I've had my 06 Base since new & the smell of crayons has always been there. Even thou it's lightened a little over the yrs. it has remained as the same crayon type odor. I too have been told that it is a rather customary smell with some German produced cars since they are supposed to be limited to the type of products they can use in the production processes in their countries compared to our U.S. desires for that (NEW CAR SMELL) we've all grown to expect. My Base has no cabin filter so I accept the slightly different smell as my new car smell from my German built cpe.