The Best of Car Talk - #2590: Automotive Family Planning

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

Our ‘Family Planning Division’ has been busy! a few weeks ago it was Anne from Georgia playing ambulance driver with her post-vasectomy-reversal hubby moaning in the back seat. This time, Kara is pregnant with twins as a result of a botched vasectomy. Urology is a tougher racket than we thought. Boy have we got questions 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 Tapper Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the post-commencement Reflection Bureau. That's a month full. Mirrors?

Here at Carthock Plaza. Well, our commencement address has now come and gone. Yes, it has. And we were unable to give you a preview of it for two very important reasons. One, we didn't know what we were going to say until we got there. And, two, we didn't want to tip off MIT to what we were going to do because they might cancel us if they knew. But now we can reveal if we want to. Well, I mean, I suppose we can reveal a little bit.

I mean, one of the things we did do was we gave a summary of some research that was done by Paul Murky. Heavy duty stuff. This research, you know, I mean, there's research. Groundbreaking. Maybe windbreaking. I mean, there are some theories that you just don't believe, but some are just so powerful, and this is one of them, and I wish we could tell you more about it, but it takes too long.

It does take too long. I mean, after all, it took us 75 minutes to deliver our dress. That's right, sitting in the rain, the sun. We had every different kind of weather, and I'm telling you, but hailstorms. But, the! If you want to find out more about this historic, folkloric, challenging an interesting commencement address at MIT.

You can read all about it on our website this week. Complete with pictures. Read all about it. Who was that kid? You go to our website, the Cart Talk section of Cars.com, and you will see a feature of the highlights. I guess just the highlights. Including seeing us in full academic regalia.

Oh, man. We had to beat off our lives with a stick. No, they were the ones that were hitting us. We're hitting us with the stick. Well, we have to fend off the sticks. Anyway, if you'd like to talk to us about your car, or maybe a commencement engagement for next season. Ah, yeah, now that we're professionals.

The number is 888 Car Talk. That's 888-225. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Amy from Boca Raton, Florida. Hi, Amy. What's up in Boca Raton? First of all, it's about 100 degrees, right? Yeah, it's pretty warm. I have the air on now.

Is Boca Raton near Del Boca Vista? I have to check the map for that way. So what's up? Well, I need a male perspective. You're all going to get it now, you're a kid. I hope my husband listens to this. You see, I realize it's my problem. I really know that, okay? But if you want male and female perspective, I can go put on my dress.

I usually bring it to the studio. Yeah, no, that's a little, that's a little too scary for me. Yeah, well, we'll see if it's required. Go ahead. I'm not a very good backseat driver, and I'd like to sort of do a little better. Now, I have to preface it, two things. My husband has a really good excuse. He's really, really smart.

And so he just doesn't have a lot of room in his brain for, like, a lot of details, like which side of the road to drive on. Oh, I get you. Down here in Florida, we have a lot of grassy medians. Yeah. So you really have to stay on the right side of those. You should. You really should, yeah.

Right, because otherwise it's on your, you know, head oncoming traffic. Uh-huh. Yeah. And you should stay off of the median itself as much as possible. He knows not to drive on the grass. He's really good about that. Okay. But it's the heading into the oncoming traffic.

And he doesn't do it all the time, obviously. but sometimes he looks like he's going to do it and I always kind of go and I try to say go on the right honey but he gets really mad at me and he always says I know that but a couple times when he's really actually driven for quite a ways

on the left-hand side has kind of frightened me yeah as well it's sure well maybe he only does this when you're in the car well we had a friend in the car once when he did it Well, how, how can I say this? Delicately? Delicately.

Yeah. How old is your husband? Oh, oh, 35. Just give me a decade. 35. And what does he do for a living? He's a professor. Oh, geez, what does he teach?

Art history or something scientific. No, ocean engineering. Yeah, scientific. Yeah, really scientific. His problem is. His problem is. His field is too wide. See, when you're in the ocean, you don't have to worry about links.

Yeah Oh, he should study like Microbiology Exactly Exactly He needs to change field I think then he'll have a respect For staying in his own lane

Now I know his problem He's driving along And driving can be boring And so his mind Wonders Right And he's working on some oceanographic Problem

And he's not thinking about what he's doing And I think you're going to have To just continue to do what you do And say, Right Right. Right. And he's going to have to learn. And if he gets angry, don't forget, when men get angry, here's the male perspective. It is because they are guilty as hell of what you have accused them of. And they are using the only defense they know, which is a good offense. What do you mean? Right, right. Of course I know I'm supposed to drive. Of course he knows he's supposed to drive on the right, but not at that particular moment did he know it. Right. And he's working way too hard.

He is. So the ultimate irony is that his actual area of expertise is in what they call control, which is giving, you know, all of the computer knowing where to go and what to do. Would he object to your driving? Of course, he's a man. The man's got to drive. Well, actually, I sort of say, should I drive, honey? And he goes, no, I can do it.

Sure. Sure, you would say that. I don't want then at that point, I can't say, no, I think I'll drive. I know what to do. So you have to be very, very careful how to do this. I got it. You got it? Yeah. Well, I bet we couldn't have come up with the same thing.

Well, go ahead. Here's my plan. Yeah. Next time you have the car and he's not around, you take it to the dealer, and you have them change the ignition lock. Uh-huh. So that his key doesn't work anymore. And also, the door key won't work anymore. Really?

Right. So you get to the car and you're all getting into the car. he tries to get in, it won't work. So you have to go around to the driver's side and say, oh, let me try it, hon. You open the door, you hop in. So anytime he tries to drive the car, won't work, won't go.

Oh, see, I was thinking of the thing our friend Vito uses all the time. We have a friend Vito who insists he has to drive because if he doesn't, he pukes. So you stick him in the passenger seat, you drive a half a mile, and he's hurling chunks right down with the front. And I don't know whether he really gets car sick or he induces car sickness, but if nothing

else, he always ensures that he drives. And obviously, he feels safer and he doesn't puke when he's behind the wheel. And I tell you how he convinced us of this one time when he wasn't driving, he gave us this pull over, pull over story. He runs into the woods. Runs into the woods. Of course, none of us follow him because we don't want to be there and we hear, ah! Then he comes back, and he has to lie on the grass for 20 minutes to recover.

And then he announces to us, I have to drive. I have to drive. And ever since then, any time we go somewhere and he's in the car, he has to drive. I like that even better. So this is it, Amy. This is truly a male perspective. Barfing was not something I had thought of. You would never think of the duplicity that men would think of.

No. No. Actually, women are usually pretty good at this, but I'm sure this. It would have come to you eventually. But I think you need to run off into the woods, do what Vito did, and then convince him that you don't know what's happened, but unless you drive from now on, this is going to be repeated over and over. I have to just try it. I'll say, maybe if I drive, I won't get a car sick. Right.

And he'll say, try it, hon. And you say, oh, I feel so much better behind the wheel. Because I'm not worried about you, you moron. You say that last part to yourself. Try it out, Amy. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, guys. Great talking to you. Thank you so much. Our pleasure. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Okay, Tommy, do you remember last week's puzzle? Do I remember last week's puzzle? Of course. Diddley squad? No, I don't remember last week's puzzle. Well, it's about a guy, his sheep, I mean his Jeep, and his uncooperative brake calipers. I'll have the entire sad story in just a minute. 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. Ha, 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 the answer to last week's puzzler. This puzzler was sent in by John Tomasetti from something somewhere or other. And he says, this is a real life situation.

It actually happened to me. Yeah, sure. Right. Anyway, it's actually similar to a puzzle that we used many, many moons ago. I remember the puzzler now. Do you remember the name of the guy? Of course I do.

Pritchard. Jim Pritchard, who spent all those hours at our garage doing exactly the same thing that poor John did. That's not why I remember Jim Pritchard. I remember Jim Pritchard because he wrecked my Lambretta. Well, after all the break fluid, we sold him in the image. I could have bought two land price.

Here it is. John had an 82 Jeep C.J7, and this could happen to a lot of different vehicles. He just happened to have just a particular one. And Jim Pritchard had a Carmen Gia, if I remember. Anyway, it had sticky front brake calipers, so he decided to rebuild them himself. So he says, I bought the rebuilding kits for both front wheels, and the kits included everything I needed. All rings, dust, boots, new steel pistons, and I proceeded to rebuild both front calipers

and was thrilled to discover that I had no spare. parts left over. How could you? They only gave you four parts. I mean, geez. And in fact, he had rebuilt them flawlessly. However, he says, when I finished, that's a hint. I couldn't seem to bleed the brakes properly. The pedal went to the floor as if there were air trapped in the system, which is often the case when you rebuild brakes and drain the system entirely. He said, I must have bled a gallon of brake fluid for the system to no avail. Finally, I take the Jeep to a shop and using their professional equipment, they bleed the brakes. They put a power bleeder. Also, to no avail. Finally, they say, you need a new master cylinder. I say,

fine, so they replace it. Three times to no avail. They check the lines, they check the rear brakes, and everything is in perfect condition. They give up. After five days, three more master cylinders, 18 more gallons of brake fluid, etc., John is at the end of his rope and he takes it to the Jeep dealer. They bleed the brakes. They change the master cylinder. They change the master cylinder. And finally, finally, somebody figures out what's wrong, and it costs no additional money to fix. I might add that I think he spent about 1,800 bucks between those nine master cylinders, 2,800 gallons of brake fluid. And what had happened was the following. Boy, this is good. John rebuilt both calipers. In other words, he took them off, I can only imagine, put them

on his dining room table, took them all apart, installed the new kits that he had, flawlessly, I might add, and reinstalled them. But in doing so, he put the left one on the right and the right one on the left. And by making that mistake, the bleeder, that is the little valve you open to let air escape from the system, was at the bottom of each caliper because he had flipped them around and not at the top where, what? The air goes. The air is. And you take a liquid, and there's air in it too, and you flip it upside down, no matter what you do, the air always goes to the top. You can try this out with a bottle of orange soda.

You can. Which we do every week here. And no matter how much bleeding you do, there is so much air which is compressible, trapped in the system that you cannot get a brake pedal, no matter how many master cylinders you put in. And what this fellow noticed is the same thing that we noticed with poor Jim Pritchett after he bought 18 gallons of brake fluid from us and replaced the master cylinder four or five times

that the calipers needed to be put in the right place and then the thing bled, just like that. Bingo. Who's our winner this week? The winners! Winners! It says, David and Kay, Maori. Yeah.

Husband and wife, mother and son, daughter and father. I don't know, but David and Kaye from Riverside, California, and David and Kay, for having your correct answer chosen from among the thousands of correct answers we got this week, you will get a $25 gift certificate, not $2, $2.25,000. $25 gift gift certificates, even though there are two of you, you will get only $125 gift certificate to share, and that will get you into the shameless commerce division where you can get, I mean, so many things.

I mean, it's incredible. It's like a kid being in a toy store. So you go to the car talk section of cars.com, go to the shameless commerce division, and you will see stuff there. And shop to your heart's content, or at least knock your socks off. Up to $25 worth. Right. And, of course, if you exceed $25, you can always make up the difference with your, own money.

Yeah, because there is like nothing that costs $20. No, the shipping and handling is $25. Anyway, we'll have a new puzzler coming up in the third half of today's show. In the meantime, we'll take your calls at 1-888-car talk. That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, guys. This is Roy Fister.

I'm calling from Mandeville, Louisiana. Hi, Roy. Mandeville, Louisiana. What part of Louisiana is Mandeville? That's about 40 miles north of New Orleans. Oh. You know Lake Pontchartrain? Certainly.

You've heard of it? Of course. Okay. Everyone has. All right. Well, we're on the north shore of Lake. You're on the north side of the lake. So you're right across the lake from New Orleans almost.

That's correct. Yeah. And we're right on the entrance to the longest bridge in the world, a 24-mile bridge along. Oh, the Lake Pontchartrain Bridge. That's correct. Yeah. Yeah, we flew over at once. And we said, Sonia Hennie's two-to.

What a bridge. So many of the mechanics there in the area have boats. Because not only do they have the lake to go on, they even have the whole Mississippi River. That's right. Man, the boat payments being made down there. The Gulf of Mexico. I love it.

It's a mechanic's dream. Boy, you guys are getting overcharged for everything. So tell us your tail, Roy. Okay, I've got a 77, Mercedes 450SL. And it's one of those roadsters, you know. Oh, yes, of course. And it's in beautiful condition.

I really maintain it well. But I'm having a problem with the brakes. It's got 102,000 miles on it. And about six months ago, the pedal, the brake pedal started softening up a bit to a point where I had to kind of pump the pedal to get the brakes to function properly. Yeah. So I took it into my mind. mechanic, and he said, well, let's bleed the lines, and maybe there's some air in there. So we

tried that, and it didn't work. Took it back, and he said, well, maybe it's the master cylinder. So he put a brake master cylinder in, and of course bled the brakes at the same time. And after I drove the car for about, well, maybe a half hour, about 45 minutes, and the engine was up to running heat, the brakes almost faded completely. I mean, it left maybe an inch space between the floorboard and the pedal. Oh, really? Yes. Prior to which, had it improved?

No. Oh, so when he put the new master cylinder in, you didn't see any difference in what was going on? No difference. Okay. Right. Got it. Okay. And only when the car, the engine heated up, would the brakes malfunction?

But when he put in the master cylinder and bled the system, did you then have a good hard pedal? Yes. Sure. I mean, why would he send you out if he didn't get a good hard pedal? Well, that's correct. Sure. But the hard pedal didn't last. Yeah. Can I ask a question? After it cools off like the next morning? Yes. Is the pedal okay again? Yes, it is. Aha. Well, here's what I think is happening, but I don't know why. I have a theory. Oh, go ahead. No, go ahead.

No, no. No, you tell me what's... You're the older brother. No, no, you tell me what you think is happening. I'll tell you if my theory fits it. Oh. Go ahead. Okay, what's happening is somehow or another your brakes are on or getting applied gradually as you drive the car. So you take off from his place. Wait, say that again. I'm sorry. Your brakes are applying themselves as you drive the car.

And the reason you're losing the brakes is the fluid is beginning to overheat and boil. So that as you drive the car, it's tantamount to you're driving it with your left foot resting on the brake pedal and your right foot on the gas. Why would it do that? If this happens, the heat of friction causes the brake fluid to actually boil in the little lines there. Right. And when you get things to boil, what happens? One part of it turns into vapor. Right.

And now you've got the equivalent of air in the lines. Well, okay. Well, the mechanic thought of that, that there's heat being caused by something, but he didn't know what it was. See, I don't think that it has to do with the fact that the end. engine has heated up. It has to do with the fact that you're moving. You're driving the car. If you sat there with the engine running, you could sit there for 25 minutes and I'll bet you that pedal would be just as hard as it was when you first started. Oh, really? So it's not that the heat of the engine is causing things to heat up. It's the friction of what sounds to me. I mean,

for example, here's one possibility could be that you have a stuck brake caliper. Okay, well, the mechanic said he was going to inspect all of that on this disco round. Ah, so that's what he's doing as we speak. That's right. Can you call him now? It's been in his shop for about 10 days. It has. He's still scratching his head.

I don't know. Well, I mean, you could have a stuck caliper. You could have a warped rotor. Okay. All of which would cause friction. Or you could have a faulty vacuum booster. Yes, you could. is the thing that gives you power brakes

and in some rare cases even though the thing is a virtually fail-safe device it can happen that the thing even without you're stepping on the pedal gradually begins to inch forward and apply pressure to the master cylinder even though you're not stepping on the brake

and one way to find out maybe what's going on is when the car begins to lose its pedal like this you may in fact find out that if you were to put the car in neutral and tried to push it You couldn't, because the brakes are on. That's a good thought. So suggest that to him.

I will. Either you've got a stuck caliper or you've got a faulty power booster. And we already know it's not the master cylinder because he replaced that. Yes, right. It's one of those two things, and I'm going to go out on the limb again despite the lug nut theory and say, if it's not one of those two things, I'll eat my hat. Oh, well, I'd like to see you do. Me too. Good luck, Roy. Thanks for calling.

Hey, it's nice talking to you guys. I really enjoy your show. Our pleasure. Okay. See you later. Okay. Bye-bye. We're going to take a short break. That's good, because I spilled orange soda. Two calls ago. And if I don't get up now, this chair is going to be permanently caramelized to my butt. We're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us.

Click and Clack the Tabit Brothers. and we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and of the new puzzler. And I'm going to read this just the way I got it. It came from someone named Robert Skidmore. And like I said, I'm going to read it just the way I got it. You read it, and if I like it, I won't do this. He says, okay, I sent this one to you to be put in the daily trivia. Since you didn't do that, I'll send it again this time as a puzzler.

It'll probably be more fun to have people try to answer it after hearing it, rather than after reading it anyway. The person trying to answer this puzzle must listen slash look closely at the following paragraph. Now, you can't look, but you can... Yeah, listen. I'm listening.

This paragraph is odd. What is its oddity? You may not find it at first, but this paragraph is not normal. What is wrong? Question mark. It's just a small thing, but an oddity that stands out

if you find it. What is it? You must know. Your days will not go on until you find out what is odd. You will pull your hair out. Your insomnia will push you until your poor brain finally short circuits trying to find an oddity in this paragraph. Good luck. That's good. I'll read it again. Yeah. This paragraph is odd. What is its oddity? You may not find it at first, but this paragraph is not normal. What is wrong? It's just a small

thing but an oddity that stands out if you find it. What is it? You must know. Your days will not go on until you find out what is odd. You will pull your hair out. Your insomnia will push you until your poor brain finally short circuits, trying to find an oddity in this paragraph. Good luck. Now, if you think you know the answer, send it to, on a ripe cantaloupe. Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3,500, Harvard Square, Cambridge, our fair city, Matt 02238. And this will be posted on the web, of course, like all the puzzles are. You want to look at it. You can look at it.

Yeah. You can look at it. If looking will help you more than hearing. And it might. Yeah. Or if the idea of, you know, fresh fruit is distasteful, by the way, you can send your answer electronically from the car talk section of cars.com. If you'd like to call us, the numbers 1-888-8-8-8-8-2-58-car talk. That's 888-227-8-25-5. Hello, you're on car talk.

Hi, this is Kara from Calistoga, California. Kara with a C, huh? With a K. I knew it, you know. Kara with a K from what, Conestoga, California? Calistoga. It's in Napa Valley. Calistoga. Calistoga. Calistoga. California. Right. What is a Calistoga? Well, there's an old tale about the guy that founded the town being drunk and he wanted to say he was going to make it the Saratoga of California, but he said the Calistoga of Saratoga, so that's what they claim the... That's a boy, drunk's responsible for so much stuff. Come on.

Well, we'll bite. They say, I'm not saying it's true. Yeah, yeah. We're not criticizing you, California. criticizing you, Kara. We believe every word you tell us. You were simply quoting it was hearsay. So you're not responsive.

And it's good enough for us, and we don't really even care. We're just trying to make promises. Trying to break the ice so we can learn about each other a little bit and be friends. So that when you want to drop these very personal issues on us, we will feel qualified to discuss them. So go ahead. Is it personal or is it mechanical? It's more personal. Oh, see, now how did we know that?

Well, I don't know. It's our sixth or seventh sense. Yeah, I remember eight cents, maybe. Okay, here goes. Yeah. I have a 97 Saturn S.L. With just under 50,000 miles on it. Quite a wonderful car, actually.

I have two children, but here's my problem. I'm pregnant with twins. Oh, boy. And I realize that the Saturn is not going to be a suitable car. No. It's not. And I wonder if there's any way I can avoid the minivan. Oh, and I should mention that my husband had a vasectomy before I got pregnant with the twins.

Before? Before. Did you drive him home from the hospital? Maybe the ride was too rough. We might have to open a... I think we have to open a vasectomy section on the website. There seem to be lots of things happening. Jeez.

Can you possibly avoid the... Gee, that's good. What's your budget? Let's get right down to the import. Let's get down to the least common denominator. Oh, Kara's got the money. I mean, is a Mercedes station wagon out of the question? Yes, it is.

We would like this car to be under $20,000. What? Silence. Under $20,000. Well, I suppose if you get a 10-year-old one, you could get something under $20,000. You know, I mean, we had a Saturn before. That's what our budget is. Well, you don't have to buy a new one, whatever it is you buy.

No. can certainly buy something used. You do a lot of driving, though, don't you? Actually, not that much because my husband works in our home, so he doesn't have to drive to work. Yeah. I'll tell you what I drove recently, which I actually didn't think I was going to like, but I did like it. Yeah, I know what you're going to say, too. Yeah?

I think so. Yeah. No, no, not that one. No, I drove recently a dog. Dorango. Oh, you did. I never drove that. You liked it? Well, I mean, I didn't think I was going to like it. It's based on the Dakota pickup truck chassis, and it does have seating for seven people. Does it? But where? Well, on the roof and such. Oh, it had a way back, it had three rows of seats. Three rows of seats, and the way back is, you know... It's like an SUV,

but it has... Well, it is an SUV. Yeah, but it's... Suburban attack vehicle. Attack. But it was, and the two back seats were not horrendous. They were certainly good enough for kids. Don't forget eventually the kids are going to grow up. And you'll have to get something bigger like a Tahoe or a Ford excursion. But the two older kids can crawl into the way back. Right.

And the two kids that are. And Mike and Ike, the twins. Well, keep in mind that the older kids are also still in car seats. Oh, sure, yeah. they'll all be a new. You'll go broke just on the car seats. My God. How did you get this? Never mind. The failed vasectomy. Yeah. That did it, huh? Did you sue?

Well, we're, I don't want to go into details and jeopardize the suit. But we're hoping for some kind of settlement. At least to pay for the car. The car, nothing. You want to pay for college tuition. That would be nice, but our legal counsel has advised us that that's probably out of the question. Fire this legal counsel. Yeah, you're going to wind up with getting paid for the car seats. That's about it. So if we do go with a minivan, are they all the same the way they seem?

Well, I will say that the minivans do allow you to get things and kids and whatever in and out of the way back seat easier than this Durango is going to allow. Yeah, see, that's the problem. I mean, I would prefer, I think, the minivan route only because I am just against SUVs because they're so evil and disgusting. Yeah, I have that problem too. Yeah, but the minivan, even though they're evil, they're not disgusting. I mean, they're horrible, but you got yourself into this mess, and there's no way out except a

minivan, and I thought you were going to suggest the Odyssey. Well, I'm going to now that I'm entering the minivan. Yeah. See, I like the Honda Odyssey is a minivan, but it doesn't feel like one. There's something about getting into a caravan, a Dodge caravan, that makes you age by 15, 20 years. Yeah, I felt that. Yeah, I mean, you get in, and your hair starts to turn blue. I mean, it's been done in the laboratory, and we know that.

And the same with all the others, but somehow the Odyssey, for me, at least. It's not quite as square. It wasn't quite as square, and it was a little bit, I didn't. It handled a little bit better, and it, because it's a Honda and not an American-made car, per se. Watch out now. going to say something libelous? No, no, it has a, it seems to have a better feel for the road. That's all.

Yeah, I go along with that. And it has that neat seat in the back that folds into the... That's new, you know. So we could look at the Odyssey. You should look at the Odyssey. You could buy a used one, too. Yeah, they've been out for a couple of years. What about rental returns, you know, cars that have been rental cars?

Wonderful idea. I think it's a good idea. Okay. I bought a car from Avis once. It was very nice car. It was a little cheaper than I would have gotten at a dealership. They gave me a warranty, and it was pretty good. Oh, yeah?

Yeah. So I don't think that's a bad idea. And I've just been told that it's not been out for two years. It's been out for one year. One year. So you can buy a one-year-old one, but there won't be very many one-year-old ones around. Yeah, right. You may have to go for new, but don't forget.

It's a 97-Sat, you. you got to trade in, they'll give you three, four hundred bucks for that. Oh, yeah, you'll be rolling the door to that trade. See, yeah, Kara. Okay, thanks, guys. Enjoy your minivan. You need it. Thank you very much.

Okay. Bye. I mean, there was some instance, I mean, she's just crying out. I mean, she's got minivan stamped on her forehead. I mean, she can't possibly avoid it. Yeah, I mean, with three or more kids, it's an absolute necessity. Well, three, you could cram in the back seat of most cars. Three, three car seats, side by each.

Yeah, but that gets. to be. Oh, man. Hey, you go around having all those kids. What do you want? Exactly. Well, you want a minivan. That's what you want. You don't want it. You don't want it. You need it. Well, it's happened again. You've squanded 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 Kiki Ray. Kiki? Kiki. Why Kiki? Kiki. That's daddy's nickname for Catherine. Isn't that sweet. Catherine Kiki Ray. I Our engineer is Dennis de Menace Foley. That's his daddy's nickname for him, too. And our technical, spiritual, and menu advisor is the bugster, Mr. John Bugsy Lawler. Our public opinion pollster is Paul Merkey of Merkey Research, assisted by statistician Marge and Rivera. Our customer care representative is Hayward Jabuz-off. Our daylight savings time manager is Conrad at an hour.

Our director of upward mobility in Eastern Europe is a big new Chrysler, and our director of Japanese cooling system technology is Emperor Overhito. and our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Cheatham and How is you, Louis Dewey, known to the sweating tourists in Harvard Square as you are Louis Dewey. Thanks so much for listening. We're clicking and collect the tappert brothers. Don't drive like my brother.

Don't drive like my brother. Don't drive like my brother. We'll be back next week. Bye-bye. And now, here is Kar Talk Plaza's director of summer activities, Mr. Vinny Gumbats, Vinnie? Hey, now, thank you very much now. If you're looking for something to do between naps this summer, why not catch an encore presentation of this very here program here? At the very least, it'll help you transition back into.

your next nap, you know. So just call 888 car junk, and this week's show is number 24. But what do you recommend for someone who is absolutely sick and tired of hearing our voices for it? That's easy. Our book. A haircut in Hors Town, another great car talk puzzles. You get all the same great in-named banter, but you don't have to listen to us directly, you know. Just call our shameless commerce division at 888 card junk or order online at the car talk section of cars.com. You got it? I got it. Thank you. you are a mother load of great. A mother what?

Car Talk is a production of Dewey Cheatham and Howe and WBUR in Boston. And even though Abe Lincoln says, maybe I should have let the Confederacy win, 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

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