In a word, the car exhaust smoke is caused by condensation — in two separate events. It’s similar to why you can see your breath on a winter day.

Black smoke from a car's exhaust typically indicates an overly rich fuel mixture — meaning there's too much fuel and not enough air being burned in the engine's combustion chambers.

Dear Car Talk: I have a 2022 Ford Explorer Platinum with the 3.0-liter twin-turbo V-6. It has 15,000 miles on it. When I start it up cold, it blows a cloud of white smoke out the tailpipes — a ...