Unfortunately, it’s quite easy for unpleasant odors to build up with time, even if you’re very careful and committed to keeping your car clean. The obvious culprits causing bad-smelling car interiors are pets, food, and dirt. Meanwhile, if you drive around with different passengers regularly, they can all bring their own odors – food, workout clothes, strong cologne – into the cabin in various ways.
The Problems Bad Odors Bring
First, let’s talk about how odors appear in cars and why they’re such a problem.
Every car starts life with that iconic “new car smell.” Interestingly, while many people love that smell, it’s actually mainly produced by volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, which can be quite harmful to health. So, you don’t necessarily want your car to smell that way for too long, but you most likely want your car to smell fresh and clean.
Now, that can be a challenge. If you eat, drink, or smoke in or around your car, odors will build up. If you carry pets and passengers around, that’ll have an impact too. It’s also common for little spillages and mishaps to happen inside a vehicle cabin that leave odors behind. With time, your car’s air filters can also get dirty, or mold and mildew in the A/C can build up, which also contributes to the general smell.
Why is this such a problem?
Scientists have found that bad smells induce a drop in mood and feelings of stress and anxiety, even after only five minutes of exposure. For many, it can also be embarrassing to invite passengers into a car that doesn’t exactly smell the freshest.
Why Not Just Use Air Fresheners?
Air fresheners are the easy, go-to option for many people. That’s why the car air freshener industry is worth over $2.75 billion. But here’s the bad news: earlier on, we talked about the risks of VOCs, and it’s a sad fact that many air fresheners release those same harmful chemicals into the air that fills your car’s cabin.
Additionally, the very name of air fresheners is somewhat deceiving. They don’t really freshen the air. Instead, they just release a more powerful smell to cover up the less pleasant smells that continue to linger. In other words, air fresheners don’t really remove or treat odors in your car, they just cover them up.
The Best Way to Deal with Odors in Your Car
Air fresheners aren’t bad little accessories to have in a car if you want to have a nice scent to greet you when you climb inside. But they’re not going to help you deal with odors in your car in the long term. For that, you need to go deeper, right down to the root of the problem, and use a reputable mobile detailing company in Gilbert that specializes in removing odors from cars.
Here’s how it’s done, stage by stage:
Clearing Out Clutter, Dirt, and Debris
The more dirt and grime in a car, the more likely it is it’ll smell bad, and that odor will gradually ingrain itself into the floors, the walls, and the upholstery of the seats. There may even be specific items, like old bits of food that get stuck under the seats and are contributing greatly to the overall smell.
The first step for getting rid of odors properly is to clear out dirt, debris, clutter, old pieces of packaging, pet hair, and similar using vacuum cleaners, cleaning brushes, and other simple tools.
Deep Cleaning Inside and Out
A basic level of clutter removal should go some way to dealing with bad odors in a car. However, to truly erase them for good, the vehicle will need a deeper clean. This is where you may want to turn to professional detailers or car interior cleaning shop in Mesa.
They’ll be able to use cleaning products like car shampoos, combined with various other tools and techniques to clean the car, both inside and out, and wash away any caked-on mud, stubborn stains, or oily residues. The air filters should be cleaned as part of this process, as well.
Car Odor Elimination Treatments
Lastly, but arguably most important from an odor removal standpoint, is a professional odor elimination treatment. Again, this is something that leading auto detailers offer as part of their services.
Elimination treatments are specially designed to provide an intensive burst of freshness inside the car. They work to neutralize bad odors, whether they be from old spillages or something else, by destroying the germs and compounds that emit the odor and thereby eliminating it at the source.
Invest in the Best Auto Detailing for a Truly Fresh Smelling Vehicle
Using an air freshener can only temporarily hide bad smell in your car but it can’t get rid of it for good. Instead, you should determine what’s causing the smell in the first place and clean it up thoroughly. Leading auto detailers can help you with this. Using their experience, professional cleaning techniques and high end car care products they can ensure your vehicle smells fresh and clean from top to bottom.
