The Best of Car Talk - #25103: Bryology Anyone?

Episode Date: December 27, 2025

Typically when arbiting marital car disputes, it helps to know what each spouse does for a living. Lawyers, for instance, are always right because lawyers can sue radio hosts. Physicists and other scientists are usually wrong because they’re know-it-alls. And then there are Bryologists -whatever they do. Click and Clack are just as clueless as the rest of us, so let’s all find out together on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey, it's Ray Maliazzi here. You know, somehow we are almost to the end of 2025. And there were times when it felt like this year would never end, right? And I'm not going to lie, it has been a tough year for NPR and for local stations. But despite the loss of federal funding for public media, despite attacks on the free press, we are still here for you. And we will not shy away from exercising the critical right to editorial independence guaranteed by the First Amendment. And with your support, we will not be silent.

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with us Click and Clack to Tappert Brothers and we're broadcasting this week from the Marriage Counseling Division here at Caratalk Plaza. Marion Haste's office Yeah, her office is right around the corner and she sent me this as a matter of fact. She's our what is she? A wedding planner. Marriage counselor. Marriage counselor. There you go. Marriage counselor, Marion Haste.

Oh, Marion Haste. Here's a letter from... March in Overa. What's his name? He didn't tell us his name. Here it is. Dear knuckleheads, I hope you're satisfied with yourself. You're almost breaking up my marriage after 26 blissful years. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to be driving a Toyota Corolla. I didn't know that my karma was off, that I was a cheapskate, a wuss, and a snob.

And neither did my wife. I recently took your caroscope test. It's not a test. It's just a little, a simple little psychographic battery of questions. Battery, all right? Simple. And he said, I recently took your caroscope test, and my wife got into my email, and now we both know. She suggested we go to a marriage council, but I'm too cheap to spend the money.

So I decided to email you guys. You see, the real dilemma is that my caroscope suggested that I dumped the corolla and get, of all things, a Dodge Colt Vista. My wife took the test. Now, get this, two different people, the same car, though. Same household. Same car. They drive the same car. She thought she owned it. He thought he owned it. My wife took the test. It told her to dump the corolla, same car, and go for an infinity I-30.

We only have one corolla, and one of us is going to have to be in bad karma. The question is, can an infinity-type person find happiness in a Dodge Colt Vista, or do I also have to dump my wife? Or he doesn't say, does she have to dump you? What a dilemma. Isn't that interesting? Two people who clearly are not meant for each other. He can't possibly have had 26 blissful years of marriage. He might not know.

A Dodge Colt Vista person as opposed to an eyed 30 person. Don't forget, the caroscope never makes a mistake. It never. People are always surprised or frequently surprised only because they have hidden issues. Right. And the caroscope has had its many detractors. It has. It certainly has.

We've had tons of mail saying this is absolutely wrong. Vitriolic mail. Oh, we got one letter from a guy who owned a Porsche. And Caroscope told him the Porsche was not for him. He went nuts. This is the love of my life. It went on and on and on. Little does he know that it isn't for him.

No, he's trying to be something that he shouldn't be. That he isn't. Yeah. Exactly. So do we answer? Well, maybe the caroscope will enlighten him with the Porsche. I don't know what to do with these folks. These folks, this is tough, man.

Well, I think she has to dump him. I think she has to dump him, yeah. Yeah. That's what I think. Yeah. And 26 years ain't bad. That's a lot of years. Oh, plenty.

It is plenty. Sure. Maybe too many. I've never had a marriage last 26 years. Well, no, not yet. Anyway, if you want your very own caroscope so you can break up your own marriage, You can go to the car talk session of cars.com, and you can answer a few simple, innocuous, harmless, little questions. Yeah.

And make the rest of your life miserable. If you'd like to be miserable right now, you can call us at 1-888-car talk. That's 8-8-2-278-8-2-5. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hello, this is Diane Young with Cordova, Tennessee. Diane? Yes. Cordova, huh?

Uh-huh. Tennessee. Outside of Memphis, Tennessee. Outside of Memphis, in the deep southwest corner of Tennessee. That is correct. What's up? Well, I have a car that I acquired from my mother-in-law, and it's a 92 Thunderbird. And I've had it for about two weeks.

Now, even before I got the car from her, I knew it had this problem, but it was still such a deal. You know, it was being for my mother-in-law and all, we had to get the car. Yeah. You were in the pressure in some ways. Well, not necessarily. I don't want to get you into any trouble. trouble with the old M-I-L. There you go.

Okay, but I understand, I'm reading between the lines here, Diane, and I'm... That you couldn't have said no to this car for a variety of reasons. Whatever they may have been. And we won't discuss that. We won't discuss that. Okay. She's a great mother-in-law. Oh, I'm sure.

It's almost redundant, isn't it to say great and mother-in-law in the same sentence. It doesn't even necessary. No. Perhaps it is an oxymoron for some people. Perhaps it is. All right. What I have is if I'm taking the car on an interstate, smooth road, interstate going anywhere from like 60 miles an hour, 65 miles an hour, up to whatever, 75, how fast you can drive around here, what it feels like is the back end is doing a real soft, subtle fish tail, almost all on its own. It kind of swings to the left and it swings back to the right, and it swings back to the left.

What's the rhythm? Yeah, what is the rhythm? There is no specific rhythm. But is it at a high frequency or a lull? So if you're doing 60, is it... Or is it more voom, boom, boom, boom. Well, it's not making any noise. No, no, I mean, is that the rhythm?

No, is you feel like a left or right? Is it more like a tango or a samba? Right. It's more of a left than right, then left and right. Ah, I like it. Than right. I like it. It's not left right, left right, left right. Yeah, okay.

I'm a box truck. Just a nice, and it's not jerky, and I don't feel it in the steering. However, I feel that I must steer to correct it. And if I don't, then I feel like I'm going right off into the ditch. It's going to take me right off one direction. Yeah, scary, huh? It kind of is, yeah. See, you've assumed, and I don't know why, maybe if I had driven the car,

I would make the same assumption that the problem is in the back. Because it feels like it's in the back. Because it feels like it's in the back. but I think that the back and the front are connected. And you know what? By the middle. By the middle. It's connected by the middle.

It feels like it's broken in the middle. Good description. Excellent. Could be so many things. No, I have two, but go ahead. You have two. I have two. I have two.

Okay. Are they the same two? You two first. It could be something as simple as two tires in the back or the front of different sizes. Is your mother-in-law, between you and me, Diane? Is your mother-in-law a cheapskate? I don't know. Is she especially generous kind of person?

Oh, she's very generous. She is, okay. And she wouldn't go, like, pick-up tires by the side of the road that someone was throwing away and stick them on the back of her car. No, she wouldn't do that. So, you should check that. Yeah, she might. No, for mine.

We can cut that part out, Diane. All right. So it could be tires of different sizes. Okay. It could be tires with different air pressures. It could be alignment. Okay. And that's my two.

Now, let me ask you this real quick before I hear the other possibilities. Yeah. She actually had it test driven. When I drove the car and I said, Bernice, this is happening. And she said, I can't feel it. And she's driven the car for seven years. And she took it in and she had the mechanics test drive it. They said they didn't feel.

anything. Now, she wasn't with them when they drove it, so I don't know if they drove it 40 miles an hour down, you know, a four-lane road, or if they actually took it on the interstate. And you also don't know how she introduced the problem. I mean, she could have said there's something terribly wrong with my car. I'd like you to test drive it. Or she could have said, my wacko daughter-in-law insisted that I come over here. I know she's crazy, but just drive her on the block anyway, so I can go tell her that she's nuts. Yeah, I would guess they didn't drive it. get the car right yeah yeah they probably didn't drive it fast enough i'm thinking they probably did

it yeah yeah well what are you ought to well when you began uh diane your little story an hour ago sorry that's okay i uh the thing that immediately immediately leapt into my mind uh was that your alignment was off okay and if they didn't drive it fast enough to get the sensation then they wouldn't have even suspected that and if they didn't put it on the alignment machine they have no way of really knowing unless the tires were worn out very peculiarly. Okay. But if the tires aren't that old, they may not be showing any signs of this alignment problem.

Okay. But I would guess that your front end alignment is out, and that's, and that can make it, we've had cars go out of our shop in cases where we've installed struts and haven't aligned the car properly, and it feels you're riding around on bowling balls. And every little turn you make, as soon as you turn the wheel a little bit, that movement gets exaggerated. So you turn a little bit to the right to compensate for maybe a truck going past you. And next thing you know, you move 10 feet to the right instead of 10 inches.

And then you try to correct and you end off overcorrecting. Yeah. Ask them to align the thing because I have a strong suspicion that that's it. Okay. All righty. Well, I'll do that. Thank you very much. Say it, Diane.

Thanks for a call. Okay, bye-bye. Good luck. Say hello to the mother-in-law. Bernice. Bernice, yeah. Tell her I said to say hello, and I never met a mother-in-law I didn't like. There you go.

Thank you so much. Thanks, Diane. Especially when she was someone else's mother. Somebody else is right. All right, Tommy, do you remember last week's puzzler. All right, just give me a hint. I need a hint, and I'll have it. Give me a hint.

Here's the only hint they can give you. It was fully automotive and involved an old Chevy, not unlike the one you used to have. Yeah. And a picture of Marilyn Monroe. No clue, huh? Huh? I was just kidding about Maryland.

But it does involve an old Chevy, and I'll have the answer in just a minute. This message comes from NPR sponsor, eBay. Buying a car should feel secure, start to finish. That's why you should buy your next ride on eBay. Now with secure purchase, sellers and titles are verified, and financing, delivery, and insurance options are built right in. Plus, eligible vehicle purchases are backed by up to $100,000 in protection. So buy your next car on eBay.

eBay, things people love. Your purchase is powered by Caramel Dealer Services LLC, an eBay subsidiary. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit Wise.com. T's and C's apply. Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack the Tappert Brothers, and we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and the answer to last week's fully automotive puzzler.

It was about a Chevy, huh? An old Chevy. I don't remember it. I honestly don't. I didn't either until I looked at my notes here. Anyway, a few months or weeks ago, I don't know when this happened. One of my guys was under the hood of an old Chevy pickup truck trying to find a vacuum leak.

Now, a vacuum leak is a hole somewhere, which allows extra air to leak into the engine. I get sucked into the engine. And since all the air that enters the engine should get in through the carburetor or the throttle body or some controlled mechanism, any air that comes in anywhere else is a vacuum leak and therefore unwanted. Yeah, because it disrupts the fine balance, the stochialometry. Oh, man. And it makes the engine run lousy, too. That too.

Especially if the leak is big enough. And in this case, it was, and the car would not run at all and certainly wouldn't run it idle. And in this case, it was stalling every time you would take your foot off the gas. and that's the problem this thing had. Anyway, now the way you find vacuum leaks is either you get lucky and hear a hissing and you say, ah, there it is, or we use a wand that has a little nozzle at the end that shoots propane gas. And when the propane of the vacuum leak meet, what happens?

The propane gets sucked in with the air that's getting sucked in. It renders the mixture now correct, and the engine suddenly begins to run better. Then you move to a different spot and the engine returns to its lousy performance and you go back and forth and you say, ah, ha, ha, ha, that's. That's it. Yeah. So there he is with the propane wand under the hood, and the leak is so big, I guess, or so evasive that he can't seem to find it.

So in desperation, he throws the stuff down and shuts off the engine. Of course, I do what? Walk away. I don't want to. I don't like to micromanage. You know what I mean? You fix the cars. I'll do something else.

That's right. Call me if you need me. A few minutes later, I walked by, and he's doing something interesting. He's pulling off the spark plug wires, and he's putting them back on. but on the wrong plugs. Hmm? I say, what a knucklehead. I walk away again.

Two minutes later, I hear him on the phone ordering the part he needs to fix the vacuum leak. What did he do? He put the plugs on the wrong, the spark plug wires. Yeah, he does this all the time, so I didn't think it was anything.

Yeah. What he did by hooking up the spark plug wires incorrectly and running the engine, he made it backfire through the intake manifold. And when that has, happens and you get combustion taking place in the manifold. He saw a puff of smoke. There you go. A puff

of smoke and he found a gasket that was blown. That's where he saw the puff of smoke escape and boom, he ordered it and nine hours later it was fixed. And the flat rate book gave you 21 hours to do that job, so you're charged for 21 hours. Absolutely. That's the way it goes. Yeah. And Ken's car has never run the same

since. Boy, that's very good. Do we have a window this week? I don't know. I have to look through these little pieces. satisfy the, you know, the people who have an automotive interest. I had to have an automotive puzzler at least once. Once in the current puzzler season. We have a winner, and his name is Ron Juris from Saginaw, Michigan. And Ron, for having your answer selected at random,

from among all the correct answers that we got. You're going to get a copy of our brand new CD about fathers and cars. It just came out, and it's called Why You Should Never Listen to Your Father when it comes to Cars. and that's yours, Ron, for being so smart. And everyone else has to call the Shameless Commerce Division and shell out $15 for it. But not you, because you're going to get one for free.

Good work. Very good. Yeah. Ron. Anyway, we will have a new non-automotive, I would say historically relevant puzzler coming up in the third half of today's show. And for those non-believers, there are three halves of the show.

Of course there are. So stay tuned for that. In the meantime, call us and ask us any question you'd like. The number is 1-888-88-28-8-28-8-2-2-7-8-2-5-5. A lawyer on Car Talk. Hey, this is Kobe from Portland, Oregon. Kobe, Kobe, wait a minute now.

K-O-B-I. No. K. C-O-B-E-Y. Close. C-O-B-Y. You got it. C-O-B-Y.

Kobe. Yep. That's an interesting name. Is it short for... Short for Jacob. Oh. Kobe. Very good.

Yeah, see, my dad was Jake, and so he had the first half, so they figured they'd give me the second half. I like it. But they added a Y-on, so it wouldn't seem so blunt like Cobb, you know. Cobb, right. Cobb would have been all right, too. Well. And where you're from? Portland, Oregon.

Portland. I'm sorry. Okay, got it. And, yeah, it's great to talk to you. I've been a mechanic for 23 years and finally got out of it. Good for you. How did you escape? Well, I'm a sculptor now. I make critters out of car parts. Ah, you make critters out of carp?

I'm trying to visualize that. Well, give me an example. All muffler systems, of course. No, mostly stuff massive enough I can do with my mig welders. So, like, I've got an exhaust manifold that's upended so that the arms look like a ghost raising its arms above its head. Oh, man, I love it. Oh, yeah, I do, too. Yeah, a tranny shaft with all those neat little grooves on it.

I've got eyes on that and some railroad spike legs. A lizard thing. So are you making more money as a sculptor than you did as an automobile mechanic? No. Are you making almost nothing as a sculptor, but it's starting to get better. Hasn't caught on yet, so to speak. It's just on the verge of it. I've started my own art movement.

Yeah. You know, I have to give you credit. I mean, every time you extracted one of these parts from a car, you saw hidden in it, some beauty. Let me just throw the things in the trash. And, you know, I had to stop working on cars because it was like, you know, you tell your boss, but I can't change it. Look, I'd be tearing off its little legs. Yeah, that pretty much sealed it for you, I guess.

Was there a lot of whispering going on in the shop? Colby is really losing it. Too much carburetor cleaner or something. Well, that's what happens. So, anyway, what did you call us anyway? Well, I called you about to get advice on my truck, Betsy. Yeah. Betsy the Wonder Truck.

I bought her when I was 17, and I'm 43 now. Never owned anything else. Really? Yep. What is it? 66 Chevy half-ton pickup. Wow. And the deal is I've had different evolutions of camper shells on her for all this time.

And the latest one about five years ago was, Big John, a friend of mine who was a machinist and a real welder, and me got together, and we both kind of believe in overbuilding. So I ended up having, as far as I know, the only four-ton, half-ton pickup around. Yeah, that'll do it. Yeah. So a year ago, I was out with my parents on the coast and hit some frost heaves going into a parking lot a little fast. and through the back end up in the air

enough to raise the big toolbox about two and a half feet, my mom said, because she was sitting next to it. Yeah. And the bed of the pickup truck? Yes. Well, in the back of the pickup truck's camper shell with all these cushions and everything.

Oh, she's sitting back there trying to knit. Yes. And you're taking these speed bumps at 45 miles an hour. I got it. Okay. Yeah, you know, like that. So anyway, my next oil change, I'm under there, and I'm looking around, and I noticed that I've got cracks in the frame.

Duh. So, you know, I've got this mig welder because I'm a sculptor. Yeah. And I've got all this cool iron around. Yeah, you're all set. So I've put patches on all of crack. Yeah, so this is like a patchwork quilt. Yeah.

I've been checking it for a year, and the cracks have not spread. But, you know, as a mechanic, you know, you grow up learning as a mechanic that if the frame cracks, you're done. Yeah. And you're insane to drive a thing with a cracked frame. So I've got a little voice in the back of my head saying, well, you know, you're crazy. But the other thing is, well, you know, I've patched them, and I check them every month or so, and they're not spreading. Yeah, well, I don't think there's any reason to be too worried to tell the truth.

Huh. Although, that sounds good, doesn't it? Although, who am I? Yeah, come right around in the truck with me. Oh, no. But how long ago did you do this? About a year. So every month or so you've been checking and the cracks have not spread.

Right. Because I've got the plates welded to either side of the crack. So it's almost like either the welds would have to fail or the plate would have to start cracking. It would seem to me. Well, I think you probably have fixed it correctly. And in fact, that's generally the remedy for things like this. Great. So you probably are all right, except it doesn't preclude it cracking side.

someplace else without warning. Right. Yeah. And that's the thing that you always have to take into account when you have a vehicle that's 113 years old like yours. Right. And $355,555.5.5 last week. Really?

And now, but then you added this monster cap on it and all that. So you've gone way beyond the capacity, the intended capacity of the thing, too. And that's, I'm more worried about that than anything else. Okay. So, it may be time to look for a replacement for Betsy. I know that... Oh, man, you're asking a lot. Yeah, you're asking a lot.

I would say leisurely, have your eye out. Like, go to the movies and check out there. Check out what's out there. I'll do it. And I love your show, and I'll send you a critter. All right. Oh, great. A deal.

All right. Take care. Okay. Bye-bye. Look, it's time to take a short break. Yeah, and when we come back, my brother will regale us with this week's spectacular new puzzler. Is spectacular the word I should be using?

No, spectacular is not the word I would have chosen. It's more like pathetic. Pathetic. Pathetic, yeah, pathetic. Hi, we're back. We're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack to Tapper Brothers, and we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and other new puzzler. Now, last week's puzzler was automotive

in nature, and it was rather length. Yes, it was. So I thought that this week's puzzler should be non-automotive in nature. And more lengthy. No, and short and sweet. Yeah, okay. I will try to make this. So it's non-automotive and it's short and sweet.

And it might be pathetic. We don't know that yet. Oh, I don't think there's any mite about it. Yeah. Alright, here it is. Yeah. Which of the following presidents Oh.

Mothers, by her own admission, would tell you that she did not vote for her son when he ran for the presidency of the United States. You ready? Yeah. I'm going to give you the names of three presidents. I'm going to write them down. Just three.

Four? I got a one and three chance of getting it right? Which is... I could be a, I could be the moron that I am. You could be a millionaire! I could be the moron that I am and have a one in three chance of winning this prize.

Yeah. I love it. You ready? Yeah. It's like it's almost as easy as passing the Massachusetts. Drive his test. Number one, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. J.F.K.

Number two. His mother's name is Rose. William Jefferson Clinton. His mother's name is Rose also. Thomas Woodrow Wilson. That's it. Rose. I know her name is, the first name's Rose.

Because they all have the first name Rose. That's a coincidence, isn't it? I don't want to obfuscate. Should I give a hint? No, why? No. Well, I was just going to say, I was merely going to give a hint. Which one of these guys?

My teenage son, who was a brilliant student, didn't get it. Oh, no kidding. Yeah. And he is brilliant. Brilliant. We know that. Well, yeah, he's like his mother. Yeah.

Duh. You didn't have to say that. That went without saying. Okay. That's it. I want if someone thought he or she knew the answer to this. Well, if you think you know the answer or you know the answer, write that answer on the back of a $10 bill.

We ain't getting any 20s, so I'm dropping down. I'm lowering my expectations, yeah. So write that answer on the back of a... Maybe $10 is a more reasonable price. I think so, too. So write that answer on the back of a $10 bill or a frozen fish stick and send it to Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3,500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair City.

Matt 02238, or of course, you can email your answer from the Car Talk section of Cars.com. Our number is 1888-Cart Talk. That's 888-227-8-255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Jenny calling from Durham, North Carolina. How are you, Jenny? Good. How are you doing? Oh, not bad. Not bad. Well, I'm calling because I'm hoping that you can maybe help with a dispute between me and my fiancé.

Fiance? Yeah. Whoa! How long have you been affianced? I've been affianced about three months, and I plan to be affianced for about another year before I'm actually married. Yeah. What is an appropriate time? What is an appropriate time? How long have you been going out with him? About almost two years. Two plus three. Another one will be three in a little bit.

Yeah, but I've known him for much longer than that. See that? Now, I've been taking heat from my wife. for all the years we've been married because I knew her and didn't marry her until four years later. She thinks that that four years is an unconscionable number. She thinks I was dragging my feet

that I was... To be honest, I mean, my brother is quite a bit older than his wife, and she wanted to marry him while he still had a few earning years left. Come on. And I told her. Do you want to marry the guy when he's just about to get his social security checks?

Plus, I had to wait until she turned 18. Right. That, too. That too. She never mentions that. No. Well, her parents would have signed for. All right, Jenny, I'm sorry to change the subject here, but I get...

Not at all. I get carried away. Yeah, what's the story? What do you want him? Okay, well, the story is that when my car is very low on gas, like when it's way down in the red, and I go to start the car, when I turn the key, it doesn't immediately turn over. It kind of goes, you know, ro-r-r-r-r-r-bron, before. it actually starts. But when the gas tank is full, when I turn the key, it engages immediately.

And I just happened to, you know, mention this to my fiancé, and he said, that's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. There's no connection between the amount of gas in the tank and the starter. That's electrical. That has nothing to do with the fuel. And I said, you know, I have no actual facts to back that. You just have observation. Exactly. Anecdotal information. What kind of Japanese car do you have? Ah, Honda Civic.

You're all right? Have a gulp of water, will you? Drink some water, you'll be all right. This is serious. So you have a Honda Civic, and you've noticed that it takes long, you have to crank it longer when the tank is closer to empty. Exactly. Yeah.

And what does he do for a living? He's in finance, I can tell. Nope, you'll actually like this, because he's, a graduate student who studies something even more obscure than art history, even less marketable. Oh, archaeology. No? What? Briology.

He studies moss. It's called briology? Briology. BRY? B-R-Y, exactly. Study of moths? Moss. M-O-Fite's moss.

M-O-S-S-E-S-M-O-S-S-S-O-O-O-I thought it was moth. Oh, I thought it was moth. Yeah, it's like that's growing in your car. In my car. Right. Briology. Briology. And what...

Never mind. I mean... I was just curious. I mean, what are the future opportunities in this field? I'm curious about that. Yeah. Do you have a good job? I do.

I'm a nurse. Oh, that's good. So you'll be able to eat at least. Exactly. I'll have control over our future car buying. So this budding biologist... Yes. Actually, it's good because people are just confused with being a butt.

Biologists. I'm into biology, yeah. If you say it fast enough, you can fake them off. Marine biology. Marine biology. Oh, man. Well, the answer is that you were right. Excellent.

You could be right. You could be right. It could be completely bogus. But we could make a case that you're right. No, I mean, bear in mind that this is most noticeable, I'm sure, when the car has sat overnight. Yes, definitely. First thing in the morning. Yeah, because what happens is the rest pressure in the system, the maintained pressure in the fuel line between the pump and the engine will eventually drop to zero

because it just does a check valve in there, but it can't hold the pressure indefinitely. And over a long period of time, like overnight, the pressure in the line will drop to zero. and the pump must now pump the pressure up to get it to the injectors so they can squirt fuel into the engine. Right. You can visualize the thing, right? You've got a big, long pipe.

And during the day, after you've been starting the car on and off and on and off, when you turn the key to start it, that whole pipe is full and pressurized and ready to fly. So the second you turn that key, boom, it starts.

But if you emptied out the pipe a little bit, then every time you turn the key, you'd have to first fill up the pipe, and then go through the bing. And a full tank would help fill up the pipe faster because you'd be using what's called the head pressure of the full gas tank to push the fuel down the line by means of gravity

in addition to what the pump is doing. So you could well be right in your observation. I think I am. Well, I think you are too. I think you are too. And even if you're not right, we just made a very powerful argument for you being right.

And that's all that matters. The question now is, do you tell him, and how do you tell him? Oh, I know exactly. I'm definitely telling him. Then I'm not going to ask. And we'll get to you? We actually have a little wager riding on this. Oh, do we?

We do. So right now, I think he owes me a dinner at the Cattleman Steakhouse. Oh, how are you going to break it to him? I mean, give us the specifics, if you don't mind. Well, let's see. I think I'm probably going to call him. He'll answer the phone, and I'll say, Ha-ha-ha.

Jenny, you have a. mean streak. You have a mean streak. You can tell, hey, briology this, pal. Well, we wish you all the best. Thank you very much, Jane. See you later.

Bye-bye. Briology. I like yours, marine bariology. That sort of confuses it just enough. It clouds it just enough. Just enough. Nobody really asks. Yeah.

Well, it's happening again. You squarned at another perfectly good hour. to Car Talk. Our esteemed producer is Doug the Subway Fugitive, not a slave to fashion Berman. Our associate producer is Kenda Diaper Slayer Rogers. Our assistant producer is Frow Catherine Fenolosa.

What was that? Sorry, there must have been some interference. I'll have to read that again. Our assistant producer is Frow Catherine Fenalosa. Our engineer is Dennis DeMennispholias. We heard nothing to do with this. Our senior web lackey is Doug Sheepboy Mayor.

And our technical, spiritual, and menu advisor is the bugster, John Bugsy. Did somebody say free lunch, Lawler? Our public opinion pollster is Paul Murky of Merkey Research, assisted by statistician margin of error. Our customer care representative is Haywood Jabuzov. Our sale director in Iraq is Azizno Warranty. Holmes' personal matchmaker is Robin DeCradle. Our special harassment counselor, back from a significant hiatus, is Pat McCann, and our director of sycophantic activity is Eileen Your Way.

and our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Cheever and Howe is Uly-Louis Dewey, known to the UPS guy as Ui-Louis Dewe. Thanks so much for listening. We're clicking and clack the Tappertert Brothers. Don't drive like my brother. Don't drive like my brother. We'll be back next week. Bye-bye.

And now here is Car Talk Plaza's chief mechanic, Mr. Vincent Q. Bumbats. Thank you very much. Now, if you want a copy of this year's show, which is number 42, just pick up your phone and call this year number 1-8-88-car junk. And what if I wanted the new car to? collection, why you should never listen to your father when it comes to cars. Would I call that same number, Vinnie? No, you call Chai Chai Riggas, you don't.

Chai Chai. Of course you call the same number. You call the Shameless Commerce Division at 888 card junk or visit it online at the Cart Talk section of Cars.com. You got it? Thank you, Vinny. That was quite illuminating. Oh, illuminate this, jerk. Car Talk is a production of Dewey Cheaterman Howe and W.BU.R.

And even though Jesse Ventura body slams his radio whenever he hears us say it, this is NPR National Public Radio.