The Best of Car Talk - #2588: A Family Affair

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

Terri has a teenage son and he’s wearing her resistance down at the same time that he’s saving up for a muscle car. Rather than take the easy route, Click and Clack invite Tom’s son Alex to provide the teenage boy perspective. That and other big mistakes 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 the Tappert Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the Dart Replacement Division here at Car Talk Plaza. Tommy has a new jalopy. Well, I would like to officially introduce to the world.

My red, 1952, it's almost as old as I am, MGTD. This is like HG Wells Time Machine. Isn't it? I mean, you're going back? What's wrong with you? Well, I had a, I've had, let's see, the newest car I've ever had is a 70, 74 Chevy. Right, right. Right, which I owned in the 80s. That's true. And I've had 60s cars in the 70s.

Yeah. In the 90s. And in the 90s. Yeah. And I was working my way back, and then I had the 63 Dodge Dart, which was my dear friend for many years. And now a 52 MGTD. And it is fulfilling every M-G-T-D or M-G-R-J-R just English. What's the T-D?

Stereotype. Total disappointment? Total disaster. It is fulfilling every stereotype of British cars so far I have spent just about every weekend fixing something. Well, I'm happy to point out that, like most of your cars, this one leaks gasoline. Leaks gasoline. And you already had to push it into your drive. I have to push it into my driveway because it wouldn't start.

It has no windows, as many people will know, and it doesn't get any better than this. And it has no heat. Not that the heater doesn't work. It doesn't have a heater. Right. It doesn't have a gas gauge. Not having a heater, it doesn't have a defroster. Well, if you'd like to see what this little beauty looks like, we have pictures.

We have pictures on our website, and it's the Car Talk section of Cars. So you can see Tommy in his sleek little red beauty. Yes. Before he turns it into garbage. Which I'm doing. I would suggest you go and look at these photos right away. And I have to say that as deep as my grief was for the dart, the little M.G has done a miraculous job of pulling me out of the depths of depression that I've been in. Yes, renewed your spirits, so to speak.

Renewed my spirits. I am thrilled and happy. And I am back once again. And one of the, I mean, one of the great things about the dart was its reliability. But with that reliability came the fact that you didn't have the excitement that you have with the MG of, will I make it home? And every night now I barge into the house, into the kitchen. There's my little family sitting there waiting for dad to come home, the dog wagging their tail. And I say, I made it.

And they go, hey, daddy. So, despite the fact that the dart is gone, I am happy again. That's it. And if that's all it takes, we'll buy you a car a month. That's all it takes, man. If you'd like to talk to us about your car, the number is 888 Car Talk. That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk.

Hello, Masters. How are you? Hello, who's this? My name is Teresa. I'm in Elizabeth Colorado. Hi, Teresa. Elizabeth Colorado. Yes, it's 30 miles south of Denver.

Got it. Yeah, got it. Okay. Well, my problem is twofold. Yes. I had got a 1990 Chrysler 5th Avenue that my mother gave to me when she won brand new at Creek Nation Bingo in Tulsa. Really?

And now she's giving it to you. Yeah, she gave it to me when she won it. So I've had it from day one. Oh. She wouldn't be got dead driving a Chrysler Fifth Avenue. And then, listen to this. Three years later, she won a 19-19. 93, Dodge, Ram, 4x, 4.

Really? Wow. She didn't keep that one either. This is bingo? A bingo. Yeah, she's the bingo queen. I guess she is. It's a full-time job.

Who'd she give the ram to? My brother. What a woman. Yeah, she's a nice lady. Really nice. Okay. So you're having trouble with the Chrysler? Well, yes, there's two things.

The first problem is I've got a shimmy and my shake. Uh-huh. When it gets to about 70 miles an hour, it starts shimmy in. I thought maybe it was a bit wheel We checked that out I thought maybe it was an alignment problem Check that out But maybe I needed new tires

I got new tires And I don't know if it's related But another problem is My hind end's hiked up Excuse me When you look at the car The rear end is up in the air Kind of like a cat in heat

Really And you haven't had any work done to it That would have lifted up You didn't have any springs put in in the back? No, no springs. And the shocks are fine. No, there's no problem.

No, I suspect you have not uplifted springs in the back, but broken springs in the front. Oh, yeah? Well, that's my guess. Well, wouldn't you feel something? Not necessarily. We have people come into our shop all the time with broken springs, and they hardly know it. Okay. So it could be, yeah, when you turn the wheel.

No, no. Just, you know, after I noticed the lifting problem, I'd be driving down the street and I'd hear are like a clunk, could that be related to the broken spring? It could be. Were you the one that went into the tire place and said, sell me new tires and balanced them, that's what I need? Or did you tell them what your condition was and asked them to figure it out? I just told them to get tires.

Yeah, because you could easily have a ball joint that's ready to break. You could easily have a broken strut or a broken spring. You could easily have a tire rod end that's getting ready to fall off. you could be driving a death trap. Especially with 120,000 miles on it. Almost anything could be wrong. I mean, the whole front end could be ready to fall off. Oh, I'm getting a headache.

Whenever you get shimmying and shaking, you can't mess around with it. You can't sit there and try to diagnose it yourself. Someone has to crawl under there and look at some very serious stuff, stuff which is holding the wheels onto the rest of the car. Well, I'll get that taken care of that. So do that immediately. That's going to fix it. Okay.

See it, Teresa. Thank you. Bye, bye. Good luck. 1-88-8-Kart talk. That's 8-8-2-2-2. What is that? It's just 8-8-2-27-8-8-2-5.

Something like that. If you can get through to us, it'll be a miracle. Hello, you're on Car Talk. This is Sid, and I'm from Lantana, Florida. Lantana. That's the home of the Enquirer, the National Enquirer. Oh, that's right. Really?

Yes, they've been here for many, many years. Yeah. Do you work for the National Enquirer? No, I happen to be for a photographer, but no, I do not work for them. No. I had a couple of questions. I was going to ask you, but never mind. Those alien pictures.

Funny, funny you should ask. I mean, never mind. What's on your mind, Sid? Well, I have a 1989 Nissan Maxima, and it's got 176,000 miles on it runs like a dream. Good. The only thing I do have is a strange phenomenon, which nobody seems to understand. understand or know what it is. And that is, I will make a left turn or a right turn, and sometimes I will hear a sound like it's rubbing on the old-fashioned fender. You know, the fenders, they used to

have to... Yeah, yeah, yeah, like you hear the tire rubbing on the fender. Exactly. Well, that's what it sounds like, but that's not the case. And it works both ways, left or right. And do you have to be sort of in the locked steering wheel position for it to happen? No, I thought that might be the case, but no, that is not. So it could be a relatively mild turn and you would still hear the noise? Well, no, that's not true. It would have to be closer to a sharp return, yes. Right, right.

Okay, I like that. That's a good answer. When did you buy the new tires, Sid? That's funny you should ask, but I... It's not funny he should ask. Because... Calculated. Sid, you know, I'm sure you don't appreciate this, but every move we make.

I mean, you think this is a lot of guesswork and dart throwing... I mean, every move we make. Every subtle little comment has meaning. I mean, those guys that built the A-bombes in Alamogordo, they had nothing on us. Before you go too far, if he says, I never bought new tires, I got the original tires on the car. I have a 179,000 miles. Don't worry, don't worry, don't worry. You've got a fallback position.

Go ahead, Sid. I did buy the new tires about maybe three to four months ago, but let me preface this by saying this sound has been with me for well over a year. We can't hear you, Sid. We must have a bad connection. Can you speak up? You'll have to call back next week. All right, what was your fallback position? You didn't have one, didn't you?

You didn't have a bluff him, man. You're going to bluff them. You didn't have a fallback position. Oh, geez. I mean, we're taking your word for it that it is a tire just because you said it sounds like a tie. rubbing against a fender. And it may be that, in fact,

the tire is rubbing on the inner fender. If you look under there, you'll see that there's a plastic fender liner on both sides. When you said it's not that, how do you know it's not that? Well, no, I don't really know that. However, I did have it checked out

by a couple of mechanics, and they both said that they could see nothing wrong with the front end if that was the case. And did you ask them to check for evidence of scuffing? You know, sometimes you'll see that plastic fender liner has been scuffed by the tire. No, I did not, but I will do that.

You might be able to do that, and you might find out what often happens is you go to buy tires, and you say, look, I need P235-75R-14s. And they say, oh, as luck would have it, we don't have those. We don't have your size. But we can give you two 50s because they're the same price. Right. We'll give you the wider ones, and you'll have a better ride, they'll last longer, your hair will start to grow, all kinds of things like that.

And you'll lose a lot of weight. And they're the same money. And everyone likes a deal. So you say, I'll take them. And then you get problems like this. So it's possible the tires you bought are a little bit wider or have a different aspect ratio from your old ones. And either of those things could make the tires rub on the inner fenders.

Okay. That sounds like a definite possibility. Yeah, I think that's it. And the fact that I don't have a fallback position means that that's got to be the right answer. It's just one of those things where I shouldn't call you, you'll call me. Yeah. Good luck, Sid. Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thanks for calling. You bet. Bye-bye. Okay, Tommy, do you remember last week's puzzle? Do I remember... Do I remember last week's puzzler?

Come on. Not if your life depended on it. No. This message comes from Wise, the app, 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 RWJF.org. Hi, we're back and 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, and here it is. Yeah. This is a puzzler about a traveling salesman, a guy who sells nuts and bolts. He was telling the story about when he was,

first, a salesman, like, 30 years ago, and he must have done something awful because for all those years, he's been assigned to the territory that includes towns like Moose Jormane and Freeze Your Butt, New Hampshire. He's going to lay up in the Northern Tier, you know? Now, when he's traveling,

he often finds himself looking for cheap motels, and he began to notice a disturbing trend. When he would stop at these motels, oftentimes the owner slash clerk would have him fill out that little card with their name address, you know, in case you're leaving the middle of the night, they can try to track you down.

As though you're going to, if you were planning to do that, you'd put down your real name and address. Yeah, exactly. Well, maybe you would by mistake, you know, force of habit. And on some of these cards, he was asked for his occupation. And when he filled in salesman, he was always assigned a room on the second floor

if there was a second floor. Wow So I asked him Why don't they always Put salesmen on the second floor Does it have anything to do With the kind of car you drove And he said

Well at the time I would say so He said I was driving a VW And when he gave me that piece of information I knew the answer So driving a VW It'll look for all the little hints It was like 30 years ago

30 years ago That would be 1969 Hippies He started working for started working 30 years ago, and he's been working as a salesman continuously. All right, so it's in the early 70s. In the early 70s, okay. Yeah, there you go.

Come on. Second floor. Second floor. He's a salesman. He drives a lot. He's concerned about getting what now. Come on. Come on, you can do it, honey.

Gasoline. Yeah, he's concerned about getting good, what? Mileage. Yeah. So he buys himself. A Volkswagen, but not just any old Volkswagen. He buys himself the car that gets the best mileage. He buys himself a Volkswagen diesel.

And because he's in Moose Jaw, Maine, and frees your butt, New Hampshire in the wintertime, he's got to plug the thing in overnight. Otherwise, it won't start. And the reason they put him on the second floor all the time is so they could see the extension cord that he had run from his motel room. Oh, no. And they would unplug it on him in the middle of the night. So if you were a salesperson flying your trade at that time,

boy! You often got unplugged. That's got to be about the worst answer. I mean, that was impossible to figure out. All the hints were there. Started selling nothing balls 30 years ago, cold part of the country. Hint, you call those hints? Well, I had to obfuscate and, you know...

You call those hints? Well, I got it. Oh, brother. That's beautiful. Even though we didn't have any winners, we had to choose. We did have a winner this week. Only because we chose among all the losers. Well, this was the guy that actually was the salesman.

That's how he did it. Oh, he's the guy who was telling you the story. He's the only one who knew the answer. And his name is Scott Kunzel. He's from Crete, Nebraska. Oh, Crete, Nebraska. Is he a Cretan? And for having his incorrect answer chosen from among all the other incorrect answers that we got this week,

Scott will get a $25 gift certificate to the Car Talk, shameless commerce division with which he can get our best-selling marriage counseling tape. Men are from GM, women are from Ford, which is all calls about couples and cars, guaranteed to put any relationship on ice. We'll have a new puzzle coming up in the third. half of today's show, a new puzzler. All right, do you know what it's time for now? Time to start working on our commencement speech?

No, no, it's too early for that. It's time to play Stump the Chumps! All right, Stump the Chumps! Stump the Chumps is our meager version of quality control, where we bring back a previous caller to see what actually happened with our advice. And this gives our legal team. severe, heartburned. So who's this week's contestant?

It's Anne from Georgia, whom I don't remember. Not either. Here's what it says on the little sheet. Anne called us a few weeks back. Apparently, she encountered problems with her minivan while transporting her husband. This was the guy that had the reversal of fortune, so to speak. The reversal of fortune! Right, I remember that.

What the deal is, is about six weeks ago, my husband has vasectomy reversed down in Tampa, Florida. Okay? and we had to drive back home. You're sure you call the right show? This is car car. I know it is. Are you with us on this?

Okay, well, go ahead. Your nickel. Okay. Was there a lot of pain associated with this? Yes, there was. Well, tell them to take two aspirin and call us back in the morning. By the way, are we covered for medical malpractice as well as automotive malpractice? I hope so.

Anyway, my notes here say that why? While Anne was screaming along at 80 or 90 miles an hour, with her husband screaming along in the back of the van, she started hearing some kind of terrible noise. Oh, no, don't make me screaming. No, no, no. It wasn't her husband. It was a grinding noise. Anyway, after the trip, Anne would get the noise whenever she started the car. So she called us up, played us the tape.

We listened and told her it was definitely a problem with her starter and that she should have it replaced, and it was a piece of cake. No bet on it. Anne, are you there? Yes, I'm here. I've had second thoughts about this. That's okay. But before you give us your answer or your report on your husband's condition, we have to make sure that you've not been offered any cash apprises by the staff

or the staff of National Public Radio or the Florida Association of Urologists or anybody in exchange for a favorable response to our question. Is this true? Well, that check that came in the mail, I shouldn't tell you about that. No, we don't want to hear about that. So, go ahead. No, I did not get a check. All right.

Okay. Actually, you guys were wrong. Whoa. Didn't you play a little tape for us? Not again. Yes. Do you play the tape? Do you have the tape? Yes. All right. Let's hear it again. See, if we were all wet.

Remember? Sounds like a toilet flushing. See, as I remember, I don't want to cast blame here. Uh-huh. But as I remember, I think if we go back over the documentation. Well, you know, I didn't like this answer. Well, I'll tell you what's going on here. That noise.

I just realized, I just realized, I want to be divorced from this man. I just realized that I didn't hear all the whole problem because the noise started when she was moving, when she was driving from Florida to Georgia. No, it didn't. It only started after that drive. It started after that. Only when you start the car, right? When the engine was cold. Wait a minute.

When the engine was cold. It could be something like a bad water pump around. an alternator. No. Making this noise even. How many guesses do you want to throw in here? It could be a fuel pump. Fuel pump relay.

Bad headlip relay. It could choke pull off. I have no. All right, we give up. I don't know what that noise is. It was the T-Belt, the tensioner, and the idle are poolie. I was just about to say that. So then you did hear the noise while you were moving.

No. While the engine was running, you heard the noise. Every once in a while when we were obviously. idling, it would just make a real slight noise, but only when it was cold would it make that loud noise. It hasn't made the noise since they replaced what? The timing belt

and the tensioner. The teabelt, the tensioner and the idler pulley. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because what you were hearing was the bearings were gone on these things. Right. And that's the moaning you were hearing. And if your husband wasn't making so much noise in the back of the van, you would have heard this all the way from Florida. I mean, I

would like to just point out in defense of our answer, even though I didn't like it in the first place, the starter is only a lot of a foot and a half away from all these pieces. Right. Right. That's true. So we weren't that far wrong, you might say. No, we really weren't. Yeah. Of course, we could have said anything and everything's about a foot and a half away. All right. All right. Well, we failed miserably, and Ann, we want to thank you for being a good contestant. Oh, no problem. And how's your hubby? He's doing great. No pregnancy yet, but that's okay. But is the moaning stopped? Oh, yes. And he's all healed up and doing

fine oh that's great great thanks for playing stump the chumps in thanks for having the show bye bye bye bye boy with all those guesses i mean i start a motor well we did have it wrong you're absolutely right that we missed the fact that she said she heard noises while she was moving yeah well then she denied that and she not denied that yeah i i think she was put up to this i don't think there's anything i don't think he even has a husband you want to call us the numbers 1888 car talk that's 888 having his vasectomy reverber i mean come on 8882278255 hello you're on car talk hi this is jim davis calling up from the labs jim i'm sure we had some deep well we we did except we don't remember the question well yes what's this about some guy setting his car on fire

with a can of sprite oh this is a guy who claimed a can of soda pop yeah melted his leather uh Must have been a pretty hot car. He spilled it on the door or something, and it melted the leather. Yeah, I think he said it charred it a bit. Disfigured, I think. I put together a research team, and we checked out a can of Sprite from the greenhouse cafe here in the science center. And I went up to the lab and put a piece of leather in a 100-degree Celsius oven,

which is 212 Fahrenheit, the boiling point of water. Wow, that's pretty hot. And I let it get good and hot, you know, really, really hot car type hot. And then I pour it a can of Sprite on it, and it's foamed and sizzled, just like it should. You know, these clear drinks are mostly carbonated water. That's water that has carbon dioxide dissolved in it under pressure. Sure. Plus sugar and a little flavoring.

And so if you pour that on a hot surface, you would indeed expect it to foam and boil and to see clouds. Sure, because you're releasing the gas, right? Using the gas, you're boiling the water and you're caramelizing the sugar. You're driving the CO2 out. But I did not succeed in carbonizing the sugar. No, I would have to be harder. That happens normally at or slightly above the boiling point of water. and I doubt that his car gets that hot.

So what I suspect happened is probably that the liquid dissolved some dye or dirt or sweat or something from the leather and just left sort of a stain there. I'd be very surprised if it really charred. But if your listener was able to char it, I would be interested to hear more about it. Well, we made it a sample, right? You may have to mail us the door. So your opinion here, Jim, let me just get this straight. Your opinion is based solely on this bogus little experiment you did,

and you did not make any reference to the literature. No, we did not do a massive literature search. We decided to skip that step and go right to the... And you didn't duplicate actual field conditions. Yes, exactly. Or it's simulated in the lab. I didn't want to pour it on my own card. Yeah. Well, that's very, very good. I'm glad that you're right on top of things.

Well, I'm happy to help here. Thank you very much. For people who don't know, Jim is a professor of chemistry at the world's greatest university here in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Well, actually, a senior lecturer, but thanks anyway. Whatever. And Jim is on the staff of De We Cheatham and Howe in the chemical division. Right. Right. Well, I'm chairman of the chemical division. Chairman, yes.

Chairman of the chemical division. and he puts together in his laboratory. With the laboratory, is that like on the second floor with all the porcelain stuff? No, I think it's in the basement of Cartag Plaza somewhere. Thank you very much. WGU wouldn't want to claim it, I think. No, I bet not.

Okay, guys. Talk to you later. Thanks for call, Jim. See it, Jim. Bye, bye, bye, bye. All right, we're going to take a short break. Ah, great idea. I mean, we've been working now for what? Twenty-twine straight minutes?

I call the coach. Ha! We're back and 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. The new, exciting, scintillating. No, I didn't. I didn't say it. Brilliant. This was sent in by recently.

I mean, I just received this. You know the date on this thing? 51099. Holy cow. You know, kind of fell on my desk. It was on the top, and I read it, and I said, sounds better than the garbage I was going to use. So this was sent in by William Morrison from Midland, MI, Michigan.

You ready? Yeah. Every morning on his way to work, Billy Bob Beaumont stops at the corner gas station and spends 25 cents for gas. Every evening on his way home, he stops at the same station and again spends 25 cents for gas. He continues this pattern for some months. The amount he spends never varies, nor does the twice-a-day schedule.

Really? Finally, the attendant, who has observed Billy Bob's routine, says, You know, if you'd spend about $10 on a repair, you wouldn't have to stop here so often. Yeah. What is the simple repair the attendant has in mind, and the hint, which I have to give, is that it has nothing to do with the fuel system. Wow. That's beautiful.

Now, if you think you know the answer, write it on the back of a $20 bill and send it to, Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3,500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair City. Matt 02238, or of course, you can email your answer to us from the Car Talk section of Cars.com. If you want to call us, the number is 1-888-Cart Talk.

That's 888-2278. 8255. Hello, you're on car talk. Hi, my name's Terry Weaver, and I'm calling from Indian Head, Maryland. Hi, Terry, Indian Head. Indian Head, that's two words. Indian Head, where? Maryland. Maryland.

It's the south of D.C. Oh, good. So what's up? I'm hoping you can salvage my relationship with my 16-year-old son. Oh, doubt it. I doubt it. If I could do that, I would attempt to salvage my relationship with my 18-year-old son. Well, maybe you had the same problem with him.

Maybe. Go ahead. My son got his license. Seven months ago. Oh, brother, here we go. And he got his job at the same time. Yeah. And every paycheck he's gotten, he's given him a little bit more cash, and he's found a lot of perfect cars.

Yeah. The trouble is, they're not perfect in my book. Mm-hmm. They tend to be the 60s vintage muscle cars. Yeah, he wants like a 68 Mustang or something like that. Well, he's a Chevy guy to make a Camaro. 68 Camaro. Yes.

And usually if you can find a Chevy Camaro for under $2,000, you probably don't want it. That's probably true. And he wants these cars, and I'm saying, well, gee, here's this really nice cavalier from, you know, early 90s. Oh, Terry, Terry, come on. Well, help. Cavalier. What help. There's no help to be had here.

I mean, I'm always quick to give advice here, and I shouldn't be giving any advice because I have been a dismal failure in raising my son. Because all the things that I suggest to people, first of all, are not things that I've. done because I haven't I haven't thought of them at the right moment or I haven't had the These are things he wished he'd have done. Well, this is perfect timing for me now. Well, it is. I mean, I suppose you can gain from all my mistakes. But I don't know how to deal with the emotional aspects here.

I just, no one ever taught me. I have no idea what's going on in his head. But I do know that there are certain things like muscle cars that a 16-year-old kid should not be driving around him. That's all I know. That's all I know. But how do you get him to understand that? Don't ask me.

Ask my brother. Is there some kind of car that's not quite a muscle car, but not a cavalier? Yeah. An 86 Volvo. Ooh. Boy, that sounds really exciting. I don't think it's going to sell. Well, the first thought that came to me is sometimes people make bad decisions based on lack of information.

and he goes and he finds these 1967 Camaroes somewhere and they look great and all he can think about is driving it around and how he's going to look behind the wheel and how it's going to sound. Yes. But he doesn't think of the $7,000 of repairs that the car needs. So it would be nice if you could somehow get him to learn about that.

Any concept on how to do that? Yeah, I mean, let him actually go to the step of of making an offer on a car, but insist that he has it checked out by a mechanic first. The only thing you can possibly hope for is that you can somehow make him understand that the girls that he thinks are going to be jumping into this car with him are not going to be. That girls are not turned on by these cars. He doesn't think I was ever 16, so I don't know.

Well, he's not going to take your word for it because you weren't ever 16. That's right. But he might take the word of some 16-year-old girls. Yeah, I mean, most 16-year-old boys do think that the cars that appeal to them are cars that appeal to 16-year-old girls. And, boy, they're so wrong about that. And that's the only thing that I think has power, the only logic that might work. So I can conduct a survey of his friends. If you did that among 16-year-old girls and gave them a list of cars that impressed them,

I think what you would find is that none of the cars impressed them because they're not interested in cars. They're not. I wasn't. No. And they will never even notice. He could spend the money on cosmetic surgery much better. So tell him whatever parts of it is anatomy he thinks needs some help.

Spend the $2,000, you'll get a nose job, buy a rug, you know, whatever. If you don't have too much hair. Well, I think girls might be more attracted to the unusual car. For example, I mean, all the kids at his age are going to run out and try to get themselves an old Mustang or Firebird or Camaro or whatever. He should show up with a rambler. Oh, boy. And they all say, what's that?

That's a tank. Yeah, there you go. He needs a nice, you know what he needs? A matador. A matador. Yeah, remember those? I vaguely can picture those. Well, I don't think there are any around, but if you could find one,

that's the car for him, like a nice... 74 Matador. Yeah. And he can pay it to him like a really outrageous collar. Exactly. Sure. I think that gives me at least a car I can come back with. Good luck, Terry.

And you're going to need it. Thank you. All right. Bye-bye. Oh, wait a minute. Look, who's here? All right. Terry, don't go away.

We have here. Oh, we lost Terry. No, I'm here. We have here in the studio. Just by a stroke of luck, my 18-year-old son, Alex. All right, here's the deal, Alex. son, who was just 16 and got his license, he wants to buy a 60s muscle car, you know, like a Camaro or something, and she thinks that it's going to be, A, a death trap, and it's

going to keep falling apart. And she wants to know, what should she do? How does she talk them out of it? Because she figures... How does she talk them out of it? You're asking the wrong person. Help me, Alex. What we told it was that cars like that don't appeal to 16-year-old girls, even though her son probably thinks that they do. And in fact, he should go for something cool looking. I mean, something unusual, something that nobody else has. Like an AMC. Matador.

And what are your thoughts on this? What does Alex's face look like right now? He's laughing. He thinks we're nuts. Yeah, they are nuts. I would go for the muscle car. Okay, so thanks to you. When you've asked girls to get into your car, didn't you find you had a lot more luck when you were driving that old Volvo jalopy?

I mean, because it was, each fender was a different color and it was kind of a funky car and if you were driving a brand new car girls liked the Volvo actually they didn't like it they didn't like it when it had hub caps and it was all one color but after that they liked it.

But as the pieces started to fall off it began to take on a certain interesting character yeah but muscle cars have character too no they don't yeah they do all right well it's been very nice having you're no help I'm sorry

Come on, she's trying to save the kid's life because she knows it's going to be a death trap. Well, I mean, I can't discourage the muscle car because there's a special fraternity of teenagers and I can't violate that by encouraging, by telling you how to convince him not to do it. So I'm sorry. See, there's nothing that we're going to be able to say except that while he's only 16 or 17, then you have the power to just ground him. Yes. But as my son has recently turned 18, he's moving out of the holidays. He's buying a new car of his own. What are you buying?

He's going to buy a brand new BMW Z3. And he's moving into a penthouse apartment in downtown Boston. And he's asked me to lend him $100,000. Yeah, right. Oh, man. Terry, this is the hardest thing. When you saw that little kid in the hospital and he weighed 8 pounds, 6 ounces. And you picked him up and you held him to your bosom.

did you ever expect it would come to this? No. And how come no one told us about this? Because if they did, you wouldn't have taken a zero step. I got to get this one right. So he's got a brother coming on two years behind him. Oh, yeah. See, my son, who's just gotten his license, my Andrew.

Who, by the way, hates my son because he figures that Alex has ruined it for him. He says, I know I'll never drive because Alex and all my friends have ruined it because he smashed up so many cars and done so much property damage. No, I'm never going to get behind the wheel. I'm throwing my license away. Yeah, well, Terry, if you find out anything interesting, let me know. I'll keep you posted. Because I feel like a fish out of water here.

I have no idea what to do. Well, I'm glad to find I'm not the only one that's floundering around. Oh, man. Floundering around. I like it. See it, Terry. Thanks for calling, Terry. Thanks, Alex.

All right, get out of here. Go back to work. What is this fraternity he's talking about? Yeah, that's what we don't know. Is the show over? While you've wasted another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk, our esteemed producer is Doug the subway fugitive, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. 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 the bugster, Mr. John Bugsy Lawler. Our public opinion pollster is Paul Murky of Mercury Research, assisted by statistician Marge in Overa. Our customer care representative is Haywood, Jabuzoff.

Our mortgage loan consultant is Nora Linderby. Our chief negotiator is Bernadette Bridge. Our daylight savings time manager is Conrad at an hour. Our director of upward mobility in Eastern Europe is a big new Chrysler. Our director of Japanese cooling system technology is Emperor Overhito, and our chief counsel from the law firm of Duich. and how is you Louis Dewey, known in the crosswalks as you and Louis Dewey. Thanks so much for listening.

We're clicking and clack the Tapper Brothers. And remember whatever you do, don't drive like my brother. And remember whatever you do, don't drive like my brother. We'll be back next week. Bye-bye. And now, here in the studio is Contalk Plaza's chief mechanic, Mr. Vinnie Gombats. Thank you very much now. If you find yourself in desperate need of a copy of this week's show,

just hop on the phone and call our shameless commerce division. That's at 888 car junk. and this week's show happens to be number 22. And what if one of our listeners wanted a Car Talk T-shirt or a sweatshirt, Vinny? I mean, would that be the same number? No, you call the Portuguese Embassy, you don't know. Of course it's the same number, 888 card junk, or you can visit the Shameless Commerce Division online at the card talk section of Cars.com.

Thank you, Vin, always a pleasure. Do I detect a little sarcasm there? No, no, no, no, no, no. Good. Car Talk is a production of Dewee Chudeman Howe and WBUR in Boston. And even though Amarigo Vespucci wishes he had discovered a different continent every time he hears us say it, this is NPR National Public Radio. 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.

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