Studies have shown that air in the cabin of your car can be worse than the air outside. This can be especially problematic for those of us with allergies.

During the spring and summer months contaminates such as pollen, dust, mold spores, smog, and even diesel fumes can easily enter passenger compartment through the air conditioning, heating, or ventilation systems making the air inside six times dirtier than the air outside.

p.s. Did I ever tell you about the time a squirrel built a nest inside our cabin air filter?! True story!

Replace Your Air Filter

You can protect yourself and your passengers, and improve the vehicle air quality, by replacing the vehicle’s cabin air filter annually, or even more often if you have heavy contaminates or you have allergies.

If you have a vehicle that is year 2000 or newer, there is a good chance it has a cabin air filter. Many can easily be replaced in just a few minutes, or you can have a certified technician do it for you.

Try An Air Purifier

In addition to traditional allergens, air pollution has now become a major problem. Pollutant levels are often higher inside because cars take in emissions from surrounding vehicles and recirculate them and can be 15x worse than the air just a few feet outside the vehicle. (IQ Air)

Traditional air filtration systems are not effective at removing ultrafine particulates, VOCs, carbon monoxide, and other pollutants so changing your air filter won’t help in this situation.

One thing you can do to reduce the amount of air pollution present in your vehicle is to use a high-powered in-car air purifier. You can find a range of different brands and price points on Amazon, and these are a great way to make sure you are breathing only clean air.

Thanks to Jeep Cheap for helping provide this useful information about how to improve our indoor vehicle air quality.