Smells new, looks lived in

My husband says that on warm days he can still smell that new car scent in our vehicle. I say he is either delirious or he is part bloodhound. How else could he detect a smell that has been buried under four years worth of spilled milk and moldy cookie crumbs?

Our car is a mess, inside and out. Perhaps if we could garage it, the outside would be a little cleaner, but there is no room in the garage, or as we like to call it, the great abyss of storage.

It looks quite pathetic during drop off time at the preschool, parked amongst the shiny BMW’s and Lexus’. I wait for them to pull away before opening the door, lest a pile of empty juice boxes comes crashing down to draw attention to our inferior automobile. Naturally, it’s the layers of dirt and pollen that make our car pale in comparison, not the fact that it is a Hyundai.

We do have a high-end car seat to make up for our vehicular shortcomings. It’s so high end, it was nearly impossible to install. Perhaps such a quality brand car seat requires further investment in a high end installer. My husband installed it for free, but it took three days, a variety of power tools and several calls to NASA for advice.

Needless to say, we aren’t inclined to remove it just to vacuum some pesky cheerios and raisins from underneath. Even the cover is difficult to remove, so we just let it ferment, figuring the kid needs to build up her immune system anyway, right?

You would think we would manage to keep the car cleaner, considering the amount of time we spend in it. As a family, we carpool because it’s the only car we have. Though come to think of it, we once had a second vehicle. I think it got buried under the mess in the garage and we forgot we ever had it.

I try to keep the car tidy, pick up the mess when we get home at night, but it just seems to reappear by morning. Sometimes I wonder if there is a family of four living in it overnight, feeding on the remnants of kiddie snacks and sippy cups. By day they hide beneath the layers of jackets, umbrellas and various discards of seasons past.

I’d like to get the windows tinted to block the view from outside. But with the cost of gas rising by the nano-second, we just can’t afford it. Actually, it’s forcing us to cut back on all of the luxuries…like food, electricity and running water. Pretty soon we will be fighting over the ketchup packets in the console.

If things keep progressing this way, we will be forced to sell it and commute in our daughter’s little red wagon. Though we wouldn’t have room for that family of four. I guess they would just be sold with the car. Along with the high end car seat. And the new car smell.

I guess we will only show it to buyers on warm days.