The Best of Car Talk - #25104: Dang Skippy

Episode Date: December 30, 2025

A merry melange of motor maladies on this end of the year 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.

NPR will keep reporting the news without fear or favor. And here at the best of car talk, we will keep bringing you the same questionable car advice that you've come to expect all these years. Now, if you are already a Car Talk Plus supporter, thank you so much. We see you, and we're so grateful for your support. If not, please join the community of public radio supporters

right now before the end of the year at plus.npr.org. Signing up unlocks a bunch of perks like bonus episodes and more from across NPR's podcasts. Plus, you get to feel good about supporting public media while you listen, end the year on a high note, and invest in a public service that matters to you. Visit plus.npr.org today. Thanks. Car Talk from National Public Radio with us Click and Clack to Tapit Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the Department of Divine Justice here at Car Talk Plaza.

This is. Here's a little note from Bill Hobbins from out there in cyberspace. Hi guys. In light of your Drive Now Talk Later campaign, my friends encouraged me to tell you what happened to me on my way home from work a couple of Fridays ago. I was approaching an equipment rental business in my aging Dodge Minivan van when a man who was talking on his cell. phone, pulled out of the rental store parking lot right in front of me. I slammed on the brakes and managed to get the caravan stopped. Annoyed, I slammed my hand down on the horn and held it for a good while as he continued his left turn across a busy street. The guy's talking on his cell phone. Got it. I've got it all mapped out, man. When I blew my horn, he attempted to make

an obscene gesture with his left hand, the hand holding the cell phone. Why? I got it. I got it. while propped up in the open window of his blazer toward me. I don't understand all. And so doing, lost control of the phone, which flew out of the open window directly at me. Wait, it gets better. The phone flew a short distance, bounced, and came to rest right in front of me. As I rolled forward, I heard the phone crunch under the left front and then the left rear tire of the van. A feat I couldn't duplicate in a hundred tries.

As I continue, I glanced in my rearview mirror and saw the remains of his cell phone in a small pile of high-tech particles on the street. I can only hope the driver of the blazer attempted to retrieve his phone. Moral of the story, there is justice in the universe for those who talk in a cell phone while drive him. Isn't that great? Wouldn't you love to have seen that happen?

Oh, man. In three falls and... Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry again Sorry again And by the way Look if you would like to talk to us And we'd love to talk to you

Our number is 888 car talk That's 888-227-8255 Hello you're on car talk Hi my name is Ben I'm from Colchester, Connecticut Hey Ben, what's going on man Colchester? Yep

So what's up Ben All right I got an 89 Volkswagen Fox Oh man That's what I'm sure Things ain't been so good in Colchester Oh, it's been beauty. The Fox was not one of Volkswagen's greatest moments. I always thought they were rather chinsely made.

You got it. Everything was teeny. Everything was bare bones. You would think the General Motors had made it. Oh, geez. Another low blow. Well, I mean, they saved every ounce, every penny. I mean, iron is about the cheapest thing on the planet.

You can buy iron less than you can buy it. Anything. It ain't cheaper than air. And if the cars consist primarily of air, it's a heck of a lot cheaper than almost anything else you can use. You got it.

So go ahead, Ben. We're sorry to have interrupted like this. I can't help myself when it comes to editorial comment. We notice. Yeah. So you've got an 89 fox. Good for you, Ben. Oh, yeah. I won the lottery there. So driving on

driving on the highway on the way to work one day, front tires lock up, skid, sparking, it's a beauty. Get a toe to the garage. Garage tells me that I blew both CV joints, amazingly at the same time, seizing my axles is what they told me. No, it doesn't sound good to me. It doesn't sound likely, and if it is true, man, you have to be the luckiest guy on the planet.

So they tell me, you can't keep the axles, got to have them both replaced. Yeah. So I said, all right, had the work done. About two months down the road, I start getting this. thumpin' sound underneath the footwell of the driver's sound. Big, do-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Yeah.

And it's only when I drive straight or turn left. The minute I turn the wheel to the right, the sound stops. Yeah. Cool. I brought it to the dealer. They said you need a CV joint. They, exactly. Yeah.

You just had that done, though, two months ago. Two months later, they tell me you need a whole new thing. And I'm sure you reminded them of this little insides. Oh, you're dang, Skippy. I'm going to use that. Dang, Skippy. I love it, man. I pointed that one right out when I said, hey, oh, yeah.

It's about two months old. To which they responded? Not our problem. Really? Really? This was a dealership or Joe's Garage? Joe's Garage. Yeah.

What's their warranty anyway? Did they have any clue? They had a 50-50. Were they making it up on the spot? 50 feet or 50 seconds from the door. You got it, buddy. So they had... You mean dang Skippy.

Dang Skippy. But I think by law in Connecticut, there has got to be a minimum time period for a warranty. Connecticut must have... I mean, this isn't New Hampshire, after all. I mean, Connecticut must have some kind of consumer protection laws. I'm sure they do. Well, when I asked the guy about it, I said,

this has got to be under warranty. He's like, hey, you've had it for two months. That'll outlast any warranty. Gee. I don't think so I mean there are lots of places that have 30 day warranties but CV joint should last

years I'd be willing to bet the manufacturer's warranty on the part is a year at least and if nothing else he ought to give you the part for free since we both expressed consternation

when you said that both of the CVs seized up that didn't happen one of them broke and he figured might as well saw this guy both of them. It's unlike, it would be a one and a million chance that both of them would lock up. See, he told me because one locked up, that the tension locked up the other one.

Oh, tensions in his brain. Yeah. No. No, that, I don't like that story. What I do like is that he put only one of them in, and now the second one, which he claims that he put in, has to be put in. Oh, that's a likely scenario, isn't it? That's what I like. Yeah.

He might have just cleaned up the other one and made it look like a new one. You might want to just crawl under there and take a look and see if one of them looks a lot newer than the other. In which case, instead of going back to him, you go right to the Attorney General's office. And you'll lay a beating on him. I think you have to tell this guy you're taking him to court. Yeah, I think so, too. Do you think so? Yeah, but in the meantime, get it fixed.

And the reason he can't, the reason he can't warranty it is he never bought it in the first place. Oh, man. I think so. That could well be. That could well be. I like that scenario, too. I like it the best. But take it to another shop, ask them to diagnose it,

and then have them put it on the lift, and ask them if, in their opinion, both axles were replaced, and then ask them what the warranty is from the manufacturer on the axles that they sell. And I bet you they're all buying it from the same place, and if he bought a rebuilt axle for this, is more than a two-month warranty on it.

Yeah, absolutely. You got taken. Yeah. It's a bad day in Colchester. It sure is. Skippy. You're dang skippy it is. Dang skippy.

See you, Ben. Good luck, Ben. Thanks, guys. See you later. I'm later. 1-8-88-car talk or 1-8-88-227-8-25-5. Hello, you're on car talk. Hi, guys.

I'm Scott Rice from Grover Beach, California. How you're doing? Got Grover Beach? Yeah, known to some as Groovy Beach. Groovy Beach. In what state? California. Where is Groovy Beach?

Well, you probably know Pizmo Beach better. We are like the little brother of Pizmo Beach. No kidding. What's a Pizmo? It's a little thing in the end of your watch. No, no, that's a gizmo. I don't know. All right, Scott, what's up?

Well, what I got is I got it what I thought was a good deal. Okay. My stepmom's uncle had passed away, and he had an 85 Chrysler-Labaron with only 70,000 miles on it. What year? 85. 85. Yeah, I'm visualizing it. Okay, yeah.

Visualized and now take it down a notch. Is this one of the ones with a turbo? Yes. Four-cylinder turbo. All the whopping power you could ever want. Well, we happen to know a guy that owns one of these. Yeah, we do. I'm sorry.

Yeah. He's our father. Right. He loves it. He bought it on my brother's recommendation. I thought it was you. No. My father, I thought it was your father.

So go ahead. Yeah. So how about it? What about it? So here's what it is. You get on the freeway, and it's kind of liking to, when you have the air conditioner turned on, and you can literally feel it click on and off with the power in the car. Yes. It does this all the time except for more times than not. It's clicked in the no-power mode, but the air conditioner is not on. Oh. And it gets better.

If you drop it into second gear when you're trying to come up the on-ramp onto the freeway, you'll get up to about 45 miles per hour, and then it flattens out. When you refer to the click, is this an actual click, or you're imagining that? I can feel it and hear it. I suspect that when it's done one of its clicks, and I don't know whether there's a negative or positive click, that the turbo isn't working. Let's call one of them a click and the other one a clack. So when it clicks in,

Yeah. The turbo must be working. Okay. And you should know, you should feel that. I mean, that's a very distinct kick in the rear end. Yeah. Yes, but I understood you to say that there are times, click or no click, when you stop on that gas pedal and the car doesn't go.

Right. When you stop on the pedal, that turbo should always kick in. Right. So I'd have to conclude that the turbo isn't always working. Yeah, and you don't want to replace the turbo, Scott. No? No. Too much, huh?

Oh, yeah. Oh, no, big money. What else would you be interested in driving? Did you take the caroscope? I've got to go to caroscope, definitely. You've got to go to caroscope. I've got to figure out exactly when to sell this car, though, because the trunk leaks. So you've got to sell it when it's not raining.

During the dry season. Yeah, yeah. Dry season in California, that's most of the time. And I guess make sure I park it on and uphill on the top of the hill, so the downhill, it seems like it's got a lot of power. Right. And then you should be looking for it. Forget the caroscope.

You don't need it. You need a nice 87 or 88 Dodge Cold Vista. With one of those wonderful Mitsubishi engines. Yeah. They're great, man. They last forever. Good luck, Scott. Well, so your big advice for me is get rid of it.

Get rid of it because I think the turbo is kaput. Got it. And I don't think you want to replace it. All right. Good luck. Thanks, guys. Bye, bye. All right.

Do you remember Tommy last week's puzzler? All right, just give me one little hint. Well, well, I will. It has to do with something I said about somebody's mother. Oh, you didn't insult the chairman of the FCC again by the chance, did you? No, I didn't, but I'll have the answer in just a minute. What if public radio stopped sounding like this? Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rom.

And started sounding like this. NPR is doing everything possible to keep this trusted and free public service going. With your support, we will not be silent. Please give today at donate.npr.org. Thanks. 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 historic puzzler. Yeah. And here it is. Which of the following president's mothers? By her own admission would say that she did not vote for her own. son when he ran for the presidency of the United States. What kind of a mother would not vote for her own son? And what were the choices?

John Fitzgerald Kennedy? Well, Rose might not have voted for her own son. William Jefferson Clinton? Didn't know he had a mother. He does? Or Thomas? You didn't know that was his first name? I did know that.

You did? I know everyone whose name is Thomas. Thomas Woodrow Wilson. Yeah. And I did give a hint that my teenage son, who was a brilliant student. Yeah. Did not know the answer. Did not get it because it's out of his time frame.

Yeah. And the answer is Woodrow Wilson. And not because Woody's mother didn't like him. She didn't like him. It's, believe it or not, for all you youngsters out there, until 1920, women were not allowed to vote in this country. No. And because Wilson's term ended before women had the right to vote, she could not have legally voted for her own son.

1920? 1920, I believe, is when women, yes, got the right to vote. 1920? What barbarians! I mean, what kind of a democracy is this? All men are created equal, but not women. Well, and that's exactly what the Constitution said, all men. All men. It said that.

And it's specific, a parenthesis. Not women. Hey, Mabel, where do you think you're going? Who's our winner this week? Wow. The winner is Lou Shirley. Hmm. And only judging from the handwriting, we named Lou, L.U.

Is female. Oh, yeah, for like Lulu. Lulu, yeah. She's from either Papillon or Papillon, Nebraska. And for having her answer selected at random from among the thousands of correct answers that we got, Lulu is going to get a copy of our. brand new CD about fathers and cars called Why You Should Never Listen to Your Father when it comes to cars.

The thesis of this collection, by the way, is that 98% of the world's misinformation about cars comes from fathers. The other 2% comes from who? From us. We provide ample evidence of both in why you should never listen to your father when it comes to cars. Anyway, we'll have a new automotive? No.

Non-automotive? No. Yeah Quasi Automotive You missed No We haven't had Quasi automotive

This puzzle If you remember Back to last Puzzler season Yeah This is another In the series Of the famous

String Puzzles That'll be coming up In the third half of today's show Hey do you know What it's time for Time to go shopping For my Ray Suarez

Halloween mask No no no The one you're wearing It's scary enough It's time to play Stump the chocolate Stump the Chumps is that portion of our program, where we bring back a previous caller

and find out just how bad the injuries were. That's right. So who's this week's Chump Stumper? Well, the little card here says it's John from Gloversville, New York, which I believe thought was the place where Orson Wells did the... Oh, yes, yes, yes, it isn't. No. John is back with a 1990 Volkswagen golf that he recently bought from his sister.

His sister? That's a stupid idea. Wait, what's done is done. Apparently, it pulls to the right when he's going uphill. Oh, I remember this call, and pulls to the left where he's going downhill or straight away. Remember that? I remember. This guy had it so completely stumped, we had to go on a bit of a fishing expedition.

It's been doing this ever since you got it from your sister, that weird sister you're yours? Now, let's not get too far into my sister here. But, yeah, it's been doing that pretty much ever since I got it. Just because we have a weird sister. Doesn't mean that everyone does. No? No, I've got a great sister. She took very good care of it.

Did your sister ever have an accident with the car? No, he said she never had an accident. She didn't tell him about it. No, that she's right. I mean, does your sister tell you all the accidents that she has? She's got a brand new car One day she says It's funny

You know those extra driving lights That I had in the front They're now dragging on the pavement They're dragging on the ground And I say to her Oh how did that happen? What did you hit? Hit?

I didn't know they just fell out What a cheap She has a shoe boot She's what a cheap piece of junk this is The lights just fell out And we said We don't think so We don't think so

So Hey if John's sister Is anything like our sister She probably just forgot to mention the time that the tree jumped out in front of the car. At least she's driving along, boom. Trees do that. So our best guess for John was an accident. We figured that if the golf was in an accident, that would explain the pulling in the different directions thing.

So we're basically accusing his sister of wrecking the car and then selling it to him under false pretenses. Is that what our position was? Yeah, basically. All right, John, are you there? I'm here. All right, before you tell us that your sister is suing us for defamation of character and lost income from... the sale of her use car. We have to be sure that this is on the up and up. Can you confirm for us, please, John, that since your last appearance on car talk,

you have not been contacted by any members of our staff, the staff of National Public Radio, or the National Association of Sibling Rivalry. Or Ray Suarez. That is absolutely correct. All right. Did you go right out and accuse your sister or cracking up the car? No, guys, I got to confess here. Confession is appropriate. I actually work as a pastor here in Gloversville. But the car was actually involved in an accident. that totally slipped my mind.

You're going to love this. I was involved in the accident, too. And you forgot. I'm having a little senior moment, were we? Exactly. I was in the passenger seat. My brother re-rended my sister. No kidding.

In a rented Cadillac. You're going to love the cat. The front of the Cadillac was destroyed. The golf had only had a little dent. It had to have the bumper replaced. And you thought that's all that happened to the Garland. until now. Exactly.

Now you're finding out that the whole frame is no longer square. It's a parallelogram. You're never going to be able to get it. Better that than a trapezoid, but yeah. Better that than a trapezoid, but you're never going to get at the track right. So have you had anyone look at it? No, I didn't have anyone look at it since we talked. It sounds a little dangerous to me, John.

I mean, I know you have a special connection with the big one up there. The big guy. You might have to use it. sooner than you think. So, I mean, I would really have someone look at it. It's possible, if the frame is really even a trapezoid, it might be possible

to straighten it out. Okay. And if that's the case, I would really do it. Yeah. And it's not going to cost thousands of dollars to do that. It's going to cost hundreds. Yeah, and if the handling is really that squirly, it could be dangerous. So you should get it fixed. I'll definitely check it. But thanks for playing Stump the Chumps.

And for being so honest with us, of course, you would be honest. A man of the cloth. I mean, of the cloth. Of course, what else would we expect? We didn't even know that. Thanks, John. Thank you guys very much. See you later.

Now, if you want to take the first step toward being on Stump the Chumps, you have to call us because you can't be on again unless you were on once. That's right. By definition, you can't be on a second time unless you were what? The first time. Well, there you go. And that number is 1-888-car talk. That's 1-3-2-7-82-Double-5. Hello, you're on Car Talk.

This is Susan from Utah. How are you? Susan from Utah. We're about to Utah. Escalante, Utah. Escal. You know? That's elevator, right?

Or escalator. Yeah. No, it's a language that the whole word was Esperanto. Oh, Escalante, Esperanto. What's the difference? In Esperanto, anything worse. If you can sort of figure it out knowing nothing. Right.

It's like Escalante would certainly be an escalator in Esperanto. Or a person who likes to climb mountains. Yes. Oh, a climber. A climber. Escalante. Yeah. No, that would be an escalantadora.

Escalatador. Escalantador. You're an escalantador? No, I'm Swedish. Isn't that sad? All right. Well, Susan, you've used up all your time. So it's sad to say.

So what's up, Susan? I have an 86 Toyota Turcell. Yeah. Runs like a dream. Yeah, they all do. Except it makes a fom, fom, fom, fom, fom, fom, noise that has come up recent. that I thought might be tires,

and I realized that the wump noise was not consistent with the tire. Is it like three times the speed of the tires? No, the tire goes faster. So the tires are on, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and this noise is going. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Yeah. Oh, man, does it make it hard? Oh, okay, well, go ahead.

It's your dime. So that's the only problem, and I don't know what it is. And, of course, you haven't taken it to anyone. Nope. Not an Escalani? No. Well, I don't even know where Escalante Esperanto is, but did the noise appear all of a sudden? Yeah.

Well, it always does. Was it, I mean, I was on a lot of dirt roads. All noises appear all of a sudden, because prior to them, they're not noises. Well, no, some noises start out. You say, oh, that's what that used to be. Well, that's what that turned into. Actually, you know, I think it was kind of like that. When was the last time you bought tires?

Can't remember, can you? No, no, no, I can't. It wasn't when I bought them, but I had, when I bought the car, there were a bunch of tires with a car. So I finally went about two months ago and said, pick the four best tires, leave me a spare, and put the four best tires on. Does it sound like it's coming from one of the front wheels? Yes. Okay, good. Because I think I know what it is.

Do you? Thank goodness. And I don't agree, by the way. Whatever he says. Oh, yeah, you're going to agree with this. I'm not going to agree. You're going to say, oh, all right. Okay, go ahead.

Brilliant. Yeah. You have a bad wheel bearing. I knew you were going to say that. And what you have is one spalled, spelled S-P-A-L-E-D, ball bearing in one of those front wheels. And I'm going to guess it's the right front wheel. Yeah. I think that's what it is.

You should have your mechanic throw it up on the lift. And unfortunately, in order to replace this, to look at this bearing, you must destroy it. So you can never prove that it was good. Well, you can't, after the fact you can, when you puts it all together and the noise is gone. Well, is it something that I could take the, are they expensive? Could I buy one in Salt Lake City, where the car is now, take it down to a person in Escalani who might be able to do that? Well, you better check first to make sure he can do it. Because it requires a press, a hydraulic press, to press the bearings onto the hub.

and I mean Are you the only one that lives in Escalante? I mean, how much of a one-horse town is this? One horse? Oh, there are many horses. There just aren't very many people. No, I think this is a job you need to have done in Salt Lake. Okay.

I would take it to the salt lake. Okay. You guys are wonderful. Well, you won't think so when you are on stumped the chumps in a couple of weeks. See you, Susan. Good luck, Susan. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

All right, it's time to take a short break. And when we come back, my brother will hold us spellbound with this week's new puzzle. I will. Yeah, we'll be back in a minute. Ha, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack the Tapper Brothers.

And we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and the new puzzler. Now, as promised, this is the second in the series of two. Yeah. Of the string puzzles. String puzzles. You may remember. You might refer to it as string theory, almost.

You could. You could. Yeah, you could. And will the story here be spellbinding, as you promised? Rivoting. Riving. Like blue jeans. Rivoting.

Not really. You may remember the other puzzler in the spring regarding string. Two pieces of string and burn something. There you go. Time goes by half an hour. And each of them will, if you light one end, will burn up in an hour. period of time. Right.

Okay. But at an unpredictable. At an unpredictable nonlinear rate. So you can't say, okay, look, I'm going to cut the thing in half and light one piece of it, and that's going to burn up in half. And all you know is that from beginning to end, the burn time is an hour. Gotcha. And the old puzzler was, how could you measure 15-minute period of time?

And you did so by lighting three ends at once. Three? It's only got two ends. It's one piece of string. Oh, you have two pieces of string. Two pieces of string. Got it. The first piece burns up in half an hour, okay?

Because you're sliding from both ends. Both ends, okay? The second piece burns for, obviously, a half an hour because it's what? Lid at the same time, the other two ends. And then what you do is you light the fourth end as soon as the first two flame fronts have met. Boom, and that's 15 minutes. And there you go. Okay.

That's good. That's good. And a lot of people got the answer to that. Sure. Okay. I like it, too. So now you're armed with the same two pieces of the same. of string, your zippo lighter.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And that's it. And the question is, how do you measure six minutes? Six minutes? Yeah. In other words, I want you to tell me... You might be cooking an egg, and that would be important. How could you tell me, okay, boom, right now, six minutes has elapsed from the, right, okay? All right, all right. You got it? We got it. We get it. If you think you know the answer, write it on the back of a $20 bill or a block of Parmesan cheese, imported. 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. 1-888-8-8-2-278-25. Lawyer on Car Talk. This is Mary Ellen in San Diego. Hi, Mary Ellen. Mary Allen. How are you? San Diego.

Yeah, or a little known suburb of San Diego. San Diego, La Jolla. Oh, you know. We've heard of it. We've heard of it, and my brother and I were supposed to go to La Jolla some years ago and have lunch on the pier. On the pier? There's no pier.

That's why we didn't go. Well, maybe we did go, we couldn't find the pier and we went back. Maybe that was Santa Monica. I don't know. It was one of those laws something or other. I don't know. One of those places in La La La Land. Oh, God.

Is it La Jolla or lo? La. La Jolla. Because it ends in A. Yes. Of course, it would have to be. La mesa. We have La mesa, too, here in San Diego.

Yeah, I know that. Yeah. Oh, you know this area. And you have a mesa grande. La Mesa Grande or la Mesa Pequena, too. What is this? A dim geography class. Come on.

Let's get to the point. And you have the dining room mesa. Yeah, that's it. And the kitchen mesa. And a kitchen mesa and all kinds of mess. Doesn't anyone screen these calls? And you could have a mess on the dining room mesa. You guys have got to give your number a little more slowly.

Because I call the wrong number, and I got somebody talking dirty. Really? What was the number? Tell us. You got someone who wants you to pay to talk dirty to them. Really? For them to talk dirty to you. Was it a male voice or a female voice?

It's a female voice. Oh, you got Catherine then. Yeah. I'll figure that's what got me in. Yeah. Probably was. So anyway, Mary Ellen, what's the nature of your call? My major problem, I wasn't.

want you to be on my side and to settle an argument between my husband and me. We're there. That's good. Okay, we have a daughter who lives 65 miles away with our only grandchildren, and we're up there on that road back and forth every week, and sometimes twice a week. And we have a 95 Camry, and we have a 97 Avalon. Both of them have over 35,000 miles. And he says, these will be our last cars because we're so old, we're never going to need to buy another one.

I said, you've got to be kidding. He says, these cars can go 200,000 miles with no trouble, and we can just drive back and forth and wherever with 200,000 miles on these cars. And I'm saying, I'm getting a new one when it gets around 70, or 75,000. because there's 17 miles there where there's nothing but marine helicopters and tanks doing war games and that sort of thing. And you don't want to break down there, no. Or anywhere, actually. Sure, but especially there. Uh-huh.

How old's your husband? He's 72. He's old. I'm only 71. I'm not that old. Oh, you don't sound that old. So you're going to live another 20 years. Well, that's what I'm hoping.

Oh, easy. Easy. He breathed in that nice clean air out there and enjoying the sunshine. Right. So how many miles a year do you drive? Well, he says. Twice a week you drive 150 miles. That's $350,000.

Yeah. 15,000 miles a year. Right. And you've got two cars in which to do it, so you can alternate. Right. That's what he does. Well, wait a minute. The Camry, which is yours.

No, the Avalon is mine. Oh, excuse me. Of course. Okay, so the Avalon is the one you've been taking more recently on these trips, but you have been using the Camry. Right. Right, sure. Then we started, got the Avalon, and we kept using that until we caught up to the Camry.

Ah, so now you're going to alternate, so both of them will have exactly the same mileage on them. I get the idea now. Yeah, well, that's his idea. I think we ought to keep one for... So if you were able to get 200,000 miles out of... That's only a... Well, I just did a quick calculation. If you use both of these cars for your driving, you keep both of them...

Uh-huh. In order to get the 200,000... you're both going to have to live to be a hundred and seven and a half. Yeah. Oh, you did it already? Well, I think so. I made it up, but I think it's close. Yeah.

I think he's right that you, that these could be your last cars. But it is, it is a lugubrious thought. Isn't it to say, this is my last car? Jeez, that's kind of depressing, isn't it? It's not depressing. No, because you can spend all the rest of them on you, are thinking of spending on trips to Hawaii. Well, that's kind of what he says, except, yeah, he wants to spend them on trips everywhere,

but not to Hawaii necessarily. because why would you want to go to paradise sooner? I said you can keep his for 200,000 miles. Mine's going to be on the way out around 75. Well, unfortunately, you have two cars which have a pretty good record. Right. And a good chance to make it to 200,000. Yeah, I mean, if you have an Avalon or a camera,

you've got a good shot at getting 200,000 miles out of both of them. But trouble-free, not breaking down. Oh, no, no, not trouble-free, but, I mean, it's always better to have a while. almost a brand new car, but toward the end there, don't forget, when you're in your 90s, you're not going to be driving twice a week to see your daughter. You're not going to be doing that anymore. No, because the grandchildren are going to be 50. Yeah, don't forget, the grandkids are going to be driving, they're going to be flying in their

own private little helicopters down to see you. Right. And I don't think you have to make any decisions right now because you certainly, your estimate of 75,000 is way, way too conservative. 75,000, both of these cars is practically brand new. Really? Oh, yeah. Yeah. However, there is another approach here, and there is hope, Mary Ellen.

Hope for the new car. Yes. There are many unfortunate automobile accidents every year. And if your car should happen to have one of these accidents, if you lent it to somebody or it happened to, like, slide into the lake. sometimes. Things happen. You know, you forget to put the thing in park and the next thing you know it's in the lake. Well, maybe I'd have to drive right on that pier in La Jolla.

Yeah, the pier. Exactly. Hey, we thought it was there. You could say you thought it was there too. Before I knew it. It could be a senior moment. You know, you could say, well, they used to be a pier. What happened to the pier? Not in my lifetime.

So I would say, go to $100,000, and you can do that certainly not with no repairs, You'll have to replace things, but the likelihood of you're breaking down on that stretch of no man's land will be very low even at 100,000 miles, assuming that you keep the cars well maintained. Yeah. But I don't like his plan of alternating. Uh-huh, oh. Then you end up with two cars, both of which have high mileage on them at the same time.

Really? I told him that. You were right on that one. Uh-huh. Use one of them. Good. And put all the miles on that one. When that one gets to a point where it's stock. to have things wrong with it, you switch to the other one.

Yeah. And you have to buy a new car because the one with all the breakdowns has to be replaced. There you go. Oh, well, that's very good advice. So I would definitely pick one. I would take the Avalon. You would? That's a nice big, comfortable car.

Would you use it just for trips back and forth, or would you use it around town too? I'd use it everywhere. Everywhere. Yeah. You want to get as many miles on it as possible, so then when it gets up to like 125, you can say, Wilbur. He says, yes, dear. He said, we're going to buy a new car. He says, whatever you say, hon.

Okay. That's what I do that now. My wife says, we're going to buy a new guy. No, whatever you say, hon. Oh, you're right. My wife now has me saying, yes, dear. Yeah. And it's working.

It's working. I'm getting you. I kind of like it. Oh, that's nice. It saves a lot of problems. It sure does. No more arguments. Whatever she says, I'd just say, yes, dear.

See you, Mary Ellen. Okay, thanks so much. Take it easy. Maybe. me, I don't know. Bye. Bye, bye. While you've wasted another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk, our esteemed producer has dug the Subway Fugitive, and that case is still on the books.

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