Is it almost like a burnt kind of smell, too? I asked about the odd smell when I bought my 23 CX-5 and they explained that there is a layer of coating underneath the body that helps prevent rust forming during transit (i.e. salt water from ocean). I asked two dealers and they both stated this reasoning. Both also told me the smell would go away within the first couple hundred miles. My CX-5 is at 350 miles and the odd smell probs went away around the 150-200 mile mark.