The Best of Car Talk - #2610: Runaway Inflation

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

Pete from Nashville is really worried about inflation. Not the kind that hurts your wallet, but the kind that takes your head off. He’s suffering from ‘lasticophobia’. Is filling up your tires to the point of explosion a reasonable worry? Our overinflated hosts generate some hot air on the topic during this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

On Planet Money, we have covered a lot of topics. Like, just try searching something on the Internet and adding Planet Money to the end of it. Tariff prices, Planet Money, that's an episode. Stop Sign War, Planet Money, that too. Alaska Halibut Derby, Planet Money. If you can ask it, we have probably answered it. Planet Money. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us, click and collect the Tappet Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the Ethics Division here at Car Talk Plaza. Now, you may remember a few weeks ago, we reported on a new Gallup poll that rated the amount of respect that Americans have for various professions. Well, anyway, after that, we got a letter from somebody named Bob Posgay. And here it is. I have two brothers.

One is in auto sales. The other brother was just sentenced to death in the electric chair for murder. My mother died from insanity when I was three years old. my two sisters are prostitutes and my father sells drugs. Recently, I met a girl who was just released from a reformatory where she served time for smothering her illegitimate child to death, and I want to marry her. My problem is, if I marry this girl,

should I tell her about my brother who's a car salesman? And in that poll, at the bottom of the list, were car dealers. Man, I mean, don't these, what is it with these guys? Don't they know that they're at the bottom of this list? Maybe they don't care. Maybe they realize the chance of getting even one rung up on the ladder is so small that it's hardly worth the effort.

They might as well make a few bucks. I mean, everything they do works. Yeah. I mean, it must work. They wouldn't still be car salesmen. I mean, some of these guys... There are four other people looking at this car. Yeah.

It's only driven on Sundays by a little old school team. Yeah. Is there any wonder that they're at the bottom of the list? Well, they should be at the top of the list for creativity. Oh, exactly, right. I mean, these guys come up with stuff that in a million years you wouldn't be able to come up with. And we're wasting their talents. Selling cars. What should they be doing? I don't know, but I'm working on it. I see a movie in here somewhere. If you'd like to talk to us about your car.

Who's in it? In the movie that you have in, who's in it? Is Kevin Spacey in it? No. No, I see William Bendix. I like it already. Is he still dead? And Tom DeAndria. Tom DeAndrea. Tom DeAndre is Gilles.

The number is 888 Car Talk. That's 888-227-8-255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Miriam from St. Paul, Minnesota. Hi, Miriam. Hi. St. Paul. Yes.

Got it. We know where that is even. So what's up, Miriam? Well, I have a 1991 Nissan Maxima. Mm-hmm. And I got a dent in it. It's right above the wheel well on the passenger side in the front.

Front? Yep. Yeah. And basically, I want to try to fix it myself. Do you? But, yes, I do. How deep is this dent? Not that deep.

Like, it doesn't affect my driving. The wheel, I can turn the wheel freely and everything. And how did this dent occur? I hit something. Animal, vegetable. or mineral? Mineral, I guess. Is another car or mineral?

Oh, tree. Another car, another car. It would be mineral, yeah. Yeah. Mineral. Oh, so this is more than just a little teeny dent. I mean, this is a good-sized dent. It's a pretty good-sized dent.

Yeah, it's like a foot long. And why does it bother you? Why does it bother me? Yeah, why do you want to fix it? I love my cute little car all nice and pretty. Why? I just want to fix it. My brother and I were discussing this just the other day.

Yes. You were sitting around at my kitchen. table, drinking coffee, and we were discussing the fact that everything is too darn pretty. And there's nothing more liberating than a big dent in the right front fender. But the other thing is I get a real rush from trying to fix things. All right. Well, you can fix it if you want, but ponder the idea of leaving it alone. Okay.

I happen to be reading a book right now called Doubt and Certainty. And one of the issues is, is there symmetry in nature? Well, there is. Is there symmetry in science? So you're reading about pine cones and pineapple? Well, the truth is there is not symmetry. There is not symmetry. We think there's symmetry.

We think of things as being symmetrical and mostly, but mostly they're not. And so the fact that your car started out being pretty symmetrical, except the steering wheel was on one side. Other than that, it was almost perfectly symmetrical about. several axes. And I think you've done something natural. You've made it asymmetric. Yes. So you've brought it closer to nature. Consider leaving it alone, Miriam. But if you want to fix it, if you really want to fix it. Okay. If you want to do it yourself, you need to start with a plumber's plunger. I tried that. All right. Well, then you're going to go to the store. Yes. Well, you're going to buy a dent pull. Well, maybe better than that. You can, you can access this

dent from the inside because you can remove what's called the inner fender liner. There's a piece of plastic that's above the wheel. Okay. And it's held on either by clips or screws. Okay. And a lot of them. A whole bunch of them, all around the edge of that little thing. And you will take this piece off, and you will then gain access to the bulge on the inside of the fender. Well, here's the thing. I gained access to it. You did. But through the hood. Like, I opened up the hood. Okay. Oh, and you could actually see? I could see it, and I could kind of feel. and it felt like if I just gave it a good whack, it would pop out. Yeah, tap on it as few times.

You'll get it to pop out a little bit. It'll be sort of rippled. And then you may have to take some bondo to it, this plastic filler stuff. Oh, no, you're not going to do, man. And then you'll sand it down, and then you'll paint it. I mean, she wants to do it. She wants a project. Believe me, the woman wants a project.

It will look so hideous when you're done. This will be better. What would you have now? Believe me, is better than anything you could do. yourself. No, but this is not the sort of thing you can explain to someone. Body work is very difficult and it's very hard to make it look good. Right.

But if you want to try it, by all means, like my brother says, buy a big thing of Bondo, maybe a five-gallon pail. Good luck, Miriam. Thank you. See you. We all need projects. Yes. We do.

Otherwise, we get into trouble. Yes, we do. We get our wives angry at us. Oh, yeah. 1-8-88-car talk. That's 888-227-8-8-25. Hello. Why, let you go clean the basement.

Yeah. Okay. Again? Hello, you're on car talk. This is Larry. Larry. Larry, we've been waiting for you to call. I've been waiting for this for years.

Where are you from, Larry? I'm from Seattle. But I used to be from Boston. Really? I spent the best years of my car tinkering in Hackers Haven. No. You may remember. I probably the only person who ever rebuilt a Plymouth Cricket engine in your garage.

Never heard of you. Well, the engine blew up in San Antonio on my first trip. You made it dead far. Yeah. So what are you doing now in Seattle? Well, since then, I've got... You're not in the engine rebuilding business. No, no, I've gone on to other things.

It's a doctor now. I have a wife, and my wife has a car. Oh. And this car is a 1990 Volvo. And we've been married for six years, and we've done that well, but this car is sort of coming between us. Ah, we don't want that to happen. Yes. We don't.

We think. So anyway, what's happening is that approximately once a year, this car does the same thing. It will start up fine in the morning, and we'll back it out of the driveway and get down. down to the stop sign and it will die there. And it will start doing this pretty much whenever it's cold. But, you know, usually you can get it started and it never has stalled out and died on the freeway or anything really serious. But she gets annoyed with this and we take it in.

And a couple weeks later, we have the car back and we have a bill from anywhere between $400 and $1,600. And it does fine. And it works for the next year. And then they put it on the computer again. Yeah. And it's something else. Yeah. Really?

So in December. But it's always the same symptom, but the repair is always something different. That's right. It was a new crank sensor or engine speed sensor this year. Yeah. That was a mass airflow sensor in June. Yeah. And then it was problems with the throttle plate and a major tune-up the June before.

Yeah. And in 96th of December, it was an engine speed sensor. and another engine speed sensor in 95. Well, I can see that every time you come in, the guys at the dealership say, what can we put in Larry's car this time? Well, see, this is the disadvantage for you, of a database. Because they can go back and look at what they've done previously

and figure out what's still warranted and, more importantly, what isn't. So they say, gee, we haven't put an airflow sensor in for three years. He's ready for a nice. Let's try that. We think he'll be accepting of another one of those. And don't forget, no matter what they've done, it's worked for a year. It's hard to argue with the computer. They hook it up and they tell us that it's these codes, and therefore they have to replace it.

And they're getting codes every time? They get codes each time whenever we bring it in. Well, it's possible that their diagnosis has been right every time. I'll tell you, we have replaced. This is a DL? Yes. Yeah. We've replaced a lot of crank angle, sensitive.

in those cars. We replaced a lot of air flow sensors. And, I mean, not quite as many as you've had done, but we have replaced quite a few. And it's very possible that each time these things are failing. I don't think there's any underlying cause necessarily. So I don't know what to tell you in terms of whether or you should be angry or alarmed or dismayed or discouraged or if you can sell the car. Well, it does get into those questions. Oh, it is. You mean to tell me that once a year

You drive a car a couple of blocks to the stoplight And it stalls and restarts immediately And that's a cause for alarm You don't have enough troubles in your life Larry You should come to my house for a couple of days You should drive my brother's MG for a day It stalls at every corner We're just we're being overprotective with our car

I think so And you're giving them the opportunity to fleece you because you go in and you say, oh my God, it's stalled, and they say, we'll go through the whole thing. We'll check out the thing stem to stirren and replace anything that could be causing the stall. And a few things that couldn't. And they tell you what's $1,600.

And do you complain ever? Always. Do you yell and scream and get ugly? You really should. No, no. Larry sounds like a very easy-going guy. He's an easy-going. Are you a doctor, Larry?

Therapist. Perfect. Yeah. You have your wife take the car. She's a therapist, too. Hire someone to take it in. Yeah, don't worry about it anymore. You're being a little, to pardon the expression,

anal retentive about this. Being a little too careful with the car. A little too careful. It stalls, big deal, just start it up and forget about it. Okay. Nice to talk to you again, Larry, after all these years. Okay. All right, thank you.

And thanks for calling, and thanks for remembering us. Okay. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. All right, Tommy. Is that a legitimate, psychiatric term, anal retentive? Oh, yeah. It is, huh?

Well, he is. Then that's what he is. If that's what he is. If that's what he is. Hey, do you remember the last puzzle, like from before Christmas? What, I missed Christmas? No, I don't remember the last puzzle. Give me some kind of hint.

All right. It was a fully automotive puzzler about a mysterious case of warped disc rotors. Oh, it's intriguing. 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. T's and Cs apply.

There is a long history of misinformation about autism, from accusations about bad parenting to RFK Jr's false allegations that Tylenol has something to do with it. But science is getting closer to truly understanding what drives autism. It looks like there are hundreds of genes that are involved. To find out what the research actually says about autism and what we still don't know, listen to Shortwave in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcast. 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 fully automotive puzzler.

Two weeks ago, puzzler. It's not last week's right. Get it straight. Anyway, this one came to us from a listener named Brad Hamill, and I'll just read it as is. I didn't think I could improve it. Well, I could have obfuscated more than Brad did. It didn't really need it. Didn't need it. Good.

Anyway, this fellow takes his Volvo to the shop, but this could be just about any car, and he complains of a strong pulsing in his brake pedal when he applies the brakes. The mechanic looks over the car and finds it sure enough, the front disc brake rotors are warped. So he installs new ones and sends the guy on his way. Five thousand miles later, the fellow comes back to the shop and complains that the pulsing is back. Suspicious and yet confident that his work was what? Perfect. The mechanic asks the owner a few questions. Do you ride the brake? No.

Have you tightened your lug nuts with a high-powered air wrench? No. Have you had a hemorrhoidal flare up recently? Yes. Has anyone had their hands on your lug nuts recently? Absolutely not. Have you bought new tires? No.

The mechanic is at a loss and be grueled. grudgingly replaces the warped rotors. Again. A thousand miles later, the guy comes back and guess what? What? Same problem. I would never have guessed. This is time the mechanic asks straight up,

what the heck he's doing to the car that could be causing this problem, knowing that there's nothing wrong with the parts and nothing wrong with the installation. The fellow says, geez, I don't know. I go on a lot of long trips. It's always the day after I arrive home from these trips that I start feeling the pulsing. but never during the trip. Really? The mechanic then asks him one question and solves the mystery.

What question did he ask him? I'm afraid to even venture, I guess. He asks him, did anyone have his hands on your luck nights? He asks him one question. And from the answer to that question, he knows what's wrong. with a guy's car. Wow. And the question he asks him is,

do you wash the car immediately after returning from these long trips? Oh, really? And the fellow says, as a matter of fact, before I get home. As soon as I pull into the driveway, before I even loosen my tie, I've got the hose out and I'm hosing the dirt off the car.

And in doing so, I'm warping the disc rotors by hitting those hot rotors with ice cold water on one side only. Oh, man. One side only. Well, he's hitting the right the wheel side of the disc rotor. When you go through a puddle, you're immersing the whole disc rotor in water. And so you tend to equalize the forces. But when the thing is red hot, because you're driving like crazy, they get home to your sweetie.

Yeah. At least pull into the driveway and wash the car. and you put that ice cold water on that red hot dishbrother. On one side. It's warped. And who's our winner this week? Wow. Oh, boy.

That's good. I mean, that's good, but we're going to get a lot of mail. Don't we always? I'm just letting you know, you know. We do have a winner. The winner is Jesse Dornstrike, Donstreich, from Philadelphia, PA, and for having his answer, Jesse could be either, his or her answer,

selected at random from among all the correct answers, Jesse's going to get a $25 gift certificate to the Car Talked Shamedless Commerce Division with which he or she can buy any of the returned car talk match, you guys, now flooding in from disappointed listeners across the country. At half price. What a deal. $50 worth of stuff.

for a $25 gift certificate. Jesse, you're a lucky person. Anyway, we'll have a new non-automotive. Interesting puzzler coming up in the third half of today's show. All right. Do you know what it's time for? Time to strap the snowplow onto your M-G? No,

no, no, no, no. It's time to play Stump the Chumps! It is time, once again, to bring back a previous caller and find out what happened when our advice was implemented in a real-life situation. Why do I always feel queasy when this segment comes up? It's still on the visions of trial lawyers dancing in your head.

Anyway, who is today's contestant? Well, it's someone named John from Buffalo, New York, and John called in February when his wife wanted to take a cross-country trip with her best friend. It's a year ago. Sort of a Thelma and Louise kind of thing, you know? They wanted to go from Buffalo to San Diego in an 87 VW cabriolet, and John wanted to know if this was a good idea. Yeah, I think we said.

said, sure, as long as you don't ever want to see your life again, because once she sees San Diego, good luck ever getting her back to Buffalo. Actually, I think we suggested that she'd go for it, provided that she not do it in one non-stop trip. John argued that she should just go non-stop, hoping to get there before the car had time to break down. Good thinking, John. We suggested just the opposite that she makes short trips and stop and let the car and the drivers rest frequently. If I had a 12 or 13-year-old car as they have here, I would do it like in one-hour spurts. You know, like Schenectady.

Well, that's the wrong direction. Yeah, I mean, I would try to go for an hour and get a motel. And rest up for it and stay overnight, watch a little TV, go another hour the next day. Okay. So if she followed your advice, she's probably around either. in Oklahoma. Right about now. John, are you there?

Yes, I am. All right, John, before you tell us what actually happened, we have to make sure that you're not being paid off to make us look bad. Well, do you swear to tell the truth

the whole truth and more or less nothing but the truth? More or less. All right. The first thing we need to know is did she take our advice and go slow

or did she take your advice and try to go nonstop? And did they make it? They made it. We don't know if we want or not. We don't know if we were right or not. How did they think, what was their technique? The technique was, contrary to my advice, they took your advice, and they took short, frequent stops,

and they drove maybe three, four hours at a time, stopped, check out the sites, and then continued on. Clear the music, Dennis. And they made it from Buffalo to San Diego and that heap, huh? I can't believe it. And the Volkswagen is still running, I take it. No, it died two weeks later. Well, they were quite lucky. And the reason I ask you guys, because, you know, being a guy, we want to go nonstop just to say we could do it.

Oh, always. Exactly. What's the first thing you ask a guy when he drives a lot? How long to take you? How long to take you? I remember who your buddy, Bill Rota. He drives across the country. Across the country.

And finally, after three or four days of driving, he gets to my brother's house to visit him. The first thing he does is he calls his father. because he and his father had rebuilt the engine in his car. It doesn't even say hello to the guy. He just says, Dad, I burned a half a quart. Bye. Well, thanks for playing stump the chumps, John. You've got a good sport.

Thanks for a living. So long. Say hello to your wife. All right, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye. If you want to talk to us, the number is 1-888-car talk. That's 888-22-782-5. Hello, you're on car talk. This is Sherry in Kalamazoo.

Sherry, like the stuff you drink? Yeah. All right. Before we start singing, what's up, Sherry? Well, I have a question about a 96 Ford probe. 96 probe. Uh-huh. And my steering wall makes the strangest noise that I've ever heard.

It's done it since I bought it. I bought it brand new. No, no, not like that. It's kind of a ro-w-row-w-w-w-w-w-w-when-you-er-when you're turning. slowly, like pulling into a parking place or into the driveway. And does the noise sound like it's coming right out of the steering wheel or under the hood? It's from the inside of the car, definitely. Inside of the car, definitely.

Yes. And you bought this car new? Yes. And you brought it back and complained? Yes. And they said they all do that? They said, oh, there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah, they're probably right.

What? Well, what does it make that noise? Well, it's plastic. It's probably plastic rubbing against plastic. I really hate to hear you say that because that's what my husband said it was. Yeah, he's probably right, and it's a pain to have your husband be right about anything. I know that. I've known that by all the wives I've ever had who've denied that I've ever been right about anything,

especially marrying them. You know, my brother's been married a bunch of times, and every one of his wives is a good housekeeper. When they got divorced, they kept the house. But listen, there's probably not a whole lot you can do about this. Some cars do it and some cars don't. Some cars are more likely to do it in cold weather. Right. And you may notice it's worse in cold weather.

And then as the passenger compartment warms up, the noise goes away. Yep. Is that true? That is true. Yeah, well, you can try spraying silicone lubricant in there. It comes in a little spray can with a little wand. Okay. And you'll get it to go away for an hour or two at a time.

And you can continue to spray it in there, but short of taking it apart and finding out which two pieces are rubbing together when this plastic has shrunk and distorted due to the cold weather, you've got a snowballed chance and you're unaware of finding the source of the noise. And we've taken a few of these apart, and we've hardly ever managed to fix any of them. Okay. Learn to ignore it. Okay. You can't. You can't ignore stuff like that makes you crazy. Well, see, that's another disadvantage of owning a new car.

Yeah. If this were an 86 probe, would you have called us? Well, I probably would have bought in a new car by now. Well, but you'd have had so many other noises that this noise would be so insignificant. That's the thing. If you only have one noise, it drives you crazy. But if you have 25 noises, you can't possibly worry about them all. That is true.

You know, you need to leave the sunroof open a crack. Okay. So you get that wind noise. Exactly. Putting stuff in a coffee can and putting it in. in the back seat is good. Well, bowling balls in the trunk. Yeah.

Do that, and this noise will... Bowling balls or dead bodies, either one. This noise will be nothing in comparison. Exactly. See you, Sherry. Okay, thanks. Thanks for calling. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye. Bye-bye. We'll be right back with more calls and the new puzzler. Right after these messages. Wake up, Tommy. We're back, and you're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack the Tappert Brothers, and we're here to discuss cars,

car repair, and, duh, the new puzzler. Of the new millennium. Boy. Yeah, that's a lot of pressure. I mean, this should be like a pretty spectacular puzzle. If I had known... I mean, they're all spectacular. If I had known it was the first puzzle of the new millennium,

I would have put more than five minutes of effort into it, but as such, I didn't, so here it is. Is it like from a five-year-old email? Oh, yeah. Anyway, here's the deal. You are kidnapped. I like it already. and unceremoniously dumped on a deserted island in the Pacific and a previously deserted island.

You are now. You are now. And you have yet to meet up with Mr. and Mrs. Howell and the professor at Marianne. But this island basically is 10 miles long and about 100 yards wide. And it's completely covered with grass and palm trees. And your captors have been nice enough to give you a few. things to assist you in surviving. They've given you a supply of water. They've got it. Life-size poster of Ginger Grant. They've given you a flashlight and a box of matches and a blankie.

Oh, nice. You got it? Yeah. No cable. So the, no cable TV. So the first night, the first day you walk around the island and you notice that you've got no chance of escape because, Because the island is a sheer drop-off all around 500 feet. Oh, man. On to sharp rocks into shark-infested waters. So there is no escape from this island, and you go to sleep that first night under your blankie, and you're awakened the next morning by the sound of thunder

and the bright flash of lightning. Uh-oh, I'm not going to like this. I don't think so. And you realize that lightning has struck the far, end of the island. Okay, you're approximately in the middle, let's say. So five miles away from you, lightning has struck and has set the grass and palm trees on fire.

Oh, my God. What's the second thing you say? Drat. And as luck would have it, there's a breeze blowing from the fire toward you. So it's pushing the flame in your direction. Got it. And you can imagine that everything. Everything, everything on the island is going to be toasted.

Including your butt. You, unless you think quick. Uh-huh. And the question is, how do you save your sorry butt until your wife can pay off the ransom? Fat chance. So you got to, you. Why bother? You got a skinny island.

It's 100 yards wide. Yeah. It's 10 miles long. Yeah. So they flame, the fire starts at one end of the island. And it's coming towards your fast. It's coming towards your, let's say it's coming at the rate. Let's say the wind is blowing it at two miles an hour.

Sure. Don't forget what you have at your disposal. The space blanket. Life-sized picture of ginger. A box of matches. Yeah. A flashlight. You said a flashlight.

And water. And water. Water. And you're surrounded by water. Is it like a thousand gallons of water of any chance? No, you have a canteen. Oh. Now, if you think you know the answer, write it on the back of a $20 bill or a candid yam, and send it to Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge.

Our Fair City. Matt, 22238. Or you can email your answers from the Car Talk section of Cars.com. If you'd like to call us, or even if you would like not to call us, the number remains, 1-888-8-8-8-2-7-8. 8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hello, my name is Peterson. I'm calling from Memphis. Peterson's your first name? That's right.

Okay. Peterson. Yeah. Yeah, I've heard that as a first name before. Yeah, it gets kind of confusing sometimes because, you know, I get introduced and they say, oh, and what's your first name? I say, Peterson. Like, no. It would be unfortunate if you had a last name like Bill. That's true. That would get really confusing. Are there two Ss in Peterson?

No, just one. Okay. What's up? Well, see, I have a phobia. Yeah. When I was a kid, a family friend had a garage, and one day when he was filling air in the tire of a pickup truck, the tire exploded. He was thrown across the parking lot, and he got banged up pretty badly. Yeah.

So all of my life, I have been terrified to fill up the air in my tires. Yeah. So finally, after a couple years, the woman I was with, she kept on asking me, why don't you ever put air in your tires? Because they always were, like, real floppy. And you said, shut up! I was like, don't ask me. I finally said it out loud. I had never said it out loud.

I said, I'm afraid if I put air in my tires, they'll explode and I'll get killed. Yeah. She's like, don't, you know, don't worry about it. She got me a little gauge. She showed me how to do it. So I did it. It was like a major breakthrough. Did you feel an incredible lightness of being?

It was awesome. Yes. Two days later at work, a coworker comes in and says, you'll never guess what happened to my cousin when he was filling up air in his time. And that's it. I've been ruined since. I won't go near it. So now I have to go to a gas station.

I'd say, could you, like, check my tires or get a friend to do it for me? Yeah. And so I'm wondering, like, really, what are my chance? What are the stats here of this happening? And are there any safety precautions I can take to safeguard my well-being while I do this? Of course there are. Well, I just want you to know that I had the very same phobia for a long time. Really?

Yeah. Wow. And the thought of it, I think it's the imagery. I mean, of a shard of rubber taking your head off. Not only that, but, I mean, your friend, I mean, if you had, for example, if it was an old truck, I don't know how old you are, but if it was a lot of years ago and it was an old truck, and it might have had a split rim wheel, in which case, not only would the tire blow and hit you with rubber and air, but a piece of the rim would come off and cut you in half.

Okay, you're not really helping me right here. Yeah, and I must have read something about it. about that once and I'm just trying to see that phobia melting away. Yeah, yeah. I don't think I'll ever drive again now. But what he wants to know is what are the chances? The chances are one in ten million. Yeah, the chances are real slim. Real slim. Doesn't matter, though. You've got a better chance of having a pile of bricks fall off a staging near a construction site. You've got a better chance of being run over by a bread truck. You've got a better, I mean, all of these things could happen

to you. I'm making, I'm making you nervous, am I? All those other things are going to happen. No, I think that you shouldn't be worried. I mean, life is fraught with all kinds of dangers, and you can't be worried about all of them. You've got to pick one, and you've picked a beauty, because the chances of this happening are so remote. Right.

Are there any safety precautions I can take? The precautions you can take, certainly, having someone else fill up your tires. Sure. Right. Or wearing some kind of head protection, because the most likely thing to have, happen is full body protection no no I mean you drive around from now on you get one of those

spaceman suits and you get out of your car fill her up I'm going to check the time and you see how long it is before you get arrested one this is this is serious business I mean the reason this happens primarily is that people over I can see him with the suit people overfill kids you see what I'm up against Can you see him with the suit, the big helmet with the glass thing in front of me? Yeah, the biohazard suit. He's looking like gort. He's going over to check the air.

I give up. I'm going for coffee. You guys can talk to each other. The guys are in a lot of trouble. Yeah, you're laughing. I'm sorry. It usually happens because people put air in a tire that's already overinflated. Yeah.

And it's more likely than not that the friend you knew that had this accident was putting air in a tire that may have had 100 PSI in it already. And that will cause a tire to blow or a tire that's defective. Or our tires, for a while, that instant flat stuff had, I think, propane in it. Yeah, but they don't do that anymore. They don't do that anymore. And that might be what it takes. It might be that your friend was not really filling the tire. He might have been messing around with the tire and caused a spark, which caused the propane to it.

ignite and therefore blow up. If we could convince you of that, that would be good because then you would say, well, filling the tire is not going to make it blow up. And it's probably not going to. But filling a tire... But it could happen. But you should never rely on those, the pumps at the gas station, you know, your thing you're set, you crank the thing for 32 pounds. Right. You should always have a tire pressure gauge of high quality, one of which you can buy on our website. I knew you'd get around to that. But if you have a tire pressure gain. You can also buy life insurance on our website if you're interested in that.

And the spacesuit. And we have the space suit, too. And the helmet. And the helmet. And the Bronco-Negersky official football helmet. But if you had a high-quality gauge and you check your tire pressure before introducing any more air, you can get an idea of when your tire was close to being filled and you wouldn't overfill it.

And if you do have a tire that has the right amount of air pressure, and it happens to come apart during the filling process, it's not going to take your head off. I mean, people get blowouts all the time and passes by that as pedestrians don't have their legs taken off at the kneecaps. Yeah, but all those trees that are falling down by the side of the road, how do you think that happened?

He's working against me. You know, we almost get there and then... Just, like, two steps forward and three steps back. I was just thinking I'm going to buy that gauge. I'm about to buy that. Forget it. Forget the gate. Yeah. Well, I hope we've helped a little bit. A little bit, yeah. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. Maybe I'll go for the suit thing, too.

Have you heard that sometimes when you're getting gasoline, the gasoline can blow up from the tank? Hey, good luck, Peterson. Thanks a lot. Thanks for calling. Bye, bye. Poor guy. Of all the phobias they have, this ain't a bad one. This isn't bad, no.

No, but he won't fill its tank anymore now either. He's not going to get gas. It means he's got about 200 miles before he has to worry about this. As soon as he uses up to... that tank of gas, he's done. He's done. While you've wasted 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 Frowellin. Our engineer and editor this week is Dennis DeMittas Foley. Our senior web lackey is Doug Sheep Boy Mayor, and our technical, spiritual, and menu advisor, is John Bugsy make that two triple cheeseburgers. Our public opinion pollster is Paul Murky of Mercky Research, assisted by statistician Marge in Overa.

Our customer care representative is Haywood Jabuzoff. Our director of new product repair is warranty my foot. And our official football widow is Eliza the couch. I remember her. Our pseudonym consultant is Norm De Plum. And the head of our Division of Threat Assessment is Ewan What Army. What are me? You and What Army? And our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey, Cheever-Ey-Mahouie, known to the shivering

Tourist in Harvard Square as Uie Louie Doey. Thanks so much for listening. We're click and clack to Tapper Brothers. Don't drive like my brother. And don't drive like my brother. We'll be back next week. Bye-bye. Now, here is Car Talk Plaza's

chief mechanic, Mr. Vincent Q. Gumbats, Vinnie? Now, if you just want a copy of this here show, which is number two. Well, that's where everyone said it sounded like number two. Just pick up your phone and call this number one-88-card junk. And what if I wanted some other Car Talk things, you know, like a Car Talk T-shirt. I mean, would I call that same number then?

No, I don't think so. For that, you call Rosie Greer and ask him to crochet one for you, you're dope. Of course, you call the same number. You're called the shameless commerce division at 888 card junk, or visit it online at the Cart Talk session of Cars.com, you know?

Vinnie, thank you very much. That was quite methodical the way you did that. Thought it this, will you, pal? Car Talk is a production of Dewee Cheatham and Howe and WBUR in Boston. And even those senior network executives turn out the lights and hide under their desks whenever they hear us say it. This is NPR National Public Radio.