With perhaps the highest reputation for interior excellence and quality, Audi has upped the leather-quality ante and will now only make leather interiors from bull hides. It’s not sexism: bull hides are apparently larger and of a higher quality than those of cows.
From the best, most homogenous bull hides, Audi takes only the “croupon” (the back, once the shoulders and legs have been removed). It’s the part least likely to show scars or scratches from the bull’s life. After a multi-stage tanning process, Audi runs 45 separate tests on leather samples to check them for stretching and wear.
Audi also employs a six-member Nose Team. Formed in 1985, the team is made up of experts picked for their extra-sensitive snouts. They take small pieces of interior components—wood and leather, for example—and heat them to 176ºF. Each so-called professional sniffer then smells each sample before giving it a rating.
The Nose Team helps Audi keep unpleasant scents out of its car interiors. It’s not all fun and games for the testers, though: so as not to pollute test results, the sniffers can’t work if they have colds, and are prohibited from smoking or wearing perfume to work, and can’t even eat garlic.
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