The Best of Car Talk - #2595: The Big Hair Problem

Episode Date: November 29, 2025

Jessica and her mom both drive their VW but every time Jessica goes to start it she gets a shock. Is this some kind of anti-Fahrgvergnugen that only Jessica has to endure, or is their another possible answer? Find out on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 Readiness Division here at Car Talk Plaza. Yes, we are. We got this letter the other day from a guy named Steve Yasko, Programming Operations Manager at National Public Radio. Dear Mr. Berman, we need your help. NPR is comprehensively assessing all its systems and equipment and programming to ensure that Y2K will not bring any problems or surprises. As part of the survey, we need information about car talks,

Y2K preparation, and readiness. Right. Hugh Lewis Dewey, the Chief Counsel, I have a copy. I hear answered, Mr. Yasko. Here it is. Mr. Steve Yasko, programming operations banished it, da, da, da, da, d, and PR, 635 minutes. Dear Steve, you'll be happy to know that as of today, Car Talk has been declared completely Y2K compliant. I didn't even know this. Oh, I know. Here are the areas which have been tested and approved for Y2K compatibility at Car Talk Plaza. Banking. As you know, the Cartot Capital Depreciation Fund, guarantee.

a 50% of a person's investment. We give a return of 50% of your investment. As such, should our client's balances... Which is better, I might add, than most of the mutual funds I've ever invested in. Should our client's balances suddenly shows zero on January 1st, they will simply be delighted that we have exceeded their expectations and achieved not just a 50% return of their investment,

but a full 100% depreciation. electricity. Since the lights and computers only serve as an annoyance during the workday and get in the way of an otherwise relaxing work experience for our employees, the lack of lighting and electricity should not in any way alter our normal productivity. The only electrical concern would be air conditioning, but since January 1st usually falls on or around January 1st, we don't anticipate that being a problem either. No. Payroll. We do anticipate a possible disruption of payroll services, so we are requesting that NPR, pay us in advance for the entire 21st century. If you would be so kind as to forward a check by

December 1st, we can cross this little issue off our list. And if we get it by December 1st, we can cash it before the Y2K problem kicks in. Broadcast services. In what has proven to be a wise and insightful decision, our home station WBUR in Boston, has opted not to upgrade its broadcast equipment during the last four to six decades. We have checked with the manufacturers of this equipment, the Acme String Company and Dixie Cup Incorporated, and both companies have assured us that our broadcast equipment will continue to function as is with no Y2K repercussions. See, it's always good to not be on top of the technology. Stay away from the cutting edge. Should you have any further questions, please contact our Millennium Planning Manager, Vera Faroff. Verra

Very far off. Here at Contact Cis Celiaz, Heelius, Dewey, Chief Counsel. Do we cheat him and how? It's good to know that you have people like this in the background. See, people think we're just two jimokes on the radio. We have a staff here that is working on things like Y2K compliance. We don't even know it. I think this is the only thing that you lose Dewey has ever done. I've never seen a letter by him before. No, I think it's a fake.

Yeah, but who would have done it? Somebody. Somebody. Well, if you'd like to call us and hear us, fake our way through a couple of answers, Our number is 1-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-2-8-2-5. Hello, you're on car talk. Hello, this is Belinda from Detroit. Hi, Belinda.

Belinda. What's going on in Motor City? Nothing. So what's going on? What do you need from us? Okay, I have a 1990 Nissan Access Van. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they don't get them anymore.

Yeah, I think they call those excess for a while. They didn't make that for a while. They made that for one year. Exactly, but it's a wonderful van. How can they do that? Well, it was a stanza. Was it? It was a stanza, and they put this other name on it.

They put a body on it. How many of those must they have left over them? It was the same body. It was the smoke and it was the Iyakokov model. It was the smoking mirrors thing. I don't know, maybe they put a sliding door or something, but it was a stanza, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. So what's going on?

What happened was? About a year ago, my air conditioning went out, and some guy told me it was going to be like $800 And I said, forget it because it was an old car. Well, this year, my window wouldn't go up. So I had that repaired. And the guy said he could repair my air for 103. He did. I had air.

About a week later. You had no air. No, I still have air. I got this ticking. Like, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Sometimes it would tick when the air was on, and it would tick when the air was off. It would tick sometimes when you turned it, you know, first started the car. Sometimes it wouldn't click when you first started the car.

And when the ticking was there? Yeah. Did it get faster as you revved up the engine? No. Mm-mm. Are you absolutely sure of that? No, I'm not absolutely sure of anything. No, neither a week.

Okay. When you're at the, when I'm at a stoplight, yeah. Yeah, it was a slower tick. And as you started. As you started to move, it was tick, tick, tick a little faster. It got faster. Yeah. Okay.

But yesterday, I got an oil change. And it picked when I first started it up after the oil. was changed, hasn't ticked since. Is my tick going to come back? Well, interesting. You could have had a stuck valve. Because of a lack of oil?

No, because of dirt, old age, inattention. Any number of things could cause a valve to stick or a hydraulic lifter to stick and make that ticking noise, which would be very regular. I mean, extremely regular. There would be no mistaking its regular.

For example, if one valve was stuck or one lifter were not pumped up correctly, if the engine were running at idle, you would get a tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tit-tit-tit-tit-tit-tit-tit-tit-tit-tit-tit would never be anything but that regular at idle. And then as you increase the engine speed, of course, it would increase commensurately until at some point you were driving at 30 miles an hour, and you wouldn't hear it 30 miles an hour, and you wouldn't hear the ticking an hour, and you wouldn't hear the ticking anymore. Oh, okay. I wouldn't be worried about it. If it hasn't come back, I would ignore it. I mean, there was always the possibility that it's not related to this at all, in which case it will come back. But it probably is not related at all to the air conditioning job. Okay, that's what I would do.

You know, the other possibility is you were low on oil when you went to get it changed. Yes, I was. Oh. Because I was due to the oil. And you didn't want to throw in that quart and a half that it needed. Oh, I never put oil in my car. Ah, you just go. And if you were low, you were low.

Low on oil, that could cause the ticking, too. Oh, okay. You were starving the valve train of its lubrication, and you're getting the ticking. And now that it's filled up, you may notice that the next time it begins ticking. It's time for the oil change. It's time for the oil change. That may be the signal. Oh, okay.

That's better than looking at the little tag on the windshield. You hear the noise? Listen for the tick. And just listen, and it'll mean time for an oil change. Time for an oil change. Time for an oil change. Good luck, Belinda. Okay, thanks much.

Thanks for your call. Okay. You know, when that great company, General Motors, try to convince the American public that the pinging sound that they were hearing was the sound of economy? Yes. Can you imagine that they even attempted to do that? Well, don't forget.

How low can you get it? All the automotive companies have managed to sell all of their products, and pinging is a product. Yeah, no other car had it. With clever advertising. No other car had it. I mean, there's not just the automotive companies. everyone sells everything with clever and, uh, I mean, can you just see the meeting that took

place? They have, they must have first had an engineering meeting at which they said, can we fix it? And the answer is not without great expense. So the next meeting they had was with the advertising agency. And the duplicity department. And the duplicity department said, look, is there anything good about this? And they went through all the things that might be good. And they found one. And they found one. Better fuel economy. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. The fact that the engine is blowing itself apart, burning holes in the pistons?

No. Don't worry about it. The warranty will be over before we ever have to give them a new engine. Exactly. So they came up with this slogan, The Sound of Economy. How embarrassed. When they go to the pearly gates, whoever made that decision, St. Peter is going to say, The Sound of Economy?

Now, really, you think you're getting in here? Mr. Smith? We'll see Sound this Okay now Tommy Do you remember last week's puzzle Do I mean? I can't say that I do actually Well it's the famous cleave sanctioned

And we'll be discussing it in just a minute This message comes from NPR sponsor eBay Buying a car should feel secure Start to finish That's why you should buy your next ride on eBay. Now with secure purchase, sellers and titles are verified, and financing, delivery, and insurance options are built right in. Plus, eligible vehicle purchases are backed by up to $100,000 in protection. So buy your next car on eBay. eBay, things, people love.

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Hey, for you, T-shirt wearers out there, all relatives of T-shirt wears. We just got a veritable shipload, that's shipload with a P of new Car Talk T-shirts at the Shameless Commerce Division. The folks there made a great series of T-shirts out of their favorite Car Talk quotes. So in addition to the classics, you know, don't drive like my brother, Dewey Cheyman, how you can now get Car Talk T-shirts that, say, for instance, if money can fix it, it's not a problem. Life is too short to drive boring cars. Do it while you're young. You may never have a chance to do anything this stupid again. Reality often astonishes theory

or happiness equals reality minus expectation. How about this one? Lousy car advice since 1977 and many, many more. If you'd like one or want one to ship to a friend or relative, you don't really like, just head over to shameless commerce.com. That's shameless commerce.com. Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack the Tappert Brothers, and we hit a talk about cars, car repair, and the famous Cleave-sanction puzzler. Now, we first gave this puzzle, I guess, a few weeks ago, and because it called for quite a bit of creativity, we've given people extra weeks to come up with an answer. And most of those people that were talking about are us. And we haven't done it.

Well, we haven't really been working on it. that much. And we're counting on our listeners. And we will, like I said, when we get all the answers in front of us, we'll be able to weed out the bogus ones and come up with a list that we think is the best. And then we'll listen to all the people complain that there should be additions or deletions. Yeah. So what is the puzzler? Well, it's about antonyms. You know, happy, sad, left and right, my brother and reasonable human being. And we told you that there were at least two words that we know of, and of course, we assume many more, that are their own antonyms.

Yeah. Okay. The first one is cleave. You cleave things apart with a cleaver. On my brother's hand cleaves to the last burger before anyone else in the family can grab it. And the other word is sanctioned. NASCAR sanctioned stock car races, but a driver that shows up in an MGTD may be sanctioned by

NASCAR. And the question is, how many other words in the English language are they like this? And what are they? And we don't want numbers for answers like seven. We want the words themselves, and we think there are 10 such words. Well, I think there's either one more or none. Or 5,000. So we don't have a winner this week, but we would invite you to participate via our website, you know, email or by snail mail, and try to give us a list.

Yeah, we want a list. And it may not be until the end of the summer that we have. A winner. That could well be. It could well be. It may take us that long to determine. Don't forget, I think we're going to get lists with hundreds and hundreds of submissions. And then we'll have to fact check all of them.

Exactly. To make sure that they are true. And we will use the OED, of course, as the one and only expert. Of course. Yeah. In the meantime, we'll take your calls at 1-888-Cartalk. That's 888-278-8-25. Hello, you're on Car Talk.

This is Dan from Owenton, Kentucky. Hi, Dan, from Owentonton, huh? Owentonton, yeah. I don't know where Owenton, Kentucky is, but I'll take your word for it, that there is such a place. It's about half an hour from Frankfurt. Frankfort, which happens to be the capital. I remember that from seventh grade. And isn't that good that you remember that?

That's been very useful to you in your life, has it not? I mean, how many times have people asked you, what's the capital of Kentucky? Just the other day, some guy stuck a gun in my ribs and said, either give me all your money or tell me the capital of Kentucky. Yeah. And I knew it. And you said Louisville. So I said Louisville, and he took my money.

That's how I know it's Frankfurt. So what's up, Dan? Well, my brother had a car. He still has the car. It's a Dodge Neon. And the piece that tells how much oil you have and whether or not you're low on oil broke. All the oil spewed out of the engine. The dipstick.

The dipstick broke off. Not the dipstick. There's like a meter, and it lights up a little light. Oh, oh, the oil pressure switch. Yeah. Oh, bummer. Anyway, it broke, and then the engine lost all its oil, and it threw a rod and made a huge hole in the block. It sure will.

So he bought a new engine, and we put it in, and everything was supposed to be great. He bought the engine, and they told him, all this has only got 5,000 miles on it. It's going to be a great engine. So it wasn't know it was from a auto-savage shop or something. Yeah, a wrecking yard or some such place. So we hooked it up, and we got it running, and it runs great. It does everything great, but there's like this noise, like something's caught or rubbing, or something. like yin, yin, yin, yin, and it makes this noise all the time that it's running.

All the time that it's running. Mm-hmm. And we were listening around, and I thought it was coming from where the injectors are, but it, in fact, is coming lower on the engine down towards the oil filter. It's not likely that it's inside the engine. Okay. In my humble opinion. Me too.

It sounds like the pulley is hitting something. The pulley, like one of the belts or something like that. Here's what you do. Go out to the parts store where they must know you by first name now. Yeah. And buy about a foot and a half of heater hose. Heater hose. Stick one end of it in your ear.

I like vacuum hose better. You do? Vacuum hose. Well, I like heater hose because it's, you need both, actually. All right. One is broadband and one is narrow casting. Right. They'll have both of these hoses at this part store.

Oh, they'll have. They'll have. Yeah. All right. My two feet of each one, it's going to cost you a couple of bucks. All right. Yeah. You stick one end of the big hose in your ear.

and you, with the engine running, be very careful not to chop off fingers. Chop off fingers. Why you do this, but you want to put the other end of the hose down near the engine and wait until the sound gets louder and louder as you move that hose around. All right. And you'll find, it's pretty easy to tell, even though it seems impossible. When you get to the point where the noise is really coming from, it'll be really loud. Okay.

And you'll say, aha, it's down. there then if you still need that to to hone in on it more you take the vacuum holes which actually fits very nicely in the ear it sure does you can do this with only one hand because you can just stuff it right in there you know and then you'll have both hands free to chop off fingers and you can you will be able to identify the source of this sound within within inches well I was gonna suggest that you take the fan belt off. And see if the sound goes away. First of all, see if the sound goes away,

because you may be able to find out that it's one of the accessories, like the alternator that's making the noise. If the sound, however, does not go away, you are then free to probe around with this vacuum hose stethoscope without the risk of losing fingers. But I think you're going to find out that the noise is exactly at the opposite end of the engine. And what it is is the flywheel hitting the sheet metal inspection cover. The sheet, metal inspection cover of the transmission okay and there's a there's a little piece of thin piece of sheet metal that goes on the back of the motor you must have taken off or we probably did if you didn't then took the one from the junk out it was probably bent and as the engine turns

the flywheel is hitting this thing and making this very annoying noise yeah and you may be able to with the engine running bend this out of the way enough or push it to change the noise and then you'll say ha ha that's what it is but do Tommy's test first and then go when you hear nothing at the front of the engine, go to the back of the engine where it bolts up to the transmission, and that's where the noise is going to be. Okay, so go with the heater hose and the vacuum. Yeah, yeah.

From your description of the noise, it didn't sound like it was metallic. No. And you've driven the car, though. Yeah, it runs fine. It runs great and everything. It's just, what if he blows up this engine and he hasn't gotten by another? He won't. He won't.

He won't. You could go to, like, a repair shop, and ask them to put it on the lift and let them figure it out. No, no. The hose stethoscope will. tell all. Dan wants to, Dan's come this far, he wants to figure it out himself. I mean, these guys have, he and his brother have taken the damn engine out and put another one in and it runs, but, I mean, and obviously, Dan doesn't have a clue as to what he's

doing. Obviously, that's true. And this is a tremendous feat, in my opinion. And don't give up. Now, you must solve, I'm sorry, I apologize profusely. Of course, you can't let him. Whatever it takes to solve this, you must do, Dan. All right.

Don't go anywhere. Don't go anywhere. Solve the problem in your driveway. Good luck, and we applaud your courage. Yeah, good for you, man. Good for you. Yeah, I know he's going to beat me down if I break something to the car. Don't worry.

You're not going to break it. Is this brother an older brother or a younger brother? Older brother. Boy, you're going to show him a little bit of something. And he's the one that wrecked the engine, right? Well, by running it out of oil? Technically, yeah. Yeah, I thought so.

It's his car. It was his car when the oil ran out. Yeah, yeah. You'll fix it for him. All right. Good luck, Dan. Good luck. See you later.

Yep. Call us back. We need help. All right. We're here to help, brother. Bye-bye. Bye. There's a lot more stuff coming up right after the following messages.

So stick around. Hey, for you, T-shirt wearers out there, all relatives of T-shirt wears. We just got a veritable shipload. That's shipload with a P of new Car Talk T-shirts at the Shameless Commerce Division. The folks there made a great series of. of T-shirts out of their favorite car talk quotes. So in addition to the classics, you know, don't drive like my brother

Dewey Cheyman, how. You can now get car talk t-shirts, let's say, for instance, if money can fix it, it's not a problem. Life is too short to drive boring cars. Do it while you're young. You may never have a chance to do anything this stupid again. Reality often astonishes

theory or happiness equals reality minus expectation. How about this one? Lousy car advice since 1977. many, many more. If you'd like one or want one to ship to a friend or relative, you don't really like, just head over to shameless commerce.com. That's shameless commerce.com. Ha, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us. Click and clack the Tappert Brothers, and we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and the, not the new puzzler. No, no, no, the

puzzler is now officially, and finally I might add on summer vacations. Well, well-deserved vacation it is. As you may know, if you've listened for a while, every summer we send the puzzler on a short break in the hope that it might come back, renewed, refreshed, and a little bit less lousy. Of course, it never worked. But, hey, there's always hope, and maybe it'll work this time. And here's how you can help. If you have a puzzle, you think we can use in the fall.

And it does not involve liars, truth-tellers. Oh, yeah. Well, you'll send anything. We don't care. You send anything in your one. The address is Car Talk Plaza. Box 3,500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair City, 02238.

Attention Puzzler Department. Yes, potential. Potential Puzzler Department. PPD. Or email me or a puzzle or suggestion from the Car Talk section of Cars.com, and don't forget to include the answer. Remember, we ain't that smart. And if you find yourself in desperate need of a puzzler this summer, we have a whole book of our best puzzles that you can actually buy either at your local bookstore. It's called a haircut in

Horsetown and other great car talk puzzlers. What a great title, huh? Or if you're a cheap skate and you don't want to help put my kid brother through college, you can just go to the cartalk section of cars.com every week and we'll select and post a single puzzler from our vast puzzler

archives. It's not that vast. It's really about half the size we thought it was. It's half vast. Yes, I thought so. If you'd like to call us, the number is 1-888-car Talk, that's 888-227-8-2-25. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hello, this is Maureen in Fairfax, Virginia. Hi, Maureen.

Maureen, how are you? I'm fine, thank you. How are you, too, too? Oh, we're doing great, thanks. Good. What's up? What I've got is a 1989 Camry. It's a great car.

It's got 272,000 miles on, but it's developed a strange problem. It started maybe as long as 18 months ago, and, My mechanic was able to get rid of it for four or five months, but it's come back again and getting worse. After rain, and now in the last few weeks in high humidity, it will stall after it's been running. I call it the five-mile five-minute symptom. When I've driven about five miles or about five minutes, if I have to slow down to maybe below 10 miles an hour, it will stall. Hmm. After that, it sometimes will start right up.

Sometimes it takes five or six minutes of trying to start it. If I don't have to slow down, it's fine. So if you can get past that five-mile-slash-five-minute point. Right, right. It will never do it. Yeah, it won't store. But, of course, I have to use Route 66 in towards Washington, D.C., so that just doesn't happen.

I stall out on 66. Do you get your kicks on Route 66? Well, not quite. I'm afraid I'm going to get my slam in the rear. That may be good. You may like that. Well, I mean, that's interesting. Well, this fellow who's looked at it.

He's saying, I'm not sure what this is, but this is my best bet on it here. Distributor. Distributor. Distributor cap and wires, the rotor. Don't like it. I don't like that idea. Well, I love it. You do?

Actually, yes. And is this a four-cylinder camry? I think so. We replace quite a few distributors on four-cylinder camrys. But his first stab should be replacing the cap and the rotor and the spark plug wires. And I believe on this car, the cap and wires are sold as a unit. Okay. And he would replace those two pieces, the cap and wire set and the ignition rotor because those could certainly cause problems in damp weather.

However, he's never done that? No, no. All right. I don't like it anyway. Well, I like it because it's often solves the problem. But when it doesn't. And it brings in revenue. And it's revenue producing, yes.

But when it doesn't, the fact that you say even high humidity conditions cause the problem, I'm more inclined to believe the problem is a bad ignition coil. You have a coil that has hairline cracks. it. And when you get hairline cracks in the distributor, it will cause it to short out. Okay, yes. Generally, we replace the entire distributor when we do these, but you can replace just the coil. Okay. But if you haven't spent any money in the last few years, have pity on this guy and throw him

a few thousand bucks. But if you have to, you have. So what? Moraine's got it. Oh. Well, she ain't spending it on cars. We know that. We know that. We know that. We're driving this thing for a hundred years. Good luck, Maureen. Thank you much.

you later. Appreciate it. Bye-bye. 1-8-8-8-2-2-2-2-7-8-2-5. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, my name's Jessica, and I'm Bloomington, Indiana. Hi, Jessica. How are you?

Hi, I'm good. I have a strange problem. I have a 1992 Volkswagen Jetta, and I inherited it from my mother at the beginning of this year, and I have a very unique problem with it. it doesn't happen to hurt. It happens to me, and this is what I'm trying to figure out, is that it shocks me when I put the key in the ignition. It gives me an electric shock.

And this never happened to my mom, and it happens to me, and the best that I've been trying to figure it out, and the best I can figure out is that I have kind of big hair, and I didn't know if that was kind of the problem. Big hair will do it. Big hair. I'll tell you what else it has to do with.

What kind of clothing do you wear? clothing um i guess i might wear shinier clothes than my mother in general maybe and what kind of upholstery in the jeta it's not that really ugly stuff that did yeah it's not very pretty man they got some taste in and in fabric yeah german cars have the weirdest appellate this is just an opportunity for my brother to insult yet another ethnic group so go feel free man do whatever you think is best this is a narrow thing. It's people who design the fabric in

factories in Germany that make certain kinds of cars. And who are those people be? Germans. But it does have cloth fabric. Your car? Yeah, it is cloth. And it could be more hideous, but it is kind of fuzzy.

And I know I've asked this question at least once before. Do you use a cream rinse? I do use a cream rinse. She does. Oh, Jessica does. you the cream rinse. Now, I remember when you asked this question once before Well, here's the deal, and I'll tell you, I have, in the winter

especially, and I suppose now that the weather's hot and humid it is probably the severity of these sharks has diminished. Yes. Probably, maybe even disappeared. I do not have the problem in the summer, but in the winter, or the fall, the fall is

the worst. Boy, I go out to almost any car that I'm driving, and sometimes even opening the door can do it. Zapia. Okay. It's brutal. And I've discovered what it is. Cream rinse.

No, I don't use a cream rinse because they ain't nothing to rinse anymore. It is my shoes. Woo! It is the soles of my shoes which are non-conductive rubber. Huh. And this is the same reason that many cars develop a static charge. and then when you go to the toll booth and hand that poor toll booth person your quarter, you zap them because the tires cannot discharge into the road,

and my shoes do not allow me to discharge. Well, Jessica doesn't have the shoe problem because she only gets it when she puts the key in the ignition, indicating to me that she's building up to charge as her butt slides across that ugly upholstery in the jetta. Maybe. Maybe. So I said we're cotton pants. I would switch to cotton for a while and see what happens.

But I like the hair theory. Well, I had an impression that that had something to do with it, just because that's a big difference between myself and my mother. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wish I had a theory to explain how that would work, but I don't. But the butt theory I know is true. Okay. But if this discharge of electricity is taking place before you actually start the car,

this is as soon as you get the key next to the switch, right? A spark jumps. Bingo. It ain't the car that's causing it. It's you, as my brother said, it could be the seats. You can try covering the seat with something. You can try walking out there with bare feet or different shoes. Or drive naked.

Or naked, yes. Or a cream rins. Or a cream rins. Maybe more cream rins. Maybe more. Jessica, thanks for calling. You made my day. Oh, good.

Thank you. Good luck. Thanks. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. 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 Diper Slayer Rogers. Our assistant producer is Catherine Cathode Ray. Who's getting married next week? Gee whiz. Oh my God. And I thought she was saving herself for me.

Yeah. Okay. Our engineer is Dennis DeMittany. Our senior web lackey is Doug Sheep Boy Mayor, and our technical, spiritual, and manual advisor is the bugster, John Bugsy Lawler. Our public opinion poster is Paul murky of murky research, assisted by statistic Marge in Overa.

It's Marge in Overa. Our customer care representative is Haywood Jabuzov. That's Haywood Jabuzov. Our sales director in Iraq is Aziz, no warranty. Our daylight savings time manager is Conrad Adenauer, and

the Car Talk Plaza receptionist is Diane Tamicha. Our swing dancing consultant is Antonio Bandera. Our staff child seat tester is Drew Lee Weiner, and our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Cheever and Howe, of course, is U. Louis Dewey. Known to the air conditioning repairman as Ui Louie Dewey.

Thanks so much for listening. We're clicking clack to Tapert Brothers. Don't drive like my brother. Drive like my brother. We'll be back next week. Bye-bye. And now here is Cottock Plaza's chief mechanic, Mr. Vincent L. Bumbats. Hey, thank you very much.

Now, if you just want a copy of this, this here show, which is number 29, pick up your phone and call this number one 888 car junk. And Vinnie, what if I wanted to get the puzzle of book or the CD about couples in cars, you know, men are from GM or men are from Ford? Would I call that very same number, Vinny? No, you call Feinstein and Fort Lizzie, you don't. Of course you called that Shameless Commerce Division at 888 Carjunk or visit it online at the cart talk section of Cars.com.

Got it? Thank you, Vinie. This was very invigorating, as usual. A, invigorate this, pal. Car Talk is a production of Dewey Cheatham & Howe and WBUR in Boston. And even though the NPR satellite spins vitally out of control every time we say it, this is NPR National Public Radio.