The Smoke is inside the seats and fabrics.
Use this product,. One can/treatment usually does it; if really bad, try another in a week or so.
Auto Shocker ClO2 car interior odor eliminator
I would buy direct as I don't trust this sort of thing on Amazon (too many fake products).

Chlorine Dioxide CIO2 Odor Eliminator Products | Biocide Systems™

Biocide Systems™ offers natural odor eliminator solutions with ClO2, designed to tackle even the toughest smells effectively and safely.

www.biocidesystems.com

Don't forget to change out cabin air filter also, get a charcoal infused one if available.
The product will do vents and such; but what I did (probably not proper to do, use caution). Before you start treatment, set car AC on, and turn ON recirculate. Turn off the car like normal, and begin using the product as instructed. After a couple hours, open door as little as possible and turn on car and close door, let run for about 30 seconds to help get product completely through the vent system. Open door little as possible again, turn off car, close door; and then let sit overnight. 24 hours is best. I held my breath when doing /turn car on/off thing; didn't want to breath it in.
Once done, keep windows cracked whenever possible over the next week for good airing out; it will have a bleachy odor for short time after.
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I once sort of sprayed a lot and soaked my seats with Febreze, while odor was gone, car now always smells like Febreze LOL.

 

I like the smell of Febreze.
I used it to clean same smell from my old 8yo Camry.
It was cleaned in and out, but after a week of ownership the smell started to seap out. And it was bad
Took me 3 Febreze treatments to get it out. Even spray the vents and under the seats

 

Pull out your floor mats and dump scented baking soda on the carpets. Leave it on the carpet for a day or 2, especially in the heat of the day. Then vacuum it up. Should help rid it of some smoke odor and won’t cost much more than a few dollars.

 

The only way to really neutralize the smell is to use an O zone generator.

First replace the cabin air filter, then run the O2 generator in vehicle with the windows sealed. You have to do it with the vehicle parked outside.

If the smell is inside the AC/Heat ducts then you’ll also need to have the vehicle running with the air set to recirculate and the fan on.

You can not be in the vehicle when you are running the O3 generator.


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I've called a company that can perform an ozone treatment, they warned that the treatment can damage the stitching in the seats.

 

If you wanted you could remove the seats prior to treatment, but I’m thinking you need to expose the seat padding and fabric to neutralize the smell completely.

Hotels use this often to neutralize odors of people smoking in their rooms. I’m sure there’s some effect as O3 can damage CPAP machine seals but that’s over time.


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My experience purchasing a vehicle from a smoker did not go well. Did the ozone treatment a couple times and the smell just came back. the smell gets into everything and is very hard to remove. I think there is/was a member on here that basically gutted their Rav and cleaned everything inside and out. I believe they said it did the trick but that takes commitment! If it was a light smoker who had it you might have a chance, I think my previous car was owned by a chain smoker!

 

This car had no noticeable smell when we first test drove it, it was stored indoors in a cool showroom, after 15 min or so of test driving I recognized a smell, that wasn't immediately recognizable as cigarette smoke. After the car has now sat out in the sun with all the windows closed for a few days the smell is noticeable straight away.

 

I had the same problem. The dealer did everything to mask the smell while it was on the lot so when I test drove it all I smelled was carpet shampoo. That lasted for about a week. I have learned if the car doesn't smell like a relatively new car with those distinct new car smells to just walk away if buying used.

 

Did you ever get rid of the smell?

 

The smell disapeared by itself fortunately. We have had the car 8 months now, after about 6 months I have not thought of the smell again.
the cabin air filter was replaced after purchase. Occasionally, but not often, I let it stand with all windows down a half inch or so.
I reccomend the filter shown in post 12 in the thread below because it fits optimally with no flow by around the sides.
I doubt if the new filter contributed that much anyway because it filters only fresh air unless the system is on recirculation, so time is the main remedy.
Perhaps my vehicle was used by just a lite smoker.

Cabin Air Filter Not Fitting Properly, Messed Blower...

So our Blower motor on our 2017 Rav 4 LE started whirring and ticking so I took it apart and found that it was full of leaves/napkins. Upon inspection I noticed the air filter was jammed in there with a gap. We bought a new cabin filter and cleaned the blower motor of debris. But the whirring...

www.rav4world.com

 

Another reason why I only buy new vehicles.