The Best of Car Talk - #2586: A Truck?!

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

Shakespeare famously tried to woo a maiden by comparing her to a summer’s day. Tommy - No Bill Shakespeare he- tries comparing his wife to a truck. Will he be sleeping on the couch or in the garage this time? Find out on this episode of the Best of Car Talk. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right. Learn more at RWJF.org. Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us Click and Clack to Tappert Brothers. And we're broadcasting this week from the new Frank Ophelia department here at Caratoc Plaza. Now, it has come to our... I think this is more than that. This is the... This changes everything.

Maybe. It has come to our attention that we may have to reconsider our opinion of the French, which up until now has been based on what? Their cars, their sense of ergonomics, their wacko engineering, their foreign policy. But now we have to reconsider the French based on, you ready for this? Their work habits. My brother has an article. Well, this was in Business Week, but about 500 people emailed it to me.

Of course. Because evidently, the French government has been fining people for working too many hours. I mean, big fines, $5,000, $15,000 because the law is you can't work more than 35 hours a week. And these guys are sneaking in late at night. to put in extra hours, the theory of course being, that if they put in extra hours, then you won't need someone else to do the work. If everyone's working overtime and not getting paid for it,

it takes a job away from somebody else. So they're telling people, you're working too hard. Wow. The government is telling you. This changes everything. This changes everything. We have a newfound respect and admiration for the French. I mean, we had thought, in all honesty,

that they were really a bunch of people. are jerks. I mean, but this, my wife is French? No, is that true? I just don't, in case you didn't know. No, I didn't know that. Oh, okay. That's why she doesn't speak to me.

I'm sorry, hi, buddy. She just looks the other way. I dropped it. But this changes everything. I mean, a whole government that says you're working too hard, they can't be all bad. I applaud them. I do, too. I think it's wonderful.

My hat is off. Of course, no, no one would have to tell us. not to work too hard. No. Not really. If you'd like to talk to us about your car or the French or work or anything else, or if you're at work and you'd like to talk to us because you feel that you've worked too many hours. If you've worked enough, then quit.

Please call us at 1-888-8-8-8-8-2-7-8-25. Hello, you're on car talk. Hi, this is Donna from Somerville, Massachusetts. Donna. Donna. Donna Somerville. How's the firebird? I knew you were going to say something like that.

I just knew it. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't need to presume. So what do you drive? Actually, I have a 99 jetta with a manual transmission, and that's what my question is about. Oh, okay. What happened was right after I bought it, I fell and I broke my right wrist. Oh, brother. And it has a manual transmission. Yeah.

And right after I broke my wrist, my boyfriend, he sprained very badly his left ankle. Oh, you guys make a great pair. He can't use the clutch. So you're going to sit behind the wheel, and he is going to sit next to you and operate the shift lever. You know what? That's exactly what should have happened. But because I'm so self-absorbed and I was so miserable, I wanted to be, you know, chauffeur it around. So you hired a chauffeur?

So he's driving my car. And after he sprained his ankle, he's like in crutches and he's hobbling around. And I never even thought about that he wouldn't be able to drive the car. So I'm in. I've got your question. I understand it now. You already know the question? I'm going to give you the answer,

and you tell me if I got the question right. Sounds good. The answer is third gear. No, that's not my question, but that's not a good answer. Third gear is always a good answer. Third gear is so practical. It's a very, very applicable gear. Yes, it certainly is.

It works a lot. It does. The question is, so me being very self-absorbed, I'm in the passenger seat, I look over, and I see him shifting without pressing the clutching because he can't use his left ankle. And, of course, I'm very concerned. This is a brand-new car, and I'm sure he's going to destroy the transmission. Yeah, he is.

Of course he is. So this is what he says. He says, you can shift without using the clutch. He says, it's actually better for the car. And then I'm like, well, then why do you have a clutch? For those inept people that don't know how to do it, like you. That's why they have a clutch. But someone who is practiced and who knows the fine art, in his estimation, can do it.

He sort of can use his left foot, because he starts out in first gear, I presume. Exactly, exactly. But once he's moving along, he then just takes the thing, eases it out of first without stepping on the clutch, and gets it into second gear with a little bit of a hitch and a little jiggle, and then he continues to shift up the gears without using the clutch. And that's exactly what he did. And I was just like, you're going to wreck my car. Yeah, you should throw a fit.

Really? You should break up with them immediately. Yeah. Yeah. You need to drop something on his, on his other ankle. On his hand. That's his right hand. Yeah.

Well, this is a tough one. This is a tough one. Well, we have advocated this procedure. In cases where the clutch cable is broken, for example, and you have to drive the car, it is something you can do. Mm-hmm. Yes, technically, it is possible to do this, and as he was doing this, how much grinding did you hear? Well, that was just it. He was doing it, and I didn't even know it. You didn't even know it, so he's very good at it.

And you can do it, actually, if you do it correctly without doing any damage to the transmission. Exactly. But it's going to be done correctly, and it isn't easy to do, and it certainly isn't easy to downshift using this method. And, you know, if he did it a few times, that would be okay, but tell him to get his ankle better right away. don't want him to do this anymore. And if he insists on doing it, you have to break up with him. Actually, you know, thankfully, you know, his ankle healed a lot quicker than my wrist. Oh, great.

So he's okay now. Yeah. So he's okay. But now that he's in the habit of shifting without the clutch, he's probably going to just keep on doing it. So watch him very carefully. Yeah. And don't let him out of your sight.

Under no circumstances, let him drive your car unless you're in it. Okay. It's done. And the truth, the truth is. We're going to elaborate on this, that it is possible to do damage to the transmission, even if you don't hear grinding. Yeah. If he's not doing it absolutely perfectly, if he's dragging that shifter out of the synchros, he's hurting the transmission even though you can't hear it. Really?

And it won't show up until your warranty is up. Exactly. The day after, it'll show up. Yeah, maybe an hour. See you, Donna. All right, thank you. Good luck. Bye-bye.

Bye. I think a dope slap is in order for this guy, don't you think? While he's in the midst of shifting, just a, boom, just a quick one, you know. An en route dope slap. Yeah. Moving dope slap. One-888-car talk that's 8-8-2-7-8-25. Hello, you're on car talk.

I'm Tim from New Hampshire. Hi, Tim. How are you? What part of New Hampshire, Tim? Hanover. Where's that? It's right where Dartmouth College is right on the border. Does Dartmouth still have the reputation of being a bunch of drunks?

Well, no, they're really trying to improve on that image, something I've disagreed with consistently since I'm on the faculty. I'm not said about that. Well, it was the faculty who were the drunks. The students never drank. Well, I can honestly say in some cases, and that certainly hasn't changed. It's justified, right? What do you teach, Tim? Medicine.

I shouldn't say this. No, you shouldn't. No. Medicine? Yes, sir. Really? Yes, sir. I didn't know Docments had a medical school.

Maybe they don't. No, we have a pretty big medical school, actually. Really? Yeah, very popular, successful. It's the only medical school in New Hampshire. Well, you only need one because most people are following the adage that's written on your license plates, live free and die young. So you don't need many doctors because they're all just dropping off. That's correct.

So, Tim. Yeah, guys. I got a question. for you about a 1994 Toyota four-runner. Sure. I got a letter from Toyota proposing to replace the headgaskets at no charge. Oh. And I thought, this has 37,000 miles on it.

There's nothing wrong with it. So I called them up and asked them if this was optional or required, and if I could do this like in 10 years if they failed. And they didn't know the answer to that, but recommended I have it done. And I'm worried that when they do this, you know, that they won't do it properly and they'll perhaps screw something else up. So I wonder if you guys recommend having the head gaskets replaced when there's nothing wrong with them. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth here, but why would they offer this? Because they've had a problem with them blowing.

Sure. And so? And so? Duh. So Tim should go in and have his done, I think, except that I wouldn't be the first. first one in line. You want them to practice on a few hundred other four runners first. Why is Toyota doing this? The lawyers have to have made them do this, right? Well, because there is some risk that when the head gasket fails, it will wreck the engine. And there's a potential

for it to be not a $700 job. And then people will find out? But a $2,700 job. And for example, if your head gasket... But this happens all the time and all the other manufacturers know how to sidestep it. Well, you drove too fast. Did you change the oil? I mean, hey, this. They've got a million reasons why. This is strange that Toyota would do this. It's almost like being nice. Maybe they've been to France. It's almost like a lawyer charging you for the actual number of hours you worked in the case.

I mean, this changes everything. So they gave you no explanation as to why they were recalling the vehicle. I mean, no satisfactory explanation. It said that there have been some early failures of headgaskets. They'll not only fix the head gaskets, but any other problems that was caused by a failure of the original headguards. I can't. This is a five-year-old vehicle. If your engine had previously failed, let's say 10,000 miles ago when you were off the warranty even. Sure.

If your head gaskets had failed and ruined the engine, they'll give you an engine. They would now pay for that engine that you had installed. There is a note here. If you previously paid for replacing the cylinder of head gaskets, it gives an 800 number. Or mail your receipts to Toyota Motor Sales USA. Yeah, they'll settle for you for a dime on the dollar or something. No, they'll refund the money. But I think you should go in and you have it done.

I would do it. I would do it. Okay. And they're not going to wreck your engine. This is a relatively straightforward job. And don't forget, they will have done many of them by the time you get there. So it's like medicine. Make sure they've done a lot.

You don't want to go too late. I mean, you don't want to be the last guy. Then they'll be sick of it by then. They'll start doing sloppy work. Right. And well, they'll have the janitors doing it. Say, look, I'm sick. You want to do a head, gas?

on one of these forerunners, you can do it. So you want to make sure that the real guys do it. You want to make sure that they still have a fervor. You know, they still have an interest in it. So I would go, Mike, tomorrow. It would be interesting if God did this. We get a message from heaven that says, you know, I made a mistake on those kidneys,

and they don't work all the time. So if you bring them back, we'll give you a couple of sets of kidneys. A couple of sets. A couple, yeah, a couple of sets of kidneys, free of charge, because we've had some. Some early failures. Well, we actually do that up here, so. Yeah, well.

Even without the letter. No Hampshire is way ahead of everybody else. Hey, Tim, it's a pleasure talking to you. All right, thanks a lot, guys. Appreciate the advice. Go do it. Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye. Something is fishy here.

There's nothing fishy. I think they're just trying to head off a class action suit. They're worried that there are going to be 200,000 forerunners, all of whom are going to come forward. Yeah. With bills in hand, claiming that their engines failed at 40,000 miles because the head gasket blew, and they want to avoid that. The embarrassment and the expense. Yeah, but see, if this had been General Motors,

would they have gone out and said, let's fix all those things? Maybe. They would keep it quiet. They would charge you for it. If you did a lot of complaining, they might do it for nothing. This is your personal opinion. This is my personal opinion. Oh, yeah.

This is not a statement of fact. Well, we know they did it with the steering. Well, that was then. This is now. This is the new GM, smaller market share, GM. They're trying to hold on with the few customers they have. Okay, look, it's more important. Do you remember last week's puzzler? Yes, I do. I do remember last week's puzzler. Passed another brainstone, eh? This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees.

Join millions of customers and visit wise.com. T's and C's apply. Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right. Learn more at our WJF.org. 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, the, The answer to last week's puzzler, and here it is. Which I remember.

I mean, I remember every word of it. You do? I could just... It's only a paragraph. Yeah. This came in via email, and unfortunately, I lost a letter, so I don't really know who sent it, but... But you remember the puzzler. Well, I do remember, because I thought it was cute.

And the woman that sent it in wrote, when I was in school, one of my teachers had the annoying habit of putting little cryptic messages on the blackboard. And one day, she wrote the following. the letters E-I-L-N-P-U Yeah, you get it E-I-L-N-P-U What was she trying to tell us And the hint I gave is that this happened

Near the end of the school year E-I-L-N-P-U And I guess you didn't like the hint I don't think And at the end of the school year What's often done is Some kind of graduation photographs are taken and in order that they can figure out who picture goes with what name,

they ask the kids to line up in alphabetical order. And that's what E-I-L-N-P, well, it was the only hint I could give that wouldn't have given it away. Well, no, if you had said they were going to take a picture, that would have been a real hint. That would have been too easy. Ah, the idea. In my never-ending quest to complicate and obfuscate, I felt that that was good enough.

Well, we got a winner. The winner is James Dawson from Dawson's Creek. No, from Crayne, Texas. And for having your answer chosen at random from among the two correct answers that we got, James is going to get himself a $25 gift certificate to the Car Talk, shameless commerce division. Now, if he has this $25, he could get our best-selling self-help tape. Men are from GM, women are from Ford, which is calls about couples in cars.

Or he could get our puzzle a book, a haircut in horse. Yes, among other things. Yeah. By the way, we are in the process of collecting pictures for the cover of our fathers and cars album. Yeah. Called Why You Should Never Listen to Your Father when it comes to cars. So if you have a picture, and we're obviously looking for people with their fathers, you know, in and around cars, you can submit it for consideration at Car Talk Plaza, Box 3,500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair City, Matt, 02238.

You know, write all the information about the picture on the back, like, who? who's in it, what kind of car it is, and all that stuff, don't send us any precious originals that you want back because you won't get them back, and don't stick a little post-it note to it because it'll always get separated, write it on the back of the picture. And kiss a goodbye when you put it in the...

And kiss it goodbye, because you'll never see it again. Anyway, we'll have a new puzzler coming up in the third half of today's show. In the meantime, you can call us at 1-888-car talk. That's 888-227-8-25-a. A lawyer on car talk. Hi, my name is Beth. Hi, Beth.

Where you're calling from? I'm calling from Brooklyn. Brooklyn, Yeah, yeah. The big apple. And I have a, okay, don't laugh. We shant. I have a 1980 Ford Fairmont.

Are you kidding me? It's generally super duper reliable, but it has this quirk. It stalls when I make a left turn or when I go over a bump. It's dangerous. Yeah, it can be. Have you tried anything? No. Have you tried taking a lot of right turns?

Well, that's the joke, actually. Every time I loan it to someone, I say, only make right turns. I mean, you can do that. So right turns cause no problem. None whatsoever. But left turns, and also I've noticed if I kind of do this thing where I depress the gas pedal slightly as I'm making the left turn or as I'm going over the bump, then it's less likely to stall. If you depress the gas pedal. You're going to flutter it, you know?

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, two things come to mind. Uh-huh. Are they related to the carburetor? Okay. Well, no, I was thinking of Coney Island, actually. Coney Island does come to mind.

Isn't that in Brooklyn? Great hot dogs. That's what came to mind. There's nothing to do with you. If you can tell me how to pick my car for $120, I'll send you some hot dogs from Coney Island. You will? Yeah, sure.

I think what you may have, is you may have carburetor, float, dive. That's exactly. Moat? No, float. Inside your carburetor, there is a thing called a float. And it's just like the float in your toilet. Uh-huh.

And it does the same thing. It regulates the amount of gasoline that's used as the reserve for the carburetor in the main metering well, so that as the engine uses up gasoline, this float level, drops, and it's replenished, and then it uses up more, and the float goes up and shuts off the supply, just like your toilet does. It keeps that tank full, okay? That's why some of the mechanics you've brought the car to have referred to it as a toilet. And it's possible that on left-hand turns, if you have a float that is porous,

that when you make a left turn, you can actually, the forces involved in them, left-hand turn, can cause this thing to get submerged enough to make the carburetor flood over. Uh-huh. And you may have noticed, and I hate to ask this question, because it would be damning if your answer were wrong. You may have noticed that when it does do this, it doesn't start right up immediately. Well, it generally starts right up immediately. It does.

Yeah. So, did I blow your theory? Well, your five minutes is almost up, Beths. I mean, it doesn't blow the theory, but it doesn't exactly help it either. Well, then I have a fallback position. I knew you would. I have a fallback. No, but I like this one.

Well, I liked it, too, but if it were flooding out, it would give you a little difficulty on the restart. What I like even better, however, at this point, because that other one has been, my hopes on that other one have been dashed completely. Yeah, this is your last shot? This is my, yeah, the second and the last shot, is that you have a. wiring harness that is being tugged when you make a left-hand turn and inter... Oh, then I'm just going to live with it.

You know, it's the vote of confidence. Oh, man. No, I mean, you had to... You should say, oh, man! That's great. Oh, man. You got to admit, it was a huge leap from the floats, which was,

I mean, the floats was a brilliant and wonderful and incredible. I would put my best foot forward and, but wouldn't that? Yeah. failed. I had to keep from stumbling. Yeah. So I any port in a storm, so I suggest this.

This is a long leap. You can even do this yourself. You can set the engine to running with the car in park and the handbrakes set. You can open the hood, and you can start tugging on wires under the hood, especially those that go to. There's a little silver box, which is the electronic ignition control module. It's like the Cape Canaveral of your car. Yeah.

And that is mounted on the fender someplace. I think maybe the driver's side, but I don't remember. Okay. So the car is idling, and you're standing there with your rubber gloves on. No, there's no high voltage. You're going to tug on these wires. I bet you, if you do this, you can get the engine to cut right out. And then if you push it fast enough back, it'll come right back on again, and you'll say,

my God. That crazy guy was right. So I'll admit that this is perfectly believable. So I'm leaning toward this, this. bad connection. And that would work for bumps also. Yes. Oh, that's right.

It would work for bumps also. It would work for bumps. But so would the float thing, though. Yeah. So it could be either one. But try the wire thing first because that's easy to do. If you can get it to cut out for a second and then come right back on when you stop shaking the wire, then that's it.

And then you can go someplace and say, fix it. This is what it does. Yeah. Good luck. See you, Beth. And we'll see you at Coney Island. We're going there this summer with Yogi Berra. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye. I've actually got mail. Oh. I've got some interesting mail. Would you like me to read it to you? Sure. Hey, come on. I listen to your stupid puzzlers every week.

Go ahead. Read us something. This is a bunch of stuff. They ask kids various questions having to do with marriage. And they got answers from little kids. I mean, these are kids like five to ten years old. And I'll read you just a few of them. Here's the question they asked.

How do you decide? Who to marry? Alan, age 10, says, You've got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports. And she should keep the chips and dip coming. How can a stranger tell if two people are married? This is good.

Derek, age 8, says, you might have to guess based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids. What do most people do on a date? Lynette, age eight, says dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough. And my favorite. How would you make a marriage work? Ricky, age 10.

You should tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a truck. Okay. I do that. Now, did I have to throw that in? Entirely. Entirely unnecessary. It's a classic example of pushing something to the limit, right? I don't know what's...

You just couldn't keep your mouth shut. I don't know what came along. If you have something my brother might like to read, or something that he can get himself in trouble with, Please feel free to send them anything, including fresh fish. And the address is, good mail division, car talk plaza, box 3,500, that's 3500, 500, that's 3,500, Cambridge. Our Fair City, Matt, 22238, or you can email him from the car talk section of cars.com.

Just click on the send fish icon. If you'd like to call us with a question about your car or anything else, or marital advice. My brother is pretty liberal with his marital advice. The number is 1-888-car talk. That's 8-8-2-27-82-25. Hello, you're on car talk. A truck? Oh!

Oh, no! My worst fears! A truck? My worst fear! See? You never know. That wasn't me. Uh-huh.

That was Berman who sneaked into the studio and leaned on. over my shoulder. And fake Tommy's voice. And fake my voice. Hi, hon. Hi, hon. What's for dinner tonight, I guess? Not much.

You'll be lucky if you get a dog food, the way you're going. Will it be the wet or the dry stuff? He likes the dry, Jane. I'm really sick of the wet stuff. Well, we'll see we can scrape together. Don't expect too much. Bye, hon. Bye.

I guess I'll be seeing you from the garage. Oh, yeah. You'll be way. went to them from the garage. They'll be having a wonderful time without you. See, I keep telling you. I hate you. I keep telling you.

Well, see, my only hope. I know for a fact that she never listens to our show. Yeah. Once and, evidently, once in a while, huh? And everyone's, I mean, maybe, I know that many of her friends

come to her and say, I can't believe your husband said that about you. And she keeps saying, what? What did he say? And then when their friends find out that she doesn't know, they say, oh, nothing, nothing. Right. But she's gotten the hint that she should be listening, and maybe that's why she was listening. I think she'll probably be listening from now on.

She won't have to. She won't know me. We'll be right back with more calls and the new puzzler after these messages. We're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Collect the Tappet Brothers, and we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and the new puzzler. Is this going to be scintillating? Is this going to be...

Well, I guess that off. I'm going to start off with a joke. Is it part of the puzzler? So to speak. Go right ahead. Back in the days of yesteryear, when the circus was the greatest show on Earth. Yeah. Now, Baywatch is the greatest show on Earth.

But when the circus was the greatest show on Earth, one of the chief attractions was the guy that got shot out of the cannon. Yeah. Right? Yeah. So one day, after the performance, the Ringley Brothers performance, the guy goes to his boss and he says, I quit. I quit. He says, you can't quit. I'll never find a man of your caliber again.

Well, that being said, that's an old joke, man. Even I knew that. Well, it dates back to the days. To the days when it was the greatest show on Earth. Exactly. And so that joke is the introduction. I'm going to segue into caliber. Right.

Now, I got this information. Actually, I received this puzzler from a listener, and I received an email, which I've lost. But here's the puzzle. During World War II, the infantrymen carried a rifle that used 30-caliber ammunition. Now, you may ask, what is a 30-caliber bullet? I don't really know what that arcane measurement is, but it happens to be 7.62 millimeters is a 30-caliber bullet. Really? Yes.

or 308,000th of an inch. Really? So there are 4.2 calibers to a millimeter. Really? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah, all right.

There are. I'm with you, man. Yeah. And it just so happened that when hostilities broke out between us and the Japanese, I think they actually broke them out. Yeah. That they hurriedly began to make,

rifles that would fire a 31 caliber bullet or a 7.7 millimeter bullet. Why would they do this? That's the question. Just being contrary, I guess. Just being contrary. You would expect the French to do it, but not the Japanese. Not the Japanese. They're pretty practical.

Why would they do that? I mean, they actually had rifles that had smaller caliber, you smaller caliber bullets, but they went out and made a 31-caliber rifle. Why would they do it? And if you think you know the answer... They probably got the drawings from Italy, and they were a little swapping with the dimensions. That's exactly it.

Now you'll... Right. It's a guy, we've got to give you a couple of extra calibers. If you think you know the answer, write it on the back of a $20 bill or a piece of fish and send it to Puzzler Tower, Car Talk, Plaza, box 35, 100, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair, City.

Matt, 02238, or you can email your answer to us from the Car Talk section of Cars.com. Calling us requires you're dialing 1-888-8-8-288-2-2-7-8-25, a lawyer on car talk. Hi, this is Matt in Minneapolis. Hi, Matt. Hey, how you doing? I'm okay, thanks. What's going on? Well, I got a 95 Honda Accord.

It's got leather interior, and this is key to the story. Wow. Not a leather guy, but it was like the last 95 Accord in the state, and I got a deal on it. I had a four-year-old kid at the time, and I said, leather, indestructible. Good idea. Leather's good. How wrong I was. Yeah.

So last week, I'm taking him to McDonald's. The car has been out in the sun for a long time, so the leather on the inside the door where he sits, really, really hot. So we get out of McDonald's, he puts his pop in the little plastic holder on the side of the door, and like three drops of the cold pop spill onto the hot leather. And I turn around, and it didn't actually burst into flames.

but it was like this X-Files thing. It burnt. The leather burnt where the pop hit it. What? I mean, it turned brown. It puckered up. It's hard. It's crusty.

It shrunk so much that it, like, pulled some of the seam away from where the leather meets the arm. What kind of a pop is this? I mean, it's like... It's bright. Soda pop. Yeah. Really? Yeah.

Jeez. I won't be drinking that anymore. Well, I made him drink the rest of the pop. And he survived. Gee, that's... That's very, very strange. Boy, we need a leather expert or a soda pop expert. I mean, it just doesn't make any sense.

I mean, the only two things, there are three components in, basic components in soda pop. One is water. Water. The other one is dissolved carbon dioxide. And sugar. And the other ingredients are all insignificant, you know, yellow dyeing. 1% of 1%. Yeah, they're all nothing.

So it had to have been, I think, the sugar. The sugar. Sugar, I mean. Sugar, yeah. Could you cook sugar on hot leather? Yeah, well, we know that water and leather don't cause any reaction. Right? Right.

The other two we don't know about. Otherwise, cows would look awfully funny. Maybe what you got is caramelized sugar. Yes, I think so. It doesn't come off, though. It actually burnt the leather. Well, it didn't burn. I mean, if we used the scientific definition of burn,

combination with oxygen to cause flame. Right. No, you didn't get that. But you did get some kind of a reaction, and I think the sugar just got fused into the pores of the leather. How big? I mean, is it only a couple of dots that are there? It hit the top part, the dark leather, and it sort of was like somebody put their cigar out in it. It's big and crusty. And then it just dripped down the lighter leather, and right where it dripped, you know, five, six inches long, there's this brown streak. Well, here's what you do. You're going to have to go to a detailer.

Right. You know who that is, right? These guys that, I mean, they must be used to this because kids spill stuff in cars all the time. Right. Yeah, well, I do like the caramelized sugar theory. So don't forget, though, we have a heat, the heat. We could have had an oxidation reaction

in which we converted CO2 to CO3. And then with water, we would have carbonic, carbonic. carbonic acid, which would have burst into flame. Yeah, I think you need to go to the local university and consult the chemistry department. Well, we have a resident chemist right up the street here at the world's greatest university. Jim Davis. Jim Davis is our resident chemist. He answers all questions about chemistry.

We will put this question to Jim. And we will pose this to Jim, because this is really interesting, Matt, very interesting. In the meantime, get some C covers. Yeah, right. Hey, thanks for calling, Matt. Thank you. Good luck. See you later.

Well, it's happened again, indeed. You've squandered another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk. Our esteemed producer is Doug the subway fugitive, not a slave to fashion, Berman. Our associate producer is Ken the Diaper Slayer Rogers. Our assistant producer is Catherine. I'm having a bad leather day, Ray. Our engineer is Dennis DeMennis Foley, and our technical, spiritual and menu advisor is Mr. John S. Lawler.

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