The Best of Car Talk - #2624: How to Know if You Have a Cracked Head

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

Paula’s pickup truck may have a cracked head. Can two mechanics who definitely have cracked heads help her fix the problem? Find out 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 Tappertr Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the more good news division here at Car Talk Plaza. Just when you thought there couldn't be any more, really good news. And this is one of those announcements that can brighten up even a cold spring day in New England. I mean, this lifted my heart. I don't know about Tommy, but here's a little thing from the Wall Street Journal. Here it is, and you're ready for the news.

Pujo is contemplating a return. to the U.S. car market. Yippee! I mean, I didn't realize it. It's been almost a decade. This article says they left the U.S. car market in 1991 as sales slumped and general weakness of four cars a year. And under intense competition from bicycle makers.

Well, the truth is they had really left long before 1991. Well, in their hearts, they had left. Right. They had left about 1980, but there were still a few dealerships. that were hanging on in 1991. Isn't it going to be great to have them back? I think so. I mean, we haven't even had Fiat to dump on.

Well, there's a 504 that I've had my show up for two years. I can't find a radio host for it. So when they come back, that guy will be driving again. This is going to be a great day. Although, don't get your hopes up, because the article goes on to say that this is not going to happen tomorrow. They're just contemplating it. That's what the headlines said.

contemplating a return to the U.S. market. They're waiting for one of the other big players like Kia or DeWo to drop out, right? Yeah, that would jump right into the frame. So they can buy up all the dealerships. Anyway, if you want to talk to us about your car or anything, anything, the number is 888 Car Talk. That's 88, 82, 27, 82, 55. Got it. I knew the 55.

Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Susan from Maine. Susan from Maine. It is. Northern, central, southern, or what? Kind of. Middle. Southern.

You don't really want to divulge. You don't want friends and family to know. Near Portland. Okay. And that's southern, huh? It is. Well, I guess. Oh, Maine is expansive, man.

It's very large. You ever look at the map of Maine? You get like halfway up. They ain't no roads no more. Yeah. The road map stops. Did you ever notice that? Just be on Portland as a matter of fact.

Well, maybe a little beyond that, but there's, that's it. There's no more roads. It's like uncharted, wilderness. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. Thank God.

So what's up, Susan? You got a car? I have a car. I have a 97 Subaru wagon. Good. And I'm not sure if the car is the problem or if the man in my family are the problem. Oh, really? Okay.

Go ahead. Okay. About seven months ago, I went and got my car inspected and three of the tires didn't pass. And they said, three tires are bad. One is good. So I said, great. I'll buy three new tires.

And the fellow at the shop. said, well, people usually buy four. So I said, okay, why should I buy four? And he said, well, so they'll match. And I said, well, why do I care? And he said, well, so they'll all have the same tread. And he still didn't have a good reason. So I bought three tires.

And my father and my brothers ever since have said three, nobody buys three, but even they can't tell me and can't explain why you buy tires in two or four. So I'm curious if I really needed to buy all four tires. And in the future, what happens if I, like, buy four new tires and then three months later, one goes flat? Do I buy one new tire or do I buy two new tires or four new tires? This is a question that has dogged us. Oh, man, it's plagued philosophers for centuries.

Sophocles. Sophocles discussed this very issue as I remember. On Subaru wagons, too? Well. Well. Sort of. Subaru hadn't been, wasn't around then. Right, but there were chariots.

But Fiat's work. Anyway, you wouldn't go to a shoe store and buy two different shoes. True. Because for obvious reasons, appearance-wise, it would just, it wouldn't work. Yeah. But you're not concerned with appearances on your car. What you are concerned with, however, is the handling. braking and driving characteristics of the vehicle, how it handles in the rain, for example,

how it stops in the rain, how it corners. And very often, if you have two very different tires on the car, you can have peculiar characteristics exhibited. We sort of have forgotten how difficult it is to get something to go smoothly at high rates of speed. I mean, you remember when you were a little kid and you had like a little red wagon that your big brother used to pull you around on? The one who's teasing

me now? The one who's teasing you now? Yeah. Yeah. And if he really... My big brother used to push me into the oncoming traffic in my little red wagon. You learned. See if you can make it across all the way across Mass Ave, Ramee. When you got a cross route two, I was proud. That was a big... That's my brother.

That knucklehead. But remember when your brother, who thou teases you, really started running fast, that that thing would bounce all over the place. Right. Because it isn't really easy to get something to turn at a high rate of speed and remain smooth. And don't forget, what's going on is what helps all this to happen. What controls it all is where the tire meets the road, as they say. And if you have one tire which has a slightly different tree, tread pattern. And certainly a different size. I mean, for example, if you bought one tire that was a

175 and another one that was a 215, then there would be a significant difference in the width of the tires, which means that the traction you'd be getting on the left side of the car would be quite different from the traction you're getting on the right side of the car. The car will compensate for it, but not well. And so the best thing to do is to buy four tires, all. All the way. And so, All the time. However, if you can only afford three, and that's often the care, I'm sure, Susan, if you had extra cash, you would have bought the fourth tire, or maybe not. No, she wouldn't because she's stubborn.

She's from Maine, and the people who are from Maine are those down-to-earth, give me a reason to do it, and the guy couldn't give her a good reason. And she did absolutely the right thing by saying, the guy is trying to cheat me. The truth is, if the tires are the same size and the tread is not worn out, there's no real great danger in having different manufacturers tires on your car. Assuming they're the same kind of tire, I mean, admittedly, they will have slightly different

characteristics in so far as their ability to handle rain and snow and whatever, you can diminish that considerably by putting the odd payer in the back. Okay. But see, here's what troubles me, Susan. This is a 97 vehicle. Yes. So these tires

that were being replaced were the original tires that came with the car, I presume. Yes. Yes. And so, If three of them needed to be replaced, how far behind could the fourth one have been? I'll tell you why. The fourth one had been replaced already because it had a pole or something in it. So the fourth one was newer than the other three. By a lot?

Maybe a year? So my assumption that it was one of the original tires was wrong, and it wasn't badly warned, and you did the right thing in buying only three. Yeah. And the truth is, how does it handle all right? It handles fine. Fine. Where's the oddball tire?

It's in the rear on the right side. That's a good place for it. Okay. Yeah. And then when I get the tires rotated, they'll just swap it to the other side. Right. And the truth is, with ABS and all that, it's not going to make a heck of you. I'm sure you have ABS with this car.

It's not going to make a heck of a lot of difference. The car will figure out what to do. Yes. And you can probably leave that tire home if you wanted to. You don't even need four. No, threes might be good enough. You did the right thing, so told all the guys in the family to flake off. All right.

Thank you so much. See you, Susan. Thanks for your call. Bye-bye. 1-888-Cart Talk. That's 888-227-8-255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. This is Mike Jethig from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Hello, Mike. How are you? I am doing fine. How about you guys? Not bad. We're doing great. Good. So what's going on?

I have 1980 Buickla Sabre. 3-50 engine. Yeah? I bought it three years ago, not quiet. with 82,000 miles. Wow, pretty good. God knows what that means. The car came from, supposedly from Texas,

got no rust on it. This is the purpose I bought it, I think. But drinks are oil more than I. Hey, what is this wonderful accent that you have? I'm going to guess. Where are you from? Milwaukee. You were born in Milwaukee, huh?

Oh, no, no, I'm not born in Milwaukee. No, I'm going to guess This is European. Yes, you got right. Eastern European. In case if you are Italian, I'm your neighbor. Albania. No.

Yugoslavia. Yes. No kidding. Wow. Yeah. Great. Yeah, my brother thought you were Cuban. He had written down Cuban cigars.

He wanted to see if you had a connection. Well, we can do later. We can discuss it. Because they have to go through somewhere. Yeah, I've got to go somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. Sure, we don't care.

So this thing burns oil, huh? Yeah, I burn one quart on about 250 miles. Oh, really? That's bad. Yeah, bad. But first of all, do we know that it's burning and not leaking? When? No.

No, I'm very, very cautious about leakage anywhere. It doesn't leak nowhere. It doesn't. Okay, and do you see smoke coming out in the back? Well, if I start the engine earlier in the morning when the air is kind of cold, I can see a little smoke coming. But after one, the engine gets hot. I don't see...

Yeah, no, it's trust me. It's there. We have this discussion with everyone. It's called the denial phase. I mean, you want, you know it isn't leaking because you're scrupulous about checking for leaks. Uh-huh. So, and you don't want to believe it's burning it because you know what that means.

So you're hoping that there is some other explanation, like maybe thievery. Uh-huh. That someone's coming at night and taking the drain plug out and stealing. A quart of oil exactly every 250 miles. They must look in, they look at your old dormant. Okay, Mike drove 250 miles. Time to steal another quarter of his oil. Or it's done automatically by some aliens.

Right. Martians, right? Martians. But you know and you are reluctant to accept the fact, obviously, that the oil is being burned by the engine, and it's going to require some work. If you're lucky, it could be merely bad, valve guide seals.

Okay. You need to go someplace and have them remove one of the two valve covers. Okay. And when you do that, you will be looking at the rocker arms and the push rods. Yes. And also the valves and the springs around the valves. If you look in between the coils of the springs, you should see a rubber seal that looks like, you know, an umbrella with a hole through it for the valve stem.

Yeah. If you see that they're all broken and pieces, because what happens after 20 years is they get brittle and they disintegrate. And what can happen then is that device, which is supposed to shed the oil and prevent it from being sucked in through the valve guides, is not doing its job. So you may need to have the valve guide seals replaced. And if you see them broken, immediately fall to your knees and thank your creator because you will. will have just saved about $2,000. Do I have to, when I do that, do I have to park, face the car east? Yes.

Park so it's facing Mecca. You have to cover all possible deities. I thought it's going to help. Good luck, Mike. But have them check. Maybe it is the valve guide seals. If not, you need a ring job. Okay.

But you'll have to call back next week for that. bad news. Okay, thank you very much. Hey, thanks for calling. See you. Bye, bye, bye. Hey, don't go anywhere because we've got a lot more calls. Well, few anyway. And the puzzler answer coming up right after this. Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers, and we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and, duh, the answer to last week's puzzler. What was the puzzler? Well, this came across my desk recently, I think, 1994.

And I don't know if it's true or not, but as I mentioned last week, It's never stopped me in the past. And this came from someone named Dale via our website, which is the Car Talk section of Cars.com. And I can only assume that Dale is a better win. Dale says, I used to work at a marina where we stored and launched boats with a crane. We had a repair shop with about five mechanics, parts to power, you know, all that stuff, and new and used boat sales department.

And as such, I'm sure they had a lot of auto mechanics hanging around the place. One day, a customer with an inboard powered boat, used it for water skiing and left it at the dock overnight. And he came in to use it the next morning and the battery was dead because he left the lights on. So the head mechanic pulls out the battery and takes it to the shop for a quick charge. I mean, you don't bring the mountain to Mohammed, you know, in this case. You bring the battery in. Yeah.

A while later, they take the battery back to the boat. They put it in and try to start it. The starter spins up, you know, you can hear the motor turn, but it doesn't engage the flywheel. Oh. Okay? It started fine several times yesterday, the owner of the boat says. So they pull the starter off thinking it's no good, and they, what, bring the starter inside, they put it on the bench, and they test it.

And every time they hit it with the 12 volts, it works perfectly. The little gear jumps out, and it would engage the... Spins like crazy. So they put it back in the boat, and again, it spins up, but doesn't engage the flywheel. Hmm. A while later, they figured out what was wrong, and they fixed it, and there was nothing wrong with the engine, There was nothing wrong with the starter motor. And I guess I lied a little bit when I said there was nothing wrong with the...

I think so. You think that was a lie? Well, you could make... You could call it a mistake. I could, huh? You could. And you could even explain a way... How would I do that?

You could know, you could prove that there really was nothing wrong with the battery. The battery wasn't faulty. The battery wasn't faulty. Okay, so there was nothing wrong with the engine. The starter motor was okay and the battery was not faulty. No. The battery was the problem. problem, but there was nothing wrong with it.

And the question was, what was the problem? I've never done this before, but I understand it's possible when hooking up the battery charge. If you remember, they took the battery from the boat and brought it into the shop, and they hooked up the charge it to the battery, which was completely stoned dead, obviously, because he left the lights on overnight. And when they hooked it up, instead of hooking the red connector to positive and the black connector to negative, they reversed them.

Yeah. And evidently, the battery will take the charge and reverse, and when they installed it in the boat and hooked the wires up correctly, it made the starter turn backwards. And when that happens, the little gear won't pop out and engage the flywheel. Do we have a winner this week? The winner is Richard Nielsen from St. Paul, Minnesota, and for having his correct answers selected at random from among all the correct answers that we got. Richie Boy is going to get a $25 gift certificate to the Car Talk store on our website. With this $25 gift certificate, he can get what?

$25 bucks worth of stuff. That stuff includes like a stale old Car Talk T-shirt. Pretty nice. Oh, it is. But it's about three years old, but that's okay. Which leads me to our next topic, which is the new Car Talk T-shirt. We have a new T-shirt? What does it look like?

No, we don't have a new T-shirt yet. Oh, no? Because our listeners haven't designed it yet. You may recall the way we got the whole T-shirt in the first place. is we had a contest. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. A contest we had there a couple years ago. Oh, yeah, we had a contest,

and so you're going to, you're going to decide. Well, what would the author so-called of the winning t-shirt design get? Well, his or her t-shirt will be made available by stations all over this great country of ours during next spring's fundraiser. I said, what will they get?

Well, they'll get a gross of cut on T-shirts. Pretty good, huh? Are they cotton? Absolutely. Good. That means they make decent rags? Well, they do indeed. Anyway, we will have a new poetic mathematics.

This is inspired by William Shakespeare, a.k.a. Guilelmo Jetalancha. Yeah. Jettalansha. I got a Jat Jatelancha. I've got to get a lunge now, I think. Anyway, that puzzle will 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 about your car or Shakespeare or whatever. The number is 888 Car Talk. That's 888-2278-255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi. Yeah. You're supposed to ask me what my name is. But you're supposed to just tell us.

Okay, hi. Let's start again. Okay. Say hi. Okay. Who's this? Hi. Hi.

This is Paula. Hi. Hi, Paula. And now we're supposed to ask you where you're from. Okay. Where you're from, Paula? I'm from Cambria in California. Cambria, this is going to be a tough call.

Yeah, I know. She's got an attitude. All right, Paula. Okay. We're all yours. Permission to treat the caller as hostile. What's up, Paula? Well, don't you want to know where Cambria is?

No. California is pretty big. Yeah, we know that. Do you know where Cambria is? Where? Cambria sounds north today. Yeah, it sounds like it's the ureca. Yeah, not that far north.

Actually, we're right by Hearst Castle. Of course. Yeah, so it's right by the ocean. It's nice. Yeah, I bet. Sun's out. No snow, no, no sleep. Yeah, go ahead.

Rub it in. See if you've got a right answer. All right, now what do you want? Okay. I was trying to sell my 94 Toyota pickup. Okay. It's a five speed. Mm-hmm.

And it's a short bed. Gotcha. Okay, so I was going to sell it, and this guy was real interested, So he took it to a mechanic. So he ran a compression test, and he put the car on a machine, and it passed everything until they took a syringe of gas, and they put it into the radiator, and then they draw the gas back in,

and if the gas has turned a certain color, you have a cracked head. That's what he told me. I'm going to try that with my brother. Where can I get this gas? I don't want to know where you put this. the gas. Well, what they, the test they did, we have the same little device. You mounted on top of the radiator, and you actually use a little, an eyedropper, but much bigger. As you squeeze

this little bulb. Like a turkey baster. This thing sits on top of the radiator with the engine running and the cap off, and it sits on the opening. And as you press the bulb, you suck air through this cylinder with the liquid in it. And as such, you pull vapors from insuff. And the radiator through this liquid. And if there are carbon, unburned hydrocarbons present in that mixture, then it'll turn the stuff from blue to green. However, I found out that over the years

that this is an inaccurate test because if you get any of the liquid from the radiator in there, which in many cases is what? Green. It will change the stuff to green, making you think that you have a blown head gasket or a cracked head when, in fact, you don't. So go ahead.

Tell the rest of your story. Okay, so the rest of the story. Like Paul Harvey. Is he still alive? Yes. Oh, yeah, he's still sort of mobile. Oh, no, he's actually pretty good. See, someday we're going to be saying that about you guys.

Someday. Our wives are saying it now. Ooh. Ooh. Okay, you know the good part? I don't have a husband to give me a bad time about this. Ah, good for you. So, anyway, what happened was...

Good for him. Oh. Now you're not invited to hand in the area. This is getting nasty. It is. It's getting ugly. Maybe we can wrap this up for the next 30 seconds or so. Okay.

Well, anyway, I wanted a second opinion. So I went to another mechanic, and he said, no, I've seen this happen all the time. And he said, a lot of times they will give you a false reading. So what test did he does? He did no test. He did check the compression and looked at the head. There's no oil leaks. There's nothing wrong.

So now you've decided not to sell it. Well, no, the guy decided not to buy it. I want you guys to tell him that it's okay. We can't tell him that. Because you need another test done. Because all he's done is, all you've done so far is suggested that the test that was done was inconclusive or wrong. but there's nothing that you've done to prove that you don't need a head gasket. You may well need one.

What the heck do we know? Why? We're sitting here in the cold frozen law. We barely know you. We just met you a few minutes ago and you expect us to perjure ourselves for your lousy truck? Uh-huh. No, I mean, the trouble is that in order to prove that you don't need a head gasket, you've got to do another test. Okay.

And the definitive test is to use an exhaust gas analyzer to sniff the vapor. coming out of the radiator. Okay. So that's different than it, because it passes the smog test. No, that's the tailpipe test. You're going to use that same smog tester to sniff the vapors in the radiator. In other words, the probe that they stick in your tailpipe is now going to sit on top of the radiator with the cap off and with the engine hot, there will be steam coming out. You hope not contained in that steam are unburned hydrocarbons.

Okay. If the exhaust emissions tester starts to read 50, 60, 70, 90, 100 parts per million of hydrocarbons than you have a blown head gasket. Assuming that it stays near zero, you're all set. So have someone do that test, and then you can go back to this guy and say, see, I told you. Yeah. But he will have bought another truck by then, so don't waste your time.

Okay. But at least you'll know that you don't have a truck that needs a head gasket. And you can sell it to someone else. Yeah. Even my brother would buy it. You want to buy a truck? No. He doesn't want.

Not from you. He doesn't know. Paula, it's been a pleasure. brightened up our day. Okay. Thanks for calling. Okay. Bye, bye.

Bye. She was trouble right from the beginning. I knew it. All right, you're going to ask my name. Aren't you going to ask my name? Who runs the show? I saw her. Well, for the last eight minutes.

It was her. It was Paula from Cambria, California. Hi, this is, you just call contact. This is Paula. All right, look, in just a minute, I will make a grilled eggplant emerged from my lefty air.

You will? No, but I'll it after that promo, even my lousy puzzler. It'll sound intellectual. We'll be back in a minute. We're back. You're listening to Car Toll. Don't wake me up like that. With us click and clack the Tappard brothers, and we're here

to discuss cars, car repair, and, duh, the new puzzler. The new, what did you call it before? Poetic or something? Shakespearean. Shakespearean, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay, well, this is, I'm going to recite an equation. Okay, but you're going to write this

down because you can't commit this to memory. No. So I'll give everyone a minute to get a pencil. Okay, time's up. And when you miss it, go immediately to the website and it'll be there. It'll be there. Okay. But I'm going to provide you with an equation.

And from that, you are going to give me a limerick, which consists of five lines. You know, there was a young da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And it doesn't have any... Any reference to Tann Tuckett or the band at the walled off of Astoria. So we get that straight, right off. But it is nonetheless a limerick. It is nonetheless a limerick, and I'll even give a little hint.

Okay. Here it is. Get your pencil. Wait a second. You're going to write, this is going to be the numerator of a fraction. Okay. Twelve. Yeah.

Plus 144. Yeah. Plus 20. Mm-hmm. plus three times the square root of four. Yeah. All divided by seven. Yeah.

That's the first part of it. Mm-hmm. Plus five times 11. You with me? Yeah. Equals nine squared plus zero. Oh, ha, ha. Okay, I'll repeat it.

Yeah. The numerator is 12 plus 144 plus 144 plus. plus 20 plus three square roots of four divided by another denometer is seven. So that whole quantity is added to five times 11. And now that whole thing on the left equals nine squared plus zero. And I'm going to give the last line of the limerick. And you've got to come up with the other four lines. the last line is

is 9 squared and not a bit more Now if you think So it's da da da da da da da da da da da da da da It's nice Just think of Nantucket da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da And the band from the Waldorf story

Is nine squared and not a bit more Is there anything such as, is there anything like a, is there anything as a clean limerick? No. I don't know any. No, this one is. So if you think you can express this mathematical equation as a limerick. Just give us the last line again. Is nine squared and not a bit more.

Now, if you think you know the answer, write it on a postcard or a Mitsubishi flat plasma TV set. And send it to it. We're going to hit on one of these. I'm telling me. Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, box 3500, Harvard Square,

Cambridge, Alafacity, Matt 022338. Or, of course, you can email your answer from the Car Talk section of Cars.com if you'd like to call us,

and I don't imagine why you would. 1-888-Cartalk is the number. That's 888-227-8-255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. This is Dr. Paul from Dallas, Texas. calling. Hi, Doc. Paul.

Yeah. Is that first name or last name? Well, that's my first name. All right. He wouldn't give his last name. No, your friends, my colleagues might be listening. And where are you from, Doc? I'm originally from the Northeast, but right now I'm living in Dallas, Texas, and I feel like

I've been living in a country western song for the past year. Really? About a year ago, I'm in a horrible car accident. While I'm in the hospital, they find that I have cancer. My wife leaves me. I've been recovering for the past year since then. Did your dog die? And my dog died.

And now you're on car talk. It just doesn't stop. Because now I'm on car talk. Well, what I find out now, okay, I'm just out of the hospital, and I'm driving the insurance rental car, because I don't have my own car now. Of course, not it got totaled in the accident. It got totaled in the accident.

And so I find that now I'm in a market for a car. And my friends have been pointing out to me that, you know, this is an important decision because you've got a new lease on life. You've got a chance for a new wife. Yeah. You know, and so you've got to pick the right car. Sure. Okay, so I'm asking, you know, so that I attract the right woman. What kind of?

Well, and so that's why I'm asking you guys. Everyone's definition of the right woman is different. And you tell us what you're looking for. In a woman. And then we'll, first of all, correct that. and then we'll go ahead and recommend a car. Yeah, go ahead. Well, you know, I'm thinking someone who's down to earth, loyal and cute.

Down to earth? You're on a Labrador retriever. With blonde hair and I'm there, you know? Loyal and cute, down to earth. Yeah. You know, I like to do some sports things, but, you know, I like to go skiing, and camping, but I also... You want an outdoorsy

type, not necessarily, but you'd like... Who also wouldn't mind going to the museum and the art? You know, that's kind of... Oh, come on, would you? So you're not looking for a burned-out country, western teased hair?

No. No. So you want outdoorsy, maybe, but yet intellectual. You want someone who's not going to say, I don't want to go to the museum. Right. Someone who's willing to go with the flow.

Go with the flow. Ah. And you don't want to... this gal to fall in love with you because you're driving a $55,000 a Toyota Land Cruiser necessarily? No, no. What did you drive that you racked up? I had a Buick Lasaber.

Oh, you kidding me? That was big. Oh, no, that's the wrong car. Well, but that was a married guy's car. Oh, yeah. Your wife probably insisted on that car. Yeah, you weren't going to pick up any babes with a Buick Lasaber. Well, you are, but you wouldn't call them babes.

Right, and they got blue hair. They may have been babes at one point, so what age group are you looking at? Well, 18 to what? Yeah, you know, that sounds like a good place to start. But what's the upper limit? I don't have an upper limit. That tells you something. Right.

So you go on 18 to what? Like 40s? 40s, yeah. 40s. 18? And you must be 60 then. I'm in my 40s. I see you in a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Really? Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. It says that you're self-sufficient, independent, and you're relatively well-off without being show-offy, you know, and egocentric. Yeah, you think so. Yeah. So I think the Jeep Grand Cherokee does it for me.

Because it'll attract, you know, a woman who's not afraid to jump up into the seat. It doesn't necessarily want her door. held open for her. You're going to get away from the princesses. Yeah. You don't want a princess. Is that right? Right.

Yeah. Try that. Been there, done that. Yeah. I'm getting too old for that. Yeah. I would, you know what to do? You need to rent a few vehicles and see how it works out.

I would get a, you know, a weekly rental on a, on a Jeep Grand Cherokee. You can do that. Yeah. And try a few dates. And see what happens. Yeah. Oh. Now, if you're looking for the 18.

to 22 year old, you can't beat a Volkswagen Beetle. Now, that's the, you know, I've asked a couple waitresses, and they keep on saying the beetle, because they think it's a cute car. You did the, it's good research, man. You asked the target market what they like. When I test drove that vehicle, if I didn't have the doors locked, God knows how many young babes would have jumped in the front seat. Yeah, I didn't have the doors locked.

No, I knew that. No one jumped in. No one jumped in. They came close until they saw who was in there, And then they ran the other one. But you might want to try the Volkswagen, too. And never, never, never forget the power of the Mazda meata. Ah.

Oh, see? And the Mazda meata has the added benefit that even if you don't scoop any babes, you're driving around in a Mazda Miata. How about that? Oh, I almost forgot. More important. The dog. More important than the.

vehicle is a puppy. A puppy? You gotta have a... Are you kidding me? Yeah. I mean, you can be driving around in a rambler. And if you got a puppy in the front seat, you're in fat

city. But if you got a Miata, you only got, you know, where do you put the girl? You got the puppy and then... Well, I... The talk is going to have to run alongside. Good luck, and we'll be calling from time to time

to see how you're making out, so to speak. Thanks. Good luck, Doc. Good luck. Take care, guys. I hope you feel better. Well, it 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, Punkinlips, Berman.

Our associate producers are Froucah, Catherine Fenalosa. Thank you. And Louis Cronin, the Barbarian. Our engineer is Dennis' former Car Talk Menace Foley. This is Dennis' last week with us. Oh, man. Bummer. Talk about rats deserting a single thing.

And we are. This could be our last show. Right. Stick it out for another couple of weeks. How long can it last? Come on, another couple of weeks you couldn't stay with us? Our senior web lackey is Doug the old gray mayor and our technical, spiritual, and menu advisor is the Buggster. John Bugsie make that two triple cheeseburger's loller. Our public opinion pollster is Paul Merkey of Merkey Research, assisted of course by statistician Marge and Overa. Our customer care representative is Haywood Jabez From the New Delhi office, our Blues coordinator is Muhammad Dundtolme.

Our divorce attorney is Carmine, not yours. Our Russian chauffeur is peak off and drop off, and our seat cushion tester is Mike Easter. Our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Chederman Howe is Uluis Dewey, known to the other guys sleeping in the public flower beds of Harvard Square as Ui Louis Dewey. Thanks so much for listening. We're clicking clack to Tapper 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 in the studio is Car Talk Plus's chief mechanic, Mr. Vinnie Gulbach. Vinnie. Thank you very much now. If you's out there want to copy of this year's show, which is number 17, you can get one on the web.

Just head on over to the online store at the Car Talk section of Cars.com, you know? Hey, Vinnie, if I wanted something else, I mean, like, you know, like the father's CD, why you should never listen to your father when it comes to Cars. When I go to that same website, then? No, I think you go to www. What do I got to do? Spell it out for you.com. Of course you go to that same site,

the Card Talk section of Cars.com, or you order the old-fashioned way by calling 888 card junk. Thank you, Vinnie. That was an effective and concise little presentation there. Hey, present this radio, boy. Car Talk is a production of Dewee Cheetaheeman Howe and WBUR in Boston.

And even though Pedro Martinez throws one into the grandstands, whenever he hears us say it, This is NPR National Public Radio.