[Geodude]

So the problem is headrests or more specifically the chemical used during leather treatment for headrests. It's funny how people changed seats and cushions (without even touching headrests lol) and chemically cleaned them and then reported that odor was gone lol. This just shows how powerful stereotypes and gossips are. Power of placebo in action. Combined with 98% clueless people it does create peculiar outcomes.

 

[spas]

So the problem is headrests or more specifically the chemical used during leather treatment for headrests. It's funny how people changed seats and cushions (without even touching headrests lol) and chemically cleaned them and then reported that odor was gone lol. This just shows how powerful stereotypes and gossips are. Power of placebo in action. Combined with 98% clueless people it does create peculiar outcomes.

That's funny as the headrest contains no leather whatsoever. It is completely made out of synthetic material.

 

[Geodude]

That's funny as the headrest contains no leather whatsoever. It is completely made out of synthetic material.

Yes, "leather"

 

[Richardshea]

I purchased my Palisade Limited Trim with black interior in August 2020. Instead of having a new car smell, the interior has an unpleasant odor, the source of which I am unable to determine. I have checked for leaks, mold, etc. to no avail. I had initially attributed the odor to the fact that the car had only recently arrived in country and had been wrapped in protective covering during transport. However, it has now been months and the odor persists. Due to the weather and driving conditions since purchasing the Palisade, I have not had opportunities to give it a good airing out. Is anyone else experienced this unpleasant odor issue?

My 2020 with light colored interior still smells bad in the summer for 3 yrs now.. changing ALL the headrests didn’t didn’t help, car still stinks when it is warm outside. HYUNDAI REFUSED to do anything on the smell once they switched out all the headrests.

Most likely true, but my Limited interior smelled the day after I drove it home. I have to crack my windows after every drive or I get a strange smell every time I open the door. The smell goes away quickly, but always present when I leave the windows closed.

same here,still smells after 3 yrs

Try conditioning your leather with a good cleaner/conditioner. Should help with with the odor.
Rusty

Not going to help the smell as warm as it gets in Texas…better get used to it.

 

[Richardshea]

if you smell an unpleasant smell its not just you and it isnt anything you have in the car. I bought a Limited Palisade with black interior in October 19. To put it in the words of the Hyundai technician “it smells like old worn socks”. The smell takes your breath away when you first open the door and i have a poor sense of smell. I met a woman with a Limited Palisade with light interior and when I mentioned this her eyes got big and threw her hands up in the air. She told me she purchased the first one the lot sold in July 2019 and had been thinking it was something she had in the car all along. She had been trying for 8 months at this point to get the smell out, but could not.
My wife opened a ticket with Hyundai’s corporate office after taking it to the dealership twice where they order bombed it and vacuumed it to no avail. The techs told my wife they could smell what she was talking about. When corporate(Coyle) called me to tell me they were closing the ticket because (Sam) the service director said it smelled like new car smell i had them hold open the ticket. I called Sam and told him i would see him tomorrow so he could fix his error after we determine he never smelled my wife’s car. Sam opened the door in front of me and pulled back out and acknowledged that was definitely NOT a new car smell. We went back in and I had Sam call Coyle to confirm this, but of course Coyle didnt pick up. Sam and I both left voicemails, Coyle didnt call me back. Sam said he was contacting his director who would advise what they would do about this and would call me back. Sam didnt call me back either. I got home from work today and my wife tells me corporate called her and told her they were not going to do anything to fix the old sock smell in our $50,000 Hyundai and that she could take it up with the BBB. I heard Hyundai didnt have great service before, but seriously?

Same think happened to me, Hyundai just told me sorry and let the BBB figure it out.

 

[JR Jr]

I bought a stinky 2021 Palisade. I read about the smell in forums before I picked it up and told the dealer I didn’t want a stinky car. When I picked it up our palisade was sitting next to another one ready for delivery with all the doors open. I couldn’t smell the odor and thought I would certainly smell something if it was bad. After taking it home it really smelled the next day. It smelled so bad you could smell it outside of the car in the garage. People would get in the car and comment on the horrible smell. I was suspect of the headrest explanation so I took the headrests out and put them in plastic bags and kept them out of the car for a few days. The car still stunk but the headrests in the bags not so much If at all. I then used a regular spray cleaner with scent and a microfiber cloth and vigorously cleaned the ENTIRE vehicle interior. All carpet, glass, plastic, headliner etc. The smell was gone but barely crept in faintly after a month. I re-cleaned the entire vehicle interior again and this time the smell did not return. I don’t know what was causing the smell but my theory is the headliner. The smell was on NAPA (sp?) leather vehicles and those vehicles also came with the microfiber headliner. The product I used was made by Fabreeze and is similar to Pledge multi surface cleaner. It isn’t available anymore. It takes some effort but you can get rid of the smell. I loved my Pallisade so much I bought a 2022. No smell. Yay!

 

[Richardshea]

Try conditioning your leather with a good cleaner/conditioner. Should help with with the odor.
Rusty

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

[Lou1947]

I had all of my headrest replaced last year. Now that the warm weather has arrived the odor is back. I am starting to wonder if the odor is not coming from some of the plastic parts or from the ultra side like material on the head liner

 

[jim747]

Same thing happened to me with the warm and wet weather this summer. I had virtually eliminated the odor (2021 Limited) with a couple of Chlorine Dioxide treatments last summer. I never had the headrests replaced -didn't want to go through the required dealership process.
Guess I'll try another Chlorine treatment and see if it works again.