The Best of Car Talk - #2468: Ok for Me but Not for Thee

Episode Date: August 24, 2024

Truth Shmooth! Mere moments after Click and Clack help Victoria from Tucson dismiss her husbands fibs about putting an air conditioning unit in their old car, our boys are making up stuff so that Reed from North Carolina can talk his wife out of pulling a horse trailer with his beloved Ford. It's a delicate dance on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Get access to hundreds of episodes in the Car Talk archive when you sign up for Car Talk+ at plus.npr.org/cartalkLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

If you're hearing this, that means you haven't gone sponsor free with NPR plus. Join us on the plus side for awesome podcast perks across more than 20 NPR podcasts, including bonus episodes, behind the scenes content, sponsor free listening and more learn more and sign up at plus dot NPR dot org and never hear this promo again. Hello and welcome to Car Talk. I wanna do it with you, come on. Oh, you wanna do it together? Sure, do it in harmony? Go ahead, you start. Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack the Tapper Brothers.

Broadcasting this week from the center. Well, I don't know where we're broadcasting from. Oh, see, that's why I do all those with the intro because you're an old fool. We're broadcasting this week from the center for auto show displays here at Car Talk Plaza. Now, you know me, I never complain and I hate to be picky. And I don't want to be over critical, but I do have a suggestion for American Izuzu

Motors. Now, we went to the auto show last week here in Boston, and I'm sure some of you have heard about the bad press that Izuzu got recently. You know what you're going to say. Consumer Reports, well, they claim that the trooper is prone to roll over too easily if you like turn the steering wheel. Yeah. I guess it's all right if you're...

Yeah, I mean, unless you've been living in a cave, you know that Consumer Reports said that the vehicle was unacceptable because it didn't pass their whatever you call that test. Avoidance test you call that test. The weave test. The avoidance maneuver. Anyway, we walk into the Azuzu area and what's sitting there, you ready for this? A tilted platform is the Azuzu trooper. It's like at a 45 degree angle and the thing is ready to flip.

Yeah, I mean they've got it so it's already got a tip over and it isn't even moving. And everyone is saying, isn't that thing going to tip over? I mean, what's with them? Well, I guess it's like staring the dragon in the face. I mean, you might as well come right face to face. Maybe they were trying to prove, hey, look at the tilt that it's at. And it didn't tip over. The fact that it was changed to the platform.

It was a subliminal message. Oh, is that it? Could have been. But I remember a couple of years ago when there was all the flap about the GM gas tanks exploding, GM at the auto show had some magician who was a fire eater. So you walk by the GM exhibit and you see

flames shooting up. All right, baby. I mean, what are they thinking? Who knows? But I think that maybe subliminal messages here at work here, we just were too stupid to figure it out. And yeah, we took it literally and they meant it a little more subtly and we were just...

Yeah, okay. Want me to read some mail? Sure. I know that I can see the array of mail before you. I got so much good mail here. There's so much. Here, I'll give you this one. Oh no, do it, Sean. mail here there's so much I have here I'll give you this one oh no I had many a giggle fest in my Saturn pulling out and reading the owner's manual index who

is this guy Willie can't read us writing from Montara California Willie Zilber it looks like I don't know what it says but it's interesting he highlighted a few of these things for me arm here's is subject index, I'll start from A. Arm, comma, wearing a safety belt under your. Ha ha ha ha ha. Blizzard, comma, if you're caught in air. Ha ha ha ha. Good, good.

Rotate, comma, if you're stuck and your front wheels don't. Ha ha ha ha... This is great! Snow, if you're stuck in deep. Snowstorm, if you're caught in a bad. This is excellent! It's a little unusual. It is unusual. They tried to cover...

They tried to cover all the bases. Toad, if your car has to be. That's very good. Saturn, they're always thinking. They're one step ahead of everybody else. Absolutely. I think that's great. The number is 1-800-332-9287 if you want to ask us a question or discuss some important

issue regarding transportation of all kinds, not just cars hello your card talk hi this is sent you from marion kansas i sent the m marion kansas yet little tiny town you know i figured as much at nineteen hundred people give or take so what's up sent out well we have a nineteen eighty seven chevy f ten pick up track it doesn't work. My husband's out of town and he's going to be out of town until Christmas.

I wanted to surprise him and say, I talked to the car talk guys and they told me what's wrong so all you have to do is go out and fix it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, excellent. What's he doing out of town until Christmas? He is on a drilling rig in the middle of the Persian Gulf right now. I was just going to say what part of the oil business is he involved in?

Absolutely. What, they can't get any local drillers? They got to bring them in from Kansas? Sure, because he works for an American company, right? That's the one. Yeah. Yeah, you've got to get some American people over there. That's why all these guys make a ton of money, and that's why you can afford an 87 S10 pickup.

No, we have two daughters and colleagues. That's why we can't afford 87 S10 pizza. No, no, we have two daughters and colleagues. That's why we can't afford anything other than the 87. Yeah. All right. Well, so what's wrong with it? Well, it's been giving us some problems. You know, it wouldn't start quite right. And I thought, well, it's a battery, no big deal.

So I sent my daughter number two in it, sent her to the mall shopping. It's better than her 74 bug that leaks oil. She gets over there, her shopping comes out and It doesn't start was it dope Nothing you turn the key in nothing nothing. So my dad goes over there Thinking, you know, let's just jump the kid, you know jump the batters. No problem. That wasn't it either so this friendly farmer came over, you know, they was shopping at the mall and They decided it's probably the starter. So they came back back home and got me I get dragged into these fun things and we

dropped my dad in the tools off at the mall so he could take out the old starter mom and I went on to the nearest big city that has one of all night car park places well she just was a little bit precipitous on your part I would say so far yeah so we come back dad's trying to put it in, it's nine o'clock at night, it's cold, dark, we have one flashlight, but he's got inner ear problems that when he lays on his back and has his hands in the air he gets sick. So in the meantime he's sick trying to put this in, we get it in. Oh I know he ralphed in the truck. No we weren't that good good knowing we missed out on that one but

get the and we jump it start perfect drive at home thinking this is great we've got all the problem thought yeah today's letter i give the keys to my daughter she's going to school so i number two or one another daughter number three three dot on the? school before will go on another three is on our way to school i see that would be the

crystal ball i see many weddings now we have to have already to already older than that into a winter marriage how can you afford eighty seven pick up track all weddings uh... well and college you better get a job man i have enough of a job here now what did you want to stirs me since he said that after dad put the starter in, you had to still jump it.

Well, they drained the battery, you know, they thought the battery was dead. Yeah, I know. I see the whole thing. It's unraveling or raveling before me. So daughter number three gets in to go to school. So anyway, she tries to start, nothing happens. I go out and look at it. Whenever you turn the key, you know, like you're gonna turn it on and it doesn't Uh-huh a little battery light goes there's a little battery Yeah, I caught it. All the way over nothing dad comes over tried to jump it The battery when he hooked the battery up revved his engine

I turned the key not to turn it on just turn it the battery was back up where it's supposed to be But the minute I try to turn it on nothing, right? Okay I got a battery here a dead battery. Well, yeah, you do but you might not know why I think I know why Okay, yeah, and it may not even be dead. Okay, maybe sleeping acting dead playing dead as we say Yeah, you haven't had any except for the farmer no other professionals look at that we know that but you haven't taken it to a shop and had anyone now we have these kids in college this is too expensive yeah yeah well first of

all you were a little bit rash in deciding that it wasn't gonna take a jump start because when a battery is dead you can't just hook up the jumper cables and rev up the other car and turn the key and expect it to start all the time. Well worse than that on these stupid GM batteries and I will call them stupid which have side terminals. Side pulse. Yeah.

You can't get a good connection. You can't get a good jump on those. Even if you're lucky, you're not going to get a good jump. So chances are you didn't really even jump it. You thought you did, but maybe you didn't get a good enough connection, and that's the reason it didn't start. And poor grandpa, puking under the car there, that was unnecessary because it was not the starter, as we now know.

But I would have guessed it right away when that's why I said it was rather precipitous of of Grampy to go out there and replace the starter in the dark at night, but he probably had fun, right? He was barfing all the time Not a bit the ride home with my mother. This is not fun for her. He didn't feel very good Yeah, I know wasn't fun. Yeah, I don't think you ought to subject him to that anymore I mean you might have a dead battery Which might be caused by a bad alternator or a loose belt or something.

You may have a bad connection. Ah, we just changed the alternator though, eight months ago. Okay, well I'm going to tell you what the problem is. Oh! While it is possible still that this eight-month-old alternator could be no good, what's likely is that you have corrosion between the battery and the terminal ends, those side post terminal ends that attach to the battery. And if you do, you won't get transfer of current either way so that you can't get electricity into the battery when you're trying to charge it. And you can't get it out when you're trying to start it.

I mean, even if dad cleaned those off when he was... Yeah, he may not have done a very good... That's just a guess, mind you. But it's very possible. But you're not going to figure any of this out unless you go someplace, and it's not going to cost you much. Dad can still do the work. And he won't have to lie down on his back anymore because he already did the starter. Yeah.

Well, not very good, though. See, it was night, and one of the wires is not inside the heat shield like it's supposed to be. Well, he can take care of that with your husband when he comes back from... Oh, you figured out how to turn it over so he could work on it standing up. Flip it over, yeah. We figured that's the way we could get him to work on any car. If it was a trooper, it would flip over by itself.

But you need to go to a shop and have somebody put the machine on it. You're going to pay them for the diagnostic work, even though they're not going to do the repairs. And you don't necessarily have to divulge that in advance. You can just tell them you need to know what's wrong with it. And when they call you up and tell you that the alternator is not producing any electricity and needs to be replaced, you can say, well, I can't afford to pay you for that, but I'll pay you for your diagnostic time.

Yeah. And if they tell you that it's not charging, make sure that they check everything. Because as we just said if you got bad connections it won't be charging because there's no place for the electricity to go okay did you put the alternator in yourselves he did course who's he my husband and he bought it at one of those discount auto places junkyard so he bought this he bought this rebuilt it may be that it's really no good it may be no good anymore okay even though it's only eight months old so the gas

station will tell you that well we'll have to push it yeah push it push it to the gas station have them charge the battery and tell them to diagnose it and they'll figure it out in two minutes okay see you later yeah okay thanks a lot bye bye hey don't go anywhere because we've got a lot more calls well few anyway and the puzzler answer coming up right after this. Okay, so tell me if this sounds like you. You love NPR's podcasts, you wish they weren't interrupted by sponsor breaks like this one, and you want to support NPR's mission of creating a more informed public.

If this does sound like you, then it's time to sign up for perks across more than 20 podcasts with the NPR Plus bundle. Learn more at plus.npr.org. The candidates for November are set. I know Donald Trump's type. Between now and election day. We are not going back. A campaign season unfolding faster. Kamala Harris is not getting a promotion.

Than any in recent history. Make America great again. Follow it all with new episodes every weekday on the NPR Politics podcast. This summer on Planet Money, we're bringing you the entire history of the world. At least the economics part. It's Planet Money, we're bringing you the entire history of the world. At least the economics part. It's Planet Money Summer School.

Every week we'll invite in a brilliant professor and play classic episodes about the birth of money, banks, and finance. There will be rogues and revolutionaries and a lot of panics. Summer School, every Wednesday till Labor Day on the Planet Money podcast from NPR. Truth. Independence. Fairness. Transparency. Respect. Labor Day on the Planet Money podcast from NPR. Truth, independence, fairness, transparency, respect, excellence. This is NPR. All right, Tommy, if you can remember last week's puzzle.

I can. It involves Bugsy, trains, tracks, 4 feet 11 and 3 quarter inches. Bingo! Boy, thank you because I wasn't able to remember it myself and I was hoping you'd be able to remember it. Was the number correct? 4 feet 11 and 3 quarter inches? No, that's not right.

Yeah. It is? I believe so. Here it is. I sent Bugsy out to do a little research recently and I asked him very simply to measure the distance between railroad tracks. That is, from the middle of one rail to the middle of the other rail. I asked him to find out, I thought he could handle this, what that distance is.

What did he use to measure with? He's always looking for a short, he's one of the metal tape measures. He's always looking for a shortcut, and he couldn't find any railroad tracks downtown, so he went into the subway figuring tracks are tracks, right? He measured from the third rail. Oh, I remember this problem. Yeah. Yeah, he's been in bed ever since.

But what he did discover as he was gasping for breath was that the distance between tracks, that is from the middle of one track to the middle of the parallel track, is on average 4 feet 11 and 3 quarter inches. See, I see, you know the key for me, if you put a number into every puzzler, I'll remember it. Really? Because I remember numbers, but I don't remember words. Oh, I'll just sprinkle numbers in.

Sprinkle numbers in. You'll see, this week's puzzle, I'll throw numbers in. Okay. Just like 11, 28. No, no, they have to be relevant to the context. Well, the question very simply was, what kind of a number is that? Arabic. What kind of a number is that? Why 4 feet 11 and 3 quarter inches? That's an excellent question, by the way.

And we want to know where it came from. You. You had to go back in history. Back! Back! Yeah, we said go back as far as you can. Yeah. And? And how far back did we have to go? I don't know. Well, obviously, we got our number from the Brits. Right.

And they got it, the British railroads got it from their carriage makers carriages In fact used to have wheels that were four feet eleven and three-quarter inches apart And why in fact would they choose such a number? Hmm why? Why would you chew? If you were choosing a number? Why would they choose that number not some other number? I guess you would choose the number depending on where the ruts already were. Exactly why were there ruts already if there were no how when they started making carriages why were there ruts already there? I don't know. That's the question. You ready for this? Yeah. From the Roman

chariots that first traveled the countryside in England and wore ruts in the road. When the Brits started making their own carriages, they made them to fit. Because if you made them any smaller or any bigger, you'd break the axles. No. Here you go.

Hard to believe, isn't it? It's so hard to believe that. You don't believe it. I don't believe it. I mean, if ever you made up an answer, this is it. But the guy that sent it made it up. I mean it makes perfect sense. I will admit that.

It makes perfect sense. It's one of those George Collins. Sounds good, but it's not. Well the other question which I can't answer is where did the Romans come up with that number? But I can't answer that question. I don't know the answer to that question, but I do know that we got our number from them.

Who's our winner, man? The winner is John Tribal from Tijeras. I would say Tribu. Tribu. Tribu. Okay. From Tijeras, New Mexico. And for having his correct answer chosen at random as

our winner this week, our buddy John gets a copy of the brand new second best of car talk CD. This new album features 70 minutes of car talk classic moments including Clinton sends vowels to Bosnia from the onion, the story of Max and the schnauzer and why the French used the Motronic electronic ignition and not the Larrytronic or the Curlytronic. Anyway we'll have another new puzzler coming up during the second half of Car Talk with numbers in it I might add this puzzle has numbers yeah so stay tuned in the meantime you can call us at 1-800-332-9287 hello you're on Car Talk. Hi. Hi. Who's this? This is Victoria. See if I'd given you a half a second you would have just said that huh

just about victoria from from where tucson arizona tuxen arizona yeah where it's warm yeah it's always warm about it what's the lowest what's the average winter temperature in tuxen sometimes you'll have days where it'll be in the 60s. That cold. Or in the 50s. That cold. And every once in a while it only gets in the 40s. But

only once in a while. Typically, typically in a January and February day you could be walking around in a t-shirt. Yeah. Or shorts. I'd hate it. I used to live in Massachusetts, and my question is sort of weather related. Oh, we're ready then. Oh, okay. I have a 1988 Chevy Nova. It's a five-speed. I moved to Tucson July of 1995, and my car doesn't have air conditioning. Oh, you must be dying It's it's brutal 110 degrees in the summertime and you're driving around in the middle of the day Yeah, so what I want to do is I want to have air conditioning installed in the car. Mm-hmm

My husband thinks I'm crazy. He thinks that He says that the engine will never be able to handle below of running their condition a nice rod is that you can you could have bought this card with the air conditioning and i thought i thought the same act with the same engine right it's a but he doesn't like the car he'd rather sell the car combined in one i'd rather keep the car so i figured

i needed a an objective so he's using every technique possible including lying to get his way to get his way now we can go either way on this uh... or i mean we could give you technical and other reasons why you should or shouldn't

black conditioning in this car you would like to keep the car yeah and your husband thinks you're crazy, but first you're gonna tell us are you crazy? No, you're not. No, I'm a cheapskate. Yes And he's not right What does he want to buy? Well, we talked about buying a Ford Taurus, but but we just bought a Ford f-150 for him What's his problem? This is your car basically then yeah do whatever you want

if separate bank accounts no it's time to get one day well well what's the worst thing that could happen to the car if i put it on the thing that is going to happen nothing's gonna happen to the cost you are not only like they put it in they may have to put in a heavy-duty radiator i'm a beer conditioning it may may be that the car without air conditioning was not equipped with a radiator

to handle the additional heat that the engine is going to generate by having air conditioning. So you may have to change the radiator too, but that may all come as a package. Are you aware of how much this costs? Did you price it at all? I have a number of like a thousand dollars in my head. No, that's too low. Well, that's about right. My reason for wanting to put air conditioning in this car is that I don't have to go and buy a new car. This car is paid for. You know, everything else about it I love. And you'll never sell yours because it has what? No air conditioning. No air conditioning. There you go.

No one's going to buy it. Exactly right. So you'd have to go out of state to sell it. Right. You'd have to take the bus back and all that. I think you're doing exactly the right thing. Okay. It costs you $2,000.

That's all. See you, Victoria. Good luck. It will be. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. More calls and a new puzzler coming right up after these messages. Hey, I'm Robert Smith from Planet Money and this summer we are bringing you the entire

history of the world, at least the economics part. It's Planet Money Summer School. Every week we'll invite in a brilliant professor and play classic episodes about the birth of money, banks and finance. There will be rogues and revolutionaries and a lot of panics. Summer School, every Wednesday till Labor Day on the Planet Money podcast from NPR. Every weekday, NPR's best political reporters come to you on the NPR Politics podcast to explain the big news coming out of Washington, the campaign trail and beyond. We don't just want to tell you what happened. We tell you why it matters. Join

the MPR Politics podcast every single afternoon to understand the world through political eyes. Numbers that explain the economy. We love them at the indicator from Planet Money. And on Fridays, we discuss indicators in the news like job numbers, spending, the cost of food, sometimes all three. So my indicator is about why you might need to bring home more bacon to afford your eggs. I'll be here all week. Wrap up your week and listen to the indicator podcast from NPR. You care about what's happening in the world. Let's state of the world from NPR keep you informed. Each day we transport

you to a different point on the globe and introduce you to the people living world events. We don't just tell you world news, we take you there. And you can make this journey while you're doing the dishes or driving your car. State of the world podcast from NPR, vital international stories every day. Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk on National Public Radio with us clicking clack the tappet brothers and we're here to discuss cars, repair and it's only dougie knows So well civil disobedience get this I'm getting it This is sent to us from C. Greenwood Columbus, Indiana who sent us a copy of a

Columbus, Indiana Article a newspaper article Cincinnati which I don't think is in Indiana, is it? No, used to be in Ohio, but. A 62-year-old woman was handcuffed and jailed for putting coins in other people's expired parking meters as a police officer was about to ticket the cars. Aha. It's not a pretty picture down there at that jail, said Sylvia Staten, a grandmother of

10. Get this now, here's the issue. Putting money in a meter once it has expired is against the law in Cincinnati, even if it's your own car. Sylvia Staten said she just wanted to do a good deed, and she ends up in the slammer. So she's being a good, what, first of all, what kind of a law is this?

You run out to the parking meter and you beat the policeman there by whatever. You put another dime, nickel, quarter, whatever in, they arrest you. No, they can only arrest you if they catch you. It's like spitting in the subway. Now that's illegal, but I do it. Of course, I mean like... I mean, come on! You gotta spit! What are you gonna do? You're in the subway! Wait till you get on the train like everybody else!

But isn't that an unconscionable law? I mean, who do they think they are? Talk about tobacco chewing morons. Come on, I mean, this is ridiculous. All parking meters, first of all, why should you have to pay to stop? Come on, it's bad enough. Parking meters are an unconstitutional, illegal, immoral, unethical piece of equipment i'm a poll you know invented the parking me now save that for a trivial question and i don't know all of them

all of them i saw that movie now silvia baby i'm on your side and anyone else who was thinks that you're on your side send us a note and will will send some kind of a petition to the mayor of Cincinnati if they have a mayor. Maybe they have a king.

Maybe. Oh, geez. Can't put money in a meeting. Well, I don't know. I mean, I'm appalled. I don't feel strongly about it one way or the other, to tell you the truth. Oh, I certainly do. I know you do. Especially since she's trying to do a good deed and a guy throws the cuffs on her. Come on get serious I'm fed up. Why would you want to do a good deed for these strangers? I'm moving out of town. You don't even live in that town

Okay, thank God for that. I'm moving to Madison, Wisconsin the best little town in all country indeed All right. Here's here's the puzzler for this week. If you're ready for ya numbers throw me some numbers man. A Young boy is how old? He's 16. 16? No, he's 11. 11. 11 year old boy. 11 year old boy is standing at the bus stop waiting for the bus, waiting for the number 12 bus. Number 12 bus. 11, 12. Okay, now you're gonna like this. Number 12, 11 year old boy. And it's about 12.30 in the afternoon. 12. Okay, now you're going to like this. Number 12, 11 year old boy. Number 12 bus.

And it's about 12.30 in the afternoon. 12.30 in the afternoon. And he's sitting there with the new fishing rod that he just bought. How big is it? Five feet. Five foot fishing rod. Yeah. The bus stops and the boy attempts to enter the bus.

And the bus driver stops him as he puts that first foot into the door and he says, ah, you can't get on. And the kid asks why. The bus driver says- How many times did the kid ask why? Just once, one time? One time. One time. Okay.

And he says, there's a city ordinance, number 113. Ordinance number 113. I'll remember all these numbers next week. That prohibits anything, packages are packages or anything being carried on the bus that's longer than four feet. And the kid says, how am I going to get home? The bus driver says, that's your problem kid. That fishing rod is about five feet long and I'm booting you out.

That's ridiculous. Is this Cincinnati? This just took place in? They're morons. So he kicks him off and the kid stands there bewildered, wondering how he's going to get home with his fishing rod. Break it in half. And he figures I'll have to return it

and get my money back. He goes into the store and they say no returns after 15 minutes 15 15 15 15 15 minutes okay got that so he's stuck with the fishing rod and no way to get home because he can't take a cab he's gonna take the bus and he can't go on the bus because the fishing rod is five feet long he walks back into the store again realizing realizing he can't return it. Five minutes later, he's on the bus. He's on the bus legally, legally riding home with the fishing

rod without altering it, without breaking it, sawing it in half, collapsing it, destroying it. He does nothing whatsoever to alter the fishing rod. How does he do it? Now, if you think you know the answer, send it to this kid fishing rod. How does he do it? Now if you think you know the answer send it to this kid in Cincinnati. He's still standing there on the corner. Send it to us at Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge, Our Fair City, MA 02238. By the way, I have to at at some point in the near future, use again the Our Fair City puzzler. Because there are many people who are listening now that have never listened before and will

maybe never listen again. That's just about everybody. This is their only chance. And it is a wonderful puzzler. It's historic and folkloric because it will explain to people. And didactic. Yes, where Our fair city comes from. Anyway, I just thought I'd mention that.

It'll be coming soon to a theater near you. And monodactic. Now you can email us your answer from Cartalk.com by clicking on the Talk to Cartalk section. And quadrodactic. And sesquidactic. At random as the winner next week. And your catch us will send you a second Best of Car Talk cassette or CD and don't worry it'll arrive in a plain

brown wrapper as all of our correspondences do. Now if you'd like to call us with a question about your car or anything else the number is 1-800-332-9287 hello you're on Car Talk. Hi this is Reid from Graham, Northham north carolina i read graham g r a h a m correct home of the graham crackers uh... i have a problem yet now i think new resident here i've been looking for the whole i'm a player holla trees that come from those places

what's up read i have a like team eighty seven bronco too I don't know. What's up, Reed? I have a 1987 Bronco II, a hundred thousand miles on it, and my wife wants to use it to tow her horse around a couple of days a week. And I really love this truck. I'm not sure I want her, you know, doing a lot of towing with it simply because, well, she's not here. Well, I guess she's a little rough on cars she is yeah most women are you'll be sleeping in the garage this weekend too and this being sort of a small engine I'm not sure whether or not we would be depleting her life if we

make her start towing this latent life. Yeah I see you're worried that it wouldn't be accustomed to it had you started it off when it was new you would be used to it by now. Right. So you have 87 you have a 2.8 v6 right? Correct. How big is the horse like Like a thousand, twelve hundred pound horse? It's like fifteen hundred or a little bigger. Big horse? Fifteen hundred pound horse? Yeah, he's a big horse. I bet he eats like a horse too. Yeah, he does. I bet he does other things like a horse too. Yes, they do. But isn't the idea... He's a gelding, so he doesn't do a whole lot of those other things like a horse. But isn't the idea that you're supposed to ride the... why doesn't he just ride the horse instead of dragging him around?

What on the freeway? Well the real hint here is that the trainer is pregnant and will no longer be making long trips to come and train the horse and ride her combination. So she's convinced my wife that she needs a trailer to bring the horse to her. Oh, so normally now you have to buy a trailer too. Well yes and my wife came up with this trailer made in Europe. It has a little advertisement that says engineered to accommodate your horse and you don't need a full-size truck to tow it. You don't? Oh boy, you're sunk aren't you? Well I don't know. You mean this

is easier than finding a new trainer? Well actually, if you're going to go to an event you need a trailer to tow the horse to the event and things like this and she's like this is the greatest thing, it says you only need 110 horsepower. Your wife does dressage and all that stuff? Right. The addiction. What's your language, boy? So, this is an $8,200 trailer. My, woohoo!

On a truck with 100,000 miles on it. I'm wondering if we shouldn't buy a used trailer and a full-size truck and maybe come out a little less expensive and probably be in a better spot to start with. Yeah, I mean if you can get by with buying a junker of a truck, an older truck even, a big one, big V8 engine. 350 or bigger? You've got it exactly. You need to find an old F-150.

Yeah. 350 or bigger? You've got it exactly. You need to find an old F-150. Yeah, maybe you can even find a nice used trailer for a few hundred bucks. Well, I hope. How many she has one horse now? Well, yes, as far as I know. You're really into this little hobby of hers, eh? No, she's into this hobby. Yeah, I know that. into this a little hobby of her as a. No she's into this hobby. Yeah I know that. She's gonna do the driving. I'm thinking if we buy a truck we can leave the trailer hooked to it. Exactly right. You're exactly right. And you obviously have the room to do this. You have room for another truck. How far typically does she drive to go to shows and whatever? She's never done this before. How far is she likely to drive? About at most 150 miles. Oh, yeah. That's it. You want a nice 10 year old or older pickup truck.

Yeah. Start shopping. 10 or older? 10 or older. Sure, I mean, you don't care what it looks like. Right. You just care that it runs and it's safe and it's not rusted apart. And that's it. Well, you can't it can't be really ugly because those horse people are kind of snobs you know. Well that's true. Yeah you're gonna make sure it's a little dignified. That's the other thing you have to consider because even if she does buy the old truck she starts going to all these shows and everyone's gonna start looking down their noses at her for driving an old beat-up truck when they're all showing up with Range Rovers. Yeah

you may have to buy her a Range Rover. This is a hundred thousand dollar hobby. Oh no! You're in deep trouble, boy. I'm not in there. Hey, good luck, Reed. Let us know what happens. I'll do that. I'll send you pictures. Send us pictures, yeah. Of the horse. See you later. Bye-bye. Thanks.

He's in trouble. He is. He's done for. Run! Why couldn't she take up something like Needlepoint? Horses. Come on. Horses are fun. He is he's done for run. Why couldn't she take up something like needlepoint? Come on Horses are fun. They are naughty, but they're big. They're big they like horses What you waste you smell good compared to all Your wasted and otherwise perfectly good hour listening to car talk Our esteemed producer is Doug the subway fugitive not a slave to fashion Berman our associate producer and Dean of the College of Automusicology is Ken Babyface Rogers.

Our assistant producer is Catherine Pertuti-Ray. Our engineer is Karen Given. And our technical advisor is Mr. John Lawler. Our public opinion pollster is Paul Murky of Murky Research, assisted by statistician Margin O'Vara. Our director New Product Repair is Warren T. Myfoot, our Director of Computer Diagnostics is Gus O'Ginn... Guess again. Guess again. I get it. I like it. It took me a while. Our Director of Staff Pay Increases is Xavier Breath, our Marriage Counselor is Marion Haste, and our Sexual Harassment Inter harassment intervention counselor is Pat McCann. The curator of Tom's Car Collection... He's working with the army this week. The curator of Tom's Car Collection is Rex Galore. Our director of country music is Stan Byerman.

Our head of personal security is See How We Run. Our director of cold weather starting is Martina Never Turnover. And our chief counselor from the law firm of Dewey Cheatham and Howes, Hugh Louis Dewey, known to the meter maids as Huey Louie Dewey. Thanks so much for listening. We're Click and Clack the Tabard Brothers and Don't Drive Like My Brother. Don't Drive Like My Brother. We'll be back next week. Bye bye. I'm gonna go ahead and play it. If a cassette copy of this show would make you happy, it's show number 47 and you can get it on the world wide web by clicking on the shameless commerce division of Cartock.com

or you can call 303-823-8000. You can also order the brand new second Best of Car Talk CD and other holiday Car Talk gifts the same way. You either click on the Shameless Commerce Division or tape, yeah? Click on the Shameless Commerce Division at CarTalk.com or call 303-823-8000. Car Talk is a production of Dewey, Cheetah, and Howe, and WBUR in Boston. And even those sophisticated listeners cringe when they hear us put it out.

This is NPR National Public Radio. Hey, this is Elsa Chang from NPR, where we practice active listening. You know, when we're interviewing someone, we're not just throwing out questions at them. We are listening to the answers, following up, trying to make sense of things so that you have an opportunity to be an active listener, too. Keep listening with NPR.

NPR brings you the updates you need on the day's biggest headlines. The Senate narrowly passed the debt ceiling bill that will prevent the country from defaulting on its loans. Stories from across the world. Knowing how to forage and to live with the land is integral to Ami's culture. And down your block. From CPR News, this is Colorado Matters. And you can find all of that and more in your pocket. Download the NPR app today.