# New car smell

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-car-smell/832440>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [April 12, 2019, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-car-smell/832440 "2019-04-12T13:40:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-car-smell/832440/1 "2019-04-12T13:40:04Z")

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Gotta love “That isn’t a scent, it’s a smell”. Doh.

Meanwhile, presumably Cecil already knows that when you buy a Tesla, you don’t get new car smell – you get Elon Musk.

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**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-car-smell/832440/2 "2019-04-13T00:54:30Z")

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I believe a distinction is made between _scent_ and _smell_ in perfume, deodorant, and other such industries. A scent is a prepared chemical mixture that makes a smell.

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**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-car-smell/832440/3 "2019-04-13T23:53:58Z")

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So, the chemicals that are prepared to treat the surfaces inside a new car that make a smell are a scent, by your definition.

Tris

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**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-car-smell/832440/4 "2019-04-14T04:21:06Z")

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No. Only if it’s deliberate. (For all I know, maybe it _is_ deliberate, nowadays.)

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**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-car-smell/832440/5 "2019-04-15T14:43:53Z")

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The Cecil column being reviewed is: [What exactly causes “new car smell”?](https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1325/what-exactly-causes-new-car-smell/) from May 28, 1999.

An interesting related article from last year in Forbes: [That new car smell isn’t so popular in China where Ford employs teams, patents new technology, to snuff it out](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/24/that-new-car-smell-isnt-so-popular-in-china-where-ford-snuffs-it-out.html).