So this one is a little odd. I bought a CPO 2016 C4S from a dealer about 2 months ago. When I test drove the car, the dealer knew I was on my way over so they had the car washed inside and out before I got there. I fell in love with the car and brought it home that day. A few weeks after driving the car, the "scent" of whatever they used during the interior cleaning started to wear off. I noticed that when I open the door, there is a moderately strong odor coming from the inside of the car. The odor would mostly disipate once I start the car and air circulates from the HVAC system.

I can't put my finger on whether this is the smell of the leather or something else. I have owned two Caymans before but they didn't have a leather interior. This 911 has a full red leather interior with black leather dash. At first I thought it might have been smoke but have subsequently ruled that out (I have a very sensitive nose when it comes to smoke). What the heck do I smell when I get into the car? Does leather inside a Porsche have a different odor than most other leather in cars? Has anyone else noticed something similar? This is drivng me nuts and taking away from the pleasure of the car.

 

Well, what does it smell like to you?

I'm sensitive to smells. I can tell when I car has been in a body shop because it will have a certain body shop chemical smell to me.

Likewise, I had my HVAC repaired early in my ownership. I could smell something akin to glue after the dealer did that. Killed my new car smell.

Leather smells like leather. If you don't smell natural leather, then its something else.

 

I love the smell of our Targa. When it's parked I intentionally keep it all closed up so the aroma lasts as long as possible.

My hunch is something occurred under the prior owner's care that is causing the smell.

Baking soda eats smells.

 

"My hunch is something occurred under the prior owner's care that is causing the smell"

+1.
I am very sensitive to odors.
Euro standards for VOC's (Volatile Organic Compounds) are very good.
Neither my Boxster, full leather nor C4S, partial leather have any ordor that I can notice.
In some cars if the AC fan for removing drainage water does not function correctly, the water turns foul and you smell that on startup. As the air flow clears the smell and water it then goes away.-Richard

 

 

I wish I could find a way to describe the smell. The best I can say is that it smells a bit like BO.

 

IMO Porsche's, at least the newer ones, do smell different than other cars with full leather. I've yet to sit in a Porsche and be intoxicated by that wonderful smell of leather (think top quality, broken in baseball mit) like that of some BMWs for example. Now this may be different with Porsche's natural leather variant but I wouldn't know because I have yet to come across one at the stealerships.

The first thing I request after we make a deal on a used car is to please not touch the interior.

I think that that you should leave the windows down and air out the car for several days in your garage.

After that use your favorite product and treat your leather, all of it, to a nice cleaning and conditioning. As far as product, I use Leather Masters Matte which has a very neutral odor and helps bring out the natural leather aroma. I know, however, there are products on the market that smell more like leather but I haven't used any.

Let is know if these two steps don't do the trick.

 

Interesting that you cautiously call the smell b/o. Several years ago the seat belts on wife's SL500, which were gold, were dirty. I bought a liquid cleaner from Griots garage. Well, after using the product, which they highly recommended and really didn't do a great job, they retained an odor-just like the smell on the old Metro in Paris. BO. ( no offense to Parisians but they just recently discovered anti-perspirants). The odor stayed till we sold the car. My long winded point is that someone might have used a cleaner on the interior such as carpets that has an odor the your are noticing.

 

i bought a used audi sight unseen once....i PO had dogs...i could not stand the smell after 3 professional interior details and hundreds of dollars on oder removal products. 4 months later i traded the car in.

 

IMO, 911's do pick up a bit of aroma as they age. Smells slightly like an older car. I think I test drove a dozen 991's before I bought the one I did and they all had a slight "old car" odor to them. Not at all unpleasant to me, or my wife, and we are both fairly sensitive of nose.

 

Two out of three of my 911s have had full leather interiors and have had no odds smells. It sincerely doubt it is the leather. I would guess there is some mold somewhere, either in the AC condenser, which has been known to happen sometime, or somewhere under the carpet. Mold can have a sort of BO smell.

In my son's Kia, we eventually found some mold under his passenger side carpet coming from a slow water drip coming from the AC unit, which itself turned out to be due to a partially clogged AC drain. When your A/C is running, you do see car dripping out under the car, right? That would rule likely that out.

It may also be worth asking the dealer to investigate. They may do it for free as a good-faith thing. Can't hurt to ask. Tell them there are people on the forums saying that this is sometimes an A/C problem and then it will likely be covered under the CPO.

 

Hard to think that a 2016 could have dirty cabin filters already. But worth a try. The activated carbon filter ($$) is right under the glove box. Might help.

Maybe a good leather cleaning is needed to remove the prior owner's BO. I like the Lexol Leather Cleaner (orange bottle) and Zaino Leather Conditioner Z10.

 

My 911 was custom, picked it up the day after it arrived. Never really had much new car smell.

My thought was, as I recall, that new car smell is a big selling feature and companies are "increasing" the smell artificially now. Read about somewhere. Using dyes etc that purposely amp up the new car smell. So what I consider baseline may actually be manipulated... and therefor an honestly made new car smells less so. Porsche doesn't seem like the kind of company that needs to mess with that stuff, so maybe they don't.

As proof, I offer that swinging by Porsche and sitting in a few showroom cars will yield much less scent than swinging by BMW or Mercedes.

 

Pizza worked well on an old car of mine with a similar issue... Accidental find... Left a pizza overnight in it, when the pizza smell left after a few days, so did the old smell with it... Then I did filters too....
Since the air is always on by default on those cars, could it be an AC issue and you need to disinfect that ?