In early July a friend who has a five year old Ford Focus noticed a "dank drain-like" smell in the car. The intervening eight weeks has not seen it diminish. In fact it has got worse, even permeating into jackets etc being carried in the car. Thinking it might be a rotting rodent a check (assisted by several people on several occasions) under the seats, especially the folding up rear one, plus stripping out the boot completely and looking in other spaces in the car, feeling for any damp, has found nothing.

It's not really possible to find the area of the car the smell might come from, as it is so bad when you open up although it obviously goes when driving with open windows. The length of time is such that by now a dead mouse would surely cease to have an effect (and in any case where would the body be?) so we turn to you for expert "nosiness". The final idea I had was that the air con system might somehow be the problem, but when it is operated no extra noticeable smell comes out of the vents.