OK, I admit that this has nothing to do with the end of the year, or the end of the decade, it is more of a timeless list, here are automotive smells ranked.
Good Smells:
1. 60s British Car-I looked at a 66 Jaguar S Type a few weeks ago, the car was a rusty piece of shit, but the aroma of the interior was beyond intoxicating, aged leather, wood, whatever they stuff seats with, etc., intoxicating
2. 70s German car-not as nice as 60s British car,but still very good. Took me a while to realize why totally restored cars from this era just didn’t seem “right”.
3. Diesel-late 60s, last days of private passenger service, St. Louis Central station, intoxicating.
4. Gasoline-don’t like it, turn in your Jalop card.
Neutral Smells
5. Motor Oil
6. Anti-Freeze (cold)
Bad Smells
7. Anti-freeze (hot)-smells bad and also something is leaking, not good news
8. Gear Oil-Just nasty, sulphur smell, won’t go away
9. Stale Food in Interior-you meant to take the to go box out, you forgot..
10. Stale Farts-Interior-we went on a trip once, had a great, upscale Mexican dinner. The next day I had issues. We left the car and waved the doors and left the windows open, it didn’t matter,came back 45 minutes later, it was still there...