Get rid of new car smell?

Is there any way to get rid of new car smell? I purchased a new GTI a couple weeks ago and the new car smell is making me feel ill when I drive it. I’ve tried airing it out a few times and I know that eventually it will dissipate. But can I do anything in the meantime to accelerate this process? It’s bad enough that I am avoiding driving my new car.

The dealer is suggesting ozone but I’m a little dubious what this would do to all of the new car chemicals, even though I know they use it for cigarette smoke.

accelerating out gassing would be a new one .. not sure it is possible to make this process move faster .. you can get rid of the current odor, but the glues and plastics will continue to out gas.

I would recommend leaving windows open as much as possible and park in the sun .. besides that, get an air freshener that you like and try to cover it up ...

ozone would work, but again for only the odor that is currently there

Ozone would help, but it has its own issues -- it can create respiratory problems and headaches if you don`t let the ozone air out and dissipate before getting in the car.

Have you tried boxes of baking soda as used in your fridge? Arm & Hammer sells boxes with a fabric membrane that lets air in but prevents spills in case the box gets knocked over. I would hide a couple of boxes around the car (trunk, under the front seats) and see if that helps. It`s cheap, too.

Arm & Hammer Multi-Brand - ARM & HAMMER? Baking Soda Fridge-n-Freezer? Odor Absorber

Thanks guys. My concern about Ozone is that it might make it worse. The new car off gassing is intense so there are a lot of VOCs for it to react with. I am somewhat chemically sensitive. In your experience has ozone helped or hindered with customers that are like that? Im weighing trying it vs just doing nothing. Doing nothing probably means just vacuuming like crazy and letting it sit hoping it will die down. Unless there is another option.

asus389- I dunno whether being sensitive to chemicals will mean you`re also sensitive to ozone. I have really nasty allergies and/but ozone doesn`t bother me one bit, even in pretty high concentrations.

Also, I simply don`t know what`d happen using the Ozone vs. the outgassing...whether things would cancel out/not or what, but it might be worth looking into. Hard to get reliable info though since so many sources have, uhm...agendas.

asus389-----------

Sorry you have allergic reactions to the New Car Smell in your new GTI...
I rather like the smell and lucky for me, have never been affected by it..
Do you wear a really good 3M mask that filters out smells, when you drive then ?

What is not talked about much but needs to be thought about is the reaction an Ozone machine has on the different things inside your vehicle..
Have absolutely no experience with this, but since it has been around for what - a decade - or so, I have read many posts of things happening inside Interiors that are not always good, including deteriorating of some plastics, etc..

The user of Ozone equipment better be very well versed in all the aspects of using it in such a small, closed, area, before letting it go full blast in there..

Then the other side, what happens if the things inside your new car continue to let off more smells, because that is part of the process in how they were made??
Will you have to keep getting Ozone treatments at the risk of harming some of your Interior parts ??

Yours is the first post ever I have read of someone having a reaction to the New Car smell... :)

Are you sure the vehicle was NOT treated with something to mask a smell before you got it ???
I know for sure, that those things they put in cars to mask smells can make some people very ill, and I have experience removing those types of odors..

As has already been said, the only thing that will help remove odors like this is to leave the windows down all the time, and perhaps try to drive the car that way when the weather is nicer for you...

If you came to my Shop with this problem, the only work I could offer to you as an experiment, would be to Steam the entire Interior, using my small triangular brush with a thick white towel over the bristles, and placing the arrangement over every part of the Interior, (except things like the dashboard gauges, etc..,) - all the hard parts and seats, carpets, headliner, carefully, and see if that would help tone the smells down, or hopefully remove them..
Good luck with this - hope it goes away soon for you !
Dan F

Leave the car doors open if you have a garage. Or let me drive it for a week. :)

Congrats on your new GTI! I have a `17 model myself.

As far as the new car smell, if you`re sensitive to it, I`m pretty sure any covering scents would not end well. If you have a garage you could possible air out the car for a week, but I would bet it would return again once closed up. Hell I`ve even smoked in my car a couple times and the new car smell comes back. Maybe it`s a VW thing? My car is a year old this month and has 5500 miles on it and still smells new inside, so maybe it`s something in the fabrics.

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Originally Posted by Nizmo

... Hell I`ve even smoked in my car a couple times and the new car smell comes back..

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Off-topic, but nobody could ever tell (or even believe) that we smoked in our cars. All a matter of how you do it.

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Maybe it`s a VW thing?

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A few years ago Audis quit smelling the way they always used to, and my wife and I *really* dislike the new scent.

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My car is a year old this month and has 5500 miles on it and still smells new inside, so maybe it`s something in the fabrics.

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Well, FWIW most of our vehicles still smell new even though the newest is the `08 Crown Vic, which was a LE vehicle in its previous life yet still smells showroom. I kinda have that on the brain, want "the Audis to smell like new Audis", etc. Though the Connolly leather in the `93 smells...well, like aged Connolly leather often does (yuck, but it`s better than my/any JXS`s leather).

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Originally Posted by Accumulator

Off-topic, but nobody could ever tell (or even believe) that we smoked in our cars. All a matter of how you do it.

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Exactly, all the vehicles I`ve owned nobody believed it. If I could get my coworker to crack the window more in the company truck it wouldn`t be so bad. I have to turn the HVAC to recirculate and spray an ungodly amount of Ozium through it. I`m mainly a vaper so I don`t have to worry about it, but when he`s with me ugh. My jacket has to get washed frequently... Fact I have the company truck sitting in my driveway now that I need to go deodorize.

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Originally Posted by Accumulator

Well, FWIW most of our vehicles still smell new even though the newest is the `08 Crown Vic, which was a LE vehicle in its previous life yet still smells showroom. I kinda have that on the brain, want "the Audis to smell like new Audis", etc. Though the Connolly leather in the `93 smells...well, like aged Connolly leather often does (yuck, but it`s better than my/any JXS`s leather).

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The MK4 Jetta and Golf interiors and the crayon smell after a while is what I still remember well. My MK5 Jetta with the leatherette seats had this unique smell on its own, not bad, just different. Going to get interesting to see (or smell?) what the Tartan seats in my MK7 will be after a number of years. Although I vehicle swap too frequently to see, lol.

Nizmo- Heh heh, ya know...since I switched (100%) to vaping back in `12 I don`t think I`ve ever done it in a vehicle! For some reason I`m just different about it than I was with the analogs.

Heh heh....Ozium....heh heh heh...(my inner Beavis is remembering the `70s ;) )

Hey, that`s interesting about the MK4 Jettas! I`m considering buying one even though I know *nothing* about them and that Crayon smell intrigues me. It`s not, like....a gross/weird version of it that`s likely to gag me is it?

Heh heh, after swapping vehicles like crazy for decades I`m all about keepers these days, so I don`t want to buy something with an unbearable interior smell!

I can ad one product that can help a little maybe. Carpro soPure is an odor eater that you apply like a protection to the dashboard and other like materials. It`s says to have a weak smell of citrus. So it maybe worth a shot with the other recommendations you have got so far.

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Originally Posted by Accumulator

Hey, that`s interesting about the MK4 Jettas! I`m considering buying one even though I know *nothing* about them and that Crayon smell intrigues me. It`s not, like....a gross/weird version of it that`s likely to gag me is it?

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It`s not terribly strong, just an odd smell really. Something in those fabrics.

Warning, off topic!

Also do yourself a favor and skip the MK4 generation. That is unless you like electrical issues, engine failures, transmission woes, etc. If you can up your budget look for an `08-`10 MK5 Jetta 2.5 5 pot and 5 speed. Most reliable engine combo of the past 20 years IMO, they can take more owner neglect then say an old style 1.8 turbo. They can be picked up for around 4-5K in decent shape. PM me if you`d like more information about them, I can give you a rundown of everything I know! :P

Nizmo- Off-topic or not...It`s gotta be one of that vintage, the boxy ones with that specific bodystyle/interior cargo configuration. Otherwise I`m not in the market for any more vehicles. It`s basically a that-or-nothing situation and I`m only considering this one because of the specific unit`s condition (basically showroom) and color (white, one of only four colors I`d consider).

Won`t own a MK5 as that grille is ugly IMO.

Won`t own anything with "modern electronic/technology/driver aid features".

Won`t drive any more sticks in this lifetime (yeah yeah, I heel & toe/dbl-clutch/etc. with the best of `em, can even drive pre-synchro crashboxes just fine ;) ) as I`ve overcome knee issues that had surgery on the horizon and all that clutching = trouble for me.

Won`t be any "neglect" factoring in in- I`ll be pampering it and the unit in question (still just thinking on it) has 36K pampered miles, basically showroom even by Autopian standards. It might get 2K miles a year at most, probably far less (current miles = 35K).

I *DO* love the 5-cylinders (best wagon ever = my `87 Quantum Synchro/4000CSQ), and/or if I found a *perfect* Passat GLX vr6/AWD of that same (square) vintage I`d probably take it, but this Jetta is *so* clean...

Heh heh, it`s not a Q of upping the budget; I could buy something really nice for what the current owner is asking . I could even buy a Certified newer Jetta wagon for a lttle more but I don`t want that.

Heh heh heh...every one of my Best Dog-haulers was a vehicle that`s on the "don`t ever buy one!" list. Like...it`s a list of the least reliable vehicles ever sold in the US, but I`ve loved every single one of `em. The "sensible and reliable" dog-haulers? They were always the ones that broke down all the time and I hated driving them.