The Best of Car Talk - #2572: Free Compost

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

“Free Compost”,  at one time the runner-up choice for the title of our radio show, is what Mary from Michigan shoveled straight into the trunk of her new Ford Mustang... 6 weeks ago. Should she bother taking it out now or should she leave the trunklid up and plant her heirloom tomatoes next to the spare? Find out on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

A lot of short daily news podcasts focus on just one story. But right now, you probably need more. On Up First from NPR, we bring you three of the world's top headlines every day in under 15 minutes. Because no one story can capture all that's happening in this big, crazy world of ours on any given morning. Listen now to the Up First podcast from NPR. Oh, boy. Hello, and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack the Tabart Brothers.

And we're broadcasting this week from the new Luddite support group here at Carthock. Well, I don't want to talk about Luddites, but here's an interesting thing. A German motorist, actually, for some strange reason, driving a BMW, drove into a river. And here's why a German motorist obediently following the satellite-guided navigation system of his car, drove straight into the Havel River in eastern Germany, police said, on Saturday. He drove his BMW, passed a stop sign, down a ramp. and about four meters into the river before stopping. Nobody was hurt.

He was following the system which had failed to note that the road in the town of Caputh near Potsdam ended at a ferry crossing. So he, I mean, the thing says, they're great. You press the little button to where you want to go? Proceed for 1.3 kilometers. 1.3 kilometers. Right turn, 0.2 kilometers.

right turn, 0.1 kilometers. And he takes the right turn, down the ramp, and the ferry is supposed to be there to take him across the river. He just drives right in. If there is ever poetic justice, that's it. Indeed. I love it. Is that what you wanted to talk about?

I thought you wanted to, I had the feeling that you were going to rant and rain. I'm in the process of working on, as you know, I am being made crazy by just about every technology. And I think we have to go back. It all started with his printer. My brother's printer, what's the technical term? STB. Crap down.

And for a week, he couldn't get his printer to work because he couldn't find the right wire. Is that the gist of it? I mean, is that the gist of it or not? That was the most recent occurrence. I've had these episodes in the past. Whenever once in the while, what happens is all the technology dies at once. The fax machine stops working, the answering machine stops working, the computer stops working, and you realize that you are being held hostage by these technologies.

Well, worse than that, we have entrusted our futures to the nerds. Exactly. I mean, the Y2K problem is... We trusted them. We trusted them. They said, don't worry, this will make you happy. do this follow us we're a bunch of jerks

we're like the cult leader comes out and says follow me into the river follow me and we like little lemmings we go okay whatever you say and I'm fed up with it frankly well I refuse to have Bill Gates dictate what my life will be like

he is a geek why should the geeks take over my life we're gonna have and I'm working on the on the details I know I can get a ball just push a few buttons Right. I mean, what did it take, right? We're going to have, I'm trying to organize a no-geek week. An entire week in which we refuse to do what the geeks have led us into.

Fax machines, email, internet. Come on, the telephone wasn't good enough. Was good enough for Don't Amici. You bet it was. Oh, man. Don't get me started. I apologize profusely to everyone listening, if there is anyone. You'd like to talk to us...

That's the good part of it. You know, nobody's listening. I know, thank God. If you'd like to talk to us about anything at all, our number is 1-888-Cart Talk. That's 888-227-8-255. Hello, you're on car talk. This is Jane.

I'm calling from Durham, North Carolina. Hi, Jane. You sound like a very together person. You know, I have to say... That's my talent, sounding together on the telephone. You sound like a college professor. Are you? No, I work at a university.

but not on the academic side. You don't, not on the academic side. No, well, you should. You should. You have that soothing, that comforting tone in your voice. Are you involved in social work? Sort of. Sort of.

Yeah. Social activity. Volleyball. No, no, she organizes the beer blasts. That's right. How did you know? She has that, she has that calming kind of. Yes.

You do. In fact, my brother just nodded off twice already. I need therapy. Oh, yeah. You're getting it. You don't know it yet. I need someone like Jane to say, okay, Tommy, let's just calm down now. I spend a lot of time doing that, yes. See that? So how can we calm you down?

What's up? Well, I'm calm. I know. The gas tank on my vehicle is apparently getting smaller and smaller over time. That does happen. Gas tank shrinkage. Maybe it's been washed in too hot of water. That happens.

You know, it's kind of warm down here in the summertime. Oh, the dryer level was, the temperature was too high? Yes. They're made out of wool, you know, these gas tanks. I started, this van started when I purchased it with a 12-gallon gas tank. And at this moment, it seems to be down to five-and-a-half gallons. Cool. What kind of a vehicle is this?

It's a... It's a minivan. It's a Chrysler product. Like a Dodge Caravan or a Plymouth Voyager? Yeah. You don't know. I don't know. It's blue.

Blue van. I see that you have a high level of involvement with your vehicle. And this had a 12-gallon tank? Oh, no. It had more than that. It did? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

You got short-changed right from the get-go. So it had already started this process when I acquired it. Do you have any idea how old? oldest vehicle is? Well, what year did they make the blue ones? Well, I'll tell you, they didn't make any blue ones in the early 80s. Okay. They didn't make any in the early 80s.

84 was the first year they made a minivan. How, I mean, is it very old? I don't think so. I don't think so. I mean, it's... Did you buy it? Yes, I bought it from my father. Ah.

Okay, and he, I see. He bought it from somebody else. Is it light blue or dark blue? It's light blue and kind of has some stripes on it. say that was in late 80s. Late 80s, me too. 88, 89. The light blue air.

Four cylinder engine? How would she know that? How would she know cylinders? She doesn't even know what the hell the name of the thing is. Stick shift or automatic? Automatic. Automatic. And so in the old days, you can remember filling it up and it would take like 12 gallons

of gas if the gauge red empty. Yes, it would take 12 gallons. And now when it's on empty, it will take five. Five and a half. This has happened gradually over time And when you fill it up like that It's full, you know it's full because the The little thing goes over to the house

And the needle goes to full Yes Now can you remember whether The time that it takes to get from full to empty Is any different from it used to be When you used to put 12 gallons of gas Oh yes Oh yes

I have to fill up much more often Right Of course that. You have to fill up about, I'm going to guess, about twice as often. Right. That's good. I like this. I like this.

So it's going down to empty twice as fast as it used to. Right. That's great news because that makes it the life very simple. Okay. Yeah, it does. It does. Here's what you're going to have to do. Go to your local hardware store and buy yourself a gas can,

the kind that you would use to fill up for your lawnmower. And fill it up with gas And fill up your gas tank as well You're going to tell me to try to run out of gas Keep, not try, do Do Yeah, keep driving until And you're going to see

That it's going to take a long time After that needle says empty Yeah Really? Before you run out, sure Because what's happened is The sending unit in the tank has stopped working correctly

Okay Now if you're lucky The fuel pump is going to conk out at the same time So you replace the whole I think the whole thing comes as one unit Fuel pump And send the unit Because it's inside the gas tank

Oh okay Replace that the gas gauge You'll begin to work correctly And everything will be wonderful Well thank you very much See it, Jade Bye Bye bye bye

What a calming voice Jane has She does And we fail to rattle Almost like Frazier Yes Hello Seattle I mean some people Just have that

Like you You do You have that common voice. Yeah. Yeah, me and Gilbert Godfrey. All right, look, it's time to take a break, but when we come back, I'll have the answer to last week's murder, mystery, puzzling.

Ooh, a mystery. I love mystery. Oh, yeah, I know. Like, how to find both of your butt cheeks in the show. You're still working on that one, aren't you? Yes. We'll be back in a minute. This message comes from NPR sponsor, SAP.

concur. Atracure is a healthcare company that develops technologies to treat atrial fibrillation. Senior manager Latora Jackson shares how SAP concur solutions help her team manage travel and meet their patient's needs. Surgery is not always a nine to five scheduling appointment. So when something does change very last minute, we have sales reps and employees traveling cross country to meet those doctors' immediate needs because a patient may need emergency surgery the very same day and they will be there. The efficiency and intuitiveness of the system and being able to utilize the concur platform while on the go allows them to take care of their administrative responsibilities en route to literally a ER room. So that allows for them to continue to stay

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Tease and Cs apply. Support for NPR and the following message come from Yarl and Pamela Mohn, thanking the people who make public radio great every day and also those who listen. 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 da, the answer to last week's puzzler. You listening? No, I was actually reading mail, but you go ahead. An off-duty policeman is working as a night watchman in an office building. He's making his rounds, and he comes upon a closed door. Behind the door, he hears voices, raise voices. An argument seems to be taking place.

Yeah. He hears someone say, no, Frank, no, don't do it, Frank. No. Followed by three gunshots. Bang! Bang! Bang! And a thud. Yeah. The night watchman, aka. Policeman.

Barges through the door and finds the following. A dead guy on the floor. Uh-huh. Not breathing. A smoking gun. On the floor also. Also on the floor. Yeah.

And three people in the room alive and breathing. Yeah. A minister? a doctor and the plumber. He walks over to the minister and arrests him. How did he know the minister did it? And he didn't have on one of those badges that says, hi, my name is Frank.

Have a nice day. And the smiley face. The answer is, only one of them could have been named Frank because the other two, the plumber and the. What was the other one? The doctor. The doctor. We're women.

I was married to a Frank once. Don't go there. Who's our winner this week, Toby? Our winner today is Frank. Mrs. Frank. No, I winner is Robert Mandela from Dothan, Alabama. And for having his answer selected at random from among those thousands of correct answers that we got this week, Robert is going to get the usual, a $25 gift certificate to the Car Talk's Shameless Commerce Division, and what a great gift this is.

You can use this to pick up, for example, a copy of our new video, Faces Made for Radio, the Car Talk video. You can't do that. Good work, Robert. We'll have a new puzzler, and I've got a bunch of puzzles in the mix right now. And I don't know what's going to emerge. It'll be good, interesting, blousey, and I have some ideas for you. Folgloric, historic. I've got some ideas for you for a new puzzler.

And that'll be coming up later in today's show. In the meantime, we'll take your calls at 1-888-8-8-28-8-2-7-8-25-5. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Yes, this is Tony from College Park, Maryland. Tony? Yeah, I got a 94 Subaru. Wait a minute. I'm still writing down College Park, Maryland.

Okay, you got what? 94 Subaru. Okay. Subaru what? Impreza, the 2.2-liter engine. Yeah, okay. And I pumped $230. into it. And now I'm sleeping in the

sofa. Here's what's going on with it. My wife drives it from college part down to D.C. to work. And when she gets there, if she let's say spend 10 minutes in the hospital and come back out, they won't start. And if she wait, like, maybe 10, 15 minutes,

you'll start right up. And it's progressively getting worse. She said sometime on the way down there, if, when she's stop at a stop sign, it would just cut off. And it won't start for maybe 10 minutes when the engine cools down. Uh-huh. Got it.

And when it doesn't start, it cranks. In other words, she turns the key and it goes, ah, ah, ah. Yeah, it cranks. It cranks. So the battery and the starter motor are okay. Are okay, yeah. What it doesn't do is fire up. The engine doesn't run.

It doesn't run, yeah. Well, I mean, at least it cranks. So it's nothing. So it's somewhat predictable. Yeah. I can tell you what I put in it. Good. Go ahead.

Yeah. I put a, what they call the igniter and the coil. Oh. Two very good choices. Oh, very good choices. Unfortunately, they're pretty expensive. No, no, but they were, what, how did you arrive at these two things? Well, I figure in the way the ignition work, I figure those are the things that might cost it.

You're way ahead of us, Tony. Hey, Tony, you want to do a radio show? I don't know. What are you doing next weekend? And you fly to Boston. There's a little boat in the driveway right now. Oh, so is this what you spent the $230 bucks on? Yeah.

So you must have determined that it wasn't getting spark. Is that true? Yeah. I replaced the coil first. So you actually witnessed this whole thing happening. Yeah. What more could we ask? A guy who's right on the scene,

knows enough to take the most important pieces of information available to him. So we would have said if this was a neophyte, well, you've got to wait, and we would have been out of it, by the way. You have to wait until it happens again, and here's how you check for Spark, call us back, which they would never do. So Tony has jumped a whole bunch of steps and put us in hot water because... What the hell do we do now? Oh, no.

Can we hang up? This is like the person who actually calls back. Well, I did that and I have no spark And I replace the igniter and the coil Well, now, do you have spark now? No How do you know that? Have you witnessed the same symptom

Since you put these things in? No, my wife won't let me touch it again But she has experienced the same symptoms Yeah Well, here's what you do, Tony Next time it happens Check to see if you have spark How are we doing?

This thing has no distributor. Am I correct? No, it doesn't have a distributor. This has a coil that has four connectors on it that sits on top of the engine. Yeah. So there's no distributor, but it does have a crank angle sensor. A crank angle sensor. Yeah, well, that's how it determines when the spark should fire off.

And I'd be willing to bet that the crank angle sensor is bad. Oh, man, that's great. Well, that's great. It's about $239. I don't know how much it is. But it's certainly something that could fail when it heats up. Okay. So I wouldn't be surprised if the crank angle sensor,

and if you can sneak out to the Subaru dealership and pay cash for the thing, so your wife doesn't know. Start saving up your money. And then, and then you install the thing when she's away. Tell her nothing. And when the car is suddenly fixed, you will tell her that it took a while

for the car to get acclimated to the new coil and the igniter You know, it coils don't work all the time They have to sort of learn about the car Exactly right And there was a rejection period there And when they, the new pieces didn't get rejected They got assimilated

And now they're working correctly Now they're working great That's your only hope, Tony No, I'm going to try to remember all that Crank Angles sensor I appreciate it, guys I love you guys Bye bye

Good luck Bye-bye. He's in deep trouble. 1-88-car talk. That's 8-8-2-27-82-5. Hello, you're on Car Talk. I'm calling from Portland, Oregon, and my name's Holly. Hi, Holly.

Hi. Portland, Oregon. Yes. How's everything in Portland? Damp, of course. Yeah. That's all right. Okay.

But did you guys get snow in this most recent big debacle of the snows? We got some frost and a little snow. and mostly rain. Really super cold temperatures, which we don't usually get here, and that's when I had my problem, actually. Really? Did it have to do with brakes?

No. Did it have to do with a clutch? No. The auto parts guy thought maybe that was the case, but it had to do with an accelerator cable. And I used to live in Alaska, so I know when things get that cold that something's going to snap,

and I kept saying, something's going to snap, something's going to snap. Yeah, great. The next day, after I thought that, I was driving to work, and my accelerator pedal suddenly got really floppy. And it took about halfway down to actually accelerate. But I drove to work anyway, and about eight blocks from work, Bingo. Stopped accelerating.

Okay, now, based on the information you have just given us, my brother is going to tell you, the year, make, model, and color of your car. Because she doesn't even know it. That's part of my question. I know. I have faith. I know you can do it. All right. Accelerate a cable belt. Yeah. It broke in two stages. Okay. The color is white.

No, blue. Blue, you got it. Blue, white, white. Let's get it right. Same side of the spectrum. The car is? The car is a Subaru. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Subaru.

What year? It's 1999. What year is the car made? The car is a 1989. wrong no 83 it's a mystery this is part of the question

oh you don't know how could I be wrong then but it's old this is a 1984 allegedly didn't I say 83 it's a Subaru

GL 10 wagon two will drive but it seems as though there's a mystery with this year and that at the auto parts store it's classified as an 85 it's an older body model like the rounded body

but it has like the new digital dashboard, power windows, and it has engine model 1,600, I believe. Yeah, at 1.16. I mean, let me point out that except for the color. My brother got it pretty much right. He said 83 Subaru. I thought he said 89. Well, he did, but his second guess was 83.

Yeah, I mean, I got the Subaru part. I mean, out of 6,000 different cars, I think the guy deserves a little credit. I think a round of applause are all right, man. He's a jerk. You know, I have to put up with this guy every day. What is he? I'm thinking that the model of the car had something to do with the mysterious problem, which wasn't just the cable snapping.

Turns out the car acceleration system works on a pulley system. And it turns out the cable never snapped. The pulleys popped apart in the cold, and that was the problem. The cables were still all intact. Oh, really? Oh, this pulley thing is under the hood. It's under the hood. I remember this now.

It's in my hand. I have my arm out the window, and I'm pulling on a cable to start the car. Oh, God. Great. Finally, I went back to the auto parts store, and he said, oh, it's a pulley system. I know that.

But you can't get those parts there. You have to go to a wrecking yard to get those pulleys and pull it off. So I go to the wrecking yard. Look at six different Subaru's pretty close to the model of my car, and I cannot find the pulleys. They did away with that because they broke all the time. Maybe right. Especially cold weather.

My question is, can I just put in? If this breaks again, can I just put in a cable? Do I have to replace the police system because there's three cables on that pulley system? Oh, boy, it isn't going to be easy to replace it. Do you mean the pulleys? It wouldn't be easy. No, no, it's not going to be easy to eliminate the pulleys. I can't just take a cable from the throttle to the pedal, I guess.

Yeah, you could. Oh, sure. Through the firewall into my hands, right? Well, yeah, you could have to take a look and see what they replaced it with. Uh-huh. And maybe you could steal that at the wrecking yard. Right, right. And then you could do it.

Okay. Because, I mean, there does have to be a spring mechanism. Well, the spring mechanism is on the carburetor. Yes. The pulley, the cable merely connects the pedal to the carburetor. And there was a bell crank on the carburetor that the end of the cable attaches to. And there's a little knob on the end of the cable that pops into a little recess. Right.

You got that figured out. And as long as that's the same, you can run that cable and figure out how to get it through the firewall. You may have to change the gas pedal. But you can steal a gas pedal at the junkyard. I could. There were a lot of gas pedal. I've never been to a wrecking yard. It was really fun.

Oh, it's a blast. Oh, yeah. It's a great. My brother spends time there looking for new cars all the time. I thought about you guys when I was there. But you can ditch the pulley system, I think, if you want to. But you have to make sure that the cable doesn't get interfered with anyhow that has a smooth path through the firewall and doesn't rub up against anything. The last thing you want to happen is for the cable to bind up.

up. Okay. So the throttle sticks all the way down. Right. Well, that would be a problem. Yeah. I mean, as bad, as inconvenient as it was to have it break, uh-huh. It would be much more serious to have it stick in the down or full throttle open. Yeah. But I can tell you're up to, you're up for this, Holly.

I'm up for this. I can tell. It's a challenge. I'm going to rise to the challenge. Good luck, Holly. Okay. Thank you. See ya. Bye-bye. Bye. She's nuts. Oh, yeah. What did they let her out of Alaska? Yeah. I mean, if they throw you out of Alaska, you know you're really nuts.

Oh, yeah. All right, it's time to take a short break. I know. You have to put the finishing touches on that new puzzle, don't you? Well, if you consider the question and the answer of the finishing touches, then, well, yeah. Yeah, okay. I guess that's all this left to do. Great.

Support for NPR and the following message come from the estate of Joan B. Kroc, whose bequest serves as an enduring investment in the future of public. Public Radio and seeks to help NPR be the model for high-quality journalism in the 21st century. 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. Yeah, and do you actually, like, have one? Well, I do have a new puzzle. You remember that old puzzler that a guy is standing with another fellow and they're looking at a picture on the wall? Yeah. And he says, brothers and sisters, I have none.

That means father's father's son who is, you know. I remember that one. You have a new version of that. Well, not really, no. There are two Malaysians standing on a street corner. Yeah. They're standing on a street corner in Kuala Lumpur. There you go.

There you. Anyway. Having a conversation. Yeah. One says to the other, Murray. So Mario. Yeah. one of them is the father of the other's son who are these people now if you think you know the answer

write it on the back of a $20 bill or a piece of it could you repeat that again start again one of them is the start from the beginning start from the beginning hi we're back you're listening not that beginning there are two Malaysians ah that's the question okay I thought so There are two Malaysians standing on a street corner having a conference... In Kuala Lumpur. Some place. Some place, yeah. No, they could be standing in Rome.

Sure they could, of course. They just happen to be Malaysians. But they are, for the sake of argument, they're in Kuala Lumpur. Reading the New Straight Times. Yeah. And I'm going to state additionally that one of them is the father of the other one's son. How can that... How the hell do they pull that off?

Now, if you think you know the answer, write it on the back of a $20 bill or a piece of ripe but still firm fruit, 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 us your ripe fruit from the Car Talk section of Cars.com if you'd like to call us about anything. The number is 1-88-car talk. That's 888-227-8-255. Hello, you're on Car Talk.

Hi, this is Mary DiPaulo, calling you from picturesque Northville, Michigan. Hi, Mary. Northville? Yes. Michigan. Mm-hmm. What is Northville near? Ann Arbor.

Okay. Picturesque Northville, Michigan. Mm-hmm. Oh, nice. Yes. So what's up? I'd like to preface what I'm about to ask you by asking you both. if you are familiar with the movie Gaslight.

Of course. Charle Boyet, Ingrid Bergman, and was it Paul-on-Reed? I just know Charle-Boyer. For those who haven't seen the movie, Gaslight is about this woman who thinks she's going crazy because the lights keep going off and on in her house.

Actually, it's not lights. It's old-time... Gas-lights. Gas-lights. And it's her husband who's up in the attic. Wow. Looking for hidden money. Yeah. And he keeps turning things up and down.

Who knows what he's. He's lighting the light in the attic, and when he does that, the lights in the bedroom go dim, and he convinces her that she's going wacko. Yeah. And he gets the money, and he runs away with the sweet young... So, yes, we do... Yeah, who did he run off with? Share. I think so.

Shalboyer and share. Yes. Yeah. Okay, so yes, we are familiar with gas light. Good. Well, this is your husband pulling one of these on you? Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Okay. The answer is unequivably, yes. Give us the details. I'm telling you, this man is something else. he doesn't want me to identify the company that he works for but let's just say that i've had six mustangs in his many years because of his position okay gotcha so he is constantly

berating me relative to the way that i drive park and deal with the mustangs yeah and so the latest altercation involved the compost yeah you know we have an opportunity to get free compost months, up and through the month of November, and I asked him the night before the compost was due to be delivered, can I borrow the truck? Sure, no problem. But of course, you know, I went to work in the truck that morning. So I remember the compost was there. I saw it on the way to the grocery store and thought, oh, there's a compost, I got to get it. Well, not having any buckets or other large containers. You filled up the back seat. No, the trunk. The trunk. Yeah.

Now, six weeks, whatever it's been later, because I had to go to New York, and, you know, I travel around this and that. He's getting very nervous, and he's saying, you've got to get the compost out of the trunk, or you're going to ruin it. It's still in the trunk? Yeah. Okay. How is it going to ruin it? Doesn't it, like, smell bad? No.

Is it packaged somehow, or is it loose compost? Loose. Loose. Loose. What is compost? Isn't that like stuff made with fruit? That's compote. It's from the dump, so I don't know.

Compost is anything that will degrade. Well, it looks like black dirt, actually. It's dirt. It's mostly animal material, plant material. But it's dirt. It's plain old dirt. It becomes dirt. Okay.

Now, how are you going to get it out of there? Shovel. Yeah, and when you get down to the little crumbs and stuff on the bottom, you're going to just, like, sweep it up and then vacuum it? No, I thought, is there a hole in the trunk that you can just put? it through the hole. Well, not yet, but I've got to find there will be. Well, there might be a hole where the spare tire is. Oh, there almost always is a drain hole if there has a spare tire well.

Okay, good, because that's what I'll do. Then you're going to just, like, sweep it into that little well and... And you can remove the carpet from the trunk. Well, I mean, yeah. Which will never be the same. Well, okay, now, why is that? Well, because you've got rotting garbage sitting on it. Well, I don't, I don't agree.

I mean, it's dirt. Right. If you took a shovel full of dirt out of your back, and threw it in your trunk, you could leave it there probably forever. In fact, you could look at the trunk of my dark. Yeah, I rest my case. I mean, what's it going to do? It's dirt.

Because what's... The reason that don't call this dirt, it isn't dirt yet. She didn't have dirt delivered to her trunk. Compost. Mary had compost. There is a difference. Compost is an intermediate step. It's between garbage and dirt.

It's between garbage and dirt. I believe. See, not only not being an expert in dirt and compost, but not knowing a single thing about gardening in general, I will have to defer to my brother, who is a consummate, world's consummate. Well, hardly, but I think that's how it would differentiate between garbage, dirt, and compost. And compost is in the middle somewhere. I think it's a middle step. It's on its way. It's want to be dirt. Want to be dirt.

But she says it doesn't smell. at all. But wait, I'm thinking of keeping it in all winter. You know why? Wait. You might as well. Because the Mustang is so lousy in the snow. Yeah. That car is the pits. And we live on a downward sloping driveway. And then you've got to go up an incline to get out to the end of our dirt road. Okay. Mary, Mary, your husband's going to lose his job if you stay on this little subject. So cool it. Yeah. Especially considering that you gave us your last. name when you introduce yourself. Yeah.

And it's pretty clear that the old boy works for Ford. Or used to work for Ford. Well, so the question is, what is compost? Will it make a mess out of the trunk other than simply getting it dirty? His opinion is

it's going to rot things in there. But don't forget, we have carpeting the rug, which I suppose could be hurt because the compost might be moist and the moistness would probably cause the rug rugging in the in the trunk to get what yucky decomposed you will begin to grow mold on things like you could never ever imagine but it's not going to hurt the structural integrity of the car but you probably are going to have

to replace the rugs if you had put down some plastic bags before you threw that stuff in the trunk. When the guy threw the stuff in the trunk, did he say, lady, are you sure you want to do this? I threw this stuff in the trunk. All right. Lady, are you sure you want to do this? Didn't they have anyone supervising? No. Anyone can come along with a Mustang and fill up her trunk with compost and they don't care. I'm sure you were the talk. You were the talk of the whole place. Yeah, I'm sure. There were a couple of guys that were standing around shaking in their heads saying, why are you doing it? And you just did it because it sounded like it was going to be fun. I would get that stuff out of there as soon as possible. It can't do any good

and it can only do harm. I'd get it out. I'd yank the carpet out of there and have it shampooed or something, maybe burned at the steak. I don't know. On the other hand, would you not be willing to invest the price of a lousy trunk rug, probably 20 bucks, in the interest of science? It's already been in there for two months. What's another two months? The damage is done, right? The damage is done. I say leave it there, take it out in March, find out what happened in there, and then you can call us back and we'll know.

So the next time someone calls and says, I was thinking of filling my trunk with compost, where we can say things like, according to the DePaolo theory, you can leave compost in a trunk for at least six months without undisputed. do harm. Yes, I like that idea. We'll name it after you. And especially, I'll tell you what. You'll need the money that you get from this theorem because your husband's going to be out of work. But listen, I'm getting the new Mustang in about six weeks, so I have to turn this one in. Oh, you're going to take the compost out of this one and put it in the new one?

No. I'll just leave it in. Let him deal with it over there. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Okay. Then I'll really have a good theory to work. Oh, Mary.

Oh, your poor husband, Your husband is a saint. He's a good guy. You bet he is. Thanks for calling. Okay, thank you. Bye, bye-bye. Well, it's happened again. You've vaporized.

You're another hour listening to Car Talk. Our esteemed producer is Doug the subway fugitive, not a slave to fashion, Berman. Our social producer is Ken the Diaper Slayer Rogers. Our assistant producer is Catherine Imelderet. Our engineer is Dennis DeMennis Foley, and our technical, spiritual, and menu advisor is Mr. John Bugsy, sweet cheeks, Mr. Height, Hula, lips, free lunch, make that two triple cheeseburgers, laura. Is he here? No. Our customer care representative is Haywood Jabuzzoff. Our manager of honest car salesman is Harry Diculous. Our mortgage loan consultant is Nora Lender B. Our staff chiropractor is Winston Payne. And our telephone solicitation response specialist is Teresa. Nobody. home. Peekaboo Street directs our intensive care unit, which is known as the Peekaboo and our Leo Tolstoy

biographer is Warren Peace. Author of Leo Tolstoy by Warren Peace. What happened to Euripides up men? You're ripping these down men. The Euripides brothers. Yeah, what happened are the Irpiddez? They're on vacation. They're on vacation. Deported, huh? They're on vacation. Our chief counselor from the law firm of Dewey Chitman How is

U. Louis Dewee. Note to his partners is Louis-Louis. Thanks so much for listening. We're clicking clack to tap it. Brothers, don't drive like my brother. Don't drive like my brother. We'll be back next week. Bye-bye. And now here is Car Talk Plaza's very own staff futurist, Mr. Vincent P. Gumbats. All right, I'll be quiet, and I'm concentrating.

I see a tape of this week's show in your future. Oh, do you? I see you calling 1-88A car junk and asking for show number three, and I'm always right. Vinnie, I told you to cut this out. You don't expect anybody to build this futurist business now, do you? Hey, oh, hold on now. Now I see you call an 8-8-8 car junk and ordering a puzzle of book. Vinnie.

Oh, wait! I see them accidentally sending you a 99 meada instead of a book. Who? That's the number. That's the 1-8-8-8-Card junk or visit the shameless commerce division at the Car Talk section of Cars. Car Talk is production of Dewee Cheever and Howe and WBUR in Boston. And even though Noah Adams thinks about taking some frioling

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