The Best of Car Talk - #2538: Noah's Park

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

Noah's about to go on a 'voyage' of sorts(Think endless concrete and iron bars instead of ocean). His beloved, a '76 Dodge Van, will be pining away for him until he figures out how to escape. Should he put his getaway vehicle in storage or just leave it idling at the secret hideout? Click and Clack are Noah's wheel men 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

These days, there's a lot of news. It can be hard to keep up with what it means for you, your family, and your community. Consider This from NPR is a podcast that helps you make sense of the news. Six days a week, we bring you a deep dive on a story and provide the context, backstory, and analysis you need to understand our rapidly changing world. Listen to the Consider This Podcast from NPR. Hello and welcome to Car Talk. I can't read that on the end. No, not really. Welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us Click and Clack the Tablet Brothers. We're broadcasting this week from the Center for Strange Bedfellows.

Come on, get a grip on yourselves. We're broadcasting from the Center for Strange Bedfellows here at Car Talk Plaza. Did you hear this week? Are you ready for this? Mercedes-Benz and Chrysler are. Were, at least. We're talking about merging. Wow!

Shh! I mean, you have to wonder, what's going to happen? I mean, whenever companies merge like that, certain attributes of one company are absorbed by the other and vice versa. And vice versa. And vice versa. And vice versa.

And vice versa. And vice versa. And vice versa. And vice versa. And vice versa. And vice versa. And vice versa. And vice versa.

And vice versa. And vice versa. And vice versa. And vice versa. And vice versa. And vice versa. And vice versa. And vice versa. And vice versa. And vice versa. And vice versa. And vice versa. I like it. I like it and on the Chrysler side will they pick up some of that famous German bravado

I mean they talk about the uber wagon and Mercedes has decided they will say there is no problem with the caravan the caravan is a perfect vehicle See it now I don't want to say we're gonna get in trouble I know that's why I'm not saying anything else because I know that we're gonna get in trouble. That's why I'm not saying anything else cuz I know That we're gonna get in trouble and we may be in trouble Probably if you'd like to talk to us and get us out of trouble our number is 1-888 car talk That's eight double eight double two seven eighty two double five or the anti log of ten point two seven six oh five four three nine

Three two four hello you're on car talk. This is Terri from Bluebell, Pennsylvania. Hi, Terri. Bluebell. Did you say Terri or Carrie? Terri. T-E-R-R-Y. Terri. Terri.

Terri. From Bluebell. Bluebell. Do you have any Bluebells in Pennsylvania? I think we have some in our yard, actually. Yeah, they're little blue things. Yeah. Yeah.

We have a few. Yeah, shaped like a bell. You got it. Yeah, I think so. Anyway, Ter like a bell. He's hitting a bell. You got it. Yeah, I think so. Anyway, Terry, what's on your mind today? Well, I have a 1998 Mercury Sable wagon, and I have an intermittent problem.

And my big concern is I just don't want my car to die on me. That's my goal. Okay. And the problem is at times my car has this vibration in it and this grinding sound. Like it happens in the front of the car and it will actually cause like my brake pedal and my gas pedal to vibrate and then I get this really loud grinding sound. Really? And what does this happen when you are stepping on the brake? No, it can happen. I could be on the highway.

Yeah. Here's an important question. Okay. Or maybe. I'm beginning to, the theory is beginning to coalesce. I could be on the highway. Yeah. Here's an important question. Okay. Or maybe. I'm beginning to, the theory is beginning to coalesce. You know when the planet's cool? Yeah.

They go from this amorphous state. You can see shapes. See shapes. You see little shapes and then the shapes turn into stupid ideas. There you go. Yeah. Has it ever happened when you are stopped at a traffic light? Yes.

Ah! It has, ha ha! Yes. Wow-zee! Well, I think I know what it is. Oh, good. Do you? Yes, and I think it's nothing, you haven't taken this into the Ford dealer?

I took it into the Ford dealer and they said it's intermittent, we don't know what it is. We don't do intermittent stuff. We don't do intermittent stuff. Yeah. We have to wait till your, right, your limbs are dragging on the highway.

It's got to do with every waking moment, otherwise don't waste that time. I think what you're hearing is the ABS pump cycling on and off. Your car has anti-lock brakes. Yes. And there's a pump that maintains pressure in the accumulator so that when you do deploy the brakes, there's enough pressure there to actuate the brakes as the car is slowing down and going through this lock-up, free-up, lock-up, free-up thing with each wheel. And the system is constantly checking to make sure that the pressure is high enough. And if it's not, the pump just kicks in any old time. And it sounds like this. Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn Is that it? Yeah, I think so. It'll last about maybe 15, 20 seconds. Even less sometimes.

Sometimes less. Sometimes longer. All longer. It can last even longer. It lasts like 20 or 30 or 40 seconds maybe. Even if you're like not even stepping on the brakes, it will just do it. Oh yeah, it doesn't know. It doesn't care.

It's just checking the internal pressure of the system. Okay. There could be a leak in the system, but there are some cars where there is nothing wrong with the system and it runs for that duration and is that annoying. So you might suggest to the Ford dealer that that's what it is. Okay, that sounds great. Suggest to them that they change the pump. Okay, great.

See you, Terry. Okay, thanks. Bye-bye. Bye. 1888 Car Talk, that's 18882278255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Nikki. I'm calling from Blaine, Washington. Nikki, is that with two K's?

No. A CK? No. A K and an IKI? Yes. Ah, yeah. Fourth try never fails. Where are you from? Blaine, Washington.

Blaine. Uh-huh. It's up by the Canadian border. Okay. Yeah. That's cool. It's up by the Canadian border. Okay. Yeah. That's cool. What's up, Nikki? Um, I have a Toyota 4Runner and I was in a snowstorm, ice and snowstorm, and ran over a tire chain that came off of a semi truck and got a flat tire, but I didn't realize it was flat and went about 10 miles and I was wondering what kind of damage I might have done. Well, you probably lunched the tire Yeah

Did you replace the tire? Yeah, you ate the tire And if they put the new tire on the wheel and the wheel took it Yeah, it didn't reject the tire as some that happens sometimes they put a one and the tire will go flying off Because there's a rejection between the tire and the old wheel the new tire in the old and if that didn't happen Nothing else happened. Okay. No, you will worry that you had done damage to the differential or the transmission or some such thing the ball joints Maybe because there is a little bit of a kind of a vibration in the front I was doing about you know, 55 miles an hour kind of a vibration in the front. I was doing about, you know, 55 miles an hour, changed lanes and the car was driving fine. No, you wouldn't have damaged the

ball joints don't care if you're riding on cement blocks. Oh, right. They don't mind. Okay, great. So if you still have a little bit of a vibration it's because the guy who put the new tire on didn't balance it correctly. Or maybe the wheel got bent and he just slapped the tire in the air and figured you'd never be back. Yeah. That may be true. Have him check the balance of that tire, and if he can't balance it better, you may need a wheel. Well, he may have balanced it, in fact, but the wheel may be out of true. That's the first thing you want to check, to see if, in fact, the wheel has been bent somehow. Okay.

So go back to this guy and ask him to check to see if the wheel has been bent. Okay. You're not an aggressive driver, are you? You sound like a sweet thing, you know? Well, I was born in Montana. Oh, been bent. Okay. You're not an aggressive driver are you? You sound like a sweet thing you know? Well I was born in Montana. Oh never mind okay. Well that's been real nice. Okay bye. And I go there to drive everyone. Yeah yeah yeah don't hang yourself anymore. See you later Nikki. Good luck. Take care. Bye bye. 1888 Car Talk that's of course 8 double eight double two seven eighty two double five hello You're on car talk. This is Mike from, California How you guys doing the whole state of California are you just don't want us to triangulate on y'all?

I'm in Southern California Southern California Southern's good. That's that's close enough. We'll figure out where you're from eventually And I I can already get you live near Huntington Beach. Don't you yes, sir do you? Yeah, in fact part of my questions regarding one of those beaches we operate You live near Huntington Beach, don't you? Yes, sir. Do you? Yeah, in fact, part of my question is regarding one of those beaches. Wait a minute, you do? We operate state parks in Orange County. No kidding. We operate Huntington State Beach, Bolsa Chica State Beach, Crystal Cove, San Clemente, Doheny, and San Onofre State Beaches.

No kidding. And we have a fleet of lifeguard vehicles that we're real concerned about. You guys are Baywatch guys? You're not the Baywatch guys? What's that? Did they get us on Baywatch? Baywatch? That's north of us. We don't care! We got nothing to do with that.

Don't want anything to do with it. Run, Yasmeen, run! Well, thanks for calling, Mike. We don't want to talk to you anymore. Alright, what's your question? We have Surfwatch. Alright, that's good enough. So what's your question? We have surf watch surf. All right, that's good enough There we go. What's up? The question is our lifeguard vehicle fleet is rusting out in about two years And we operate on it in an assault environment. We're operating in sand

Yeah, our guys hold them down every night when they're done, but they're still rusting out in about two years We're losing the frames and a lot of the bodywork. And my question is, is you guys know anything we can do to prevent this corrosion and maybe help make these vehicles last a little longer? How are the vehicles used? I mean, you're not driving them into the water. They're on the beach. You're driving them on the beach? On the beach and at times, you know, they'll be down near the water line and they'll get

salt water on them But yeah as I said each night the guys hose them down and try to clean them up and I mean they are they really Hosing them by going underneath and hosing the inside of the fender wells and all that stuff exactly they are yeah Too bad. What kind of are they all the same kind of vehicle are they different? They're primarily Jeep Wranglers Did you say cheap Jeep Wranglers yeah don't say anything bad about the Christ of Corporation because they got a lot of wires. No we're all happy with the vehicle it's just that we're we're losing them in you know around two to three years they're rusting out boy oh boy the frames rust from the inside out and you know where the leaf springs attached to the frames is a real particular

problem area that's usually where they fail. Well I mean I was I would have suggested that you rinse them off every night but you do that. Have you have you know what you do I mean this is an ideal case for a little a little experimentation. I would find somewhere in the LA area, southern Cal area, a rust proofing company. That hasn't gone belly up. Well, one of them that hasn't gone belly up is Zee Bart. What's it called? Zee Bart. I put Z-E-I-B-A-R-T or Z-I-E one of those names. Yeah, I before we accept after And tell them that you'd like to do an experiment and you'd want to do how many vehicles have you got 20 No, at least 20. I think you need to do two two because one could be a fluke. Yeah, okay

I mean that should help because that's gonna the way that works is it puts a coating underneath which is gonna because that's gonna the way that works is it puts a coating underneath which is gonna prevent the salt water from getting to the metal parts right if they do it right but I would try you try one of these rust proofing things the other thing you can do is try painting certain vital areas with something called zinc chromate paint zinc chromate yeah okay which is expensive it well enough to do the whole vehicle would cost about as much as a new Jeep Well, but on the other hand me you you could you could paint half of certain vehicles and see if see what happens, right? This is an idea. I love experimentation and research Well, we'll try it. We'll get back to try the zinc chromate paint

Try Z Bart or one of those guys and try nothing and see what happens. Okay. Let us know let us know We'll be eagerly awaiting your call. All right. Hey, we really like your show guys. Thanks Mike. See ya. Keep it up Bye. Bye. All right, maybe they need us to come on the show. I mean, oh do the show out there We need to do a remote. I want to run along the beach alongside. Yes, her name. Yes mean belief Oh, is that her name? Yeah, you want to know anything else about her? What's her name? Yasmeen. Yasmeen Bleefe. Oh, is that her name?

Yeah. You want to know anything else about her? I know everything else I need to know. Okay, now look, before we give the answer to last week's puzzle, we have to take a short break. Do you know why? Yeah, so you can figure out the answer. That's right.

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them into five-minute episodes so you can easily squeeze them in between meetings and on your way to that thing listen to the NPR News Now podcast now. Hello we're back you're listening to car talk with us click and clack the Tapper Brothers and here is the answer to last week's puzzle. I happen to remember the puzzler. Good. About the big truck. Who cares? The one with the high-pressure turp... Ah! Sorry. Anyway, this puzzle was inspired by a photograph that I saw in the paper recently. Picture this. I'm driving... this is all contrived, obviously, but for the purposes of office space... No! You mean that these puzzlers that you give us week after week are not absolutely...

Well, most of this particular one happens to be a contrivance. Anyway, I'm driving down the highway and I see way up ahead one of those big diesel tractor trailer trucks. And it's spewing from its smoke stacks the vilest, blackest, thickest, nastiest smoke imaginable. Chrysler make this vehicle?

Hold on, we don't wanna talk about it. Anyway, as I'm closing in on the guy, I see him pull over to the side of the road. The thing is still running and the smoke is just pouring out. It's brutal. So being a nice guy, I pull up next to him and roll down my passenger window and say, hey, you knucklehead, you're killing everyone behind you. Why don't you shut that thing off?

He says, I did. I turned it off, but it won't stop running. So I say, well, obviously something's wrong. Why don't you stall it out? He says, I can't. It's got an automatic transmission, but don't worry. He adds in a couple of minutes, the engine will be seized and it'll stop. And he's happy about this. He isn't. Don't worry.

And so the 90,000 motorists behind him. Anyway, I look at an emblem on the side of his truck and in an instant, I know why. Why the engine is going to stop running and seize up. I got it. What did that emblem say? Fiat. No, no.

No, he was, as we know from the earlier description, he's driving a diesel truck, but the emblem I see says turbocharged. Yes, indeed. And the reason he can't shut the thing off is that the turbocharger has failed and it is sucking the crankcase oil out of the engine. Yeah we should mention that the way you shut off a regular car is when you turn the key to the off position you're stopping the spark from occurring. Right and the way you turn off a diesel. Which ain't got no stinking spark. No you shut off the spark from occurring. Right, and the way you turn off a diesel. Which ain't got no stinkin' spark. No, you shut off the fuel.

Yeah. So you close a valve which prevents fuel from getting from the tank to the injectors and the engine obviously shuts down. But now with the turbo failed it doesn't need the fuel in the tank anymore, it's using the motor oil as a fuel. And that's why the smoke is thick and black and ugly and vile and nasty. And what's going to happen is it's going to suck all 38 quarts of oil out of that giant In about five minutes.

Out of that giant diesel engine. And when the oil is gone, then it's going to stop. Pretty good, huh? I like it. Anyway, who's our winner this week? Ah, we have a winner. Here it is whoa the winner is Lee van de vies from Milwaukee Wisconsin and what are whoever you are Lee for having your correct answer chosen at random from among the

thousands of correct answers that we had you're gonna get one of our unencumbered by the thought process coffee mugs which on one side has a magnificent emblem. It's a good thing we're not giving away anything gender specific like jockey shorts. We wouldn't be able to. No, we wouldn't know which ones to give to Lee Vandy Vis. Even if she told us the size, we might not know. We might not know. Anyway, this unencumbered coffee mug has on it Tommy's motto in Latin.

Unencumbered by the thought process in English on one side and non impediti rottioni cogitationes on the other side which I'm sure is wrong but we got the mugs cheap. Anyway yeah we'll have a brand new puzzler coming up in the third half of today's show so don't touch that dial in the meantime. We're still in the first half aren't we? Oh we're in the third half of today's show so don't touch that dial in the meantime we're still in the first half aren't we? oh we're in the second half! we just entered the second half of the first quarter we'll take your calls at 1-888-CAR-TALK that's 888-227-8255

hello you're on Car Talk how you guys doing this is Noah from Flagstaff hi Noah! no misspelling that name F-L-A-G-S-T-A-F-F. Okay. People do it. What's up? What's up man? Well I got a little question for you. Yeah? I have a 76 Dodge Tradesman 200 van. I know it well. Do you do it? It's a wonderful, it's a wonderful vehicle. Well let's not get carried away but it's not bad. I, it's a wonderful vehicle. Well, let's not get carried away, but it's not bad. It's got about 83,000 miles on it.

83? 83, well that's... Been in the shop a lot, huh? It was an old man's flea market van out of California. But it's not going to be driven for about another year and four months or something like that, because I can't drive it but i don't think it's right but license suspended i have one of those those things you know i mean i can't back up you know the angel

you're going to prison i'm not going to prison you're not going to prison yeah i'm sure you're going to be a little like sentence are you hiding out hiding out for a year and a half. You can't very well drive around your truck. No, no, no. Because they'll track you down. So your girlfriend is going to watch the truck for you. And you're going to run away to the Bahamas.

We shouldn't be prying into his affairs. Did we call him? Or did he call us? No, no, that's not fair. Noah we take it back. Yeah if you guys think you're ragging me meet my friends. Yeah and they know where you're going. That's good yeah okay so you're gonna leave this thing for a year to a year and a half. Right I mean it's in my backyard it's not going I run it right now I run it probably every three or four weeks for like a half hour, and you'll have that option No, he won't be able to get back for any half hour. No no not from where he's going. No furloughs

Can the van visit you? Well, you know, normally we would have said it would be nice if someone could drive it around once a week. But I'm going to change that because you live in Flagstaff. And I'm going to say that the best thing to do is absolutely nothing. What do you think? I think you're wack. I think you can just leave this thing parked in the backyard and it'll be, you'll come back a year and a half when you get out, I mean when you

get back. When your tour of duty is over. And that thing will crank right over. You disconnect the battery when you leave, empty the gas tank, just run it out of gas, and that's it. That's it. I would put the thing up on blocks if for no other reason than to make it more difficult for someone to steal. Well blocks is fine. Blocks is fine. So put it up, let the suspension hang down and get the tires off the ground. Okay. I would do that and I would probably plug up the tailpipe to keep unwanted creatures from going in there

You don't have to do that. He's in flank staff, man snakes Creatures yeah, they have unwanted. No, you don't want anything nesting in my neighbors Just plug the thing up if you get a big cork Shove it in there and do the same thing put a piece of actually tinfo with the rubber bands over the tailpipe and the same thing with the snorkel of the air cleaner Remember to take off that one on the snorkel especially when you try to start the thing Leave yourself a note with the keys. Yeah, don't suck that in that will be that will be and other than that I don't think I would do anything either and obviously disconnect the battery or maybe remove the battery. Yeah

That's it. That's it man. That's it man. You can, yeah, it's simple. And the other thing I would do is take a picture of the van, hang it in your cell. Hey Noah, we wish you the very best and remember, there is time off for good behavior Probably did something stupid, but it wasn't for us to decide And you're right we didn't call him Okay now before we get to the new puzzler we have to take a short break. I can see the gauge on your forehead is reading hot. So it must be time to add some cool into it.

We'll be back in a breeze. Every episode will break down the day's headlines into totally normal language and make sure that you walk away understanding what the day's news might mean for you. Take a deep breath and give politics another chance with the NPR politics podcast available wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to the NPR network. Live from NPR News. I'm Lachie. A living breathing record of your neighborhood, the country, the world. Told by thousands of local journalists who live in the places where stories unfold. Backed by a national newsroom that puts it all in perspective. Hear the whole country's story. Hear ways of thinking that challenge your own. Hear

the bigger picture with NPR. Here's a bigger picture with NPR We're back you're listening to car talk with us click and clack the tappet brothers and we're here to discuss cars car repair and The new puzzler yeah automotive and automotive semi-automotive or quasi-automotive Automotive without being mechanical in nature. Ah. Or technical in nature, so to speak. Very good. Not even technical in nature.

And it's somewhat historic and folkloric and maybe bogus. Ha ha ha. That's another component. Is this one of those puzzles that you thought of while you were in your car and that's what makes it automotive? No. This came across my desk recently.

Really? I've always wanted to say that. But it sounds so erudite and elegant instead of this was slid into the bathroom door to me recently, which is more likely. Came across your desk. Came across my desk. And actually I'd read this several times from other sources

and this came from Bill Daniels from, I don't know, someplace in outer space or cyberspace, so who knows. But many people have sent this. And he says, well, do I have to read the stuff about the previous puzzles being pretty lame? No, you can skip right over that. So lame, he says. Oh, bad.

Jeez, Bill, that wasn't nice. He says, Henry Ford was falsely credited with inventing the automobile. We know that Henry Ford didn't invent the automobile. Of course, he didn't invent the automobile. And also was falsely credited with inventing the automobile. We know that Henry Ford didn't invent the automobile. Of course he didn't invent the automobile. And also was falsely credited with inventing mass production, which we think he didn't. Yeah. Anyway, he did one thing right.

He created the Model T. He did indeed. The car was so different since it started out expensive. I don't need to read all that stuff because it's unimportant. And he was responsible for the following statement You can get a model T in any color you want as long as it's black Yeah Now black is a morbid color now before people start emailing me that black is not a color I will we will stipulate that black is not a color fine

Black is the absence of a color and as any good body man knows Yeah You wouldn't paint the car black if you black if you didn't have to because black shows all the imperfections. And when you want to repaint it, what do you do? Go to the paint store and the guy says, what color paint you want? You say, I don't want any. No color paint.

I don't want a color. I don't want. What are you doing in here? I don't know. So black is a color. Black for the sake of this puzzle, black is a color. And the question very simply is why did Henry Ford choose black brother-in-law was in

the business if you think you know the answer or the boss is away this week and you have some time to kill at work send your answer to puzzler tower car talk plaza box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge, Matt 02238, or of course you can email us your answer from our website, cartalk.msn.com, just click on the Talk to Car Talk section. And if we choose your correct answer at random

from among all the correct answers we're bound to receive, you'll get one of our unencumbered by the thought process coffee mugs. If you'd like to call us numbers 1-888-CAR-TALK that's 888-227-223-774-82559. Hello. Or the cube of 2662.879194172. Just cube that and you got our phone number. There you go. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Eva Marie from Alexandria, Virginia. Eva Marie? Yes.

So, your friends call you Eva Marie? Most of them call me Eva. Just Eva. Eva has a kind of ethnicity to it. It's Polish, actually. Ah, I knew it. Ha ha. Polish.

Is your mother Polish? Yes, my whole family's Polish. Whole family mother Polish? Yes, my whole family's Polish. Whole family's Polish? Ah, Eva Marie Brostromkowski. I'm telling you, I've known some Poles in my day. They're very nice, wonderful people. Unbelievable. Yeah, they're pretty good. Unbelievable. Great drink, great partiers. Oh yeah. Say nothing of their bowling prowess. As a matter of fact, I maybe shouldn't say. Now why is it, why do Polish people get associated with bowling? What is it? I don't know. Maybe you can explain it to me. I really don't know. My mom and dad are both really good bowlers. See? I have a dear friend that I went to high school and college

with, a professor at Brown University, Stanley Zdanec, who to this day still has his own bowling ball. Oh, wow. I mean, it's one thing to be a good bowler, but to still have your own bowling ball. That's pretty, yeah. It is. It's very strange. Yeah. It is very strange.

Well, that is true. Anyway, what's up, Eva? Okay. Marie? Well, this is going to sound like a silly question I think but I I need some help I have Right now I'm driving a 96 Camry. I've had it for about five weeks, and I love it. It's a great car for a six-cylinder It's a four-cylinder. Oh good choice, and thank you and it's a five-speed manual transmission This is the first time in a while actually this is the first stick shift that I've ever owned

It's the first time in a while. Actually, this is the first stick shift that I've ever owned, and it's the first time in a while that I've had a drive a stick shift. Anyway, around here, driving it is no problem because it's relatively flat here. We don't have a lot of hills or anything like that. A few weeks ago, I went up to Pennsylvania to visit my family, and where my parents live, it's like hills in every direction. So I was coming up by 81 and I was doing fine until I got to like the last part of my trip where it is kind of

steep and and there's a traffic light at the top of the car just started losing power I mean I was going slower and slower and slower and I didn't know what to do I what gear were you in five yeah I't fifth. I was in fifth gear and It just it just seemed like it was slowing down Yeah, um, I finally mentioned this to my dad around the end of the weekend and he goes well You're downshifting right and I was like down I Have no idea about downshifting really? Well, it's it's very simple. I'll give you the rule very simple. If it's one two three four five that's upshifting. That's right. If it's five four

three two one that's downshifting. Well I was going to get a little deeper into it than that. But if that's good enough I suppose. That's about it. In fact you don't even have to go in order it can be five three one. Is that right? Five three two five or two now somebody told me that I I have to go in order like no okay generally being a novice downshifter like you are first thing I would do is I would go in order after you become accomplished at it get to gear skipping gear skipping is to be avoided by the uninitiated you can do that going up as well as down yeah but I don don't get it confused! We don't want to confuse them. Now, let me tell you though that I did try this, you know, I tried downshifting once because I've been told that you can use it to slow down the car.

There you go. And I tried it and oh my, the engine made this horrible noise and I immediately put it back into the gear it was in and left it there because it just sounded like it was going to fall out of the car or something like that. I mean it was awful. I thought I had really done something. Do you understand the basic reason for shifting? Well, it's not, it's because the transmission isn't automatic and it's not shifting on

its own so you've got to put it in gear. But why do you have to shift at all? I mean what's shifting got to do with anything? I don't know. Ah, there we go. I don't know. Do you have a bicycle? Do I have one? Yeah. Yeah, does you have a bicycle do I have one yeah yeah

does it have a shifter oh yeah the reason you shift speeds in your bicycle is for example when you climb hills you don't have enough leg power to climb a hill in the in the highest gear okay let's say you had a three-speed bicycle mm-hmm first gear would be for going for accelerating from a dead stop. How about a five speed bicycle? How about a five speed? There you go. And first gear would be from starting off at a dead stop or climbing steep hills. And fifth gear would be for going downhill believe it or not and accelerating or going on a level road and maintaining the absolute, maintaining your speed while expending the absolute smallest amount of energy.

You notice when you're in the high gear on the bike, the bike goes a long distance for one rotation of your legs. Right, yeah that's right. When you're in low gear you've got to pedal like mad, but it's easy. That's true. You're pedaling fast but you're not expending much energy because it's easy to turn the pedals. Okay. So the same thing applies in your car. Your engine has a given amount of power and you can't get any more out of it than it has. Like your legs. Like your legs. So when you're trying to climb a hill, if you're in the wrong speed,

the engine is going to labor and is going to lose power. And that's why the car is going slow up the hill. That's why it's going more slowly than you want it to go so in order to make it go faster you have to select a lower gear just like you would with your bike so you if you were climbing a hill with your bicycle and you are huffing and puffing you'd shift from fifth to fourth okay same thing with your car yeah and that you shouldn't worry about the noise that it makes really that's fine sounded horrible you shouldn't downshift for for example, from fifth to second at 50 miles an hour because that could be dangerous.

That's why we didn't want you to get into gear skipping. Gear skipping. Yeah, we'll skip over that for now. For the moment, here's the practical thing to do. When you're going up a hill, the moment that you notice that the car is slowing down, you immediately shift to the next lower gear. So if you're in fifth, go to fourth. Okay.

If you're in fourth, go to third. Okay. And any time that you notice that the car is slowing down, you step on the gas, and if it doesn't move, if it doesn't accelerate when you step on the gas, you're in too high a gear. Shift down again. Okay. Assuming that you have a tachometer on the dashboard too.

Yeah, I do. Yeah. And you might want to just notice where the tachometer happens to read when you're shifting. Okay. For example, it gets up to probably 3500 RPM before you shift from first to second. That's right. And then you go from second and before you shift into third, it is then climbed to 3500. Okay.

So it's probably inadvisable to go much beyond that. So you should try to keep your RPM below 3500, but probably above 2000. Alright, then I will go ahead and try that. Good luck Eva Marie. Thank you very much. See ya. Okay, bye bye. Bye bye. Finally, a question we could answer.

Well, barely. And we didn't even fight over the answer. We didn't, no. That's, yeah. A question not only we could answer, but we could agree on. And it consumed half the show. How could we be better than that? Yeah, that's good. Well it's happened again, you have wasted another perfectly good hour listening to car

talk. Our esteemed producer has dug the subway fugitive, not a slave to fashion, Berman. Wait, he's been getting away with this subwayugitive, not a slave to fashion, Berman. Wait, he's been getting away with this Subway Fugitive, not a slave to fashion thing. He needs something else, huh? He need... I mean, what happened to Punkin' Lips? What happened to Putzoyd? Well, you gotta come up with something better. We need suggestions, especially from whom?

Bugsy. Bugsy's gonna have the best ideas. Or Dougie's wife. That's why we've got pumpkin lips. So Subway Fugitive is out. We'll cross that out. Not a slave to fashion is okay. And to further notice, he will merely be our esteemed producer, Doug Berman.

That's it. Our associate producer and Dean of the College of Automusicology is Ken Babyface Rogers. Now wait a minute, now this Babyface thing, he's getting away with murder here. All right, we're gonna have to take care of both of these by next week. I'm not putting up with this Babyface and subway fugitive stuff anymore. All right. That's it.

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Tappert Brothers and remember above all don't drive like my brother or my sister. Don't drive like Ira Glass either. All my brother, all my sister. We'll be back next week. Bye bye. And now here is our chief mechanic Mr. Vinny Gumbots with some very pertinent information. Hey we on the air. Hello, testin' one, two, three. All right now if you want to copy this week's Card talk show Which is number 19 the number to call is 888 car junk you got that and if people wanted other car Talk things you know like coffee mug CDs would they call that same number Vin? No, you call the number of my bumper sticker that says how's my driving call 888

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