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Ewwwww! 5 worst rental car smells

July 28, 2009

dog in carTravel can be an olfactory experience, by which I mean everything smells. Even your rental car.

Hertz recently teamed up with Fresh Wave to use its IAQ technology to eliminate unwanted odors in its cars. When I heard the news, I had to ask Hertz if it had a list of the worst rental-car smells. In fact, it does.

Here are the five biggest offenders:

5. Old car smell.
4. Trash odors.
3. Pet smells.
2. Heavy fragrances.
1. Cigarette smoke.

“Addressing odor problems is a common challenge for any rental car provider,” said Kent Seavey, a division vice president for Hertz. “It can keep cars off the road and result in dissatisfied customers.”

Hertz may not be the only car rental company that would benefit from air-freshening technology, according to my friends at the Budget Travel blog.

Of course, there’s also a low-tech option for fumigating rental vehicles. But really, wouldn’t rather have one that smells good from the moment you unlock the door?

(Photo: Ikayama/Flickr Creative Commons)

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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10 comments

  • Bill

    I agree with the list.

  • Brian

    I have to agree cigarette smoke is the worst and most common rental car odor I’ve experienced. I’ve flatly refused cars in the past because the cigarette smell was so overpowering.

    What’s worse, I had a horrible experience with a Hertz worker in San Jose, CA he wouldn’t give me a new car because he couldn’t smell the smoke, his reason? “I’ve been a smoker for 25 years and I can’t smell smoke.” Despite the obvious fact that smokers can’t usually smell cigarettes I had to argue with him for 10 minutes to get a new car.

    Before I left the lot, I got on the phone and called Hertz corporate to complain. By the time I was on the road, my one day rental was paid for by Hertz!

    Don’t put up with a dirty or smelly car.

  • Andre K.

    There is one major offender missing from this list – vomit.

  • Les Wilder

    An Avis car we rented to drive from New Orleans to San Antonio reeked of what smelled like a whole bottle of cheap hair tonic having been spilled somewhere. If Avis was trying harder it was trying to make us nauseated.

    These days we rent from National where we can select from at least a few cars on the lot. The first thing we do is sit in each and take a deep breath. Works wonders.

  • http://parkrideflyusa.com/blog Sharon Hurley Hall

    Cigarette smoke is the worst. I once arrived at a hotel late at night and found that they had messed up our booking and given us a smoking room. Even though no one was smoking, the place was redolent – not a nice experience.

  • Brian

    I have experienced cigarette smoke inside a rental car many times and it is just awful and disgusting. I think it is prime time for the car rental companies to start charging customers, who smoke inside the car, a fee (say $20-40) for cleaning when they return the car. Many hotels charge smokers if they smoke inside a non-smoking room. The car rental companies specifically say that smoking is never allowed inside the car yet people still do it as if they “owned” the car. Not only is the smoke inside disgusting, it is also a dangerous form of second hand smoke, and the health statistics show just how many people die each year from that.

  • Dianna

    My brother used to work at Budget Rental, and part of his job was cleaning out the cars after they were brought back. He has some stories that would make your skin crawl, but the worst was a group of me (Rabbis, actually, which is odd enough in the very Protestant area of the Midwest that this took place), who rented a van, and returned it 10 days later reeking of something unidentifiable but disastrous nonetheless. It was like a combination of vomit, garlic, and spices. Ick.

    Luckily, in the rentals I’ve had before, I haven’t encountered problems with smells. I hope I never have to.

  • ed

    The only “smelly” car I ever had was a Jeep Wrangler in Kauai hawaii.
    There was a nasty funk in the car, but we were tired and didn’t bother to argue with the agent. Unfortunately, our resort was in Princeville and the car rental place was in Lihue…half an island away…
    we put up with the nasty smelling car for 2 days, until I needed to shake out a car mat of sand and discovered an insect infestation under the mat (I won’t tell you what insects they were, just suffice it to say, that there were hundreds of them and they were crawling everywhere…didn’t want to bring any of them home with me, that’s for sure!) I called the rental company and told them of my findings and they agreed that I needed to swap out the car immediately…which I did. I was much happier that I did.
    Ed

  • Pingback: Avis will go “smoke-free” next month

  • Jason

    As a former smoker (10 years), I see both sides of the issue. I had a choice of whether to smoke or not. Children, pregnant women, people w/ compromised immune or respiratory systems DO NOT HAVE A CHOICE as to whether or not they can smoke. When I smoked (it was at its worst when I was a 911 dispatcher, where every hour, I needed my smoke), I’d always step well away from doors (not stand in the doorway).

    Now that my asthma’s gotten pretty bad, I certainly appreciate when people offer me the same courtesy as I did previously. I don’t understand why people are so mad about not being able to smoke when and where they please – how hard is it to exit a bar, car, restaurant to enjoy your smoke? Has one lost self-control?

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