The Best of Car Talk - #2646: Rent a Mongoose Dot Com

Episode Date: June 9, 2026

Brian’s kid is a typical, curious 8-year-old who brought his new buddy, a snake that he had just caught, into their car where it promptly escaped. The little guy pokes his head out from under the dash from time-to-time and Brian wonders if they should start feeding it or sell the car. It’s another episode of Click and Clack’s Wild Kingdom on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.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 to Tappert Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the business school here at Car Talk Plaza. You get an NBA right here. This is from, evidently, a magazine ran a contest and asked people to submit quotes for real-life Dilbert-type managers. We all know Dilbert. Well, not everybody. Dilbert is a comic strip that's probably in about half the paper. in the country. That's all? Well, also, I'm extrapolating. It's in half the papers in Boston.

That's a good sample. What can be wrong with that logic? Not a thing. Okay. Anyway, go ahead. You qualify. You could be a deal of it managed to yourself. Here are a few of the winning entries. One day my boss asked me to submit a status report to him concerning a project I was working on. I asked him if tomorrow would be soon enough. He said, if I wanted it to, tomorrow, I would have waited until tomorrow to ask you for it. I worked for him once. Quote from the boss, what I need is a list of specific unknown problems that we will encounter. And my favorite, and in fact it was their favorite, too, because it came in first.

Here's a note. As of tomorrow, employees will be able to access the building using individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday, and employees will be taken. receive their cards in two weeks. It's like you're getting on a two-week vacation. Well, if you'd like to talk about something stupid, your boss said, or something stupid about your car, or just talk in general. Our number is 888.

I'll just talk stupid in general. Or just talk to a couple of stupid guys. Our number is 888-227-8-255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Kathy from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Ann Arbor, Michigan. so it must be Kathy with a K. Hey, you are one smart guy.

Well, you notice I've never been wrong on the Kathy thing. Oh, come on. I have never been wrong on the Kathy thing because I know the rule. Louis. You find any call. Go through the tapes.

Louis has all the tapes. Louis Cronin has all the tapes. And I guarantee you by this time next week, we'll have at least 10 examples where you say that, Kathy, no, I'm sorry. That Kathy, no, I'm sorry. You'll see. I've never been.

wrong on the Kathy one. Kathy with a K from Ann Arbor. What can we do for you? I have a light plum that's very important. 95 Saturn. Light plum. It has about 86,000 miles on it now. And it has this thing that after I drive it for a little bit of time, probably about 10 minutes at a high speed. If I have to go into reverse, my car will do this very nice. We'll wait for 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, and then it we'll go, clunk, and then I'll be in reverse. Oh, it's an automatic transmission. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Used to be. And about, well, about two months ago, I had to have the head gasket replaced because there was oil in it. There was a crack in something, and Saturn did a recall. Oh, oil was getting into your coolant. Yes, yes, exactly. And so I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but it's a very delicate

cotton. Would you like it to have something to do with it? Okay. That means Senator has to pay for it. That's going to be harder for us because it doesn't have anything to do with it, but we'll work on it. If Saturday has to recall it and pay for it, that would be good. Yeah, no, I don't think we can arrange that. No, it seems.

How many miles are on it again? 86K. Well, if you're really lucky, and it sounds like you're a nice person and deserving of some good fortune. Because I'm a student with lots of loans, yes. Oh, you're done for it. You are done. Well, if you're really lucky, you're just low on transatlose. fluid. Oh, I like that.

Have you ever checked it? Never mind. You don't have to answer if you have to hesitate that long. Let's see what is a transit. Where is the transit? I just got my first set of new tires at 86,000 miles because I didn't know any better. Well, I would take it into your repair shop, and you must have one of those. Okay.

Better still, go to a gas station. Okay. And ask that person at the gas station to check the transmission fluid for you. Okay. That person will pull out the dipstick, check the fluid. And if you're lucky, it's down a quarter or so. Okay. That would be just great.

And if that's the case, filling it up, we'll probably fix this problem. I like that. That doesn't mean that the problem is solved entirely because you're not supposed to lose fluid. You don't burn up transmission fluid like you do engine oil. If you're losing any, it means you have a leak. Oh. And so then once you've rectified the existing, you know, the symptom. The symptom.

There you go. That's it. Then you can go ahead and address the real issue, which is where is it leaking from? So that's something I should ask for for Christmas. Right. But if, in fact, the transmission fluid doesn't fix it, then you're probably in for a rebuild. That's not pretty. Well, you might be eligible for a federal SLTR, which is a student loan for transmission

rebuild. You should investigate that. The website for that, yeah. Yeah, there is a website. See, Kath. All right, thanks. Bye-bye. Bye.

Okay. Of course. One brother's never wrong about that. 1-8-8-8-8-8-8-2. 782.55. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Kathy. I'm from Phoenix. From Phoenix, and that's with a K, absolutely.

Are you sure about that? Yes, I am. So what does it end with? And I. Wrong, Ola. On both counts? Wait, you tricked me on that one. It's Kathy's K-A-T-H-Y. I-E. That's it, finally, finally.

Sure, it's a basic county from Phoenix. I've never been wrong on the Cathy front here. Never. We'll see. We'll have a special addition of thumbs and jumps. Anyway, Kathy from Phoenix, what's up? All right. This is a problem. I've got a 99 caravan that's still under warranty, which is the only reason I ever went to the dealership, because as soon as that 36,000 mile change, I'll be gone. However, I went because I had my brake light coming on on the dash.

Yeah. And so I brought it home, I told my husband, he opens up the hood, well, all the break fluid is drain down. I mean, it's drained down. You know, the whole reservoir part is not full anymore. And, of course, there's probably more underneath, but you can't see that. So he fills it up, the brake light goes off, and he comments to me, you know, these brakes have always been spongy. Now, this is news to me. I've been driving it all over town. I haven't

noticed, but, you know, guys have a better feel for this, I guess. Yeah, well, we want to get into that either. Yeah, well. So I take it to the dealership, and what a big surprise. They can't find anything wrong with it. The brakes are feeling fine. There's no, there's no problem with the brake fluid,

But of course, being low, but of course they do have something that I can pay for is not a pocket expense, which is a brake flush because they say my brake fluid is sick and dark. Sounds like a scam to me. All right. Now, I'm so glad to hear that because I said, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Those are the words, wait a minute. Wait a minute.

Do you mean to tell me I've got a brand-new car, practically speaking, here? Isn't a brake system supposed to be a closed system? If I'm losing significant enough fluid that it comes up as my whole reservoir empty, aren't I in danger of having brake failure? and this guy, my service representative tells me, oh, no, no, no, no, not at all, because you've got 50% wear on your brakes. So that means the calipers have to stretch out further to hit your brake wall, and the fluid goes down to fill that up, and that's why it's low.

He's right about that. Get out of here. Lighten up when you can't be. Well, the fact that it is a closed system, and it is, means that, I mean, when you step on the brake, what happens is the pressure is transmitted by the fluid to the calipers and all that stuff. And as the brakes wear out, as they are supposed to do, they wear out. What does that mean?

Something disappears. Pieces of it disappear. Yeah, but is my brake like four inches thick? I don't think so. No, no, no, it doesn't take very much. No, the brake lining is three-eighths of an inch thick. Right. Right.

And it doesn't take very much. If you're down 50 percent, that means, don't forget, you can. You got two brake pads on the right front wheel. You got two brake pads on the left front wheel. You got two in the back and two in the back. All of those being worn out by half of three-eighths, which is probably four-eights, or one-and-a-half-eights, means that all of that space had to be filled up with brake fluid. And so it's very possible that the reservoir looked like it was almost empty.

That's a lot of break fluid. And then what would happen when you filled it up, what you did was you displayed, you filled up the fluid that was now in the system. Correct. If you now go ahead and put new pads in, you will push that fluid back up through the brake lines and splash it all over the inside of your engine. And the master cylinder reservoir will overflow. Okay, so why was my brake fluid sluggish? Well, I think they were making that. For brackish.

Well, because he knew that all you really needed to do was to fill up the reservoir. Which I had already done. So he couldn't charge you for that because what? You did it. Correct. So he had to find something to charge you for. But what? Okay, here's my second.

Getting rid of her is going to be tough. See, the problem is that, I mean, a lot of dealerships will tell you, don't replace the brake fluid when it looks low, because when we get around to replacing the brake pads, we're going to make a horrible mess because it's going to overflow the reservoir. Well, plus you defeat the inherent. warning system built into the reservoir float mechanism, which is designed to tell you as it reads the drop and brake fluid level that, in fact, your brakes are worn out. So when you saw the light come on, if you weren't so suspicious of the dealership's motives, you would have just

taken the thing in and asked them to check your brakes. At which point they would have said, oh, Kathy, it's time for new breaks. And you would have said, really, after 34,000 miles? And they would have said, well, they do wear out pretty quickly on these new vehicles. And you would have said, oh, okay, if it's not more than 800, go ahead and do it. And that's what a good customer would have done. You know, no one suggested that, that one single person. No, they were afraid of you. As are we.

But you should obviously keep an eye on the fluid level. And if it does seem to drop at a rate that is ever increasing, then you do have a leak. But I would be surprised if you had a leak. And you also have wear indicators on the brake pads, and they will sort of tell you when they're ready to get replaced. Okay. Good luck, Kathy. It's been a pleasure talking to you, and we're very happy that you live in Phoenix, and you're not our country. That could change anything.

That could change any day. Hey, thanks for call. A pleasure. Take care. Bye-bye. All right. Here's your chance, Tommy, to impress everybody. Do you remember last week's puzzler?

Yes. I remember that it was unnecessarily long. It was purposely misleading, and it culminated in a sharp left turn off a cliff. Is that it? No, those are the directions you gave to your mother-in-law for last weekend's visit. Actually, you're right, man. Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us Click and Clack to Tappert Brothers,

and we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and the answer to last week's puzzler. This is going to be great. As I mentioned last week, this came from my Arthur Conan Doyle series. Yeah, right. And it takes place in, of course, the English countryside. It seems there was a terrible accident in a suburb north of London. An inspector Lestrade was sent to investigate. Everyone knows.

Was it Red Hill Surrey? Yes, in fact, it was. I thought so. Seems that Sir Richard Ashcroft was dead, and everyone agreed it was an accident, though some suspected it was a suicide. Sir Richard had had some problems with some non-existent copper mines in Chile. And then that thing with the viceroy's grandmother. I thought it was his granddaughter, but it was his grandmother.

Anyway. Funny guy that. Well, Sir Richard, you know. Anyway, he'd been found on a steep, rocky slope. His head dashed against one of the boulders and his mangled bicycle at his side. The facts seemed to speak for themselves. He'd gone off the road and crashed. This was a very long puzzler, as I remember.

This went on and on. I noticed you dozed off a few times. I'm dosing off now. That's what reminded me. Finally, an eyewitness emerged, Nigel, Sir Richard's trusty Gardner of many years. He was so shocked by Sir Richard's death, he'd been able to speak for several days. But haltingly, Nigel told his story. Yes. I was walking back from town up that long hill leading to Sir Richards when I saw him riding toward me sitting straight up in his seat, the way he always rode.

And he was riding at a high rate of speed, when suddenly he'd driest. jerked the handlebars to the left, and off the road he flew to his death. Lestrade asked, well, why didn't you come forward earlier? Well, Nigel said, you know, I didn't come forward because Sir Richard told me he was taking his own life, and he didn't want to shame the family. But I decided I couldn't keep his secret any longer. I had to let Sir Richard's soul rest in peace. So now I've decided to come forward.

I saw Sir Richard take his own life by flying down this road, jerking his handlebars to the left, going off the road to the left, and crashing into that rock. Later that day, Lestrade is discussing the case with his pal, Sherlock Holmes, over cognac and a few Arturo Fuentes cigars. And Holmes says, bring the gardener in for questioning. He's the perpetrator. Wow. How did he know?

Okay. How did he know? Okay, go ahead. Well, as it's often the case, some puzzlers have, the question is great. Well, you'll decide. I have to say that you have taken a little... A little unknown fact. A little unknown fact, and you've turned it into a little novelette.

And when people hear what the little known fact is, you are going to get so much hate me on. I just want to distance myself from this puzzler now. Well, first of all, I have to roll up my sleeves and spit out my gum for this. Yeah, okay, go ahead. When Nigel saw Sir Richard riding down the road at a high rate of speed sitting straight up in his bicycle the way he always rode, he said that he saw Sir Richard jerked the handle bars to the left and as such make a left-hand turn and crash. Yep. Well, everyone who rides a bicycle knows, or almost everyone knows, that that's not the way you turn a bicycle. In fact, what makes a bicycle stable is the job.

gyroscopic action of the wheels. You're ready? You with me? Mm-hmm. Right? And the fact the way you make lefts and rights is by leaning the bicycling, changing the center of gravity. Oh, that was, well, sitting upright as he always did. So he didn't lean into the turn. Yeah. But you say, well, so what? So what? But he jerked those handlebars to the left, and that would do it.

Yes. And here's the little known fact that Lestrade didn't know. No, because he doesn't ride his bike like Sherlock does. And nor did Nigel. Nor did Nigel. The perpetrator. If you're riding at a high rate of speed and you don't lean, but in fact you decide to make a turn like that by turning your wheel to the left, the bike goes to the right.

Now, my brother, being the incredulous type, decided to try this whilst on vacation on Cape Cod this summer and did spend three rather happy days at Cape Cod Hospital. Covering from its injuries. It's true. I'm not sure I know all the scientific principles involved, but the gyroscope wants to keep the bike going straight. And so it goes the other way. And so it corrects, if you try to make a left-hand turn by turning the wheel,

it corrects and actually makes the bike turn to the right. So Nigel couldn't have seen, Sir Richard, turn the handlebars to the left and exit the road. Yeah, well, I mean, I couldn't get it to happen. I try. If you weren't going fast enough. When I told you with the car, though, you got up to speed. Anyway, who's our winner?

Well, it's Cheryl Cleveland from Lowell, Mass, or maybe Cheryl Lowell from Cleveland, Mass. I don't know. And for having her answers selected at random from among those thousands of correct answers that we've got, Cheryl is going to win a $25 gift certificate to the store at the cart talk section of cars.com. And with that $25 gift certificate, she can buy 1338 of an official car talk Fall jacket. This is how we make the money. We give people $25.

She's going to pay for $13.38. She's going to cough up the rest. Someone's going to pay for the other $2538. Notice how quick my math is? Yeah, that's good. Did you see that? That just happened. Yeah.

I didn't even think. Unencumbered. By the thought process, your forte. This is great. By the way, if you didn't win the puzzler and you still want some of our fashion challenged items, you can find them at the store at the car talk section of cars.com. We'll have a new puzzler.

I won't say anything more. Coming up in the third half of today's show. So stay tuned for that. And as always, you can feel free to call us and ask us a question about your car or anything else. Hey, you know what time it is? Time to check the coolant level in the cappuccino machine? No, no, no, no, no.

It's time to play. Stop the Chumps! Bump, bum. All right, this is the part of the show. I have to read this because I can never remember it. Where we hunt down a previous caller and check on the advice that we gave him or her to see if we have done good or we have done not so good.

Or if we're done full. So who's our lucky player this week? Well, according to the notes, it's Dale, the Oki from Muskogee. Do you remember Dale? No, I don't either. I remember the Oki from Muskogee. Glad to be. Dale had a 91 Nissan Central, which had a teeny-wee problem with its spark plug wires.

It says here, let's see what he said. Past the car going uphill, and it blew five. I haven't, you know, almost came all the way out of the hole. It could be that the spark plugs are merely loose. What will happen is under ordinary circumstances when the cylinder combustion is small, that there's not enough force behind that explosion to sneak past the spark plug. My brother has that look on his face. The spark plug wire doesn't know anything about the explosion?

Yeah, it does. Sure. There's pressure now created in that long cylinder. and when it's pushed down, okay, listen to me here. Yeah, well, yeah, yeah. When it's pushed down, the very top of it makes a pretty tight seal with the valve cover. Yes. Okay, so when you try to pass and you get the biggest possible explosion,

understandably, it's a very small amount, sneaks past the threads, gets into that little cylinder and will blow the wire off. I have never heard such crap. I have a backup theory then. Now, when you're wrong, as my brother often is, you always need a backup theory. Well, what did you think it was? I didn't believe Dale at all. I suggested that the wires were never connected in the first place.

Well, let's find out. Dale, are you there? Yes, I'm here. Before we find out whether it was the spark plugs that were loose or not, we need to verify that the answer you're about to give here on Stumpter Chumps has not been influenced by our staff, my brother. the staff of National Public Radio or Willie the Manicures to put the spark plugs in for you. Okay, Dale, were the plugs loose or not?

Tom, your check bounced, okay? Uh-oh. Ray, you were right, Tom. Hey! What, the spark plugs were loose? Yes, the spark plug was loose. My mechanic tightened it down. About a half a turn, he said, and the problem has ceased and desist.

Oh, man. Yes. So you obviously got my check, huh, Dale? Yes, that's up. I appreciate the five bucks. Boy. And I doubted my brother. I apologize from the bottom of my heart to think that my brother could have been making up a story like that.

I never do that. It was evil of me to even consider that he must have been doing that. But I thought I could tell from the look in his eye. You know, he gets that certain look when he's making up something that there's. There's complete horse feathers, as we say, in the trade here. So I apologize to you, Dale, to my brother, and to all the ships at sea. Oh, you're the gods of radio, okay? Dale, thanks for playing stump the chumps, and you'll get your check.

You'll welcome back anytime. Great. Thank you very much. Bye. Bye. Okay, Tommy, you know what it's time for now? Is this when the president of NPR comes running into the control room, bangs it on the glass, and demands our resignation? No, that was earlier in the show.

Oh, he's been here already. This is where we take a short break and get ready for the new puzzler. Ah, yes. We'll be back in just a moment. Ha! We're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack to Tappert Brothers, and we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and the new...

Mm-hmm. New... Automotive? I'll help you. I hate to what sounded descriptive to this puzzle. Is it automotive? No. Is it quasi-automotive?

Is it quasi-automotive, master? Only if you drove to the guy's house. Is it non-automotor? There you go. Is it algebraic? Could be. Is it folkloric? Maybe. Is it historic?

Oh, no. Is it complete? Horse feathers. Probably. Okay, go ahead. Here it is. We don't want to name it. The thing you can name is not the truth.

Everyone knows that. Exactly. The Tao says that. Yes, the Tao is a NASDAQ. Nasdaq, too. A fellow finds himself at a party, of all places, at Bill Gates's house. So he's standing there, and who is he? be standing next to him, but Bill Gates.

The man himself. And of course, the fellow introduces himself, and the fellow says, gee, this is a pretty big living room you have. It's jam-packed with people, and Gates says, well, how many people do you think are here? The fellow says, geez, I don't know. He said, looking around, I have to guess maybe about

1,100. Gates says, that's very good. He said, there are about 1,100 people. He said, you're very good with numbers. And the fellow says, oh, thank you. Thank you so much. And if this gets too long, let me know. No, no, no. I'm fascinated so far.

You just doze off. When you get through with this, I got to tell you about a dream my wife had. All right. Oh, yes. I mean, I know this dream. Anyway, I said, I lost my train of thought. Now, so Gates says, you're very good with numbers. Oh, you're very good with numbers.

And he said, you went to games of chance or anything like that? Oh, no, no. The fellow says, he said, I think, chance is thing I ever get involved in is tossing a coin. Gates says, that's interesting. He said, do you think you could toss a coin 10 times in a row? and call it correctly every time, the fellow says, I don't think so.

He said, well, want to make a little bet? He said, because I can do it. He said, I can call it. He said, but after all, I'm Bill Gates, and you're not. And you're not. And the fellow, of course, declines. No, no, I said, I don't think I want to bet.

He said, I don't think I can call it ten times in a row. I don't think you can't either, but I don't want to bet. And Gates says, Then get out of my party. Gays says, you think there's anyone in this room that could call it 10 times in a row correctly? The fellow says, I suppose there's a chance, he said, but it's going to be a pretty small chance. And Gates says, I'll tell you what. I'll pick anyone at random.

Is this your puzzle or my puzzle? No, no. He said, I think there is some. I said, I'll bet you there is someone who can call it correctly. He said, here's what calling correctly consists of. If I toss the coin, okay, I can call it, and if I'm right, that's a win for me. Or if you call, if I toss the coin and you call it, and it's incorrect, that's a win for me. Right?

So imagine I toss the coin. And I say, as the coin toss or I say heads that comes up, heads, I win. Right. I toss the coin, you call it. You say heads. If it's heads, I lose. Yeah. If it's tails, I win, even though I didn't call it.

I'm with you. Okay, so that's the rule of the game. So Gates says, you think there's someone in the room that can do that? And he says, no. So I'll tell you what, I'll make you bet. I'll bet you $10 million to your $1,000. Oh. That it can happen in this room.

There's one person who can have 10 in a row. Yeah. The guy says, you're on. Of course. You know, if Bill Gates had a nickel for every time Windows crashed, he does. He does. Should you have taken the bet? If you think you know the answer, write it on a postcard.

I like it. I like it. Or the deed for a centrally located two-bedroom floor through with Eden Kitchen, granite countertops, central air and off-street parking, downtown Boston, and send it to Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3,500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. PowerFair City. Matt, 2-2-3-8. Or, of course, you can email your answer from the Car Talk section of Cars.com.

If you'd like to call us, the number's 1-888-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-28-28-255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Mary Ann from Denver. Is that Mary Ann, one word, two words, or what? Two words, one person. Two words. And is the and with an E at the end? Nope.

That's just how I wrote it. All right. So what's up? Well, here's what's up. I've got a 1984 Toyota Land Cruiser. And after I've... drive it for a little bit, I smell like gas. You smell like gas. I smell like gas, and it's very annoying. Ode de Petrol is not my favorite odor, if you know what I mean. Doesn't have to be as long

as it's your boyfriend's favorite odor. Well, that doesn't work either. No, it doesn't. So what happened is that I had gas leaking over the front passenger side tire, and so I took it into my mechanic. He tied off the air breather hose. After he did that, the gas, stop leaking and then gas when I opened up the gas tank gas would gush out at me so I took it back to the mechanic who did something to pull the gas through the carbon filter he said and now the gas doesn't rush out of the gas tank when I open it up right but you still have the smell I smell like gas well what he's done is illegal among other things yeah we'll send the authorities will be in his door within minutes yeah back in the old old days

before 1984, certainly, gas tanks used to be vented to the atmosphere by means of a little pinhole in the gas cap. So that as the gasoline and the vapors in the tank expanded on a warm day, it would just allow the pressure to escape via this little hole. Into the atmosphere, thus polluting all the world. Right. And the hole was not so big that you had to worry about gasoline leaking out of it, liquid gasoline, unless the thing were tipped over on its side. but back around the end of the 60s, the Environmental Protection Agency or whomever, decided it was bad to have these unburned hydrocarbons escaping into the air. That's why gas stations now have these recovery systems. You notice when you go to a gas station, you don't smell gas anymore,

unless, of course, you're in your 84 land cruiser. Oh, you're spilled on your shoes. Because the fumes are trapped and removed before they can escape to the air. And the same thing happens in your car. Your car has an evaporative emission system, which can, consists of a charcoal canister and a purge valve and hoses and all these things. And what's happened is your canister probably got plugged up. The purge valve probably stopped working.

I mean, after all, it is a thousand years old. And this guy tried to short-circuit all this stuff. But in doing so, he's created a monster. Okay, so, like, basically I need the air breather hose reconnected. And you need the canister. And you need the valve. He may have ripped out the, I don't know, the piping. There are tubes that go from the canister to the tank.

He could have done all that stuff. So if he's a good guy and he wants to do it and doesn't want to spend the next 12 years in a federal prison, he'll take care of this for you. So you should tell him that what he did was not only illegal, but it was just the wrong thing to do. But if he does choose to do the federal prison thing, ask him to say hello to Vinnie. Uncle Vinny. Okay, all right. Good luck, Marianne.

Thanks. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. 1-888-Cartalk, that's 888-227-8-255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hey, car talk, Brian from Boston over here. Hey, this is our second call from Boston in as many days. I mean, really, Boston? Boston? Boston?

Boston, right across the river. All right. So what are we going to do for you today? Well, I have a Toyota 1992 at the Camry. My problem is my wife took the kids to the park, and when the day was over, they got back into the car. in my eight-year-old was fidgeting like his no tomorrow in the backseat

when my wife turned around he had about a 15-inch garter snake so she, of course, you know, she gave the hoot and the hollering and the scream and went outside the car and said, get that thing out of here. You mean he brought it in with him? In the car in the back seat.

He was pumped up. He wanted to bring it home, you know? He was showing a normal kid's curiosity. Indeed, indeed. Yeah. And your wife should be ashamed of herself for screaming like that. So the snake is, still in the car, huh?

The snake is, the snake is still in the car. Oh, it is? I had a feeling. So I'm driving down the Southeast Expressway, which you're familiar with. Yes. I look down on the passenger side floor, and what goes by is the snake. Oh, really? Yeah.

And it goes up underneath the dashboard. Yeah, they love it underneath there. I don't know why, because it's a place to hide. And I see it about every other day. So I'm getting a little bit worried now because it's been a about the fourth or fifth day, and now I'm feeling a little sorry because I don't know if it's eating anything except the crumbs I drop when I drive, you know? You need to call, you need to go to www.w.

Rentamongoose.com. Sheesh. I mean, well, first of all, I don't know what these snakes do in the winter, but he's unlikely to be able to survive in the winter in your car. So if he just could wait him out. No, then you're going to find a dead snake wrapped around your wiring harness? That would be the inhumane thing to do. I think so.

you have to return the snake to its natural habitat, and you have to lure them out. Well, look, you're not very far from the Franklin Park Zoo. That's right. I would take a little ride over to the zoo. Better yet, call Dougie's wife. She's a veterinarian. And she will know a way to get the snake out of there

because she knows the basic habits of the snakes. And having lived with Doug all these years. Exactly. And, I mean, at least, I mean, the answer is we don't know. And whatever you do, Brian, do not bring this car to our shop. Whatever you do. Well, the other problem I have is that my wife will not get in the car. Duh.

I don't blame her. I don't think I would either. I mean, even though you know this is a harmless snake, because it would have killed you by now. Well, it's going to kid you by scaring the living daylights out of you when you're on the Southeast Expressway. That's what happened. Because it's not going to appear on the passenger side floor. It's going to appear on your shoulder. Oh, no.

Worse than that? Up your pant leg. Oh, can you imagine that? Woo! Oh, Gar. Yeah. My best advice is Franklin Park Zoo. Ask for the reptile guy, Mr. Snake.

Yeah. And he'll, he or she might know how to lure a snake. I don't know how to lure a snake. I will do that. Either that or you go to the Rayburn music and you buy a snake. off a clarinet. And you can lure him out. That's it. Yeah. See you, Brian. Good luck.

Well, thanks a lot. See you. We helped him a lot. While you've wasted an otherwise perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk, our esteemed producer is Doug the subway fugitive, not a slave to fashion, punk and lips, bongo boy. Bongo boy, Berman. There's a certain ring to that.

There is Bongo boy Berman. I love it. This man took eight semesters of African drumming at Wesleyan University. That's one semester for every year that he was there. Our associate producers are Louis Cronin the Barbarian, and David, don't get your hopes up green. He still hasn't sold his hopes. But the price is dropping every week, so there's hope. What a deal. Our engineer is Tad Masamon Kari, our senior web lackey is Doug the old gray mayor, aka sheep boy,

and our technical, spiritual and menu advisor who's supposed to be here today, because he's just back from his quite responsible. respectable showing at the Upper Sandusky Kirobe Fest. Yeah. Yes. Man, he did great there. I heard it was 13 in a minute.

That, of course, is John Bugsy Lawler. Our public opinion pollster is Paul Murky of Merkey Research, assisted by statistic Margin Overa. Our customer care representative is Haywood. Jabuzov. Our director of new product repair is warranty my foot. Our shop form is

Luke Busy, and our new truck reviewer is the big new rig. Our director of Firestone Tire Recalls is Ivana Michelin. Our divorce attorney is Carmine Not Yours. Our bungee jumping instructor is you go first. Our prayer coach is Denise Huritt. The Car Talk travel agent, his lowest fare available. Our Russian chauffeur is peek off and drop off the banker at Car Talk poker games

is Nikolai Putin and our seat cushion tester is Mike Easter. Our chief counsel, as always from the law firm of Dewey-Hirin-How is you, Louis Dewey, known to the bankrupt.comunists, sharing the public washrooms and Harvard Square as Ui Louie Dewey. Thanks so much for listening. We're clicking clag to Tapert Brothers. And remember, don't drive like my brother. And one other thing, don't drive like my brother.

Oh, yeah. We'll be back next week. Bye-bye. Car Talk is a production of Dewey Cheatham and Howe and WBUR in Boston. And even though the New York Mets think, at least we're not those losers. So now we say that this is NPR National Public Radio.