So excited! Love this machine. EXCEPT–on my way to take it in for registration, I had to take a few puffs from my inhaler. It was as if every allergen on the planet was in the EuroVan. It was as clean as it could be, but my lungs locked up.
OMG! Did we make a terrible mistake buying a 20-year-old vehicle?
I could NEVER sleep in this thing with whatever was causing me to have a severe allergic reaction inside the van. Perhaps I could get the thing steam cleaned. While at the DMV, I searched for full service car washes. Not everyone offers upholstery steam cleaning, I learned after several phone queries. One said that yes, they steam clean. YES!
After a two and half hour nightmare DMV visit, Gilda, was sent in for a full on cleansing.
“Do you steam clean the inside of vehicles?” I double-checked with the man clutching a clipboard and pen at the entry into the full-service car wash. He nodded yes, and I said, do it! “There’s something in here that is choking me up, and I can’t live with it.”
$200 later, the entire van was free of allergens. I drove home and could breathe like a normal human.
Tip from the auto detail supervisor: “I could smell whatever it was that was causing you problems. I’m pretty sure that it came from the air conditioning used on long trips. When you do that, open the windows every hour or so.”
He was spot on. No more severe gunk forcing me to use my inhaler.
The EuroVan Chronicles 