There are fragrances associated with cars that are just plain old good and comforting. The smell of petroleum is terrific, and the odors in tire stores evoke a sense of nostalgia. Unfortunately, these are chemicals that waft their way into our noses, not merely smells. And probably ones that are killing us. It’s no different from the inside of our cars either. 

That new car scent, the one that’s been bottled and sold as an air-freshener? Deadly. The “new-car” aroma comes from the likes of bromine (found in pesticides), chlorine (found in pools; burns like crazy when your orifices are exposed), and lead (commonly associated with poisoning, as in “you may have lead-poisoning”).

The effects from these chemicals worsen with rising temperatures, too. So it’s highly uncomfortable to step into a sun-baked car in Florida on an August afternoon and extremely toxic. Then when you consider how the average American spends (here comes a depressing statistic) 1.5 hours per day in their cars, it seems there’s a discernable negative health influence directly from the airborne chemicals dancing around the inside of our cars.

Thankfully the folks at the Ecology Center have conducted a study to determine the most and least toxic cars from the 2011 and 2012 model years. Click here to find out the ins and outs of the study and read how your model stands (900 new models are reviewed and scored). The 2012 Honda Civic and the 2011 Toyota Prius were found to be the safest.

And why don’t you go ahead and click here to let CarWoo help you buy a new car after you’ve had a chance to digest all that toxicity data.