open a bag of charcoal its absorbs the odours in your car

 

Steam cleaning can really help, I had good luck with Oznium in my leather clad Celica to kill the ghosts of the previous owners bad habit.

 

Blast Lysol down the outside air intake with the fan running.

 

I agree with the consensus here that if your wife is that sensitive just don't bother I'm afraid. It never fully goes away, working in rental the actual smell eventually disappears but technically it always remains.

I can however grade the methods used because we had to try everything.


Very short term I'm afraid. This is the least effective of the methods mentioned, the smell comes back within an hour or so and it will still seem bad. Its better than spraying air fresher on its own but its effectiveness is again too short term.

Put coffee grounds in a bowl and put in on the dash where the sun will warm it, with the windows closed.

The effect here is decent but like using sprays the actual smell simply returns just at a slower rate, and this one has the potential of making a mess of your car if you forget.

Ozone generator.

This is the most effective solution, but this is the most expensive solution too. The smell definitely goes away along with most other smells too but unless you need an ozone generator for other things this is not cost effective. We use this thing for bad cases of cigarette smoke when time allows because you need roughly 1 hour or 2 to make the car pleasant enough again.

 

Problem with cigarette smoke is the smoke particles are so extremely small that they literally land and stick everywhere. You can't possibly clean a car well enough to get out the particles, especially if someone is already sensitive to cigarette smoke/nicotine. IMO don't fight it, walk away.

 

Very true, however you could never tell my car was smoked in now. I cleaned it several times thoroughly and the seller had it professionally detailed. At first after sitting in the hot sun it would smell a little but that went away after about a 2 weeks. All I get now is the smell of leather when I get in it after it's sat for 6 months in storage over winter. It's not a bad smell of leather either, just that earthy smell.

 

I'm with TrailDust on this one. There's just a ton of fabric and other areas for the smell to permeate: floor, headliner, seats (if leather then the padding), HVAC. And if you discover next summer that you were unsuccessful in eliminating the odor in just one of those places, you're not going to know which one is still the problem. Why take the risk?

 

Put coffee grounds in a bowl and put in on the dash where the sun will warm it, with the windows closed.

 

I agree with Traildust. The smell of tobacco smoke is nearly impossible to completely get rid of. I'd consider it a deal breaker and keep searching for a car that hasn't been smoked in.

 

Ozone generator.

 

I would most definitely skip that deal. I'm extremely sensitive to the smell of cigarettes, and it doesn't matter how many times a car has been detailed...if a smoker has owned it, I can usually tell, especially when you first open the door on a hot day.

 

another vote for walking away. cig smoke is never fully eliminated.

 

another vote here for walking away. Maybe to a non-sensitive person, the smoke smell can be "eliminated" or rather not noticed. But if she gets migranes, just walk away. It's way too much work regardless.

 

http://airclenz.com/ Disclaimer: I've never used this stuff myself. However, I do know of people that have and they rave about it. It has instructions, but the basic idea is activate it, start the car and run the fan full blast, roll up the windows, let it work. It is expensive though ($90), and I wouldn't buy a vehicle with an odor in hopes this gets rid of it, only to sell one.