The Best of Car Talk - #2547: Test Drives with a Car Sick Dog

Episode Date: June 14, 2025

Jann is willing to consider several different vehicles to replace her Honda, but her labrador retriever is a little pickier. And the doggie expresses her displeasure by barfing all over car interiors. Will car salesman be suspicious when Jann starts covering everything in plastic before test drives, or do Click and Clack have a surefire puke prevention plan? Find out 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

Fall in love with new music every Friday at All Songs Considered, that's NPR's music recommendation podcast. Fridays are where we spend our whole show sharing all the greatest new releases of the week. Make the hunt for new music a part of your life again. Tap into New Music Friday from All Songs Considered, available wherever you get your podcasts. broadcasts. Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us click and clack the Tablet brothers and we're broadcasting this week from the Department of Automusicology here at Carthoak Plaza. Exactly the Department of Auto Musicology and we have here for those

aspiring, young or old, aspiring can be anything, musicians. Usually it's expiring for the old. If you would like to learn to sing the blues, uh-huh We have here from Memphis Earline gray with help from uncle plunky Whoever the heck they are. Uh-huh some rules. Okay, the blues the blues, right? Okay, most blues songs begin with the words woke up this morning. So you can't go wrong You just just do that just start like that. So I'll't go wrong. You just do that. Just start like that. Okay, so I'll write that down?

Yeah. Another good start is I got a good woman, but you can't say I got a good woman unless something nasty comes right after it. Like I got a good woman with the meanest dog in town. You know, something like that. And then from then on, it says blues are simple. After you got the first line right, you know, something like that. And then from then on it says blues are simple. After you got the first line right, you repeat it,

and then you find something that sort of rhymes. And here's an example. Got a good woman with the meanest dog in town. He got teeth like Margaret Thatcher, and he weighs 500 pounds. I love it. Blues cars are Chevy's and Cadillacs. Yes, I would agree. Yeah. You ain't taking no blues if you're driving an AMC. Or an Acura. I mean, an Acura ain't no, I are a Bimmer. Right. Other acceptable blues transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train.

It's got to be a southbound train. The following colors should not be alluded to in the blues. Beige and mauve. You can't wear anything that's paying them off. No. You have the right to sing the blues if A. Your first name is like a southern state, like Georgia. Right. Then you can sing the blues. B. You're blind. If you've ever shot a man in Memphis,

then you can sing the blues. You cannot sing the blues if A. You were once blind, but now you can see. No. That would disqualify you immediately. You're disqualified. Or you have a trust fund. Okay, some blues names that are acceptable for women are Sadie, Big Mama, and Bessie. You can just see it all happening, man. I see it. I like that name for myself. Big Mama Ray. Big Mama Ray. Bessie Ray is good. Persons with names like Sierra or Sequoia will not be permitted to sing the blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.

I love it. will not be permitted to sing the blues that are how many men they shoot in memphis uh... you know well thanks for that and the department of auto musicology is forever indebted to you for this contribution is a little bit of the archivist sure play well i thought it was and that was eight eight eight car talk that's eight eight eight two two seven eight two five five hello your car. This is Dana. I'm calling from Seattle.

Hi, Dana. How you doing? Dana. I've discussed this with several females named Dana who have called us. Right. Because the only person I personally know with this name, besides Dana Andrews, is a woman who calls herself Dana. No, no, Dana.. No Dana would be two ends

Well, you would think that but she spells it exactly like this and refers to herself as Dana Yeah, well, I don't know. I spell my name with a Y D A Y N A. Oh You're Dana. Oh, you're Dana. Oh, you're really Dana Yeah, okay, you are definitely a day that's right so what's up my husband and i are having a uh... let's see the fact that point of contention about argument that's that's that's that's that's that uh...

bill my car with gas we get to meet a background we just moved to washington from organ and organ is one of those great states that you don't have to get out of your car in fact it's illegal to fill your car with gas god bless them i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i anyway. See, I don't think, well, number one, I will not go to a place that requires me to pump my own gas for several reasons. Number one, it puts people out of work. Number two, I don't care how careful you are, you always smell of gas when you leave. Absolutely. And number three, I don't want knuckleheads, I mean, I know how to pump gas, but I don't want rank amateurs filling their tanks right next to me. Smoking phony Cuban cigars, maybe. Yeah. Well, I hate doing it. And it's big oil that's behind it.

Big oil. That's right. It's that Rockefeller dude. Sick of him. Who does he think he is? So anyway. So here's the problem. Yeah.

I hate doing it. So when my husband and I are out together, he likes to do it. So he hops out of the car when we go to the gas station. However, he also likes to top off the tank. Oh, that's one of those things. He's not a burper is he? Well there are there are some burpers. No no he's not. So he hops out, he gases up, he tops it off almost 99% of the time when he tops off gas goes all over the side of my car. He's one of the heads that that that that that that that that that that

that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that

that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that

that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that after the point where he got you know gas all over his clothes and good good yeah oh yeah the whole nine yards yeah he deserved it and then we had a big fight because there was gas on the side of my car and i had heard somewhere that gasoline is not good for your paint so i thought i could resolve all of this disputing asking whether or not it really is bad for your car and if it's not that no big deal well it isn't bad for your car and if it's not then eh, no big deal. Well it isn't bad for your paint. It's not.

No, not really. In their wisdom they did design a paint that can withstand gas spill. I can attest to this because my car has a fill tube which requires that you spill gas all over the car. And the paint in that section of the car is really better than it is anywhere else. There's a little sign that says spill gas here. and the paint in that section of the car is really better than it is anywhere else. There's a little sign that says, spill gas here. Now, this is what I'm confused about.

Okay, so I took the car through the car wash to get rid of the gas that was on the side of the car. And it didn't get rid of it. I have this nice kind of a dull finish. Yeah, but you could fix that with a little wax. With a little elbow grease. Yeah There's been no permanent damage. You probably have some deposits from the gasoline additives I on on on top of the top of the finish and they can be removed with wax or compound but the more important issue is he back in the old days if you filled up your tank overfilled your tank and you put the gas cap on as the Gasoline expanded in the tank because of a rise in

ambient temperature, the gasoline would merely spill out the little vent hole and make a big stain on the side of your car. Which you already have, you've come pre-stained. That adds to my collection. Nowadays, however, gas caps are not vented and that gasoline as it builds up pressure will get forced, that liquid gas, into the charcoal canister. And every book, every owner's manual in every car will admonish you not to overfill or top off the gas tank. So what are the ramifications of this excess

being forced into my charcoal block? Well, you will eventually ruin the charcoal canister. Well, what is the point of the charcoal canister? The point is when the gasoline begins to expand and produces vapors, they are absorbed by the charcoal in this canister and they don't escape to the atmosphere. Okay, but if you get the thing full of liquid gasoline, you will ruin the effectiveness of the canister and you'll be polluting the entire state of Washington.

In the old days, those vapors as well as the liquid gas when it spilled out just went into the atmosphere. And as part of our never-ending battle with the ecology to save it, at least to some extent, no longer can it spill out, nor can the vapors be allowed to escape. So they get trapped by this canister. So I would then need to be replacing the canister frequently. Yes, at considerable expense. Really? How much?

Oh, maybe thousands. Thousands. So you can use the economic approach with your husband. You can use the technical approach. You could use the ecological approach. Or the dope slap approach. Or you could simply go to our website, cars.com and find the dope dopes lapinson little message i'm here by sending you

dopes lap from tom and rey because you are a moron uh... yes approaches i love you make sure you tell me a lot i still love i love you anyway i love you know don't say anyway that that's not good uh...

okay still still i love you still No, no, don't say anyway. That's not good. Okay, still. Still, I love you still. Great, well thank you for your help. See ya, Dana. Take care. Bye, Dana. Bye-bye. Okay, now before we give the answer to last week's puzzle, we have to pause.

What? Are we giving thanks? Yes, we're giving thanks that at least one of us has enough brain cells to remember last week's puzzle. We'll be back in a minute. Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us. Click and clack the Tappet brothers. And here is the answer to last week's puzzler. Yeah. Did that dope slap I gave you jog you up memories? Not a thing. Did it injure your brain cell?

I mean, after all, it's slosh it around in there. Tell the truth, tell the truth, do you actually remember the puzzler every week or do you have to look at your little notes? No, I refer to my notes so that I don't misstate anything so that the restatement of the puzzler is exactly the same. But when you walked into the studio if I had sent to you what was last week's puzzle you you'd have it, huh? There you go. I'm going to try that next time. If we ever do another show, I'm going to ask you. Okay, here it is.

A struggling young art history major slash waitress is working in New York City around Christmas time, and she finds herself in difficult straits. After all, she's just traveled home and bought presents and the whole bit and she returns to her little room in the rooming house and realizes that she can't pay the rent for the month of January. So she approaches the landlord with the following proposition. She says, look, I don't have any money to pay you the month of January. Oh, the bracelet one.

Very good. She took a long time. You were close. The bracelet for the neck. The bracelet for the neck, yeah. Anyway, she says, but I can give you a link of my gold necklace for every day that the rent is late. As luck would have it, there are 31 days in January and her necklace has what?

31 links. 28 links. 31 links. And he says, let me look at the the thing will you? He looks at it, verifies that it's authentic 18 karat gold and he says you got a deal. At the end of the month when you give me the dough I'll give you back all the pieces. Okay now obviously she could cut the necklace into 31 pieces and every day she'd give him one piece but then at the end of the month she'd have to have the necklace repaired by a jeweler, which would cost probably a month's rent.

So she wants to make as few cuts as possible to this necklace. So what she's going to do is day one, she's going to cut off one link and give it to the guy. Now she could cut another link off and give him the second link on the second day, but she decides to cut off two and give him that pair of links. You see? Sure. And he's going to give her back the one that she gave him yesterday.

Take one back. So he's going to have two. Then the third day, she gives him. Doesn't have to do any cuts. give her back the one that she gave him yesterday take one back He's gonna have to then the third day she gives them enough to do any cuts She gives me the one back. He keeps the two and the one he's got three. There you go Okay, so now you get the idea. I got the idea so she doesn't have to cut anything off for the third day I mean, she's got two and one and you know that figured out. Okay. Yeah, so the question is very simply What is the fewest number of pieces that she can cut the chain into in order to pay for 31 days? And what are the lengths of those various pieces?

Now we already know she needs one for day one. Right. Two. And she needs two. What else does she need? Well, it turns out that every integer can be expressed as the sum of powers of 2. Right?

And between 1 and 31, how many powers of 2 are there? There are 4, plus the fifth one. Well, there's 2 to the 0, which is 1. There's 2 to the first, which is 2. There's 2 to the second, which is 4. There's 2 to the third, which is 8. And there's 2 to the second, which is four. There's two to the third, which is eight. And there's two to the fourth, which is 16. And then two to the fifth is 32, but just need 32 pieces.

I just said there's four plus the fifth one, which would be 32. So how many pieces does the chain have to be cutting through? Four! Five! Five! But four's close enough. If you're not really paying attention, four's good.

Yeah, I mean, she might come into money around the 18th of the month. You never know. And the hint I gave was that 20 years ago, people would have had a more difficult time solving this because people were not binary literate as much as they are today. I mean, everyone knows.

I still don't get the binary thing. What's that got to do with it? It's all powers of two, you know, basically. So she's gonna have one. Oh, I knew this is gonna be a tool Four eight eight and sixteen and you can make every number between one and thirty one with those with those pieces Of course, you can can't you? Yes, you can Who's our winner this week the winner this week is Suzanneening. Oh, they make great planes up there at Boening, don't they?

Boening, yeah from Tuscaloosa, Alabama Wow, no kidding and Suzanne for having your correct answer chosen at random from among the 25 correct answers that we got this week You will win one of our car talk world tour T-shirts this t-shirt lists all the stops of our recently completed 1998 world tour including the Tasty restaurant, this and mom's junkyard, Cambridge traffic court and my bench with the newspapers in Harvard Square. Regrettably we won't have a brand new puzzler. Regrettably in your opinion.

Not even in your opinion. Not even in your opinion. No. But we will tell you where you can get your Car Talk puzzler fixed all summer long in the third half of today's show, because the puzzle is on vacation. And in the meantime, if you'd like to call us, the number is 1-888-CAR-TALK.

That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. I'm Cindy, and I live in Roslyn, Washington. Cindy, just plain old C-I-N-D-Y. It's true. Good for you. Yes. From Roslyn?

Roslyn, Washington. Okay, you got it. Is that on the coast or somewhere else? Nope. We're in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains on the east slope of the Cascade Mountains. Oh! The non-rainy side. The sunshine's a whole lot more. The sunshiny part of the cascade mountain uh... non-rainy side that sunshine the whole lot more shiny part of the state

that's right but don't tell too many to the next with the oranges grow right in the air he we fruit and all that stuff not cool age-brush state so what's going on cindy well this is my story i've got a honda accord nineteen ninety and what happened is every time I get out of this car which I purchased about a month ago I get shocked I was just gonna say you get a shot you know that I knew that I knew that too how why well every time you get out of the car what else can happen well you said I got run over and the other

thing is a whole lot of people, when I said, hey, I want to find out why it's doing this, say, my car does the very same thing. Yes, and it's because of the reformulation of the rubber in tires over the last few years. Are you serious? Well, Cindy, Cindy, Cindy. We're always serious.

Well, there are various ways you can cure this problem. You can move to the other side of the cascades where there's 98% humidity all the time, and it won't happen. The reason it's happening is that your tires are building up static charge, and because they have removed a lot of the carbon black from tires and replaced it with some silica compound to give the tire less rolling resistance.

They have made the tires non-conductive or less conductive. So that as this charge builds up as you go down the road, if that charge cannot get dissipated into the ground, it builds up and when you get out of the car, you make the discharge. You step on the ground. And you ground everything and the spark flies. So I'm the ground. So do I. You are the ground and you ground everything and the spark flies. So I'm the ground.

You are the ground. You are the conductive path for the charged car. Wow. It's kind of an important responsibility. You are charged, so to speak, with the responsibility of discharging maybe a hundred thousand volts It's a mother earth not to mention the number of electrons Have to leap through your body Coulombs. Oh man, and they're all waiting for your Coulombs Holy moly. Holy moly. So what do I do now? the way well

if the the the interim solution is to make sure when you get out of the car that you are holding on to something like a quarter and When you touch the quarter to like the door of the car or the key to the car or the key But hold the metal part of the key Yeah So that the charge will be transmitted not through the very end of your fingertip But rather through the fleshy part of your fingers and you'll feel something but you won't get really zapped. Okay your fingers and you'll feel something but you won't get really zapped. Okay. Alternatively, the long-term solution is to install ground straps that dangle from the

bottom of the car. And you can buy them in an auto parts store and have your mechanic install them. Alveodog on. Yeah, and just they'll hang down and they will discharge the static buildup as you drive along and then you won't get shocked. That's a great idea. Isn't it? But that's what you need. You need the straps.

Good luck, Cindy. Thank you so much. See ya. You guys have a great day. You too. Bye bye. Bye. 1-888-CAR-TALK, that's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, my name is Richard from Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Hey Richard. Hey Richard. Newburyport. Yeah. Yeah. So what's going on? Well, I have a 1986 Mercedes 300E with 148,000 miles on it. That's all? I have a regular mechanic, been working on the car since forever, and I developed a radiator problem. It was overheating, and so I called him, and I said, gee, some smoke is coming from it,

and the temperature is going up a little bit and he could will be a unique radio he remembered from the last time he checked it any kind of mickey mouse one of the whole group on the air and the lawyer at that stage at this time mickey mouse well okay so he mickey mouse something he did not the whole that led from the engine dot to the radiator um... had popped off and i could see he had put some kind of stuff in there to hold it on

and i couldn't get it back on i kept trying to put it back on with a little clamp but to the pressure which is blow it off so he said well get it on as good as you can put water in it loop in the cap and drive it down here now he's in said very much to fit and i said uh... to you if it could be okay uh... he could be out no problem

he said i had a woman the other day that drove drove down and uh... book book book police special yes yeah and i think you should i shouldn't bring it someplace not locally tonight you don't have to do that so uh... you look at that i wasn't five minutes on the highway and it's completely

overheating and the temperature goes completely in the red i mean traffic so i it took me about two minutes to swerve over and uh... pull over the breakdown when A cop pulled up immediately and he says, well, I'll call a tow truck for you. I said, no, don't do that. I'm just waiting. You know what, I've got to drive it.

You're gonna ruin your engine. And I said, well, my mechanic told me that I could drive it. He says, you will absolutely ruin this engine. You'll seize the engine. You have to get towed right now. Did you open the hood at this point? Right, well. Had the hose fallen off?

The hose was off, probably was off immediately. I don't even know. I couldn't get it back on, but he said absolutely turn the car right off. This wasn't a big fat hose, was it? It's a skinny little hose. It's a skinny hose. Okay.

Ah. Okay, now I get towed. I bring it to another local place and he said, uh, well, you probably didn't do any damage. He says, let's fix the radiator. We'll throw a radiator in and start up. See, we'll see what happens. Uh, they put the radiator in and, um, he calls me up and he says, I got bad news. You blew the head gasket. Oh, it doesn't start well all of a sudden that it shakes like crazy when it's idling waited did you do that i guess i did the head gasket yet i gave him four fifty for the radiator twelve hundred for the

head gasket and now we think he says you just drive it like it is which i can't strike me crazy you need a new engine which which is $3,000. My question to you really is, wouldn't he have known before he did the head gasket that there would be more problems, that that really wouldn't fix the car? Well, who are we talking about? Mechanic 1, 2, or 3? The answer is no. He wouldn't know. And it's probably, he's probably wrong.

Really? Well, I mean, if it needed a head gasket and he did it and he did it right, then it should run as well as it ran before you had this horrible experience. Well, it idles terribly. I I mean the steering wheel is shaking, the car, the whole car is shaking and so he did a compression test and he says it's because of the compression and it runs beautifully. But when he took the cylinder head off and sent it out to the machine shop, they should have done a valve job on it. I mean for this kind of money he didn't just do the head gasket. That's what he said. That's all they did

They grinded down something if they ground down the valves and you should have great compression unless you melted the rings Which is unlikely. Well, he said I did more damage. He says gee you did more damage than we thought No, I think I did more damage by putting the thing together wrong. Oh Really? So I think you should take it to an author Oh really? So I think you should take it to an author Gird your loins, Richard. You're gonna take this to an authorized Mercedes dealer. Oh No, don't let him do that. Yeah, you know, I mean if nothing else get the second opinion at the dealership Okay, you don't have to have the work done. You got very bad advice from mechanic number one. He was completely wrong completely wrong and I'll tell you what tainted his

Sensibility You know why cuz he knew you were a cheapskate you were a cheapskate He knew you were a cheapskate and you were trying to save every possible Penny and he knew if he had said tow it here from Newburyport to Sudbury you would have said that's gonna cost me a hundred bucks I wouldn't have because I have triple-a proof Then why didn't you tow it you knucklehead Because the mechanic told him to drive it

He never mentioned towing Yeah no he was wrong You know I'm a hair stylist I'm not a mechanic You guys got any hair can I help you out here Oh Richard believe me I'm a hair stylist. I'm not a McKinney. You guys got any hair? Can I help you out here? Oh, Richard. Believe me. We can do a swap that would knock your socks off. We'll give you three engines.

If you have to do anything for my brother. We'll give you three engines. We'll talk off the air. We'll talk off the air. No, let's talk right now. This is serious. Yeah. My sense is that he put the head on wrong. All the machine shop messed up when they did the valve job.

I see. So you've got to go someplace where they can check that and see what's wrong because you should not have lousy compression. There is no way that you could have lousy compression. Okay. Good luck, Richard. Thank you. Bye. Yeah, boy. Life is hard, isn't it? Yeah, it is luck, Richard. Thank you. Bye. Get, get, yeah.

Boy, life is hard, isn't it? Yeah, it is. Poor Richard. Oh boy. Alright, it's time to take another short break. What, are we giving thanks again? What, for the new puzzler? No, we're giving thanks that there is no new puzzler.

But lots of old puzzlers are explained in a minute. Ha, we're back, you're listening to Car Talk with us, click and clack the Tappert Brothers, and we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and the used the puzzler. You're in the used puzzler business now? Yes, both of you long time listeners know, mom and dad, every summer the puzzler goes on a well-deserved vacation. This is a chance to get refreshed, renewed, reinvigorated, you know, the whole, the whole bit suntanned. And a little bit less lousy.

Less lousy, right? But we know that some of you just can't go a week without a car talk puzzler, so for you we've invented. Institutionalization. No, no. We're going to lock you up for the next eight weeks. How many weeks off does a puzzle get? Like eight weeks? We don't really know.

When it comes back, it comes back. It just kind of shows up. For those of you that really need a puzzle, we have our classic puzzle archive. Every week that the puzzle is on vacation, we'll post a classic car talk puzzler on our website. And you get there, and you see a big thing that says click here

wacko right there you are and when you get there there you can find the puzzle archive archives a puzzle or archives and you can find this week's puzzle in the puzzler archives oh okay, okay. All right. See, that was more fun than giving a puzzler, wasn't it? Yeah, and if incidentally you have a puzzler that you think we might use for the next season, you can of course email us from the Car Talk section of Cars.com. Got that? Or you can write to us at Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge,

Our Fair City, Ma, 02238. Now, if you want to call us, the number is 1-888-CAR-TALK. That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Jan calling from Little Rock. Hi, Jan. Little Rock. And Jan has two N's, by the way.

I knew that. Oh, Jan. How did you get two N's? I don't know. It's just long for Jan. It's short the way. I knew that. Oh Jan, how did you get two N's? I don't know. It's just long for Jan.

It sure is. You might as well put two J's in. That'd be good. That'd be good, why not? Yeah. No, I mean names can be anything you want them to be now and I think that's great. Better yet they can be anything your mother wants them to be. There you go.

Did you ever ask mom? What were you thinking with that extra end she could not come up with a good explanation. She couldn't know What was her name and it with three ends? So what's going on Jen well I drive a 95 Honda Del Sol Which you know a little two-seater. Sure, we know what it is. Well, I love the car, but about a year ago I acquired a 77 pound, mostly Labrador, retriever. And we go often to visit my parents who have a little farmette about an hour away. And she gets car sick.

You and the dog. Yeah. So I have a two-part question. The first is what sort of vehicle should I buy to make her more comfortable and less messy? And the second part of the question is how do I get them to let me test drive it with her in the car? I know that's easy. Well yeah you have to go at night. The dog is tied to a telephone pole around the corner from the dealership and you whistle for her as she jumps in and you go for your test drive. Gotcha. Yeah I mean if she's gonna blow her cookies I

mean you don't want to buy the thing right? Right but you know I've been doing some very scientific research on this and I drove her up once in an Explorer and she did fine. How old is Muffy here? She's six but I've only had her for a year. Oh she is? She was a humane society dog. Oh and it may be the chief doesn't have much experience. I've discovered from various dogs that have...blown lunch in your car. For lack of a better expression, that they do get cured of it eventually. Yeah? Yeah, well, that's why I asked how old she was because our dog did the same thing when she was young.

But she outgrew it by the time she was like two. How long does it take before, and has she ever barf down like the defrost event? No, but she barfed into that little soft area around the gear shift one time. Oh yeah, that was quite a mess. Oh boy, thank God for those dustbusters, huh? How much warning does she give you? Because our dog used to go into the spasms. And if you were really quick, you could actually pull over, run around, let her out, before she hurled chunks. Should we give it a, rrrr, rrrr, and then, oh no, rrrr, rrrr, and bingo.

I mean, you're not doing anything absurd like feeding her just before you get in the car. No, no, no, no, no, no. Her little nose starts to sweat, and that's how I can feed her about the car. No, no, no, no, no. Her little nose starts to sweat, and that's how I can help you get out of the car. Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I think you need, there are two choices here. You need a much bigger car.

Yeah. Are you averse to a pickup truck? Well, you know, not sure what that would do to my image, but if I could hose it out, that would be a good thing. Well, a pickup truck with a cap on the back, and a bed liner, and one of those sliding windows so that you and poochie can communicate But I think the pickup truck might might be the thing but but but you can always hose the thing down and the best Part is if she does get sick. She's gonna have to live with the smell.

Yeah, it's all her. Typically, from my vast experience in barfing, the larger, rougher riding vehicles are better than the smoother riding vehicles. And why would that be? I don't know. Have you ever taken her on a cruise? She loves boats.

She's good in a boat. She's good in a boat. You know what you need? A Lincoln. A Lincoln town car. A Lincoln town car. If she likes boats, that's a boat. A barge of some sort. I think dogs like that that swooshy, sloshy feeling. That big land yacht kind of thing.

And I think your like that, that swooshy, sloshy feeling. That big land yacht kind of thing. Yeah. And I think your little car going, bluh, bluh, bluh, bluh, bluh, bluh, bluh, bluh, bluh, and feeling every little pebble in the road. It's just churning her stomach. And the poor thing, she can't help herself. She can't.

No. She means well. So go big. OK. If you can't go big, go ugly. And hide the dog around the corner for the test drive. There you go. Yeah.

See you, Jan. Thank you. All right. Bye. So long. Well, it's happened again. You have squandered another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk. Our esteemed producer is Doug, not a slave to fashion Berman. Our associate producer and Dean of the College of Automusicology is Ken, Ed Grimley Rogers. Our assistant producer is Catherine and Melder Ray Marcos and our engineer is Jonathan Superhighway Sideburns Marston. Our menu advisor of course is Mr. John S. Lawler. Our public opinion pollster is Paul Murky of Murky Research assisted by statistician Margin O'Vara.

Our customer care representative is Haywood Jabuzoff assisted by Kurt Reply. Our director of catering is Russell Upsengrub, and our telephone solicitation response specialist is Teresa Nobodyhome. Oh, I get it, Teresa Nobodyhome. A 10-year-old kid sent us that one. Brian, good work, man. Teresa Nobodyhome, I like it, it's good. Peekaboo Street directs our intensive care unit,

which is known as the Peekaboo ICU. Our director of moral support is Hugh the Man. Our sexual harassment counselor is Pat McCann and our Leo Tolstoy Biographer is more in peace author of real Tolstoy by Peace our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Chieftain, Menhal is you Louis Dewey known to all the girls in Harvard Square as Dewey Dewey Dewey. Thanks so much for listening. We're clicking clack the Tappert brothers. Don't drive like my brother Don't drive like my brother or our sister. We'll be back next week. Bye. Bye Don't drive like my brother. Don't drive like my brother.

Or our sister. We'll be back next week. Bye bye. And now, here is our chief mechanic, Mr. Vinnie Goombots, with some highly apropos information. Vinnie? Apropos, now, he thinks he's a Mr. Funk and Waggles there. You know, now, if you just want a copy of this week's Car Talk Show, which is number 28, you call our Shameless Commerce Division.

The number there is 1 eight eight eight god junk And if someone wanted other car talk parathenia vanilla, you know like t-shirts or CDs would they call that same number? No, you call the Florida Tourism Bureau you dope of course you call the same number eight eight eight card junk Or you can get stuff through the online shameless commerce division at the car talk section of cars calm, you know Thank you very much, Vincent. It's always a pleasure to work with you. I'll work with this chump. Car Talk is the production of Dewey, Cheetah, and Howe, and WBUR and Boston.

And even though Hawaii reconsidered its decision to seek statehood every time we say it, this is NPR National Public Radio.