The Best of Car Talk - #2622: Starting from Stupid

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

Tony has a Saab story for us that involves losing coolant -and, possibly, brain cells, too. The fact that he called Click and Clack should indicate how far gone Tony is already, but find out for yourself on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.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 Action News Bureau here at Car Talk Plaza. You're going to love this. Oh, you are. You know, we have often spoken about the dangers of using a cell phone while driving. Well, get this. A guy named Jack E. Not Jackie, but Jack E. Robinson, announces a few weeks ago that he's going to run for Senate from Massachusetts against none other than Ted Kennedy,

not the world's greatest driver either, by the way, but that's another story. So anyway, this fellow Robinson is doing an interview with WBUR here in Boston speaking from his cell phone while he's driving. And his... Nothing can be better than just going to the tape. Do it. What you have as a Republican governor abdicating a United States Senate campaign to Senator Kennedy just because the governor doesn't think that there could be.

I just got on accident. Could you jerk? You deserve it. Do it again. I missed a clunk there. What you have is a Republican governor abdicating the United States Senate campaign to Senator Kennedy just because the governor doesn't think that there could be? I just got to ask. See, we told you. That is absolutely poetic justice.

Indeed. We don't even know if the accident was really his fault. fault, but it was too good to pass up. Of course it was his fault. You're running his mouth. Running his mouth, exactly, instead of paying attention to the road. Exactly. Exactly. So if you're on a cell phone by definition, the accident's your fault. You bet it is. No matter what. Anyway, if you want to call us and talk about your car or your cell phone or your most recent accident, the number is 1-888-8-2-27-82-55. Wow, the number gets longer every week. Hello, Is it like 15, 20 digits now?

Yeah. Great. Well, I'm going to see if I can express this as a power of five. Hello. This is Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty Valance.

Now, that's going to be a name that Kate. You were born in the 60s? No, I wasn't. I was born in 1980. Really? Yeah. Oh. 80s, huh?

Liberty. Yeah. Are you from, like, Philadelphia? No, I'm not from Philadelphia. and I was not born on the 4th of July, and my last name is not Valens. Our mutual. And you're not from California. No, I'm from Boise, Idaho.

Your parents were from California. No. My mom is actually from New York. All right. Well, the question must be asked. What were they thinking? Well, no, I like the name, actually. Well, I do, too, but it is unusual.

They wanted something different. So they call you Libby. Yes. Libby. Yeah. It's great. Well, thanks. Anyway, what's going on?

First of all, I drove a 1990 Nissan 240 SX. Okay, got it. The first problem I'm having is my steering wheel, normally between the speed of 35 and 65, shakes back and forth. Got it. Bad. Really bad. That's bad. Yeah.

That's potentially dangerous, but we'll get to that in a minute. Okay. Next problem. We'll do this on a triage basis. Okay. Okay. And the next problem is, oh, about six months ago, I was having problems with my brakes squealing when I stopped. So I went and had my brake pads replaced, and it still does it.

Does it do it worse when you first start driving the car in the morning, or is it worse other times? Probably when I first start driving the car. Okay. And every time you step on the brake, you hear... Exactly. And you haven't taken it back to have... have them look at it. No. I didn't have it. Oh, I bother.

Okay. The triage says we've got to look at the shaking business first. Absolutely. Have you had anyone look at it? No, I haven't. How long has it been doing it? A couple months. Oh, oh, liberty, liberty. This is actually, I mean, this is really dangerous. Oh, no.

It's so dangerous that if it's been doing it for a couple of months, you should not drive the car again. Oh, no, you're kidding. It could mean death. You've heard the expression, give me liberty or give me death. Death may be waiting for you. You could have a bad ball joint, which is ready to fall off and make the wheel come off the car. Oh, no. Or you could have a bad tire, which is ready to strip its tread off and blow out while you're driving at 60 or 70 miles an hour.

In either case, the potential of a grave danger here is high. Yeah. You should never forget about shaking steering wheels. Never. Let's let it happen like that. ignore stuff like this. I mean, you've got to really always look at that. That's really dangerous.

Okay. And the squealing brakes they can look at at the same time. When they have the car on the lift, they can pull the wheels apart, make sure that, in fact, there's nothing wrong with the brakes, and I'm pretty sure there isn't. And they may have to just de-glaze the brakes and apply something called disc brake-quiet to the backs of the pads, and that'll stop that. Okay. I wonder, I just recently got new tires for the back, and I have to... have the older tires on the front. Could that have something to do? Yeah. Oh, yeah, you could have had a

bad tire on the back that you moved to the front, and that squirm that you were getting when it was on the back was unnoticed because the steering wheels connected to the front wheels only. Uh-huh. And was the shaking coincidence with that move? Not that I remember. I didn't make that association. Okay, if you didn't make that association, then under no circumstances drive the car again. Okay. I'm serious about it. Have it told to wherever you have things fixed and have them look at it. Wow, I didn't realize it was that serious. It's very serious.

Thank God you. Thank God. Well, thank you. See you. See you. See you. Okay. Take care. Bye-bye. Thanks. Thanks for calling.

1-888-8-2-278-8-25-0. Well, it's only 10 digits. Oh, no. A lot of car talk. Hello. This is Mike in Lafayette, Louisiana. How you doing, Mike? Oh, pretty good.

So what's shaking, Mike? Well, I've got a 95. Dodge, three-quarter-toned van. And my son and I have a little disagreement about what to do. He worked as a mechanic for a couple of years, and there's a noise coming from the rear of the truck. It's like a high-pitched wine that we've pretty much determined as the fuel pump. Oh, really?

So you hear the noise even when you're not moving? Right. And for some unsprosaken reason, I don't know why they do this. You know, the fuel pump is inside the gas tank. Where else? I mean, why? I just don't. get it.

Yeah. Well, it's to discourage guys like you, Mike, from replacing their own fuel pumps. Well, that's what I want to do. And the discussion between my son and I is to, my idea was to put an electric fuel pump, just bolt one up along the frame, like, you know, cut it into the line and hook it up to the same wires. Oh, boy. You need to team up with, so it was that guy Doug that we spoke to one.

No, I cannot do. Really? No, you can't. I mean, you could. If you could find a fuel pump that had the same characteristics, i.e. delivered the same pressure and volume as the pump that's in the tank. Uh-huh. But the chances of doing that are pretty small, and I think it's risky. And I think you need to drop the tank and put the real pump in there, which is not cheap, by the way. No. But this is certainly within your grasp, don't you think?

You can do it. You can do it. Your son has the tools. I have them. Yeah, you don't need much in the way of tools to do this. No, a couple of wrenches. Yeah, and the pump is right in the top of the tank. Yeah. Now, you would think, and I hate to be a complainer,

but you would think that most manufacturers would if they had the opportunity make a hole in the floor of the truck, which would be right above where the fuel pump is. Wouldn't that be nice? Why do you have to take the tank out? Well, you know, this is a utility van. I use it for my business. Oh, it's a van.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it would be relatively easy. You could do this. I got a saw. Don't do it with the torch. No, no, that plastic tank just doesn't handle a torch too well. No, but I mean, you might want to take it out the first time just to see where it is.

But as soon as you do, get right in there with the magic marker, make yourself a nice big circle. And while the tank is out, what better time? I would use a saw-z-all. I've got a jigsaw. It works just fine. There will be good. That'll be good. And then you just cut yourself out a little circle there.

And if you wanted to, you could get fancy and put a little handle on it. Or just leave it there. Right. How many miles are you having this thing now? $100,000? About 80. 80. You'll be doing this again.

Yeah, so you might want to make a hole. I mean, I certainly would if I owned one of these. Uh-huh. But it's not that hard to take the tank out. I think it'll be a nice father-son project. Oh, bonding experience. It's bonding, man. See you, Mike.

Well, thank you all very much. All right. Bye. Bye. We'll be right back with the answer to the puzzler after these messages. Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clock the Tappert brothers. And we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and the answer to last week's puzzler. Yeah, go ahead.

I know you didn't like this one. No, I don't remember. I remember it was about Bedouins, but I don't remember anything else. Well, I remember you started ridiculing it right from the start saying that the Bedouins had nothing to do with it, and I contrived the whole thing. Here it is. Two Bedouins are crossing the desert on their camels. You with me so far? Yeah, yeah. It's early in the morning, and they come across a suitcase in the sand that's partially open.

There are no tracks of any kind surrounding it. Oh, I remember this. They look at the suitcase, and all they see is Western-style clothing, so they move on. Right? I got you. They leave it there, and they continue on their journey to the oasis. A little while later, they find another suitcase in the sand. Same thing.

It's open and clothes are strewn about. They go on, thinking of nothing but this suitcase. A little while later, they come across a video camera in the sand. A little while later, they find shoes, hats. pants, shirts, they continue on their journey. Finally, they see a man in his underwear, obviously dead lying face down in the sand, grasping a piece of straw. The question is, what happened? Well, you know, the only thing that had me stumped was the piece of straw. Really? Then that's the biggest clue, of course. It is the biggest clue.

Otherwise, I figured the guy fell out of an airplane. So close. He was grasping the short straw. He was part a party that was trying to make a hot air balloon trip across the desert. And as they began to lose altitude, someone had to go. They began to throw off suitcases. Oh, this is bogus. That shorts straw. And he held onto it all the way down from $20,000. Nothing he had other than his shorts.

And they began to throw off suitcases, shoes, and all the clues were there. And finally him. And finally, they said, we're going to crash. Someone's going to go. and they're already thrown the sandbags off. And, of course, what do they have? The basket is made out of what? Straw.

They strip off a few pieces. They hastily pull straws, and this poor bastard has to jump over. You have sunk to a new low. Really? You have fallen into the abyss of crap. I have never heard a more bogus. I thought it was...

Grasping a straw. I can't believe. I think you fail to grasp. The beauty? The beauty and the elegance of it. There's only one answer. It's a one answer riddle. Philistines.

I'm dealing with philistines. And none of you got it, and that's why you think it's bad. Oh, geez. Boy, you are going to get, I don't want to be near your computer when the mail comes in. Really, huh? Because you are going to be bombarded. If you would think this one was bad. Wait till you hear the next one.

Oh, man. Do we have a winner? Of course not. Well, we do. We're going to just give someone the prize because no one figured this one out. The winner is George Hasopadis. I would say Hasopadis. From of all places, Arlington, Massachusetts,

who actually did send his answer to us on a fish, a plastic fish, thankfully. And for having his answer selected at random, From among those thousands of correct answers, none. George gets a $25 a gift certificate to the Car Talks's Shameless Commerce Division, and with this certificate, he can do his Father's Day shopping early and get our Father's Day CD Why You Should Never Listen to Your Father when it comes to cars.

Congratulations, George, and thanks for the fish. By the way, it floats the fish. We put it in water, try to revive it. Not all fish float, you know. When they're dead, they do. No, they don't. They don't? I know sharks, if they start moving, right to the bottom.

Oh, yeah. Well, they're not fish, though. No, what are they? They're big things. We'll have a new, maybe not so lousy puzzler coming up. Maybe not so lousy. You couldn't get lousier. Wait, it'll be coming up in the third half of today's show.

So stay tuned for that. In the meantime, you can call us and ask us questions or say anything you want. The number is 8888-car talk. That's 888-227-8-25-5. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, guys. This is Tony from Cotona. How you doing?

Tony from Cotona. I've been listening to you for years, but you've got to help me out. I'm in a dispute with my wife and my 17-year-old son over a 92 sob 9,000. Oh, I'll let my brother handle this because this is right up here. I have several wives and several 17-year-old sons. Okay, but you own a sob. Are you qualified in that area? I'm not.

Okay. Well, he'll fake it. Let me run it by you anyway. What sob have you got? It's a 9,000. It's got 165,000 miles on it. It drives like it's new. I love the car.

I really do. Oh, this is your car. Well, it was my car. I graduated up to a Subaru outback. But at any rate, I'm getting a sweet smell when I turn on the heat. I'm also losing in very cold weather. I'm losing radiator fluid. Yeah.

All right. So sure enough, when the car is ice cold, I pop the hood. I look down below the connection. where the upper radiator hoses, and I see it dripping out. Now, radiator fluid being relatively cheap, this car being relatively old, I'm leaning towards just filling it up as necessary. I got through the whole winter with a gallon. The problem comes in with my son. He's claiming that this is having a long-lasting effect on his ability to concentrate. And as a result of that...

His grades are down. Right, right. His grades are down. He actually dropped out of AP history. He stopped cleaning his room, and is not the result of that. taking Spanish anymore. I've been telling him that I've been driving this car with this peculiar smell for about five years. Yeah. And you, maybe you started out stupid.

Well, I might have. Well, you may have had less of a slide to me. Well, I'm thinking that this may be such a gradual thing. Exactly. That I don't know that something's wrong.

Right. But he wants me to get it fixed. And I'm telling him that if he keeps pushing me to get it fixed, I'm going to get rid of it. And he's going to wind up driving. a 96 purple caravan, so he better keep his mouth shut. And your wife, of course, is on his side. Without a doubt.

Yeah. They're always on the side. So he dropped out of what you're not on. AP history. That's gone. In Spanish. Spanish is gone. And he stopped cleaning his room.

Stop cleaning. Well, he's telling me it's related to this peculiar smell that's emanating from the car. The cessation of the room cleaning is the province of every 17-year-old male. That's evolutionary. I can safely discount this. I think so. I mean, that, that's a development. up mental thing and I'm surprised.

17 is just about right. And the reason he dropped AP Spanish in history is it's likely that the cute girls who were in the class also dropped it for different reasons. Right. But I mean, all of those things, dropping AP history and Spanish and the not cleaning of the room

are all characteristics of 17-year-olds with or without the inhalation of ethylene glycol. Okay. So it may be that the, alkaline glycol is having an effect, but it probably has nothing to do with it. Okay. On the other hand, breathing ethylene glycol vapors ain't good for you. Okay.

I don't think. I mean, we do know it's a poison. Well, at this point, of course, that's becoming less prominent because as it warms up, I guess the metal is not contracting as much. And I haven't had to add it to the last month because the weather's been... Really? But you might have something as simple, Tony, as a loose hose clamp. I think you should fix it anyway.

Or a thermostat gasket that's, I mean, it could be, it could be a $20 fix. Right, right. It could be. And you're risking countless thousands of, I mean, we know that you don't care anymore. I could wind up having some tutors coming to my house or something, $50 a pop. Have you lost any hair in the last few years? Well, actually I have. I have to admit that.

But I grew up here to compensate. It's hard to tell. That's the other side effect. Of inhalation of ethnic blood like all vapors. Yeah. All right. So I'll be able to do this. I'll just set a threshold of money,

and if it goes over that, I'm going to donate the car. Hey, make a deal with him. If he re-ups for Spanish or history, one or the other, you'll fix the car. I'll fix the car. See you, Tony. All right, guys. Thank you.

Bye. Bye. We'll be right back with more calls and the new puzzler after these messages. We're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, click and clack the Tapper Brothers, and we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and the new puzzler.

Please make it better. Oh, you're going to love this. Go ahead. This Bedouin is driving his car home from work late one night. Yeah. And the car breaks down. In the desert? No, no, no.

He lives in a big city. He lives in Patterson, New Jersey. He's a Patterson, Bedouin. I like this puzzle because it requires that you think outside the box, as they say. Yeah, go ahead. So to speak. Okay, go ahead. He calls his brother, and he says, I need help.

You got to come and rescue my car broke down. So he shows up, the brother does, many hours later, with his car. They assess the situation. The first brother, whose car had broken down, says, you're ready to help me? And he says, the second brother says, I can't tow you, they've got a rope, you know. He says, I can't tow you home. And the guy who broke down says, that's okay, I'll tow you home. How could this possibly be?

So the guy who broke down is going to toll his brother who came to help him. Exactly. He said, I can't tow you home. Rather, you can't tell me home, but I can tell you home. How could this be? Now, if you think you know the answer, write it on a postcard or a 500 megahertz Apple G-floor system with a 21-inch studio monitor. It's worth a shot.

I mean, if you're saying... It's better than a dead fish, isn't it? If you say fish, you get one fish. It's worth a shot. Anyway, you can send anything you'll want to Puzzler Tower, including the correct answer to the puzzler, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3,500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair City.

Matt, 2,2, 38. Or you can email your answer from the Car Talk. talk section of cars.com. If you'd like to call us, the number as always is 1-8-88-Cartalk. That's 888-227-8-8-25. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Jennifer Gross from DeKalb, Illinois. Hi, Jennifer. Hi, how are you guys? Calb. K-A-L-B. Right, there you go. Perfect. What's up, Jen? Well, I have a 1991 Ford Tempo. It has about 95,000 miles on it, and it was given to me as a gift from my husband's parents.

Oh. Uh-huh. Yeah. So, you know, of course, nothing goes wrong with it until I get the car. And then, of course, everything goes wrong. That's the whole idea. Yeah. How long have you had the car?

I've had the car now about a year and a half, two years. Okay. And one morning, about six months ago, I went out to start the car, and when I turned the ignition key, it made this screeching horrible noise. Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, over the course of about three weeks, this, begins to happen more and more, and eventually it happens every day, every time I start the car.

Right. Then we get winter. Yeah. And I go out one morning, I start the car, it makes the horrible noise. I let it warm up for about three to five minutes. Turn the heat on. I come to a stop sign. I stop, and the second I start to accelerate the same horrible, creaching noise starts out.

Interesting, huh? Great. I'm freaking out. I'm thinking, oh, no, I've hit a cat. Something horrible happened. So I slam on the brakes. I turn the radio off. I turn the heat off.

And that's when the noise will go away. Yeah. You have FSS. Ford screeching syndrome. Well, I took it to my husband's mechanic, and he said that the initial noise when I turn the engine on is the alternator trying to catch up. And that that's normal,

and it just happens in Ford's and blah, blah, blah. And my biggest concern is, well, how bad is this? And is it going to do this for the air conditioning when the winter's over? The answer is absolutely. It will. Yeah. And here's what's going on. Okay.

I think. I'm going to also suggest something, and you're going to say, yeah, that's true. Okay. Every time you've had the heater on, you've had not just the heater on, but in fact, the defroster. Yes. Yes. Yes. Good answer.

would you like to be on stump the chumps next one? That was the right answer, Jennifer. Yeah, you have either a loose belt or a faulty air conditioner compressor. Because when you have the air conditioner, when you have the defroster on in this car, it automatically turns on the air conditioner. And when you go to accelerate, if there, in fact, there is a loose belt or a worn belt, you will get slippage. And that's the screeching you're hearing. And as soon as you turn the heater, i.e. the defroster off, you shut off the air conditioner and remove that load from the system. And the screech goes away.

Because now the belt is capable of turning the other things, the power steering, the alternator, etc. But as soon as you impose the additional load of the compressor, then it'll screech. And it would be consistent that it would do this as you accelerated. Okay. Now, how expensive is this part? Well, if you need a belt, the belt is short money. You can have a new belt installed and maybe even a new. new tensioner, you're probably looking at the less than a hundred bucks. Okay.

On the other hand, if it's the compressor, you're looking at several hundred. And the compressor is pretty expensive. Yeah, hope for the belt. Hope for the belt. Yeah. Hope for the belt. Okay, guys. Thank you so much.

I appreciate it. Thanks for your call. Good luck, Jennifer. And it had nothing to do with your mother-in-law's hex that she put on you. Oh, no. No, no hex from her. No. She didn't do that.

Thanks, guys. Have a good day. All right. You too. Bye-bye. Our number is 888-8-8-8-2-2. 278255, a lawyer on car talk. Hey there, guys.

This is John from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Hi, John. Hi, John. So what's up, John? Well, I've got a 99 Jeep Wrangler that is suffering lingering problems from an oil change from hell. Oh, really? Yeah. They stripped your pan.

Oh, no. No, no, much, much better than that. Oh, really? Okay. They set the whole thing on fire. You brought it into one of these quick oil change places, and they torched it? Right. The tech, he dropped the oil filter.

onto the starter, and across the terminals, and it started an electrical fire. It'll do it. And the kid, who was doing it, panicked and took a water hose and sprayed down the engine. About this time, you know, I've got flames engulfing the engine. The manager comes running over with, you know, the fire extinguisher, pulls the pen, squeeze the trigger, nothing. It was a dead bottle. I'm standing there in shock, right?

Yeah. They run to the next building, get another fire extinguisher, and then douse the engine with powder, and still nothing, and finally someone had enough sense come running. Yeah. But by this time, it's everything. Yeah. So I had it towed to my dealership, and they replaced everything in the motor. They did.

Well, you had your insurance, their insurance paid for it. Yeah. No, I mean, I'm surprised that they didn't total it. Yeah, it was too. Because, I mean, this is the kind of situation where you want it to be totaled. Right. Right. Man.

Yeah. This was my dream car. I've been wanting one of these for 20 years, and I ordered it from the factory, and and this was its very first oil change when this happened. You'll never do that again. Oh, no. Never again. Jeez.

So what's the status? Well, I picked it up from the dealership, and it runs great, but it smelled horrible. And I asked a guy, says, this smell going to go on? And he said, oh, it's going to fade away, and it's been a couple months. Oh, the fire smell. Yeah, it smells like a bag of burnt popcorn. Oh, man. And the smell is obviously strongest in the passenger compartment.

Oh, yeah. Well, I'll tell you, those fumes get into the seats. I mean, fortunately, you don't have a lot of things like headliner and whatever that other cars have. Right. So you're at an advantage in that regard. Right. And I would recommend, and I can't remember who sells it, but there are various mail-order companies that sell this bag of stuff, which is, I think, mostly activated charcoal that absorbs odors. And it's made for stinky basements.

Really? Yeah. All my brother's sneakers. You want to need a sneaker. And you might get a couple of these things and shove them under your seats. Yeah, but, I mean, with all due respect, you shouldn't have to do this. That's what I'm thinking. I mean, your insurance company should be taking care of this.

Whatever it is that needs to be done. I mean, this smell, if it lasted for three months, it may last forever. Right. And why should you take a car that's in this kind of condition? You didn't do anything wrong. Right. So, I mean, I would definitely go back. and say this is unacceptable.

Right. And if the seats have to be replaced, then replace them. Oh, yeah. But when they tell you to drop dead, you might want to... Which they will do, but they might not. They'll reopen the case, I'm sure, and they'll send an adjuster out to smell it. And he may say that he smelled something, and he may authorize new seats and new carpet, because there's not much under the hood that can smell anymore.

Right. Whatever got burned up, they replaced already. I've got a strong case to go back to the insurance company. Oh, absolutely. Right. I mean, why should you drive around in your dream car having to smell this? I mean, just tell them this is your dream car. All right.

Stupid dream car. That's a personal issue. Exactly. Yeah, I would definitely go back and let them reopen the case. All right, guys. And they're going to give you new seats and new rugs. And if not, you let me know. I will do that.

We'll tell you how to set it on fire again. So it'll last this time. Say it, John, right this time. Thanks for calling, John. That's right. I like it. Well, it's happened again. You've underutilized another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk. Our esteemed producer is Doug the Subway Fugitive, not a slave to fashion, Berman.

Our associate producers are Frowellin, Furner, thank you, and Louis Cronin, the barbarian. Our engineer is Dennis Soon to Be Someone Else's Menace Foley. Our senior web lackey is Doug the old gray mayor, and our technical, spiritual and menu advisor is the Bugster, John Bugsie, make that two triple cheeseburgers, Lawler. Our public opinion pollster is Paul Murky of Merkey Research, assisted by Marge in Overa. Our customer care representative is Haywood Jabuzov. Our director of new product repair is warranty my foot. Our audience estimator is Adam Ilyan. And our shop foreman is Luke Busy. Our Russian chauffeur is peek-off and drop-off. Our staff snowplow driver is Frazier Tushchev, and our seat cushion tester is Mike Easter.

Our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Cheeverman, How Was You Louis Dewey? Known to the Red Sox Rejects in Harvard Square as Ui Louis Dewey. Thanks so much for listening. We're clicking clack to Tappert Brothers. Don't drive like my brother. Don't drive like my brother. We'll be back next week. Bye-bye.

And now we have in the studio, Contact Plaza's chief mechanic, Mr. Vincent Kube and Botts. Thank you very much. Now, if you want a copy of this year's show, which is number 15, you can get one on the web, head on over to the store part of our website, the car talk section of www. www.w.com. And what if I wanted something other than that? What if I wanted the father's CD? You know, why you should never listen to your father when it comes to cars.

Would I go to that same site, Vinnie? No, you go to www. I got your CD right here.com. Of course you go to the same site. You're dope, the car talk section of cars. You got it? Or you'll order the old-fashioned way by calling 888-car junk. Well, thank you, Vinny. That was very, very enlightening.

Yeah, sure. Car Talk is a production of Dewey Cheatheman Howe and WBOR on Boston. And even though NPR President Kevin Close rethinks that Amway offer, whenever he hears on say it, this is NPR National Public Radio.