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You Can Buy Car-Branded Cologne and Perfume, But Should You?

Automakers often don’t just limit themselves to making cars. To increase popularity and reach, they create branded products whose only real connection to the core brand is that they share a logo. Usually, such products are commissioned to other companies that specialize in whatever the automaker wants to sell under its own brand, although this is the best-case scenario - when automakers try to make products they know nothing about, results vary from amusing to downright disastrous.
Fiat 500 fragrance 8 photos
Photo: Fiat
Porsche CologneBentley PerfumeMercedes-Benz CologneCadillac PerfumeJaguar PerfumeFord Mustang PerfumeFiat 500 Perfume
Some of the most popular non-car products, common among many manufacturers, are fragrances. These can be perfumes for women or cologne for men and, believe it or not, there’s an entire universe of car-branded scents that you may not have known about. We haven’t tested these out to know whether or not they’re any good, but we’ll do our best to assess their worthiness.

Some of these fragrances didn’t last very long on the market (unsurprisingly), but some have been available for years and are actually selling (surprisingly) well. We know automakers turning sell perfume to boost brand awareness (and please the small number of fans who would actually buy them based on their brand loyalty) is like the army selling you branded cookies to get you to enroll, that doesn’t necessarily mean all these efforts have resulted in bad products.

Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes has a remarkably wide range of fragrances (the widest of all automakers, apparently) for both men and women. For the latter, they have Le Parfum, which they say is “dynamic yet mysterious,” as well as Club described as “a waterfall of amazing freshness” (available as Club Fresh, Club Extreme and Club Black) and VIP Club Infinite Spicy, an intense oriental mix of scents “for the confident, modern man,” (also available as VIP Club Pure Woody, VIP Club Energetic Aromatic, VIP Club Black Leather and VIP Club Addictive Oriental).

But wait, there’s more: another one for men simply called Man (also available as Man Private and Man Blue), and there's even one that’s just called Mercedes-Benz, as well as another that’s called For Men. Basically, the modern male Mercedes driver who wants to smell the way the people who designed his car want him to smell is really well catered for.

Women aren’t forgotten, obviously. Mercedes has several scents for them too. Nowhere near as many as for men, but still a decent selection. These are Woman, For Her and L’Eau - but since Mercedes is a German brand, they really should have called the latter scent “das Wasser” to more accurately reflect the brand’s ethos and the culture behind it.

It’s also worth noting that for many of these, Mercedes also offers deodorants, aftershave, body lotion, and even shower gel. The Three-Pointed Star really has you covered more so than any other manufacturer.

Bentley

Bentley only offers scents for men. These are called Bentley for Men, Bentley for Men Intense, Bentley for Men Azure, Infinite, Infinite Intense, Infinite Rush Momentum, and Momentum Unlimited.

After doing some digging, it turns out the most popular and appreciated of all of the above is Bentley for Men Intense, described as having a boozy, leathery smell. However, since all of these fragrances are quite affordable (compared to others from established players), the one thing none of them possesses is a long-lasting effect - even the most popular choice still reportedly fades away after around three hours.

A short drive in just about any Crewe model will probably give a much longer-lasting impression than spraying yourself with a so-called Bentley scent anyway, but the costs are somewhat different.

Jaguar

Jaguar offers another male-centric range of scents - this must be a trend among British automakers whose cars are apparently only bought by men. We’re sure there are female fans of both Jaguar and Bentley, and even if there weren’t, if the scents were good enough, they would end up becoming popular anyway.

Jaguar Classic seems to be the most popular of these colognes (by the number of reviews written about it, at least). It’s also available as Classic Black, Classic Gold, Classic Red, Classic Motion, Classic Intense and Classic Amber - that’s a lot of classics, but since this is Jaguar, we can understand why the automaker is fantasizing its glory days which it seems so far from today as it constantly trails its German rivals for sales and customers satisfaction.

Aside from the broad Classic range, there’s also Evolution, Vision, Vision II, Vision III, Vision Sport, Jaguar for Men (whose bottle looks the sexiest of the lot, with a nice shape and an alluring shade of British Racing Green), Performance, Pace and Stance.

Porsche

Of course Porsche makes fragrances too and of course, they’re only for men. There’s plenty to choose from, starting with The Essence, a popular fragrance by Porsche Design that some have said smells a lot like the so-called “new car smell” - it’s not spectacular, though, and reviews for it are mixed.

The Essence seems to be the most popular (and it’s also available as The Essence Summer Ice), but other varieties are called Titan, Sport, Palladium and Sport L’Eau. Some of these also seem to be available as deodorant, aftershave, and shower gel.

A 911 GT2 RS driven at full chat on the track will definitely make you sweat, so choosing a Porsche deodorant beforehand may sound like a great idea for most people, at least this is what Porsche thinks.

Fiat

There’s a Fiat 500 fragrance out that the automaker has deemed fitting to call “a mischievous, irreverent fragrance contained in a packaging featuring an iconic and sensual design.” Two varieties are available - the one for women, described as “an authentic explosion of joy, which combines the sparkling, contemporary touch of pink pepper with the woody notes of white musk in a fresh, bold mix, with an unmistakable style.”

The male fragrance is sold as “a play of gritty, sparkling contrasts: the vibrant mix of pink pepper and Timur pepper combines with fresh, sensual notes of grapefruit and patchouli, for an original, appealing result.” We have no idea what they actually smell like, but the bottle looks so darn cute that it’s probably worth buying just for that.

Cadillac

If American cars are more your thing, and you see yourself as sophisticated and chic rather than sporty, then maybe one of the male-only Cadillac fragrances might be to your liking. The automaker markets several varieties: one is simply called Cadillac Cologne (also available as a more intense variant called Cadillac Extreme Cologne and the now discontinued Cadillac Black Cologne), while the other is called Cadillac Coupe Cologne.

Reading reviews of all these varieties of Cadillac-branded cologne, it’s pretty clear that each one seems to be very similar to a much more expensive fragrance from an established company. The downside is that none of them are as intense as their inspiration and they don’t last especially long either... unlike the men Cadillac expects are buying these fragrances (probably).

Ford 

Estee Lauder is an established player in the global fragrance market, whose products are about middle of the pack when it comes to price. It also made a cologne for Ford simply Called Mustang. Its smell is mostly woody and those who have tried it say it smells a lot like Calvin Klein Eternity, a fragrance very popular in the 1990s. Most reviews seem to be very positive, especially since it costs on average around $10.
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