed together, there's something about them
or people. It's just ingrained enough in our in our
culture now at this point that that's that's the new
car smell. I think everybody's you know, if you don't
own a new car, you've at least leaned in one,
or ben in one, or are sad and one that, Um,
you understand what we're talking about. There, there's something about it.
It does smell. It does smell good. And here's the

(12:07):
tricky part because again we are not saying that this
will kill you. We're saying that it may not be
that great for you. It doesn't. It doesn't treat your
body as well as it smells like it should. You know,
it's not like fresh bake cookies or something. No exactly.
And you know, the good thing is there's some good

(12:28):
news to this. There is the manufacturers are making great
strides and reducing them these VOCs that are in cars.
And I don't know what there's still that down to
the level that is required a new building, new manufacture,
but but they are significantly down. So there's some Japanese
manufacturers are working on it. I know Volvo has a

(12:48):
test facility that's working on it. Chrysler, I believe, has
already done something about it. I think GM is on
its way. There's there's a lot of a lot of
effort in this this direction to reduce the v OCAs
in car. All the big dogs are moving toward that.
Because here's why it's so tricky. Um And it may
sound like it's taken a while for the companies to
turn around, but to their credit. Individually, these different chemicals

(13:13):
don't generate enough to be at any sort of health hazard.
It's when they all get together again, and it's it's
the the culminative, excuse me, the cumulative effect there um.
But I've got some some weird news. I don't know
if it counts as good or bad, but okay, So
we know that people are companies rather are cutting down

(13:34):
on this new car smell, which does make me a
little bit sad, but I understand, I understand this is
um probably good for people. But Scott, that new car
scent at this point is so popular. So as you said,
ingrained that there are companies that are making more and

(13:55):
more money off selling new car scent bottles or new
car you know, uh, those things that hang from the windshield,
from the rear. Yeah. And I bought a few of
those and they don't quite smell the same you. Yeah,
I bought new car senter really yeah, I mean I
bought the Monte Carlo. You're just trying to mask the
white castle or crystal smell in your car? Is that

(14:16):
what's going on that will never go away? That will
never go away? It's ingrained in your car. People hop
in my car and say do you like fries. As
a matter of fact, there's a large order in the
back seat right now, Yes there is, there is. It's
my emergency fried. But but the it's it's funny because
you know, nowadays the way it stands, uh experts are

(14:39):
telling people to enjoy that original smell while it lasts,
if you like it, but make sure that you have
for Pete's sake, some fresh air rotating in there, in
and out and once it goes away and actually means
that your cars is safer place because just as you
said earlier, the out gas is sort of like the

(15:02):
new paint smell, you know. And what do you do
when you're in a room that has just been painted, Well,
you open the windows. You open the windows, that's right.
So you do that again with your car and hopefully
that will keep you out of harm's way. But I've
never I'll be honest, I've never experienced in a new car,
you know, being from the north in the wintertime, you
have the windows shut up, you have the you know,
the events on I guess, but usually you've got it on. Well,

(15:25):
fresh air I guess is coming in still through the vents,
but you don't have that that massive intake of air
through the through the windows. Um, It's never really bothered
me to the point where I've had any kind of
nausea or sore throat or headache or anything like that.
It's never affected me that way. But some people, some people, everybody,
everybody reacts differently. And that's the problem here, is that
you know, they couldn't try to cover this up with

(15:45):
something else or use a different type of rubber, but
maybe someone would have a reaction to that, or maybe um,
you know, they use a different type of plastic, but
maybe that's an irritant to someone's hands. And there's always
gonna be somebody that reacts to those chemicals in a
different way. I guess they have to just kind of
shoot for the medium and the happy medium and their
median medium and media, yeah, media, and um, you know,

(16:05):
just I guess whatever works works for them, you know,
just keep it. But they do need to get the
v O C S down and they are working on that,
and I think that's moving the right direction. I think
that's a very good point. But you know, you probably
have an exceptional constitution pretty much tough as nails. I
don't think you'll have an allergic reaction. That's from the
years and years of fast food eating, years and years.

(16:25):
That's the secret I've heard it here from. Preserved from
the inside out is the way I look at it.
That's right. I think that must be it. I'm preserving
myself from the inside out. I was gonna say, you
smell like a new car, yeah, McDonald's or whatever. I'm oh, yeah, yeah,
never mind, that's it. Okay, how about various outgassing children,

(16:47):
that's my okay, how about very optimistic carrots? Oh man,
has nothing to do with cars. But you see, I'm
no good at this kidding. Give me three minutes and
I'll come up with something. But okay, I'll everybody's wait
three minutes, alright, and thanks the magic of editing, it's
actually been no, no, no, I have nothing nothing. Well,

(17:10):
I think that we we've covered this pretty well. And
you know, the main thing here again is, um that
smell is a really cool thing. It's probably changing over
the over the course of at least the next ten years,
it's going to uh, it's gonna fade away. It's gonna
be something your kids might not remember. I mean, the
new car smell thing. Right now, even if you get

(17:32):
one that still has that smell, it only lasts about
six months. That's that's the common census here is that
it is that about six months. It's it's gone. Really yeah, tops,
it's masked by every other ordor that's in your car,
you know, the time you carry pizza, Homer, you know,
have the dog in the car for a while or
something like that. So to everybody who just brought bought
a new car for or something and got a new

(17:54):
one for Christmas, Um, you guys, go ahead and breathe deep,
but do it with the windows down. And I guess
that's that's all I've got, all right, everybody. I guess
it wraps it up for today. I don't really have
anything more to add to that, you No, I'm pretty good.
If you have any more insight on this topic, just
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(18:17):
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