It was my fault, really. I was the one that thought the Smart car was so cute and cool looking, so with Cash for Clunkers winding down, Katsu and I took a drive up to the dealership in Lynnfield. The sticker prices were a little higher than I’d imagined (18k for the high-model Barabus), but we took a test drive anyway. Since the car only has two seats, we had to go separately. I’ll spare you all the gory details, but my husband and I walked away with two very different opinions of the car.

“It’s a shitwreck!” I exploded, driving home in my Focus. “It drives like a fucking go-kart on Xanax.”

“I love it!!” shouted Katsu. “Especially that Barabus. It’s limited edition! We’d be the only ones to have it!”

Thus began a long and bitter argument over whether or not it was worth paying nearly six months salary on a car with two seats. Things got ugly quickly, but I dug in my heels. No Barabus. “Ok, well then what about the Passion?” countered the effervescent Katsumi. “We could get that floor model with the DVD player and the GPS!”

“Why? We already have GPS on our iPhones, and who needs a DVD player for a two-person car?”

“It would just be SO COOL!!!”

And that was the gist of things. Katsu wanted something cool, I wanted something practical and cheap.

“What about the Yaris?” I asked, “Or a Fit?”

“They’re NOTHING compared to the Smart car.”

In the end, I caved, allowing Katsu to have his dream:

And now, we are the proud owners of one Smart for Two. With GPS and a DVD player.

All the better for me to ignore my husband on long, slightly cramped car drives.