bigrabbit

I bought a 2016 MDX at Apr 2015. The car has unusual new car smell. At the beginning, I thought I will disappear soon .I am wrong. I can't stay in the car without the window open for about two years. But unfortunately after two years, the smell of new car just reduced a little bit and the leather seat still gives off strong chemical odor. I can confirm because if I smell closely to the leather it's just too strong. I have owned multiple cars with leather seats before. This is the first time I hit the issue. It's not typical genuine leather smell. It's unpleasant chemical smell.

Anyone has same problem?

Midnight Mystery

New car smell actually is a little different these days, but I know what you mean...

It's kind of a chemical+plasticky vinyl smell...

All *new cars have it, to a certain degree...

I think it sets apart a brand new interior...

I don't know why, maybe it's all the electronics, it smells different, but modern plastic chemical make-up has been changed by the EPA, or something, I know it was due to some government entity...

Now on topic, I don't know...

Maybe everyone just got used to it by now, and you have a sensitive sniffer...

I know orders can actually cause headaches, bright light does the same for me...

If it's bad enough that you have to resort to opening a window, I do sure hope you can get to the bottom of this, literally!!!

bigrabbit

I mean "strong chemical smell from leather seat" !

At the time I bought the 2016 MDX, I noticed it smells more strong than 2015 MDX. And it seems to be issue with all 2016 MDX at least the first batches.

Now the only way I can see is to sell the car....

bigrabbit

And in my original post， "after two years" should be "after two summers". -- (newbie can't edit the post.)

I was told by many people that baking the car in summer could reduced the new car smell. Now I have done it twice in the summer. Almost every sunny day I leave the car outside and open the window just a little. I have verified it doesn't work for this car. Because this time, issue is from seat. I am pretty issue besides the seat, the smell is OK. Just the leather chemical smell is too bad. One detail I noticed is there is no smell from back piece of the leather.

CTNYC

How many miles do you have on your MDX? I've been in some friends' cars that were 2 years old or so with new car smell (but only had 4k miles or so)...

thoiboi

Should have bought an older car






In all seriousness, you can also take it to an interior Detailer who can do something about it

pickettt

I noticed that my "new car smell" has lasted over a year and a half, so far. Luckily, to me, it's not too strong as you describe.

neo1738

I've had my car for 10k miles and still get some of the new car smell, personally I like it so no biggie but definitely not a huge smell at this point. If there still is maybe something is wrong? But again talk to the dealer if it's a strong odor of chemicals.

bigrabbit

Thanks for all the replies.

Problem is very clear. Only the pieces that will be directly touched is made with "genuine leather". The other pieces are faux leather. Unfortunately, this cheap genuine leather is just giving off the awful smell constantly. These faux leather pieces doesn't give off any smell.

After 1.5 years open-window-driving experience, I decide to sell the car now. Just feel guilty to the potential next owner.

I just spent a lot of money to poison myself. I think the manufacturer know what they did --- using cheapest and toxic material to get money as fast as possible.

RDX10

I have to admit. This is the first time I heard someone has sold their car because of a smell. Though I don't necessarily disagree. I have to ask though, did you at least try and ask your dealer to look into it? I see tons of new mdx's on the road, yours is like an anomaly.

Regardless good luck with your sale and your next purchase.

Acuramon

I have a 2010 RDX that I bought almost a year ago. When I first bought it I thought the dealer had used some kind of air freshener to make their used cars smell new. I even started a thread about it -( https://acurazine.com/forums/car-tal...rships-938983/ ). Almost a year later, I still notice a new car smell when I first open the door and get in. It's actually a pleasant odor to me because it's not too strong. If I still notice the smell in a 6 year old vehicle, I can only imagine how strong the smell must have been when it actually was new.

If you can take the strong smell, I guess it would be a good selling point years down the road when you decided to sell.