Someone mentioned new car smell on the episode of "Sports Night" I watched this morning, and now I can't get it out of my head. I have this need to smell new car smell now. I've never understood quite what makes new car smell, or why it's so appealing. Someone once told me that new car smell is the #3 most-appealing aphrodisiac smell to men, just behind vanilla and the combination of strawberries and rhubarb (that second one, I'll never understand). Maybe it's the promise of new machinery, maybe it's the excitement of a new car, maybe it's the joy of owning something brand new like that. They make new car smell. At least they try to. When my parents gave me my first car for my 16th birthday, Mom sprayed the car with a can of "new car smell." When I got into it and she asked me if I noticed anything, I said, "Yeah, the car reeks of marzipan. Did you go to a bakery and leave something under the seat accidentally? It's making me hungry."