New Car Smell

I broke down and got a new car about a week ago. My 12-year-old Volkswagen had served me well, but it was time for a change. The last straw was when the radio went out last month and it cost me around $1,000 to get it replaced. Every little thing with that car ended up costing me a lot of money. Last December, my driver's side door decided to stop working and I was forced to climb over the passenger's side seat just to get into the driver's seat. I also had to wait several weeks for the parts to come in to repair the door. That repair job cost me more than $800. It just didn't make sense to keep putting money into an old car, so I got a new one, a Nissan, my first Japanese car. (Coming from a Detroiter whose father worked for Ford, that's a huge thing!) It's hard to try and find a sedan under $30K these days, but I did. I even looked into getting another used car (since my VW was three years old when I bought it), but the used cars out there now have so many miles on them that it didn't seem worth it to spend money on something with 30K miles or more on it for around the same price as a new car. 

I like my Nissan but, God, the new car smell in it is horrible. It's like breathing straight chemicals. I know the offgassing and weird smells will dissipate after time, but I'm trying to hurry the process along by keeping a cup of baking soda in the cup holder, using an air freshener, and driving with the windows open. In my older age, I just can't take heavy smells like that. I had a new doormat that had a rubber backing that I had to remove because I couldn't stand the smell. I also hate the smell of incense and heavy perfumes. I bought some Gold Bond spray powder to use this summer and ended up throwing it out after one use because I couldn't stand the scent. 

I haven't had a new car since 1999 and I don't recall if that one had a weird smell. If it did, I'm sure I was able to handle it because I was a lot younger back then and able to put up with a lot more than I can now.