The HVAC (air conditioning / heating system / defroster) immediately started spewing toxic mold / mildew spors on a new vehicle test drive at the dealer. It occurs while driving, after running the air conditioning for a few minutes, turning the air conditioning off (while leaving the fan running) and waiting a few minutes. It then stinks for a few minutes and then disappears. This occurs every time this cycle is used with the air conditioning and defroster. This occurred in two almost identical vehicles (Honda Civic with different trim levels) with less than 80 miles on them. When I asked the salesman and service advisor about it, they said that they never heard of such a thing. They said it was probably the new car smell. I had a friend concur that it was definitely a toxic mildew odor and that it would need to be treated probably every few weeks for the life of the vehicle. This is not acceptable as it may cause serious health problems and is not considered safe to drive and dangerous if it can adversely affect the health of the occupants. This problem also affects the Acura rsx which uses similar components. This problem does not occur while test driving and renting many other cars for many weeks (e.g. - 2005 Toyota corolla for 2 days, 2005 Subaru outback for 6 days, 2005 Ford mustang for 2 days, etc).

- Scotts Valley, CA, USA