Why does our car stink??

[Kalpsn2000]

Recirculation comes on automatically when you go into reverse, so not that. Seems like pollen filter and air con check would be the best bet.

Well, I never knew that.  Get ready for my next post reporting on the crash caused by looking at the climate control instead of looking behind me...

Haha!  It won't come up on the panel but if you listen closely when you have the fans on and stick it in reverse the noise will change slightly when it goes into recirc 

Goes into recirc when you use windscreen washer as well. If your interested 

Didn't know that was case, how come I can still smell the washer fluid when I wash my windscreen?

[MrDo]

Change your Pollen filter. When I bought my GTI the air con had a bad smell, a gentle vomit smell

My local Indy predicted it over the phone and they were correct. Changed pollen filter and it went. All smells of roses now

Pollen filter change makes it all good

[Moz]

Maybe the OP forgot about his post?

[SRC]

Goes into recirc when you use windscreen washer as well. If your interested 

Dammit.  Now I've got to prang the front of my car, too.

[Rachael]

So glad this came up!

Turner my air con on this morning and it was not nice. Smelt like my bin the morning after a good night out 

Least I know what it is now 

[Tortaruga]

Smelt like my bin the morning after a good night out

Does that mean you've puked in your bin?

[Rachael]

Yes, yes I have..
Was a heavy night and it was my bin or my bed.

Just for the record, I threw the bin away 

[trs888]

Sounds like you have bacteria in the aircon system. Not uncommon if it's not been serviced for a while. Probably worse in reverse, because as said above it puts the car into recirculation mode and it will just be pumping smelly air round the cabin. Your best bet is to either get a garage to run an antibacterial cleaner through the system or buy one of the aerosol type cleaners that you leave spraying inside the car while you leave the aircon running. Pollen filter change wouldn't hurt either.

+1 

my dads bmw is really bad. needs doing every 6 months or so. it needs the air con "bomb"

VW did it in my GTI and the guy said it would smell a bit strong for a few days after but i thought it was fine, and i actually liked the smell!

[homesqueeze]

Recirculation comes on automatically when you go into reverse, so not that. Seems like pollen filter and air con check would be the best bet.

Well, I never knew that.  Get ready for my next post reporting on the crash caused by looking at the climate control instead of looking behind me...

Haha!  It won't come up on the panel but if you listen closely when you have the fans on and stick it in reverse the noise will change slightly when it goes into recirc 

Goes into recirc when you use windscreen washer as well. If your interested 

Didn't know that was case, how come I can still smell the washer fluid when I wash my windscreen?

It does it to stop the smell coming in, but yeah I get a little whiff of fluid sometimes too. I think it's just because it takes a second for the recirc to kick in and in that time a little bit of the smell sneaks in.