Non-smoker purchasing smoked in Porsche

I have an opportunity to buy a 2002 C2 silver/black with PSM, Adv Technic Pkg (Xenons, Bose, CD changer), in-dash CD, 18" 5-spokes, heated/power seats, 20k miles. $46k I think this is a pretty good price - nearly wholesale. There's only one downside - the current owner smokes. Any non-smokers purchase a smoker's P-car? Were you able to get rid of the tobacco odor? And if so, how? This could be a deal-breaker on this car. FWIW, I'm not some anti-smoking fanatic, but my wife will say ixnay if there's smoke smell. I want to make the deal happen, but I need to be confident we can get rid of the smell.

GREAT PRICE!!!!!

After I quit smoking two years, 6 months and ten days ago I had to shampoo all the carpeting and then I took out both front seats and again I shampood all the carpeting and then I bombed the car several times with Ozium spray. Any professional detailing shop should be able to do it but I have a WashWizardplus so I just used that. As part of the PPI offer to have the interior detailed ($1-200USD) I don't think the current owner would mind and that way you'd be 100% certain.

First thing you do, smack the current owner on the head..... then follow these steps: 1) Vaccuum the hell outa that bitch... get up any ashes on the carpet, seats, etc... take out the ash trays, soak those in warm water with a little bit of dish soap, scrub them, soak em more, take em out, and dry them. 2) Get a carpet shampooer, and hit the carpet, and floor mats with this. let air dry. repeat. 3) Call up Griot's Garage and order the following: - Leather care kit - Odor absorbent 4) Clean glass with 50/50 rubbing alcohol/water mixture. Repeat. 5) Roll down windows, let car air out for about 2 days. 6) If smell is still there, I'll give you $5.00

After you do all of the above, go down to your local leather supplier and buy some old leather scraps. Place the scaps under the front seats, roll the windows up, and let the car bake in the sun for a couple of days. That ought to eliminate the smokers smell....and do a lot to rejuvinating the rich smell of fine leather. Good luck.....and great price. If you decide to pass on the car please pm me and let me know where it is.

Run don't walk away, you'll never get rid of the smell, that sh*t permeates everything. Remember that Seinfeld episode...

Dont worry, the smell will go away, aside form the cleaning everyone else said there is this thing called a air sponge. put one under the seat for a few days after you have cleaned it , it realy does remove odor.

You'll never get rid of it, a deal breaker for me.

*****......you will get rid of it!!!!

Don't even wash the ash trays. Buy new ones. I second the detail shop. Get some cedar chips that they sell for your clothes drawers and put them under the seat. If that doesn't work; lock a male cat in the car for a while.........definitely won't smell like smoke anymore.

Some excellent advice, and some diverging opinions. The tom cat approach did not occur to me! I've been looking into thermal foggers and ozone flooding in addition to good old elbow grease, absorbers and masking with fragrance. The foggers and ozone sound really interesting, but I don't know of anyone who has actually used these. For those of you who have actually tried to remove tobacco odor, did your attempts finally succeed?

yes. That odor absorber I was talking about that they sell at Griots works incredibly well... I should have said that it'd be wise to remove the seat when shampooing...

and like I said, if it doesn't work, $5.00 refund of the car's price! BTW, is it a Cabrio? I said to wash the ashtray as it's cheaper than buying new, but I'm a college student, so I like cheap things...

Is your wife allergic to tobacco smoke? If so as good as the deal is, I'd walk away because it's impossible to remove 100% of the smoke odor. It's possible to remove most of the odor and then minimize the lingering smell with an odor eater of your choice, but there's always a trace. And if your wife is highly sensitive to smoke, she more than likely will react to the lingering smoke odor. On the other hand if the smell of smoke is merely annoying to her, remove the seats and thoroughly vacuum and wash every square inch of the interior and you should be able to get rid of almost all of the smell.

If the tom cat thing doesn't work, go to the dog pound, get a long haired dog, spray it with a garden hose (make sure it is an true Porsche OEM hose) and lock him in the car WITH the tom cat. What smoke odor?!?

A long time ago on a weekly car show, the inimitable Pat Goss was giving guidance on buying used cars. His advice on a smoker's car: walk away. His reasoning was that the smoke gets under that dash and messes with the electrical connections. I can't vouch for this one way or another but it's common practice to forbid smoking in computer rooms for the same reason.

Interesting point. As a hobby, I restore high-end audio equipment, and every so often I get something from a smoking environment. The tar/nicotine residue affects grounding and capacitance values since it appears to be ever so slightly conductive. This has not been an issue with power electronics and line-level signals, but low-level signals from tuners and phono preamps can be affected. My gut feeling is that most of the electronics in a car are fairly robust. On the other hand, the computer related connections could be a problem - and, yes, they are all under the dash. So radio, CD player, all the various digital displays, instrument cluster, etc. might have to be pulled and cleaned to be absolutely safe. Definitely food for thought.

The smoke residue is primarily organic. I'm looking at possibly breaking down the residue into non-odor producing inorganics with a thermal fogger or ozone shock - including the stuff under the dash, in the headliner, seating, etc. This is what they use to restore houses that have smoke damage (and odor) from fires, mold problems and so on. It won't get rid of the residue, but it might permanently knock out the odor. Does anyone have any experience with thermal foggers or ozone treatment?

When I bought my '04, I clipped and lit an Opus X as I was pulling the car off the lot. I turned to my wife and said: "Honey, this is my first $10,000 cigar!" I figured the first one killed 50% of the buyers, and each subsequent one kills off another 1-2%. Pretty soon my market will be down to the boys at the cigar shop where I hang on Friday afternoons. Price of admission, I guess.

wknopf: Good for you. others: This may bug you as I disagree with the majority opinion of the thread. This is what a forum is for so here I go: I'm not a smoker but I am always surprised by the extreme vilification of smoking in this country. It's like the bubonic plague or something. Seeping cigarette smoke affecting electronics? Compared to heat, vibration and yes pollution on the roadway that gets in there anyway... Give me a break. Allergy to the smell? That sounds like a dislike and not an allergy. Allergy to smoke itself is understandable. I do not know of medical allergies to scents. Anyway, thanks to the extreme views, I can buy the ex-smokers car, clean it up and profit from the arbitrage.

Equ, I am a smoker, and I know that the tar in cigarette smoke (not necessarily tobacco smoke, as cigarettes have lots of chemicals put into them) is very sticky. It creates a film on windows, dashboards, etc. It can be removed. I've never heard of it messing up electronics. Never happened in either of the 2 previous cars I've owned/smoked in. I agree with the vilification of smoking that you brought up, but that's a different thread. I do NOT smoke cigarettes in my car, but I do enjoy cigars in it on a weekly basis. I smoked cigarettes in my previous cars, and burned the interior, and did not want that to happen again. Cigar smoke does NOT linger. I've smoked one about every week for the past year in my car, and nobody can smell it. I leave the windows down and sunroof open for an hour, and the cigar stink is GONE. It is possible to remove cigarette stink from a car. I've done it. follow my procedure, don't pass up a great deal such as this one, and enjoy motoring in your brand spankin new to you 996. It'll be a lot of work, but worth it.

I have been able to eliminate the odor from a heavily smoked-in car. It took several steps. 1. Total carpet wash and total interior scrub, including all hard surfaces 2. Griot's odor remover liberally on a sponge ina plastic tray under the front seat 3. Cigarette-lighter deodorizer (seems to create ozone which is somewhat noxious but effective) 4.It still wasn't perfect. What then ended the problem was liberal use of spray stain repellant on the carpeting. It appeared that the process of stopping stains from getting in also stops odors from getting out. In the end, it was worth it. Ultimately, non-smokers detected nothing AS

Been there done that in a land rover. I even used a dealer's 400 dollar "ozone machine" , and every scent and bacteria killer etc. imaginable. IT WILL GO AWAY TEMPORARILY AND WILL ALWAYS COME BACK That being said, if it is a good enough deal, it may be worth it. Just be prepared to deal with the same issue all over again when you go to sell it.

If my car had even the slightest hint of cigarette smoke I probably would have chewed my arm off during the first year I quit. For me, the "thing" that finally eliminated the odor was Ozium.

Midnight Rider - did the odor come back a little or a lot? Did you clean the interior as well (all surfaces, rugs, etc.)?

End of saga... we are passing on the car. This car is going to be sold to a dealer in the next 12 hours for $44k. If someone wants to jump on the deal of the year, contact me and I will give you information on how to reach the seller - but you are going to have to be really really fast. The owner will take $46k. I just hate seeing this car go to a dealer and resold with a $10k premium, when it could go to a real P-car addict on a budget. Here's the description again: 2002 C2 coupe 25,200 miles arctic silver/black power seats with memory heated seats Technics Package (Xenons, CD changer, Bose, in-dash CD) 18-inch 5-spoke wheels brand new Michelin Pilot Sport tires minor nick on shift **** from finger ring very small dent (dime size) on quarter panel (can be removed using dentless removal) one wheel has a small curb scrape Virginia plates Car is located in So Cal I never actually saw the car - the owner was going to drive it up from the LA area to San Jose for us to check it out. But we were going to only do that if we felt there was a better than 50/50 chance of the wife giving it the "nose up" if you will (ie. if she can't smell the smoke after the interior detail). Given her sense of smell, and the comments above (masking the smell with fragrance like Ozium or cedar chips would not be acceptable) - I couldn't honestly tell the seller that I thought we had a solid chance at closing the deal. Mind you, the smoke issue was the ONLY issue. I was pretty confident that the PPI was going to pass with flying colors. The owner has never driven the car over 100 MPH. He's not a Porsche guy, he's not even a car guy. I am BUMMED. I have spent three months searching across the nation for a car with these features. I wanted this car - it was carnal. This was it - this was going to be THE CAR, MY CAR. So if anyone knows of another P-car optioned just like the one above for sale for <$50k (except a non-smoker car) - let me know. I'm gettin' out the Scotch right now - and a CIGAR.

use the above advice on cleaning. I also used citrus orange. but I have had issues with the hvac still smelling. I do not know how to get rid of this. if the person smoked with the windows up you will have more work in removing. goodluck!!

rdsii - thanks! Did you replace the recirculating air filter? A few folks have recommended the Automagic fogger ($4). "Bomb" the interior with the fogger and keep the recirculating air fan running (remove any HVAC filters) to treat the HVAC. I've heard good things about the ozone generators as well. But I have no first-hand experience with either the fogger or the ozone - but they make sense to me since they in theory break down the organic residue that is the source of the odor. The fogger breaks the residue down chemically, and the ozone generator oxidizes it. In fact, I think a smoked in cabriolet would be easier to clean up since you could let UV do the work. But I'm looking for a coupe.

I had this problem a couple of months ago, My brother borrowed my Black Beauty for a long weekend, against my better judgment I agreed (I used his M5) he smokes and promised me he wouldn't smoke in my baby. Well when I got the car back, it smelled like my old college dorm. Pot smell and butts throughout. I had him pay for a complete detail and the smell was completely gone. I got even; I left his M5 door open and let BruiseR in for a couple of minutes. Bull dogs can do major damage in a couple of minutes :-)

my 911 was non smoker. i had in the past had a vette that was a x smoker's car. The air filter is used for cleaning outside air. The smoke would never reach that. I have read about people having the mold smell when the ac is on. I think there is a process to clean that out of the ducts. The car is a good buy and it is what you want. If I was you I would go for it. After all there are worse things that can happen with a used car. with my vette after a few good cleanings I was ok. Except for the AC once in a while. I also picked up the car for a good price. if you pick it up best of luck with your new ride

I totally agree. My ex wife and my ex BMW reaked of her stinking habit. I gave her the car and took the dog. We both lived happily ever after (the dog and me). I'd never purchase a used car owned by a smoker...you'll always smell it IMHO...

Of course you can always simply start smoking...

....do what non-smokers did 20 years ago when they bought a Porsches from a smokers when buying a Porsches from a smokers was not a problem....