Not only that , but like a two dollar cologne , the effects can linger and linger for years , stinking up not only your shiny new car , but the reputation of the entire vehicle industry itself . AOL Autos : Best new small cars Who says so ? Just about everyone in the vehicle business these days . But the initiator was The Ecology Center -LRB- EC -RRB- , a membership-based , nonprofit environmental organization based in Ann Arbor , Michigan . AOL Autos : 10 most fuel-efficient new cars In a 2006 industry-awakening report entitled `` Toxic At Any Speed : Chemicals in Cars and the Need for Safe Alternatives '' , this independent green organization declared that much of the material in most car interiors that produce that new car smell is made with toxic chemicals known to pose major public health risks . The report went on to say that not only are vehicle drivers and passengers breathing toxic air , but are also in constant physical contact with dangerous chemicals leaching from just about every interior surface of a new vehicle . The report says these chemicals give off gases that not only contaminate
-LRB- AOL Autos -RRB- -- Ah , that new car smell , that eau de car-logne ; it does an ego good while it does a wallet bad . And now it turns out , it can do bad things to your health , too . Air freshners can contain aldehydes , esters and ketones , industry spokesman says . All these years , while we were being offered safety first , last and front , side and rear ways , hardly anyone in the vehicle industry had given much thought to what actually was in that perfume de profit , the new car smell that car buyers sought and bought . As everyone knew , pollution related to vehicles originated from the exhaust pipe , not the shifter knob . It was spewed out the back of the rear , not the back of the rear view mirror . Well , what everyone thought they knew was wrong . It turns out -- take a deep breath -- that most of that new car smell is not some carefully-compounded , luxury , feel-good incense to the Mammon gods . But the new car smell comes from toxic gases .