The Best of Car Talk - #2601: Customer to Dealer Incentive

Episode Date: January 3, 2026

Leslie’s family was about to upgrade in more ways than one. They were on the prowl for a minivan when Leslie, 9 months pregnant, had a sudden, urgent need to make a very memorable impression on everyone at the local Chrysler dealership parking lot. Was the birth of their daughter sufficient downpayment on a new ride or did she have to make her case to the service manager, too? Find out on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for NPR, and the following message come from Yarl and Pamela Mohn, thanking the people who make public radio great every day and also those who listen. Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us clicking clack the time. Tappert Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the Employee Motivation Center here at Car Talk Plaza. Now, we're always looking for ways to inspire our fellow employees, and I ever thought that the hard metal seats and the 54-degree temperature in the office would have done that, but apparently not. No.

But, but, but, but, we got some ideas here from someone whose name is, uh, we don't know, someone. Anonymous. Anonymous. Someone sent us this email, and it says how to drive other people crazy. And I suppose it's ideas for things to do at work, most of them are. Go ahead. Put your garbage on your desk and label it in.

Now, I remember when I worked with my dear friends at the Foxborough Company, I discovered one day that I had some kind of insurance. that would pay my salary, or 80% of it. Oh, I know. If I was judged to be incompetent, mentally... Incontinent? That, too. That was the second phase of the operation. Because I remember that you and I discussed it at Great Lent,

and I decided I had to come up with a strategy for invoking this insurance policy. Yeah. And I think it's called fraud. And I remember we decided. I would start out by sobbing at my desk every day. Just sit there at the desk and start crying. And when people came by, I'd say, no, I'm all right. And then you suggested that I should start peeing myself.

And that worked. That did it. That was the clincher. Here's a couple of more. Reply to everything that someone says with, That's what you think. Start all your sentences with, in accordance with the prophecy. I like that one.

As often as possible, skip rather than walk. I love it. Put mosquito netting around your cubicle. I like that. I like that. But I think my idea. And if all else fails, pee in your pants. That worked, man.

They can't take back that money now, can they? The money that's the settlement money? That they sent me. Oh, no, I think you'll well be on the statute of limitations. I think it's 20. 20 years. Oh, no, it's been 20. Oh, you're safe, then.

Well, look, if you'd like to drive us nuts with a question about your car, the number is 1-888-8-8-8-8-8-2-7-8-25. Hello, you're on car talk. Hello, guys. This is Patrick calling from Pittsburgh, PA. Patrick. Patrick from Pittsburgh. Yep, just moved here from Atlanta.

Atlanta to Pittsburgh. Yes. To attend folk music school. Really? Really? Yep. There's a folk music school in Pittsburgh, PA? There's a small place called Calliope. It's in one of the surrounding towns, and they teach everything from finger-picking 101 to harmonica to Appalachian Harmony to songwriting. And when you finish school, will you be joining the Folk Song Army?

I'm hoping to. I'm hoping to. Wow. I'll be unencumbered by the employment process. See, I never knew such a place existed. That's really good. I mean, this is a full-time, four-year, one year, two-year, or whatever school. No, it's not quite that formal. It's more eight-week sessions, and you can take as many sessions as you'd like,

depending upon how good you think you are or think you want to be. Right. And it's dispersed among the music lessons, like panhandling. Yeah. Maybe you get your own paper cup when you leave. How many students are there at this place? Gosh, you know, I'd have to add up all the classes. I mean, there might just be hundreds.

By that, I mean, there might just be two or three or four hundred. Well, I love it, actually. I think it's neat. Well, when you're ready to go, it's called Calliope. Just give us a call. I'll be there. Great. And you bring your own tambourine.

Okay. So what do you need us for? Well, my car, which is a 1993 Ford Escort G.T., five-speed stick, by the way. So what about it? Well, it's about to spend its first winter north of the Mason-Dixon line, and I want to make sure it's prepared. And being unencumbered by the employment process as I am, I don't have a lot of money. You know, I want to make sure I don't wind up having something go wrong because I haven't done any preventive maintenance that it hasn't needed. Oh, yeah, yeah, I understand.

I understand. Well, you're absolutely right, because in the warm weather, as we say, everything works. Right. And some of the things that don't work, you may not find out about until it gets cold. Right. But some of them you can prepare for. Okay. I presume you have antifreeze in it, but I wouldn't really presume that.

Okay. Well, I know there's coolant. Yeah. I know there's watery stuff in there that's got a pretty much. Well, that's the same thing. But it's possible that if you ever had a leak somewhere along the way or, if any, you know, anyone ever had a leak down there in Atlanta, that it would have been replaced with just plain old water, which would have been fine down there.

But you can easily go into a service station if you can find one and ask them to check to see how good it is. Okay. Because you want to make sure in Pittsburgh that it's good down to zero degrees Fahrenheit. And the test takes about a minute. Oh, okay. Yeah. Suck out some of the coolant. And no matter what it says, there are little balls that will float, you know, in this little device.

and four balls is good for 25 below, five balls is good for 45 below. But no matter how many balls are floating, they'll tell you you need to have the system flushed anyway. So you can do that. And the other thing that's important is to make sure that your battery is up to snuff. Okay.

And that your belt is tight enough, your alternator belt. Okay. Now, I have accidentally killed the battery once very recently. And then I got a jumpstart from my landlord, and it seemed to be fully charged by the time I got to class. Yeah, well, it would be in this weather, but you'll separate the men from the boys when it's six degrees out. Okay.

So you need to have it really tested with a load tester. Okay. They'll put a machine on it, and they'll simulate trying to start the thing by imposing a load across the terminals. Okay. And they'll read the voltage, and if it goes down below 9 volts, you'll probably need to have the battery replaced. But at the very least charged up and to make sure the charging system is working. And that's other than that, Patrick. That's it.

Okay. You may discover that some of the other things that I said you may discover only when it does get cold is if you haven't had a tune-up for a long time. Like if you've got plugs in there that have been in there for 90,000 miles, it's possible that it won't start because everything works when it's warm. Right. So it may work warm and it won't work when it's cold. So you may find out that you need a tune-up if it doesn't start. Okay. You may find out, for example, that your master cylinder is no good on your brakes.

And you wouldn't find that out down in Atlanta, maybe forever. Oh, okay. Because the cold weather would cause that to make the brakes fail. And you should probably get snow tires. All right. I've got like all weather radials on there now. Good enough. You're good.

Oh, you think so? Yeah. No. Just stay home. The biggest consideration is that you have no experience driving in the snow. Well, actually, I do have a little. My family's from this area, so I've traveled up here a lot, and I've gotten most of my snow driving experience in rental cars.

Good. That's the way to do it. Yeah. Good thinking, man. Yeah. on as dumb as you look. You're all set, Patrick. Hey, good luck with your first winter up here, man.

You're going to love it. Thank you very much, guys. We'll be looking for you on the cover of Sing Out. Is that still published? Yes, it is. Sure. Cool. All right.

See you later. Thanks, guys. Good luck, Patrick. Bye-bye. All right, Tommy, do you remember last week's puzzler? A puzzler. I still haven't fixed the exhaust leak in your MG, huh? Exhaustle.

We'll be right back with the answer in just a moment. minute. This message comes from Wise, the app for international people using money around the globe. You can send, spend, and receive in up to 40 currencies with only a few simple taps. Be smart. Get Wise. Download the Wise app today or visit wise.com. Tise and Cs apply. Support for NPR and the following message come from Yarl and Pamela Mohn, thanking the people who make public radio great every day and also those who listen Hi, we're back

You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack the Tappert Brothers, and we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and the answer to last week's puzzler. What was it? Here it is. This is the second... Oh, the string! Yes. Was it the string puzzler? Yes, this is the second and a string of string puzzlers.

We did the first string puzzler back in the spring. That was the spring string, and here are the facts. You have two pieces of string that each take exactly an hour to burn, but their burn rates are not linear. So one string may burn quickly for five minutes or 15 minutes and then slowly for the next 10 minutes and so on. But we know that after exactly an hour, both strings are gone. If they're lit at one end, will be completely burned up, burned to a crisp. Mungi! Okay, and the spring spring, the spring string, the Springsteen, the Bruce Springsteen puzzler was.

this how could you measure a 15 minute period of time with this knowing these things that you have two strings yeah both of which will burn up in an hour if lit at one end and uh and all you had was the two strings and a cigarette lighter you had a zippo lighter or so such thing okay and and the way you did that you took the two strings and you light three ends at once right doesn't matter doesn't matter which any any three ends the first piece burns up entirely in half an hour If it takes an hour to burn the whole thing, and if you light it at both ends, it's got to burn up in half an hour, okay? And because you've lit both ends, it has to burn up in a half an hour.

The second piece burns for half an hour because it was lit at the same time as the other two ends. Right. Okay, so then you know that half an hour's burn time left in the second string. You light that at the other end, and voila, you've got 15 minutes, right? Sure. I think I follow that. Right. So what was this question this time?

So now the puzzler was, how do you measure? Six minutes. Six minutes. Six minutes. I'll make it easier. A minute. Anything. Oh. Well, it has a completely different answer. Oh, I knew it. I knew when you were being so generous, I said, gee, do you want to give such a big hint? And little did I know that the big hint was a big red herring. I should have known you wouldn't be so generous. I didn't even give a hint. Did I? Well, you repeated how the old one was done. That was unnecessary. because you were trying to lead everyone down the wrong track. And now you just admitted that.

That was awfully sneaky of me, wasn't it? Yeah, it was very sneaky. Well, here's what you do. Here's what you do. You take the zippo lighter and you tie it to one. Now, pay attention. To a doorkn off. Into one of your incisors.

You pull the string and it opens the door and there's the clock right there in the other room. Not quite, but close. You tie the zip-o lighter. You tie the string to the zip, one end of the string to the zip-o lighter. Yeah. Okay. And you may not realize it, but you have constructed a pendulum. You then take the lighter and you'll light the other string at both ends.

Not the one that you just tied to the... No, no. No, the other one. Okay. You light it at both ends and you immediately set the pendulum a swinging, as they say. And you know it's going to take 30 minutes for that string to burn up. And what you do while the string is burning, you count pendulum swings.

You count pendulum swings. And of course, everyone knows that a pendulum's cycle is independent of its amplitude. That's why pendulae were so popular in clock use. Yes. Because as the pendulum seemed to slow down, it really didn't slow down. As the amplitude of the cycle decreased, the time it took for it to swing. from point A all the way to point B on the other side and then back to

point A remains the same. Remains the same. A little known fact about pendulose. Well, it's only true if the arc is small. If it gets too big, then there are other mathematics that gets involved much too complex for me to explain here because I don't understand it.

Was that coming at 801? So you count the number of swings and when the thing has burned up completely, you say, huh, it took 30 minutes for let's like pick a nice number like 300 swings of the pendulum. Therefore, if I divide this by five, which will be six minutes,

because 30 divided by five, so 300 divided by five is 60 swings of the pendulum, and so you set it a swing in again, and you count up to... You count up to six minutes. Oh, man. So you can count any amount of time. Anything. Six minutes was a red herring as well.

See, if you had said, how could you count up to anything? Well, I considered... No, that would have been too easy. I was considering having the string tied to a red herring. Who's our? These puzzles are getting really, really interesting. Oh, man, the winner is Ed Chryslerwyer from Mount View, Wyoming. And for having his correct answers selected at random from among the thousands of correct answers that we received,

Ed's going to get a copy of our brand new CD about Fathers and. cars, the title of which is why you should never listen to your father when it comes to cars. Our kids actually suggested that title. God bless their rotten, black little hearts. So, congratulations, Ed, and enjoy the CD.

We'll have a new, I would say, semi-automotive. Ah, quasi-automotiv. His master, quasi-automotive. Semi-automotive puzzle coming up in the third half of today's show, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, you can call us and ask any question you want, automotive or not, we don't care. The number's 1-888-8-8-8-8-8-8-2-5. Hello, you're on

car talk. This is Jason. I'm calling from Colorado Springs, Colorado. Jason? Yeah. Colorado Springs. Yeah, so what's going on, Jason? Well, it's not a problem so much as it's kind of a general question about manual clutches. I drive, I mean, what I drive isn't too pertinent. It's an 89-mast, the 6-26. It's a manual. I've always had manuals. And I think I'm kind of clutch-savvy, I suppose. So if I'm pulling up to a stoplight that's on an incline,

instead of actually putting on the brakes and putting in neutral, I'll actually creep up, and I'll leave it in first, and I'll balance the clutch and the gas. Oh, that's bad. That's what I want to know. That is bad. It is. How many miles have you gotten?

How many months of your clutches lasted? Well, it may surprise us to find out that they've lasted a long time. It's lasted. I just went past 102,000. 100,000 miles? 1002,000 miles. Right. Well, obviously, you don't do this very much.

Because when you do this, what you're doing is you're counteracting the effect of gravity. Gravity wants to pull your car down the hill. Right. And you are using the clutch to engage very slowly. lightly, the wheels, okay, to make the car try to go up the hill and you're balancing it. So gravity's trying to pull you down the hill and you're creating just enough friction between the three pieces of the clutch to hang there. To hang there.

And that's the time when the clutch wears out the most when it's not fully engaged. Because when it is fully engaged, that is when you're driving down the road and your foot is off the clutch, those three pieces are turning in unison. The three pieces being the flywheel, the clutch cover, and the driven disc. and the driven disc is the one that's made out of a very soft material and made to wear out so that you don't destroy the other two but when it wears out the car no longer moves and the way you wear it out is by doing exactly what you do

but you must be good at it or you're not doing it often enough to burn out the clutch because that's a killer you can't be good at it because the more good you are at it the more you're wearing out the clutch but it is it is a nice little challenge to be able to find that point, you know, because it's... It feels good, doesn't it? It's a matter of the clutch, the position of the clutch, and the amount of fuel that you're

feeding to the engine, and you can reach that point where do you have that balance so good. There's a certain zen to it. There is. You feel as though, how can this be wrong? It just feels so right. You're just, and it's just sitting there. It's not rocking forwards and backwards, just sitting there.

You could use up a clutch in about an hour that way. Depending on how long the light is. Yeah, right. Yeah. So don't do it, man. Well, that's why I called you guys. Well, I'm glad. It's a very good question.

All right. I'm glad you called. Thanks a lot. See you, Jason. Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye. 1-888-8-8-8-8-2-7-8-25. Hello, you're on car talk. Hello, I'm Bobby from Northern Virginia.

Bobby. Bobby with an eye? Yeah, an I-E, and I have to say... I-E. Yes, I just have to say you guys are great. If anyone had told me, I would be tuning and to listen to a show about cars, I would have told them they were nuts. But I do because you two are nuts.

You're great. And here you are calling us, and so you are nuts, too. Well, I know. I was starting to wonder what they fed you in your little booth there when you were on, but I guess you're just crazy all the time. They're just nuts. Yeah, that's pretty much the case. Oh, well, that's why I like you so much.

Maybe we're related. We probably are. Yes, okay. Well, do you want to hear about my situation? You bet. Okay. My husband and I have three cars sitting in our driveway. Great. First is a 93 path finder with 130,000 miles on it, and it's in good condition. That's my car that I drive.

We also have kept an 86 Toyota van that has almost 200,000 miles on it. That used to be our family car when our daughters were younger, but now it's my husband's wannabe truck. Yeah. Our third car, the car that my husband commutes two hours every day in is an 87 Chevy spectrum. However, our mechanic who has a great sense of humor calls it a Chevy rectum because, well, because that name really fits it. My husband loves this Chevy rectum, and he commutes it every day and he takes care of it and all of that stuff. How many miles on that one? Two hundred and fifty-five thousand miles. No.

Yes. Okay, now, our youngest daughter just moved to New Hampshire, and I loaned her my pathfinder, the one best car we have. Mm-hmm. How old is she? She's 22. She's 22, and she moved to New Hampshire, and I loaned her my past find her. Would she like to meet Doug Mayer?

Oh, well, if he's a nice guy. No, forget it. Give me up. All right. Wait a minute. You're not following me. I'm following you. I'm following you.

She's in my car driving to New Hampshire, and unfortunately, in Pennsylvania. she's in an accident. Now, she is fine. That's what really matters. Yes. But my car isn't, and my car is still in Pennsylvania. Anyway, I don't want to talk about that. No, let's not talk about it. So my car is going to be fixed up there, but I won't get it back until, oh, mid to late November. So guess what? I get to drive the Toyota.

Yesterday I went to a luncheon, and I felt like I had a hat on in the car because the ceiling's falling down, and this material is draped on my head. And all this junk my husband has. It's just a mess. I know I can clean it up. But there are a couple trips I had planned to take these next few weeks. Don't do it. And my question to you was, would either of you feel safe driving either the Toyota or the Chevy rectum on a trip? How far?

Well, one trip is like a four-hour trip each way. The other's a six-hour trip each way. Or should I rent a car? There you go. That's it. You took the words out of my mouth. My husband just feels these cars are just fine Well, your husband's nuts

Well No, I mean It's probably fine for him to go driving around And a junk like that And I don't mean that in a sexist way But if you're not ready with the tools To get out and stop by the side of the road And replace stuff

Yeah Then you should rent a car Okay Just to kill two birds with one stone Try to rent a car that you think you might want to buy To replace one of these dogs Yeah, maybe you can rent a nice 89 spectrum No, I don't want to have anything to do with spectrum.

No, I'll get something else. Yeah, you definitely have to rent a car. Right. So rent a car, have a wonderful time. Six hours from Virginia. You must be going to Pennsylvania where your daughter was. Well, I'm going to have, yes. Go to the crash site.

I'm going to go to Pennsylvania to pick up my car when it's ready. Well, look, if your daughter is really desperate for a date, tell her to email. Doug Mayer. Doug Mayer. Yeah. Okay. And send a picture.

Yeah. A send a picture of the car of the passwinder. You guys are nuts. You guys are absolutely nuts. Keep laughing, and thanks for your help. You're great. Thanks, Bobby. Bye.

Bye, bye, bye. All right, look, it's time for a short break. Oh, you ain't kidding. I mean, we have already come up with like three or two maybe correct answers, have we? Oh, yeah, we're busting up right. We'll be back in a minute. 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 of course, the new puzzler.

The new quasi-automotive. So to speak. Yeah, well, it's quasi-automotive. I may have to drop some hints here and there, but I'll read it to you just like I got it. Okay. This came via the internet. The date is June, June 1996. You know, this email is great. I mean, someone says it, bang, it's right there.

And all you're going to do is read it. Well, I pile them up, you know? Well, I mean, yeah. June 1996. Really? This came from a fellow named Dan Gallagher. He says, you guys are such turkeys. Last week's puzzle was so incredibly lame.

I feel embarrassed for you. That could have been anything. Any one of a thousand puzzles. He claims to have sent this puzzler before, and he could have. I think he might have sent it in 94. 95 also. I only got the 96 version of it. And he says, here it is again. I'll pay careful attention. Yeah, I'm going to. In qualifying for the camel trophy off road race, potential drivers and their teammates were told that they had to traverse a course in as close a time as their

partners without the use of timepieces like clocks and watches, etc. For example, the first man of the two-man team would drive the course through the woods over bridges, through streams, and then return to the starting point and give his vehicle, his truck, to his partner who would then drive the same course and try to finish it in as close to the time of his partner. So if the partner finished and say four minutes and 25 seconds, the other guy would try to duplicate that. But how could he do that? Without the use of any kind of clock or timepiece, how could he possibly finish in the same time? That's the question. So the guys that won the race figured out a way to finish in the same time.

It had nothing to do with a string and the lighter, but it's close. Now, if you think you know the answer, write that answer on the back of a $10 bill. Ten. Or three-fives. And send it to Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3,500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair City? Matt, 02238. Or you can email your answer from the Car Talk section.

of cars.com. If you'd like to call us, the number is 1-888-8-8-2-7-8-2-2-5. Hello, you're on Car Talk. This is Leslie from Buffalo. Hi, Leslie. Leslie, Buffalo. Yes. Home of Buffalo Wings. That's right. Yeah. Have you ever been to that place? Um, the original... The original Buffalo place. I sure have. You have? Yeah, sure. What's it called? It's called the Anchor Bar. That's right. The Anchor Bar. Wow. And all of this Polanka used to play that. Polanker used to play that. All this time, you know, I've been ordering buffalo wings for decades,

and I always thought that they were the wings of real flying buffalo. But you knew that couldn't be true because buffaloes were almost extinct. Yeah, where would they be getting all those wings? Exactly. Except what I figured was that the buffalo wings must be so big that they must, like, chop them up into little pieces you get probably 100 wings out of one wing. Gee, I hadn't thought of that. That's what I always concluded.

Yeah. And instead, it turns out they don't come from Buffalo's at all. They come from the anchor bar. Well, a lot of places make them. Well, we know that now. Now they do. But they were the originators. Right, right, right.

In fact, in Buffalo, they don't call them Buffalo wings. We know that they're just wings. I mean, we don't have to, we know what they are here. Well, there you go. Well, do they call a New York, in New York, do they call a New York sirloin? A New York Sterloin? No, they call it a surloin. Surloin.

And in France, do they call them French fries? No. No, they call them pomfriette. Well, Leslie, thanks for bringing this up. I'm just so glad that you guys have something to add to your show. Isn't it interesting that we can talk about such nonsense and drivel? Yeah. And they haven't thrown us off the air.

So what's up, Leslie? Well, my husband and I are looking for a minivan. We have three kids. We have three very young kids. And our youngest, in fact, is just seven weeks old. Oh, boy. So, yeah. And so now we have.

two car seats in the back seat. And I drive a Camry. My husband drives a Subaru Outback, but we need something even bigger than that. Sell the Outback, keep the Camry, buy a Honda Odyssey, and you're all done. Well, we know, I'll tell you what we've done. And I actually have another interesting story to tell you guys what you think you'd like.

First is, first is we've looked at a bunch of, we haven't looked at the Toyota exactly. Yeah, I know the Toyota makes a minivan, right? Yeah, the Sienna. Okay, so what do you guys think of that? Haven't driven it. We don't know. Yeah, okay. We have, however, driven the Honda.

You have. Which is the one where I just recommend it to you. Right, and why do you recommend that? Because it's sweet. One of the questions we have, which is a big question, is we've looked at all-wheel drive. Yeah, they don't make an all-wheel drive yet. And the question really is, is that something that we should be looking at? I mean, we live in Buffalo.

Yeah. We like to ski. We like to go on, you know, we hopefully will be going on family vacations and just throwing them all in the car and saying this is where we're going. Well, I may have been a little, you should pardon the expression, a bit precipitous. then when you mentioned snow, about recommending The Odyssey, because it is not all-wheel drive. Well, do you think the all-wheel drive is necessary? Yes. Oh, yeah.

Will you live? Are you kidding me? All-wheel drive is a wonderful thing, especially if you live in the crazy places like you live. Okay. Well, I have to tell you this one part of the story, because it's sort of, I'm not quite sure how to bring it into this whole conversation, but my youngest child, which is our seven-week-older. Our seven-week-older, our first girl, was actually born. in our Subaru, in the front seat of our Subaru, but get this, get this at the Chrysler-Plymouth

dealership on the street. No kidding. Really, really? So she's got a lot of car stuff in her already. She does. I mean, we drive past a dealership every day, too, so, you know, it's always bringing back that special memory. Boy, did you put it in her little baby book already?

We did. The police officer who assisted my husband in the delivery, he got to. his name in the paper. We got our names in the paper, too, but he got quite a bit of recognition. Well, good for him. So how exactly did this happen? It was like, Mike, take me to the hospital right now, but let's stop at the Dodge dealer first. No, no, no. I want to look at that new caravan. No, it was totally coincidental. We were on the way. We're literally three or four minutes away from home, and, you know, the babies are coming. And I said, honey, pull over. The baby's coming. And he said, we'll be there soon.

And I said, no, it's coming to know. Really? It really happens. It was around lunchtime, and it was crazy because we pull in, and right by the service entrance, there was like this employee lunch going on with people grilling and the table out with potato chips. And I have this memory of pulling and seeing the ketchup bottle sitting out, and I'm yelling, we need towels, quick. And we had been to that dealership because we were looking at the town and country.

Oh, well, then you're going to have to buy one, aren't you? Well, I don't know. I mean... Yeah, how many times between contractions did you think, boy, we're going to really need a town and country? But the woman... The woman... Well, it's easy for you guys, you know? Oh, you'll kid me.

All that handholding wore me out. Yeah, I was not laughing. I mean, it's in the stars, Leslie. I mean, how could you go out now and buy a Honda Odyssey? When the kid was born in the Chrysler deal? I mean, you can't do that, and the town and country isn't bad. I think they may be awaited for them to the dealership to get some promotional info out of this. They should give it to you.

They should cut you a little deal. Yeah, I thought it would be a good idea. A big deal. Well, if there's anything you guys can do to help us out on that one. Well, we'll call them in the morning. I mean, you just tell them that they're going to get another front page story out of it because they're going to give you a town and country. Tell them to give you a caravan and you'll pay the difference between the caravan.

and the town and country. All right. Yeah, sure. Go for it. So that's what you should do. Go for that. And of the two cars that you own, I would get rid of the outback

and keep the Camry. Really? Oh, yeah. No, your husband drives the Outback. Let him drive whatever he wants. And that's four-wheel drive. Get rid of the Camry. You'll have to be an eight-wheel drive family.

Wow. See you, Leslie. Thanks a lot. Good luck. It was a pleasure talking to you. Thanks a lot. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Boy, oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy. She sounds like a good sport. women really man they're tough they are oh yeah a lot tougher than most guys well it's happened again

you squanded another perfectly good hour listening to car talk our esteemed producer is Doug the subway fugitive not a slave to fashion Berman and not here too oh yeah an absent by the way

our associate producer is Ken the diaper slayer Rogers our assistant producer is frao Catherine Fenelosa our engineer is Dennis de Menis Foley our senior web lackey is Sheep Boy Mayor, and our technical, spiritual, and menu advisor is the bugster. John Bugsy, did somebody say free lunch, Lawler.

Our public opinion pollster is Paul Murky of Merkey Research, assisted by statistician Marjor Novera. Our customer care representative is Haywood Jabuzov. Our director of medical research is placebo domingo. Our talk's director of clandestine meetings is Ron DeVu. Tom's personal matchmaker is Robin DeKradle. Our sexual harassment counselor is Pat McCann. and our director of sycophantic activity is Eileen your way, and our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Chiterman How is U.

Lewis Dewey, known to the Harvard football team as Ui Louie Dewee. Thanks so much for listening. We're clicking on the clap at brothers. And remember, don't drive like my brother. And remember, don't drive like my brother. We'll be back next week. Bye-bye. And now, here is Car Talk Clause's chief mechanic, Mr. Vinnie Gumbach.

Thank you very much now. If you just want to copy this year's show, which is number 44, just pick up your phone and call this number 1-88-car junk. And what if I wanted the new Car Talk CD, you know, why you should never listen to your father when it comes to Cars? Would I call that same number, Vinnie? No, you'd call Chronicle Virginia directory information, you'd dope. Of course you'd call the same number. You'd call the Shameless Commerce Division at 888 Carjunk or visited online at the Cart Talk section of Cars.com. Thank you, Vinnie.

And that Quantico remark, that was a stroke of genius, you know? A genius this pal Car Talk is a production of Dewee Cheatham and Howe and WBUR in Boston And even though Linda Worthheimer fights back the tears Every time she stops saying this is NPR National Public Radio Support for NPR and the following message come from Yarl and Pamela Mohn Thanking the people who make public radio great every day and also those who listen