The Best of Car Talk - #2628: Big Freshman on Campus

Episode Date: April 7, 2026

Missy’s son is going to be a freshman at Boston University -where Car Talk is produced- and he wants to buy a sweet new ride to improve his social status. But Click and Clack are already having problems finding parking on campus, so he isn’t getting the green light on that idea. Can the boys come up with a non-automotive alternative? 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.NPR 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 diversification department of Car Talk Plaza. Yeah, so. I like it. In the interest of trying to broaden our appeal, we decided to try to branch out. And the other day, my brother and I and Dougie Berman and Dougie Mayer,

went over to the public golf course at Franklin Park right here in Boston. Beautiful downtown Boston, sort of. goal was to review golf carts. Now, who did we do this for? Golf cars. Travel and leisure golf, Doug says. Yeah. What's that? A magazine?

Yeah, it's a magazine, and they showed up with their entourage of helpers and photographers. Man. It was fun, but there were several unfortunate incidents. There were incidents. There were incidents. So we all pile under these golf carts and we take off, and the first thing that happens is Berman's dog, Zuzu. Well, Doug is in front.

I saw the whole thing happen. Doug is in front of me and he's driving like a nutcase. He thinks he's doing the downhill slalom. He takes a severe left turn. And Zeus was flying out. Flying out the right side of the car. And he says, oh! See, you're rolling down the fairway.

At least you're going to yell four or something. She should have been given a little warning, the poor thing. As interesting as it is, the next calamity, involves Berman too. Oh, that's right. He's trying to climb. We had a front-wheel drive golf cart. I mean, we were doing real test drives on these babies.

They were brand-new, new style even, in this case. He tries to climb a hill. What happens? He gets stuck. 500 golfers, angry golfers are behind him. Kill him. It was interesting that these golf cars, what are golf cars.

They're golf carts. They're golf carts, yeah. Although one of them, the gym, is a car. It's actually street legal someplace wacko out west. North Dakota. Of course. How about Montana? Not yet because it won't go over 100.

But it was the only one that was a front-wheel drive vehicle, and it's the only one that wouldn't make it up the hill. Right. And then at the top off the day, we had a visit from an officer of the law. Yeah, what was his problem? Evidently, someone had reported a disturbance of the peace on this public golf course, and we were in. I guess we were just having too much fun.

It was good. It was good. The sun was out, and we had a rollicking good time. And it was better than working. How would we know? Anyway, if you'd like to ask us about your car or your golf cart? We're now experts in golf carts. We know everything about golf carts.

See, now we can take calls about golf carts. Indeed. 888 car talk. That's 888-227-8-25-0-11. lawyer on car talk. Gentlemen, how are you? This is John from Massachusetts. I live in Amherst, work in Boston, and hang out in Worcester during the week.

God, that's a long haul? Oh, it is, it is. And I have a unique, it appears to be a unique problem because nobody's helping me with this. Oh, great. We love these. Is it a golf cart problem, or is it just a regular old vehicle? No, it's a 91 Buick Skylark. Yeah.

that I cannot leave for more than 10 hours without starting it. But interestingly, it may start. If it doesn't start at the 10th hour, if I leave it for an hour, I can jump in it and start it. So at the moment, what I've been doing is running the car for a couple of minutes at 11 o'clock, so it'll start in the morning. I leave, I go down to the garage at one or two in the afternoon to start it. so I can leave. I've had everyone, I've had three different places look at it.

They have told me, somebody told me that there was oil building up in the valves. And so I couldn't get enough crank, and I'm saying I thought they were oiled in the valve anyway. So what happens when you, so you, let's say, for example, you came home from work. Yep. And you parked in front of the house. Yep. And you went out 10 hours later, which might be the next morning. Right.

You turned the key and what happens? It sounds like a normal crank. So it's going, I can do this. Fast. It does that, but it won't stop. And then it gets softer, and then all of a sudden, I mean, there'll be nothing. Okay.

And does anything else work at this point if you try the headlights to radio? Yeah. Okay. Everything works. Yeah. Then I go in the house. I can come back out in an hour. Not really time seems to be a critical factor here.

Yeah. Because I've gone out earlier and I couldn't do it. But I'll go out, turn the key, and the car will start. Now, when it cranks and then it begins to diminish and go into the no-nothing mode, right. How long does that process take? I would say, you know, you could do maybe four cranks. Yeah, okay.

So it would go one, one, one, one, one, for 20 seconds. Right. And then you'd do that again for 20, so 80 seconds altogether. Yeah, about. At which point you turn the key and it goes real. Right. It does it yet. Nothing.

Got it. Well, has anybody done anything to it? Somebody has checked all the fuses. It's not a fuse. I've had the alternator's new. It's, I got to put in the car in February. They checked the alternator in the battery. They said all the tests on that worked out.

I don't believe that. I don't either. Okay. I think your battery is incapable of holding its charge. Correct. So if you drive it for a period of time, i.e. from Amherst to Boston or wherever you go. Right. You charge up the battery because your alternator, which is new, is working and doing its job.

The battery, however, in order to start the car the next day, whether it be 12 hours or 10 hours later, must be able to hold that charge. And if it doesn't, and the charge degrades, it only affords you a few seconds of cranking before the thing goes dead. It shouldn't do that. You should get much more than 80 seconds of cranking out of a good battery. Right. Especially since the weather has not been zero degrees, as it usually. is around here, you should be able to crank that thing for many, many minutes.

But it... But nothing! You need a battery! And I don't care who checked out the battery and said it was okay. He was wrong. I think so, too. I think so, too. I mean, there is a possibility that the alternator is no good.

Well, there is also a possibility that you have a current drain, something that over a period of hours is draining the battery down and weakening it. artificially. For example, it would be the equivalent of leaving your headlights on. Right. Yeah. So if you did all your parking lights,

let's say you parked. I've tried, I make sure everything's off. Have you ever, have you ever at night sneaked in to the glove compartment? Yes.

Yes, I looked in the glove compartment. And was the light on when you looked in there? It's like the refrigerator light. I mean, you can't tell if it goes off unless you're inside. Well, I could. I mean, the way this,

this is a slide. I mean, I have tried. tried to, and I do see the light go off. Well, ask your mechanic to check for a current drain. Okay. This is easy to do. And it's easy to do with a test lighter of voltmeter. Yeah.

If there is no current drain, ask him to load test the battery. Okay. And not test it with a volt meter or anything like that, but with an actual load imposed on it. And I bet you within about 10 seconds, this thing will go down to 8 volts, which is no good. Okay. And I feel that you need a batter. I feel strongly about this, John.

I do, too. And I wish you the very best, John. Thank you. See you. I need some sleep. Thanks very much. Bye-bye. Take care.

I have to get up every couple hours to start up the car. She just leave it running at night. I would leave it running all night. Why not? All right, Tommy. Do you remember anything about last week's puzzle? Not a single thing. I didn't think so.

Well, it's about three coins in a fountain. Except there's no fountain. And there are actually 50 coins, not three. Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us. Click and Clack the Tappert Brothers, and we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and the answer to last week's puzzler, which my brother claims he has the answer to. Yes, I do. And this is one of my series of coin puzzlers.

Like the series of string? String. Match stick. Match stick. Right. Anything else? You have anything else? Series going?

Pills. Pills. Pills. Coyns, pills. Yeah. Automotive. Excellent. You can write a book about this, you know?

Get out. I'd work on it if I would you. Imagine that you have in front of you 50 coins that look identical, except one of them is fake. And the fake one weighs a couple of grams more than a real coin. And what you have at your disposal is a balance scale. You know, you put stuff on one side and the other side, and if they weigh the same, with what? It weighs the same. Balances.

And you know, if you put the fake coin on one side and the real coin on the other side, the scale would tip and obviously indicate which one is the fake, right? Yeah. So this is a two-part question. Part one, with that balance scale in your 50, 50 coins. A lot of coins. What is the fewest number of wings you can use to absolutely identify the fake coin? That's the first part. What's the second part?

And part B, how come it's four? Yeah, I remember this puzzle now. At first blush, you would think, because of other puzzles of this ilk, that you would divide the 50 coins in half. And 50 is conveniently divided. in half, right? Yeah. So you do 25 and 25, that's weighing number one. Right.

You find out that it's on the left side. Then you do 12 and 12 with one left over. And... Assume the worst case scenario. Worst case scenario. One of them's heavier. Right. That's two.

Right. Six and six. That's three. Three and three. That's four. And then... It takes five. No matter how you do it, using that system, it don't work.

So you had to come up with something a little more clever. Yeah. And what you do is divide the... coins into three piles. Oh my God. Two piles of 17 and one of 16. Yeah. And so you take the two piles of 17, you put those on the scale and you keep the 16 pile aside. Right? Yeah. Right away, you can see that you're going to eliminate not half the coins, but two thirds of the coin. Oh, man, it's so beautiful, isn't it? It's beautiful. So let's assume that one of the 17s is the heavier one. You throw everything else away. That's right. And now you've only made one way.

You only made one way. You narrowed it down to 17. You narrowed it down to 17 coins. Yeah. Okay. Now you could divide the 17 and half, but better still, divide it in thirds. Why not keep doing what you're doing again? Oh, this is beautiful. It took me a while to figure this out. Yeah, well, with all the hints I gave you. So you divide it in thirds. So you got six and six and five. Yeah. Okay. And that's the second way. You haven't done anything yet. You haven't done anything, but you're going to put the six and six on.

Right. Okay. And you can see very clearly that you've got it. That you're going to be able to do this because you're going to go six and three and three and three and one and that's it. And bingo. And the key is once you figure out the idea that you're going to divide it into three piles and not two, it jumps right out at you. And I mean, I always thought that the binary search was the only way to. go. Well, there you go.

Who's our winner this week? The winner is Judy Shalito. I like that name. From Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Hey, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Amtrak train goes right through Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. And does the guy come down the island say, Mount Pleasant? No, because it usually gets to Mount Pleasant at 2 o'clock in the morning. He doesn't say anything.

Oh, he does this. Mount Pleasant! Is that what he does? Well, Judy, Judy Shalito, for having your answer selected at random from among all the correct answers that we got, you're going to win a $25 gift certificate to the Car Talk Shamedless Commerce Division or the Car Talk Store on our website. And with this, you can buy a copy of our new book in our humble opinion. The fat joke.

But, I mean, that would make the publisher happy because, as we said last week, we don't care if you buy the book or not because he's getting all the money. From now on. From now on. Yeah. Yeah. Because they were crazy enough to give us money in advance. Yeah, and they're smart enough now not to give us any more.

Hey, well, congratulations, Judy. Good work, Judy. Anyway, we'll have a new, I'm trying to decide what kind of puzzle it to use. I have a plethora of putrid. And I've used a couple of good ones in a row here. Yeah. I think it's time to maybe mix in a... I think it might be.

A stinko one. No, you've had a... You are definitely on a high roll. If you had another good one, you would be setting... A precedent which you would never be able to. Unattainable. You think so? Okay, I think you should choose from the plethora of putres.

So we will have a semi-putrid automotive. Semi? Oh, we're going to work your way down. Foloric, an historic puzzle coming up in the third half of today's show. Great. So stay tuned for that. I'll give you a little more of a hint. It's a, what am I puzzler?

I know what it is. Wow, you're clairvoyant. No. Stop calling me. In the meantime, you can call us and ask us questions about your car. The number is 1-888-8-8-8-8-2-2-5. Hello, you're on car talk. This is Baman calling from Philadelphia.

And I'm calling about my car. Say it. B-A-H-M-A-N. I love it. What kind of a name is that? What kind of name? It's Persian, Iranian. Persian.

Baman? Yes. I love it. Well, I'm glad you do. Yeah. I'll tell my mom you like my name. Sounds peaceful. Well, actually, it actually translates into an avalanche or tornado in our language.

Oh, yeah, that's peaceful. It's peaceful, yeah. My brother's got a sense for this. I know language, man. Same no, I was little every time my mom passed by my room. She said I definitely named you properly after seeing my room. Well, she's the one who came up with a name. That's right.

So what's up, man? I mean, Bob. I have a Honda Civic, 97. It's got 37,000 miles on it. The issue is when the car is still, when I first turn on the car, or even throughout the day, whenever I turn on the car, if I'm perfectly still, if you, like, put your hands on the steering wheel, you can feel the car shaking, vibrating in the same sense that on a really cold winter day with any car when you first turn it on, it's kind of like shaking, kind of cold. But cold or hot, it doesn't matter. The car kind of vibrates. You've had this car since new?

Yeah, 1997. And has it been doing this ever since the day you got it? No, it's been about a year now. And I'll tell you exactly what it started last winter, but I was like, no, it's just, you know, colds cold. It's just cold. When you're moving, it's perfectly fine. It shakes even when it's in park or only when it's in drive. It's when the car staying, so it doesn't matter what gear it's in.

If the car is not moving, that's when I feel. So it's in drive, and you get your foot on the brake, and it's the same as it is. Exactly, exactly. Whether it's a park or drive, exactly. Now, maybe when I'm moving, maybe the sound of just the moving cars. sure, you know, overwhelming whatever's going on underneath. Right, all the other shakes. The moving has nothing to do with it because it would always be okay.

Right. Unless there was something drastically wrong. Right. I mean, there are two things that come to mind. Uh, what were they? All right, there's one thing that came right to mind. I don't know. No, there are two things that come to mind.

One is that you have a vacuum leak in the engine. And a vacuum leak would cause one of the cylinders, or maybe more than one, to not fire with the same intent. intensity because the mixture is getting leaned out as the other cylinders. Okay. And that might not be so easy to find, but that might be the first thing I would look for. And if you have a vacuum leak, you'll notice the engine is shaking, even as you look at it running in park, you'll notice it not running smoothly and evenly. Right.

If, however, you're feeling vibrations being telegraphed through the chassis and the steering wheel, chances are you have a bad motor mount. Mad motor. That's what I thought it was. I could feel bad motor mount. You could have a bad motor mount, but it could easily be a vacuum leak, which is causing the engine to not run on all four cylinders. Right. And these, because there's so little mass in these cars, that any little vibration or anything that's out of whack, immediately manifests itself as a whole car kind of vibration.

The car is literally less than three years old. I mean, isn't that something that should be covered by Honda, that it's just a bad part? Absolutely. I would go back and complain. Yeah, especially if you tell them it's been doing this for a year. Have you been to the dealer to complain about this vibration? I have. Well, actually, you know what, it's at 37,000, I guess I passed my 36,000 mile warranty, but that's okay.

But that's okay, because you complained of the problem prior to the 36,000 mile. Right, and if they don't give you satisfaction, call us next week, which I got to turn your dormit. I was going to say, do you. See, Bobman. Thanks a lot. Thanks for calling. Bye, bye, bye. All right, it's time for us to take a short break and get ready for the new puzzler.

You're getting ready, huh? Gonna do some last minute research, huh? Hey, nobody likes a wise guy. We'll be back in a minute. Ha, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack the Tappert Brothers, and we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and the new, the new puzzler.

Pudrid. Semi-putrid. Puzzler. Yeah. Yeah. From the putrid collection, just like you've got the coin collection, the string collection, the series. Oh, yeah. The string series, the coin series.

By far, the Pudit collection. It's a Pudrid series. Yeah, there's a whole. wing devoted to the future collection. I like it. You know, cars have evolved a lot over the last hundred years, and they've been around about 100 years, and parts have changed composition over the years. For example, the wheels of cars used to be made out of wood.

Wooden spokes, and then they evolved into steel, and then now most wheels are made out of some kind of magnesium aluminum alloy, okay? Or cream cheese. Or cream cheese. Dashboards used to be made out of wood. Yeah. Okay, and then they became made out of steel. And now they're made out of cream cheese.

Yeah. So I'm going to do a little what am I, and I'm going to tell you what I used to be made out of. I love it. And you're going to tell me what I am. It already is out of the realm of Putron because it's so clever. What am I? What am I? Go ahead.

In the early days of cars, I didn't even exist. when they saw a need for me, I was first made out of wood. Later on, when they discovered that that didn't work too well, I was made out of leather. Sometime later, I was made out of cotton. Huh? You with me? Wow. Yeah.

Today, I am made out of a mixture of things, some of which are, steel wool, iron, and bronze. What am I? Who the hell knows? Now, if you think you know the answer, write it on a postcard or a pair of Red Sox Seasons tickets, preferably something behind home plate. Yeah. And how are we doing with the Carpathian Elm, Walnut, Burrough, Squad, huh? Yeah.

How about the sound system? How about the room-sized TV screen? Haven't seen. We have to do a spot check on Berman's house because he says none of these things are shown up. He's having an addition put on his house for the widescreen TV, the dining table. Catherine, you're the only one we can trust. No, we can't. No, we can't trust her either.

No. We can't trust her either. We're alone. We can't have to start showing up at work. I can't even trust you. Anyway, if you're thinking of all the answer, run it on a postcard or anything else you want to send us and send it to Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3,500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair City.

Matt 02238. Or you can email your answer from the Car Talk section of Cars.com. If you'd like to call us, the number is still 1-888-8-8-8-8-8-2-7-8-25. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Missy from Amherst, Massachusetts. Hi, Missy. Missy. Hi.

That's a name you don't hear much anymore. Well, that's true. It's a nickname. Yeah, well, I know. It's cool. So does this mean being from Amherst, you're a student or a college professor? Oh, neither. Neither.

That's right. Good. I have no... One of these hard to categorize people. All right. You don't have to admit anything to us. What's up? Well, I don't exactly have a car problem.

I have a teenage son problem. Oh, geez. The worst kind. Which area of teenagerness is he in? Well, he is 18. Uh-huh. And for you... you to fully appreciate the dilemma I'm in. I have to give you a little background.

My parents, who were very wise and frugal people, spent years saving their money, and they put it aside in a fund for their grandchildren for their college expenses. How nice of them. Well, they put away too much, I'm afraid. Well, I've been, you know, spending years feeling grateful to my parents for their wisdom and foresight. Yeah. My youngest son is now 18. and he will be attending Boston University's School of Engineering in the fall.

Good. And he wants an Audi TT. Well, you're close. But let me tell you a little more. He's also going to be in the Air Force ROTC. And so he has been awarded a great deal of scholarship money. Oh. So he has a lot of money.

Oh, I know he wants. He does want an auto. No, no, no. He wants a five-series BMW. You're close. He wants an Audi-Quatro. Oh, Audi what? A-6?

A-6? A-4? A-4. A-4. Yeah, he feels that he's worked hard, and he's going to owe the military four years of his life after school, and that he deserves this. I mean, here's the question. Yeah. Does, do we want, do we, you and his parents and us who are parents also? Just me, his single mom.

His single mom. All right, we will be surrogate fathers because we're both fathers of teenagers and teenage boys specifically. The question is, do we want this guy to have a car? Mm-hmm. The thing is that going to school at BU, which we happen to be on the premises of BU right now.

Uh-huh. And we don't need any more students with cars. We can't find a parking space because of all these students that come here and drive around. We don't need them to have cars. I have tried to say to him, first of all, he doesn't need a car in Boston. He doesn't.

And second of all, it's going to get stolen and broken into and deep-up. Right. And we're going to do it. And it's going to cost him a lot more of his money to pay for insurance. Has he been here lately? Yeah, we were there last night. Yeah, I mean, Boston really is a city in which you don't need a car. Right.

I don't know what he would use it for if he were here. He feels he needs a car to get chicks. No, a dorm room will do that. Yeah, I don't think he needs a car to get chicks. Yeah, and I don't think he does. I mean, we've got enough of real privileged, snot-nosed BU students, driving around in BMWs and vipers and corvettes. We've got more of them than we could ever need.

I've noticed that. And their parents should really give them dope slaps and send them whole. home, but they're going to be here. Right. So tell you a son that he's going to, does he want to join the ranks of privileged snot-nosed kids? No. And well, evidently, evidently he does.

And besides, but if he thinks it's going to get him girls, he's right. Yeah, that's why we never had me because we were driving around in Ramblers. We were driving around on the MBTA. But I would say, let's compromise it. at least, I would say, let him spend one year without the car. I mean, he's coming in September. I've tried to make this argument. Why don't you wait one year and live there?

Sure. I mean, or at least a semester. So he can find out that really you don't need a car. If anything, it's a hindrance because you can't go anywhere with the car in the city because you can't park it once you get there. Right. Plus, you've got to pay to park it anywhere around town. You can't park it on the street.

it'll cost you $1,000 a week in tickets. Now, of course, there's one more strategy, which is to go ahead and let him buy the car, and then he'll figure this out for himself, and then he'll leave it at my house, and I'll get to drive it. That would be good. That would be good.

You could do that. Then he would have it for the summer, but he really does not need a car. And I honestly don't think that it will be the major component of getting babes. He can just tell him he's got a car. Right. Walk by some car in the car.

street, a Corvette, a Viper, and say, there's my car. Oh, no, he's just telling him, he's got an Audi, but it's in the repair shop. That's been perfectly believable? What you do is, you walk by a car like a Corvette that's got a ticket on it, and you say, oh, damn, another ticket, you pull out, you take the ticket, you're sticking in your pocket, and you continue

walking with the babe that you're walking down. No, better than that, you take the ticket, and you tear it up, and you say, I'm sick of these damn things. I'm paying another damn ticket. You tear it up, and you throw the little shreds in the, in the gutter. I knew you guys would have good shed. There you go for me. Good luck, Missy. Thanks a lot.

I mean, you could spend the money just on paying these tickets for people. All right. Actually, that would be great. That would be great. You could do this every day with a different babe and a different car. But do you think an aiquotro is a... Oh, the Odiquatro is wonderful. And if it's his money, let him...

You know, there are some mistakes that have to be made. Uh-huh. And this isn't the worst mistake he could make. Uh-huh. And don't forget, if he doesn't like it, he'll... You'll end up with the car. And don't forget, the alternative is that you offer him or suggest to him some other even more wonderful alternative for spending this money. Mm-hmm.

And he will even know of more of them. For example, how about spending the summer? What's his name? Zach. No? Joe. Joel. You say, Joe, how about you spend the summer in Rome?

Ooh. And he says... With your mother. with mumsy. No, I would leave that part out. Yeah. Would one of the babes that he meets at BU? All right.

Try that. I mean, that might be an incentive for him to say, geez, would I want to do that or do I want to spend money on a car that I'll never be able to drive? People will smash into it because it's parked on the street. I'll have to pay to get it fixed. Pay for the insurance. Pay for the parking ticket. So he can do this every summer that he's in school and drive a jalopy here.

He can buy himself $1,000. car. I knew I needed to talk to you guys. Yeah, you did. And you'll need to talk to us more after he buys the Audi, but feel free to call back, missing. All right. See you later. Good luck. Thanks so much. Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye. Wow. These issues are getting more and more difficult. But we do come up with more creative solutions. Creative solutions. On the spot. Well, it's happened again. You've underutilized another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk. Our esteem producer is Doug the subway fugitive, if not a slave to fashion, Berman. Our associate producers are Frow Catherine Pickle, Fenalosa.

Pickle? What did we miss? Where did we come up with that? I wonder. And Louis Cronin, the Barbarian. Our engineer is George Hicks. Our senior web lackey is Doug the old gray mayor, and our technical, spiritual, and menu advisor.

Back from the spring free lunch senior tournament is John Bugsy Lawler. Our public opinion poster is Paul Murky of Merkey Research, assisted by statistician Margin Overa. Our customer care representative is Haywood Jabazzon. Our director of new product repair is warranty my foot. Our audience estimator is Adam Ilyan. And our shop foreman is Luke Busy. Our pseudonym consultant is Norm De Plum.

Our dermatologist for teenagers is Don Pickett. The manager of the car talk listener rebate program is Wendy Pigsfly. Our credit card debt manager is Max Stout. Our staff tax preparer is Lionel Little. Our emergency room physician is Henrietta Bad Clam. Our divorce attorney is Carmine, not yours. Our Russian chauffeur is peek off and drop off. and our seat cushion tester is Mike Easter.

Our Chief Counsel from the Law Room of Dewey Cheatham-Mann How is U. Lewis Dewey, known for the authentic Chilean musicians from South Boston in Harvard Square as Ui-Louis-Dooey. Thanks so much for listening. We're clicking clack to Tappert Brothers and don't drive like my brother. Don't drive like my brother or my sister. Pickle, huh? We'll be back next week. Bye-bye.

And now here in the studio we have Car Talk Blas's chief mechanic, Mr. Vinnie Gumbats. Vinnie? Thank you very much now. Now, if you're out there want to copy of this here show, which is number 21, you can get one on the web, just head on over to the online store, also known as the Shameless Commerce Division at the card talk section of cars.com. And what if I wanted something else like the new book, in our humble opinion? When I go to the same site then? No, you dope. You go to www.m.mike Tyson's gut, adult diaper rash.com. Of course, you go to the same site, the car talk section of cars.com.

Or you order by phone, you just call 888 car junk. Thank you, Vinnie. That was very useful information. Hey, use this, right? Car Talk is a production of Dewee Cheatham and Howe and WBOR in Boston. And even though Tipagore wonders if warning labels can be put on radios whenever she hears us say it, this is NPR National Public Radio.