Lately when it has been damp or humid outside, the car has taken on a distinctly musty smell. A few days ago I laid down some baking soda to help with that, but today I decided to do a thorough cleaning.
When I first got the car I was very impressed with the overall condition, but it was obvious the dealer had done a thorough detailing. After pulling some of the carpets out in the hatch, it was obvious some terrible calamity had happened at some point in this car's past, as there were spots of black sticky stuff that might have been super concentrated dried coca cola behind nearly every fabric surface. I'm thinking a case of ten 2 liter bottles must have exploded in it at some point, covering almost everything.
Some of the stains hadn't come out completely in the detailing, and upon pulling the seats, I discovered the carpets under them were pretty stained, and had some food stuck to them that I hadn't dropped. Additionally, the bolts holding the seats in needed a breaker bar, and seemed to have been glued in place with what looked like melted pink candy - in all of the rear bolt threads. The carpet in the hatch looked relatively clean to the eye, but I threw it in the bathtub and washed it for half an hour, until the water stopped running out brown.
I also pulled the seats and disassembled them, opened all (roughly 30) of the hog rings holding the fabric covers on each seat, and threw the fabric in the washing machine. I ran it three times before I was satisfied.
For the carpets, I used a solution of 50% diluted white vinegar and a healthy amount of dish soap to get the stains up. I used a cloth to dab it into the carpet, and then vacuumed it up, rinse and repeat.
There are still some stains I haven't gotten out completely, and the headliner has some very faint ones I'm not willing to touch.
Total time spent: ~7 hours
^ Still drying.