New Car Smell

I was in a brand new cab last week that had not yet absorbed the scent of the driver and it had that great "new car smell." I went from this idyllic environment into the musty, slightly stilted smell of my own car. It got me to thinking: What is it that make new cars smell so good and why does the smell go away, like a torrid affair gone awry?

According to one study, car manufacturers add scents for different reasons, including:

"One of the first of these scents developed was the smell of treated leather, the spokesman notes. Tanned leather tends to give off a slightly rank odor, he says, so tanneries typically add artificial fragrance to the leather to keep it smelling fresh--think of the smell inside a shoe shop. The idea apparently caught on with some automakers, which have been known to add leather scent and other fragrances to cars."

Unfortunately, there's a whole bunch of other stuff that makes up the magic potion. Here's more from a depressing study that makes me appreciate my musty car.