important

Friend bought a car that hes trying to resell and it has a pretty strong smoke smell.

Theres actually a half smoked cigarette still in the driver's side door compartment, lol.

ronkh57

ozone generator

cmonkey713

In the past I have used commercial ozone generators on numerous cars. They will not remove all the smoke odor especially on humid nights for some reason. The main culprit is the carpet. If you clean all the hard surfaces, replace the cabin air filter, run "Odor Elimitor" through the HVAC intake and shampoo the carpet you should be pretty good. There is also an evaporator box cleaner spray that you can get which cleans the HVAC evaporator coil without taking it out. In addition to all this put the windows and top down/off and let it sit in the sun. The ultra violet light works to remove the odor too.

2000 black c5

Try putting a plate with fresh coffee grounds on it on seats overnight. Read about this online somewhere. Tried it and worked pretty well for me, if you don't mind coffee smell(as opposed to smoke) for awhile but does dissapate.

ZimC6

Fresh Wave. GREAT stuff!!

ztheusa

There is no way to completely eliminate the smell except for:

Grzldvt1

Good answers, unfortunately, not quite right. This can be one of the most difficult aromas to get rid of PERMANENTLY.
Smoke rises, your A pillars and the headliner above the window/seats is where the smoke/nicotine accumulates. My detail shop has done several hundred cars with smoke damage and you have to get rid of the source before you ozone it.

Go to Lowes/Home Depot and buy a bottle of ZEP Degreaser, it is the best on the market.
Use cotton towels
In my shop I stick my nose up into the pillars and headliner to locate where the smoke is the worst and attack those areas a little more than the rest
Spray the towel,NOT the headliner or pillars. Spraying the pillars/headliner can cause irreversible stains.
Wipe the pillars and above the windows with the towel sometime you have to do it multiple times, then use a shop vac to pull the degreaser out, which in turn will pull the smoke/nicotine.
If it is really bad, you may have to do the entire headliner. This is a very labor intensive project to do it correctly. Do not soak the headliner, but enough ZEP to clean the surface, the ZEP will do the rest.
Then do the door panels, seats, visors, and carpet.
Next get Ozium, available at O'Rielly's or most auto parts store. Open the hood, set the HVAC system to vent with the windows closed, turn on ACC and set to the lowest fan speed, and spray the Ozium into the grid under the hood that brings in fresh air. Ozium has an aroma and you should smell it coming into the cabin. Once you smell it, turn off the car and let it set for a couple of hours. The Ozium will kill any bacteria in the HVAC system.
This should get rid of the source. Take the car with the windows up, and put in the sun for a few hours. Then check it out, if it still has an aroma, you can rent an ozone generator and let it run all day and overnight. That should get rid of anything that is left.
OR
Take it to a reputable detail shop and let then handle it. Ask them how they remove smoke, if they don't tell you the above process, move on.
Many shops will use a quick sanitizer that gets rid of the smell for a few days. Don't accept anything less than what I have described. I cannot even begin to guess how many cars we have had come in, where the solution was short cut by others only to have the aroma come back.

Kenny94945

Post 7 offers good advice.
Yes, very difficult odor to remove.

Degreaser, Ozium Spray, coffee grounds, newspaper and I also say the Ozone Machine as worth renting as the last step. You may even need to do a AC system cleaning...BG products.. for the condenser, heater core and ducting.

Again difficult odor to remove ...good luck.

Beelost

Sprinkle the baking soda over as many porous surfaces as possible. These include the mats, seats, roof (try using a duster to fling the baking soda onto the carpeted roof), and wherever else the smell may have permeated. Work the baking soda into whatever surface it's on. Than wait as long as you can and finally vacuum it up along with particulates that may be causing the car to smell.

CaliVetter

Pop the hood and replace the cabin filter with a new one. Pour white distilled vinegar on the new cabin filter and put it back inside the enclosure. Also wipe the white vinegar on the carpeted areas with a towel. Lastly, leave the bottle of white vinegar in the car with the top off overnight with all the windows rolled up. Keep the cabin filter in the car for a few days before replacing it again with a new one and YOU'RE DONE!