Reference point
Sit in a brand-new car, close the doors and breathe deeply.
Do this before you read on. An entry only works when you have just smelled the thing.
Plastic, leather, glue and a layer of synthetic sweetness. It is dense and warm, quite different from the smell of plastic alone.
It is the smell of many materials outgassing together in a closed space — not one smell but a sum.
It is also a smell that carmakers study and adjust deliberately, so it sits between chance and design.
How to smell it
Sit in the closed car at midday in the sun — heat makes everything evaporate more strongly and the smell is at its clearest. Then open the doors for ten minutes and smell again.
Why this one is hard
Because it is the sum of dozens of sources and cannot be separated by an ordinary nose. People recognise it only as a block.
Don’t confuse with
This entry
New car
Household objects family
A new car is the sum of many materials outgassing together in a closed space; new plastic is a single source.
Scientific note
A car interior is made of plastics, adhesives, leather or synthetic leather, fabric and flame retardants — all of which outgas. In a closed, hot space the concentration of volatile organic compounds in a new car can be many times higher than outdoors, and it declines over the first six months. That is why ventilating a new car before sitting in it for long is recommended.
In Vietnamese life
Private new cars have become common in Vietnam only in the last twenty years or so, so “new-car smell” is a very recent reference point in the local vocabulary of smell. For the previous generation, the smell of a vehicle was the smell of long-distance buses and diesel.