I took my car in for valeting two weeks ago because we had been to the beach and it was full of sand. Opted for the fancy "gold" valet where they clean the carpets and seats because we never have our cars valeted and just do it at home usually. It didn't smell like anything in particular when I brought it in.
When I picked it up it smelled clean but over the next few days it started to smell strongly of synthetic strawberry plus that "new car smell" scent. I realised the valet company card dangling on the rear view mirror smelled of strawberry and threw it away.
The smell has not gone, if anything it's worse. I have torn the car apart looking for another nasty air freshener card, sprayed with Oust, Febreze, waitrose own brand fabric refresher, wiped down seats and carpets with dilute fairy liquid and with dilute Persil non-bio. We are freezing our bums off driving around with the windows open. It smells like someone spilled a strawberry yoghurt in there two weeks ago and it never was cleaned.
The weird thing is that the seats and carpets themselves don't smell bad! When you put your face up to them you just smell febreze and persil now. I thought it was just my imagination by now, but today the guys at the garage for the MOT wrinkled up their noses at the smell 😳
Any suggestions?? Can a horrible smell go into the plastic? I'm worried that if I bring it back for valeting it will smell even worse!