After spending more than 40 years designing mobile equipment, I would like to suggest that the auto companies use just a tiny bit of the design and engineering time they spend on “cup holders” making their production cars mouse proof.
Every car I have owned has had mice nests in the air cleaner, cabin filter, under the dash etc. Often times they chew holes in the air cleaner element which of course is not a good thing for the engine, or when the heater blower is turned on I am inundated with mouse nest parts and droppings. Mice get caught in the blower fan and have to be fished out. I have spent many hours trying to discover how they get in. Then I try to block their access with hardware cloth and silicone sealant. In most cases it is not a simple matter to plug the holes once the car is built. It would have been very simple to design the components with appropriate grills etc. to prevent the problem in the first place.
It seems that considering the cost of a new car it would not be unreasonable to expect some preventive design. I do not think I am the only one with this problem. When I mentioned it to the car dealer service guy, he started to tell me about all of his own mouse problems. So, auto companies, get with it!
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