DON GONYEA, HOST:
Last year, some 28 million cars were sold in China, making it the world's largest automobile marketplace. But the top reason Chinese car buyers point to for rejecting a potential new car - how it smells. They do not want their cars to have that beloved new car smell. So Ford is hiring eight-team smell testers for their Chinese research labs. Their job is to stick their noses on floor mats, carpeting, seats, the steering wheel - all of it - to help eliminate what for many Americans is the smell of freedom and the open road. While we conducted a very unscientific Twitter poll asking where you stand on this issue, more than 1,400 of you responded. Thank you for that. As of Friday, you overwhelmingly loved the aroma of a new car. So it looks like there won't be any job smelling car parts in the U.S. just yet.
(SOUNDBITE OF JUNIOR BROWN'S "SURF MEDLEY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.