The Best of Car Talk - #2649: Look Out for Those Gila Monsters!

Episode Date: June 20, 2026

Goria is about to cross the Southwestern US in her Honda that she is told needs a new timing belt. Will she make it or will she get stranded and end being buzzard meat on the side of the road? Find out 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 the Tappet Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the limited editions department here at Car Talk Plaza. Yes, indeed. We got a note from Julio Culliatt. We don't know where he's from. He says, at the other night, I watch for the amusement as Subaru now has a car, the Forrester, I think it was, that is the LL Bean edition.

Yes. I can also recall Lexus associating to herself to coach. They have the leather thing, you know. I can see what the two companies are getting to, but I don't see any sense in it. At any rate, since they started it, we can take it a bit further. When you think about it, what would stop us? Here are some thoughts, and he gives us some, like the Lex's ES 300 Martha Stewart edition. That would make sense.

The Ford Grand Marquis AARP edition. The Dodge Caravan Fisher Price Edition. And, of course, the staff here, the crack staff at Car Talk Plaza said, we can do one better than that. better than that. And they have the following. The Hyundai Accent, Domino's edition, comes with the Domino's Pizza Bucket

right installed on the antenna. The Cadillac Fleetwood Brome Witness Protection Program Edition. The Ford Expedition Valdez edition. And my personal favorite, the Mazda Miata Rogaine Edition. So, I mean, if any way, Everyone has some ideas.

I mean, we could collect them. We'd be happy to do that, right? Indeed. And we would send them to the manufacturers and maybe they'll give us something. Like what? Like what? Maybe drop a lawsuit. Who knows?

I mean, it's interesting that we really, we give out some great ideas and we never get anything for them. I remember when I started singing, help me Honda, help help me Honda. And it was only a matter of weeks. Only a matter of weeks before some dealership had had ads on the radio. Did I get my 10? What did you get? You got bubkus. Bupkus.

Bupkus. At least he could have sent me a little note saying, thanks for the great idea. But no. Because that would be an admission that he had what? Stolen. Yeah, he stole. Anyway, if you've got an idea for a limited edition car, or more likely, a limited edition car talk.

One where we only give correct answers, give us a call at 1-88-car talk. That's 888. Wait a minute. That's not a bad idea. What if there was a filter on everybody's radio? And every time we gave a wrong answer, it just cut out the call completely. Oh, there'd be none. There'd be no show.

The FCC would be dead air. Dead air. Well, organ music. Anyway, the number is 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on car talk. Hi. Hi. This is Zoe Brady from Eugene, Oregon.

Zo? Z-O-E from Eugene. Yes, that's right. Got it. Well, I have a little car problem. I have a little problem or a car, a problem with a little car? It's both, actually. Both.

I have a little car and it has a little problem. Cool. I have a 1989 Accura-L-S. It's a two-door five-speed. It's a great car, except when you're in first gear or in reverse, and you're going slowly like out of in a parking lot or just haven't gotten up a lot of speed. It lurches like crazy. Yes.

It just, lurk, lurk, lurk, lurk. Well, thanks. for Colin Zoh. Thanks a lot. It was helpful. Guess the question. Welcome to guess the question. You know, that's a lot harder to do than to give the answer. Of course. I mean, anyone can give an answer, but to figure out the question. That was great. Now, I don't think it's causing any car trouble. It's just that it's embarrassing. And it's always done this, hasn't it? Always, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Nothing's wrong. Nothing is wrong. Well, nothing is necessarily wrong. However, it could be that your clutch is chattering. And it may be

time for clutch. It may be the way you drive, too. I assume that it does that even when you have your foot completely off the clutch. Yes. Then it ain't chattering. Huh. It might be just dawdling. I think there's nothing wrong, though. Well, what can, is as it increased in severity? No. It's, it's always about the same. Yeah. And it'll go away if you go faster. I'll tell you, there are some cars which do this. I've never noticed, and we've worked on a lot of Integras over the years, that Integra necessarily do this. The worst offender in my book, without question, is a sob. Oh, yeah. I've never driven a sob that I was satisfied with in first gear, except for the automatics. They're great. Well, I have to say that, I mean, almost all cars will do this to some

extent. And frankly, I have no idea why. No. I'm picturing myself being reverse gear. And there I am laying there in the transmission and power is coming to me from the front shaft. And I'm trying to figure out what is, what do I feel like? See, I've taken a lot of these S courses. And I, I mean, it must be a surge of power, right? Right. Coming to the. the gear and why do that? Why? Well, because...

I mean, the shaft is spinning at a constant speed. Well, it isn't. I mean, it is spinning at a constant speed, but maybe the engine isn't powerful enough. That may have something to do with it.

So you think, that would explain it. And therefore cars with big, powerful engines would do this less. Except we can't test this theory because cars with big powerful engines have automatic transmissions. Oh.

Well, except for Trucks, for example. Except for trucks. Right. So trucks shouldn't do this. Yeah, but they do because they're, what, heavier? Heavier. So I might have to do with the critical horsepower to weight ratio. I'm sure you've taken this to your mechanic over the last 60.

No, I was too embarrassed because, you know, I just felt like it's the kind of problem that I couldn't get them to recreate, and then they would all laugh, and that would cost me 50. Well, one of the things that can't cause this is incorrect ignition timing. So at the very least, you should have your mechanic check that. The timing. The timing. Okay. And if that isn't it, just ignore it.

Okay. Don't worry about it. So what should I say to those people who think I'm a bad driver? Say they all do that. They all do that. They all do that. I'll just make a sign and put it in the window. There you go.

See you, Zoe. Thanks very much. Thanks for you go. I mean, it's only shows on NPR where people can bring up critical issues such as this. Indeed. Speaking of which, I left off from the list there, the Volvo V-70 cross-country public radio edition. Oh, I mean, how could we have forgotten that? Of course.

1-888-car talk. That's 8-8-2-27-8-8-255. A lawyer on car talk. Hi, my name is Dale Fried, and I'm from Arlington, Massachusetts. Hi, Dale. No kidding. I have a 1988-Voltswagon golf, and you're not going to want to hear this, but it also lurches. But I have to say, I'm a little hesitant to call you guys, because the last time I heard you talking, it was when you were using

charts and graphs to show that happiness was inversely proportional to intelligence. Yeah. And you seem pretty happy. Well, to be fair, Dale, we weren't demonstrating that happiness is inversely proportional. One of us was, if you recall. Yeah. Dale, of course, is referring to our commencement address at MIT a year or two ago, in which we described the theory of reverse reincarnation, which... One of the great thoughts of all time.

I mean, it's up there with the Big Bang Theory and the Little Bank Theory. So, Dale, what's up? Okay, well, basically, and this is a lurching that hasn't always happened, so there's something that has changed. But it happens when the engines between about 1,800 and 2,000 RPM, and also when the engine isn't putting out very much power, when I don't have the gas pedal down very far. Right, and you can overrun it.

ride it by stomping on the pedal. Yeah, if I do that or if I shift into a different gear so I'm in a different RPM or, yeah, if I'm going up a hill, it doesn't do it. If you downshifted, it almost always makes it go away? Yeah, because then I'm up in a higher RPM, yeah. Right, right, right. But if you upshifted, it wouldn't necessarily make it go away, but it could. It usually does, but yeah.

Upshifting also makes it go away? Well, let's see. Actually, I'm not sure. Yeah, I didn't think you would be sure. Yeah. That's all right. It's better you're not sure because then you'll look. accept any answer.

Okay, and any other pieces of information? You know, so you've asked the pertinent questions. Well, actually, I had the car in storage for about five or six years, and so it was about two or so years ago when I started driving it again, and that's when it started doing it. Someone suggested I changed a fuel filter, which I did, but it didn't seem to really help much. No, it's probably too late to have changed the first. fuel filter or it didn't really matter. I suspect what happened during that period of time where it was

stored is gums and varnishes clogged up your fuel injectors. Man, I could feel that one coming. Yeah. So what would be happening then? When it's trying to put out, when it's trying to put out a little bit of fuel, it just kind of dribbles and it doesn't atomize it? Exactly right. It isn't atomizing it well enough so that some of the fuel isn't getting burned because it isn't, you know, vaporized. Sure. And then if you'll floor it, you'll increase the pressure. Yeah. And then they think sprays correctly under the increased pressure. Well, it sounds good.

It does sound very good. In fact, it can be even tested. Okay. Because your mechanic can pull off one of the fuel injectors or two of them and see if the spray pattern is correct. Now, is that something I could do? Well, if you don't mind setting yourself on fire. That doesn't, you know, bother.

You have to call Volkswagen and get the self-immolation care. Right. And the asbestos suit. And not only is it easy to test if this is the problem, but it's probably easy to fix by getting some fancy additive at your local pots store. Oh, okay. Yeah, you can try something like TECron, which is made by Chevron. And there are many other adders.

You can try them all. Okay. But I bet you one or two cans of one of them will clean up the injectors enough so that you'll notice a difference. And then if it still isn't good enough, you can go ahead and buy more. more of it. And by more. I mean, there's always the possibility that one of your sensors is out of range, but we don't want to discuss that because your time is up. Okay, well, thank you very much. All right, Dale, thanks for your call. Bye-bye. Okay, bye. Okay, tell me, what are the chances that you'll remember last week's puzzler?

Well, as Dan Rather would say, Slim just left the station. Well, I'll give you a hint. It had to do with a husband and a wife going nowhere fast. Ah, about my first marriage. No. No? My second marriage? No, but we'll be back in a minute. 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, duh, the answer to last week's puzzler. Now, this was one of my series of locomotive yet non-automotive puzzles.

I have no recollection of it whatsoever. Really? Yeah. No, in fact, I sensed that when I was giving the puzzler last week, that you knew the answer right off. and we'll see if that's true. We'll see if that's true. A woman and her husband frequently go walking together. Ah!

On this day, like most others, they walked side by side, one never getting ahead of the other. In fact, they held hands or could have held hands the entire time. So they walked side by each, as certain people say, for an hour. At the end of the hour, the woman says, boy, that felt good. I think I walked four miles. The husband says, oh, I walked much farther than that. I'm sure I walked five or six. The question is, how could that be?

Well, I mean, it's not true that I know the answer because I don't know it now. I may have known it then, but I don't know it now. Oh. I mean, the only thing I can assume is that there was a third dimension involved. There is a third dimension. It's right up. This is going to elicit a few groans, I'm sure. But, I mean, as is often the case, the puzzler is better than the answer.

Often the case? Sometimes the case. And it's important that you have a mediocre puzzler once in a while, so you can differentiate it from the stellar puzzles, which are most of them. Yeah. Well, I mean, some of the best puzzles have had lousy answers. Yeah. I mean, the bicycle puzzler, for example.

I mean, that was a classic, the answer, on the other hand. Stinko. Well, anyway, the answer simply here is that they are both walking side by each and on treadmills. Oh, I didn't think that. Oh, man, on tread? Of course. They could have held hands. They could have fallen off the treadmill.

No, you could theoretically hold hands. You could theoretically hold hands. And all the conditions have met, they walk side by side, one never gets. ahead of the other. Of course. Except the husband in order to travel five or six miles, or at least a greater distance than she, just took more steps. Well, that's what, that's the problem I was having with the third dimension. Because if, for example, the husband was walking up and down, up and down a ridge. Right. He was in a, he was some, I couldn't imagine what this place would be. She's on level ground and he's going up and down, up and down, up and down. Obviously, you had the

analog of the treadmill. I did have the analog of the treadmill. And you couldn't make that step because you're a bonehead. Two years ago, you would have done it. I mean, there was a time when the synapses actually were... You start click, huh? Yeah. Okay, not anymore. Do we have a winner?

Yes, we do. The winner is Christina Van Rye from Salt Lake City, Utah, and for having her answers selected at random, from the barrels of correct answers that we got, Christina is going to get a $25 gift certificate to the store at the Car Talk section of cars.com. And with that $25 gift certificate, you know what she can do? No, I, no. She can get a don't blame me I voted for Click and Collect T-shirt.

25 bucks will get you that. Pretty good. By the way, if you find yourself craving some of the Car Talk gifts that we occasionally flog, like the Don't Blame Me T-shirt, you can always visit the store at the Car Talk section of Cars.com, which is open 24 hours, seven days a week. Wow, 365 or six days a year. Right through Christmas. We don't can't.

Man, how much work can we do? We keep those gnomes working around the clock. Wow. It's a website, you know. It's always open 24 hours. Go ahead. Spoil my pitch. Anyway, we'll have a new puzzler coming up, a mathematical puzzler of sorts in the third half of today's show.

So try to stay awake at least until then. In the meantime, you can call us and ask us a question or many questions about your car. You don't have to ask a question, you know. You can just make a comment. Or you give an answer. You can give us an answer. Wouldn't that be unusual? Wouldn't that be good?

People give us the answer? We give them the question. Let's try it. 1-8-88-8-8-8-8-2-27-8-25-5. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Marcia from Export Pennsylvania. Marcia with an S-H or a CIA? CIA.

CIA. She works for the CIA. Oh, I knew it. She sounded sneaky to me. And where are you from? Export Pennsylvania. Export. Mm-hmm. Where, pray-tell is that?

About 25 miles east of Pittsburgh. Oh, way out west. Way out west. Oh, yeah. You guys ride horses out there? Oh, absolutely. We're guns on your hips. Of course.

Do you want to talk about cars or do you have something more interesting to talk about? Well, I was going to talk about my car. Okay. I have a 96 blazer. And I took it in to have it winterized about a year ago, and my mechanic flushed the radiator. And since then, it gurgles. You start up and it goes, go, go, go, go, go, go, glug. And then you slow down, it goes, go, go, go, go.

And it's kind of behind the radio in the middle of the dash. That's exactly where it is, yeah. So he said there was nothing he could do about it. So I took it to the dealer, and they said I could either flush the radiator for $100 or have a super flush for $200. So I got the $100 deal, and that didn't solve the problem. So we went back to the dealer again, and he said you could have the $200 flush or a $500 heater coil repair. I love it. The stakes are getting higher and higher.

I love this. So what do I do? None of the above. None of the above. Did anyone try to explain to you, which I think they would have failed at, what's causing the gurgling? No. And they said if you have the flush, it's going to get rid of the gurgling. Right. And they also told me if I didn't do anything about it, it would start leaking in my car eventually.

Oh, that's a lie. Okay. That's scalduggery of the first order. But good scalduggery. Jeez. Well, here's what's going on. on. The first guy who did the job didn't purge the system of all the air. And what you're hearing is the glugging. The glug the glug factor. Exactly. If you were to take a quart of milk

and tip the thing and pour it into a, you know, a pan, you'd hear the thing go glug, glug, glug, as the air and the milk try to get past each other. Right. Okay, well, you're hearing the same thing in your heater. You have air trapped in the heater core, and as the coolant is trying to get into the heater cord past the air, it's making the same kind of gurgling noise. And the reason it happens in a lot of vehicles is that the heater is placed much higher than the rest of the engine, than the rest of the cooling system, in fact. Okay. So where does the air go? Whenever you have air trapped in a system like this, goes to the top. Okay. So they have to bleed the system. And if they were patient and ran the thing and watch the air bubbles come out and carefully added more coolant and more coolant until the bubble

stop coming out, the gurgling would go away. Eventually, the air will work its way out of the system. Okay, it's been about a year now. It probably will never get out of the system. Here's what I would recommend. I would recommend that you take it back to Guy One. Okay. Tell them what the problem is. In some instances where we have trouble bleeding these, we will actually jack up the front of the vehicle to make the radiator cap higher than the heater. And that usually gets the air out. And it may take them an hour to do it, but if that's what it takes, that's what it takes and I'd go, I'd go and complain. That's what our customers do when we make mistakes.

And the fact that the dealer, I would never go back to that dealer again because they tried to sell you a heater core to get rid of the glug, glug, glugs, and that was absolutely unconscionable. And yes, you might have gotten rid of the glug because they would have had to jack up the car to do this. Yeah, go back to the first guy and tell them what you do. Okay. See you, Marsha.

Thanks very much. Thanks for your call. Bye. I'm never going to the blazer dealer in Export Pee. Or export PA for that matter. 1-88-car talk that's 888 Car Talk, which is 888-2255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. This is Gloria from Portland, Oregon.

Gloria. Portland. Yes. What's up? I have a 1994 Honda cord. And it's performed like a little jewel for the last six years. Good. So I confidently took it in for its 45,000.

mile routine check at the local Honda dealership. Yeah. And the fellow said, well, everything's just checked out beautifully. The brake linings are great. You don't have to do anything with those. And so there's no repair necessary. However, I think we would recommend that at some point you consider replacing the timing belt.

Right, because six years is kind of like the cutoff point. So I said, all right. is there any indication when this timing belt's going to go out? And he said, no. It's just recommended that you do it at this point in time. So I've been playing games with that little dilemma, when to do it. And now I'm planning a trip cross-country as far as Arizona. And do I leave town before replacing the timing belt?

Or Arizona is across the country? That's like the Bostonians view of the world. We think like Springfield Mass is west. Right, and then just west of that is China. Okay, but for me, a little old lady in tennis shoes, that's a long trip. But, Gloria, are you usually such a cheap skate? No, no, no, no. This is not a cheap job.

Okay, well. No, no, I mean, but she's gone six years practically spending nothing on this magnificent car. The guy asked her to spend a couple hundred bucks, and she's, hesitating. And they didn't charge you hardly anything for this 45,000-mile checkup, and they would have been well within their rights as automobile mechanics to charge you hundreds. The price he quoted me was $695. It seems a little high. It's not out of line with what most dealers would charge for this job. Okay. And you should do it because you're planning to keep the car for another five years? Oh, I think so, yes, as long as it performs as well as it has. During the next five

years, you're going to have to change it. Would you agree with that? Yes. But why not do it now? And then not do it in 2003, four or five. And more importantly, don't worry about it. If you drive to Arizona with the thought that the belt may go and leave you stuck and you'll get eaten by Yelam monsters. I knew I could depend on you, too, guys.

I think you should just, you should run. If they're open late, run over there. Do it now. See if they can do it today. Okay, very good. All right. Thank you so much. See you, Gloria.

Enjoy your trip. Thank you. Watch off of those Hilo monsters. I'll do my best. Bye. Bye. Bye-bye. All right, it's time to take a break so I can do some important calculations.

Getting ready for the new puzzle, right? No, I'm trying to calculate how I'm going to survive another 20 minutes here in the studio with you. Ha! We're back. You're listening to Car Talk? Don't wake me up like that. For God's sakes. You're listening to Car Talk with us.

Click and Collect the Tappert Brothers. And we're here to discuss cars, car reviews. car repair, and the new, I would have to say mathematical puzzler, although I take a little license here. Does it have to do with inequalities and inequalities? No, not really. Okay. A landscaper returns from work and is sitting at the kitchen table with his kids. And he says, mathematicians are a strange lot, my dear.

No, no. It's a different puzzler. Sitting with his kids, okay. And the kids asked, did you work hard today, Daddy? And he says, I did. I planted a lot of trees. He goes on to say, I planted five rows of four trees each. And his little third grader wanting to show off her newfound skills vis-à-vis the multiplication tables, says, you planted 20 trees, Daddy.

So close. 18, right? He says, no, I'm sorry, you're a little twerp. That's wrong. He says, I planted ten trees. And she says, that's impossible. And he said, no, it isn't. He said it isn't impossible.

And I'm going to give you a hint. If you look at one of the papers that you're, one of your test papers, that your teacher has returned to you recently, you're going to find the answer on one of those. papers. The little girl sits there and thinks for a minute and she says, I've got it. What did she find in her paper that gave her the answer? And it makes no difference whether it was a math paper or a history test. Wow, that's very, very good. So how did the little kid figure out how to plant 10 trees in five rows of four each? Now, if you're thinking of all the answer, write it on a postcard or tuck it inside the pocket of a hand-sown,

mahogany-colored, Florentine leather, three-quarter length, women's jacket, size 8? That's Kronin! Oh, no. Who writes this little thing? Evidently she, and sent it to

Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, box 3,500, Harvard Square, Cambridge, Our Fist City, Matt 022338, Or you can email your answer from the Car Talk section of Cars.com. If you'd like to call us, as always, the number is 1-8-88-C-Kart talk. That's 888-2-2-7-8-255. Hello, you're on Car Talk.

Hello, this is Kurt in Glenburn, Maine. Kurt with a C? Oh, no, with a K. And with a U-R-N-I. K-U-R-T, very German. Uh-huh. See, and if you had been something else like Scandinavian, it would be K-I-R-T. Don't get cocky.

He's warning you now. Kathy with a K, Kurt, with a C, come on. Where did you say you were from? I wasn't paying attention. Glenn Byrne. All right, Kurt. Spill your guts. Spill my guts.

I have a 95 Ford contour with a manual transmission. Yeah. And about two weeks ago, it started doing this very strange thing, where if I am sitting still, the engine running, I can shift into any gear I want. And it works fine. I can take off in first. I can get in the second. And as I start going faster and faster, it becomes more and more difficult to shift or downshift into anything. Have you ever at a stop?

You stopped. Yeah. But you've got your foot on the gas pedal and you're revving up the engine while you're trying to shift. No, I haven't done that. Do that and call us back. Yeah, why would you do that anyway? I don't think we need the answer to that, but it would tell us whether it's related to the motion of the car or the speed of the engine. Right.

But when you're shifting from first to second, which you claim is difficult. Let's say I'm going 20, it's not all that hard. And the faster I go, it becomes, at some points, I can't even shift. I can't get it into any gear at all unless I slow down the car or stop on the side of the road. Right. Now, the fact that I've never worked on one of these cars will not in any way prevent me from giving any of this. Have you ever seen one of these cars? Like on the road?

No, and in fact, I have test driven. Oh, when this car first came out, we test drove the car. It's not a bad car. It's front wheel drive. I don't know if that makes a difference. Well, it does make a difference. I think it does make a difference. I think what's happening to this thing is you have a broken or weak motor mount or a shifter.

This probably has a shifter cable or cables. and somehow or another, things are getting moved around. Either the motor is shifting around or the transmission such that you are no longer lining up the gears correctly when the thing is in motion. And that would explain why it's harder to shift the faster you go maybe. And this would happen even if the car weren't moving but if you were revving the engine. Mike, no, no, Mike. Because the torque of the engine is what's causing the problem.

I think. No, I think you're going to be moving. You do? Oh, yeah. I want to make a bet? I'll bet if he go. out right now. I've already cleaned you out, man.

You've got no money left. How can you get any of the bet with? I opened my mouth the other day. It cost me a hundred bucks. I'll bet you are a hundred bucks. Just rev it up to 2,000 RPM and try to get it in first, and I'll bet you'll have trouble doing it. Is the car outside?

Yes. You have two minutes to go and try it? We'll put you on hold and we'll talk to another caller. Seriously? Yeah. Seriously. Sure. We've got nothing better to do.

Come on, there's $10 in it for you. Seriously. If you give us the right answer. Here's the test. You're going to just put it in. First, you're going to try it with the engine idling, and it's going to shift easily, according to you. Then you're going to rev it up until it's screaming.

Not too much, but up to 2,000. As fast as you want. $3,500. And then you're going to try to put it in first, and it's going to be much harder to get it into first the second time. I'm saying, and I'm willing to put $10 on this. Try all the gears, correct. Okay.

Try whatever you want. $20,000 for you. See you. We'll talk to you in a minute. We'll put you on hold. All right. I'll be right back. Thanks, Kurt. The meantime, we'll discuss something else,

which is of, I'm sure, interest to everyone. Yeah. You may remember a couple of weeks ago, we got a letter from some woman who wanted to get her teenage son of car. She was afraid she would accidentally get him a chick car.

So we asked people to tell us which cars were chick cars. And here's what they said so far. The top three chick cars. As we predicted, I believe. We did predict it. Well, actually, we didn't predict the third one. The very top chick car is the new VW bug.

Yeah, any car they put a flower vase in. There's got to be a chick car. I mean, come on. Of course. I mean, they made it a chick car. The second one is the VW cabriolet. They're big into females, huh? Yeah.

And the third one, which was a surprise to us, is the Mazda Miata. And as you might expect, the top three guy cars are. Ford Mustang Yeah The Chevy Corvette And the Chevy Camaro Yeah Well that's a gift

It's all a given I mean those are no surprise I mean it's I mean none of these is a surprise The real question becomes If you're looking for chicks Should you drive a chick car Oh I don't think so

I mean you think The theory is that if you go out and buy You're a 6 foot 8 and you're going to go out and buy a VW bug and therefore you're going to attract chicks? Yeah, no, I don't think so. No, and on the other hand... The car will attract the chicks,

and they'll ask you if they can take it for a ride and they'll leave you standing there with a curve. You'll never see them on the car again. That's right. Yeah. But on the other hand, I don't think that driving like a Ford Mustang or a Chevy Corvette is going to be a magnet for the chicks either.

They're just going to think you're stupid. They're going to think that you're a muscle car freak, and if they're not interested in that kind of guy, So the question is, if you're interested in attracting members of the opposite sex. You have to have an expensive car. Not necessarily. I think so. Oh, no.

Let's say you were a 23-year-old stud in our fair city. Well, if you're a stud, you don't need to drive anything. The girls are picking you up. What would you drive? I've tried everything. I'm reduced to the... I figured that's my best shot. My 74 Caprice Classic convertible, I thought, was going to be powerful.

I think the real question is, what do you drive if you want to get noticed? And we can't leave out the gay community because if you're a lesbian and you're interested in, what car would you be interested in if you're looking for another woman? And the same thing with another guy. I want to hear this. This is important. This is important stuff. This is the kind of stuff that goes into the caroscope.

It is the only important stuff. Anyway, is Kurt back? Do we have Kurt back? Yes, I'm back. Hey, Kurt, baby! Hey. All right, now, I'm not going to say anything. I'll let you and my brother discuss everything.

I'm not going to say anything either. I don't want to influence this outcome. I just want to know what happened. Okay, well, I don't have a tachometer on the car. If I got it, you know, revved up pretty good and shifted the results. absolutely no difference, but if I got the thing fairly screaming, you know, like, woo, you know, like that,

and tried to shift, it became very hard. Ah, that's it. I want to recal. I want to recount. You said the car had to be in motion. Kurt. Yes. Was the car in motion? No, the car. Give me the $10. Come on. You take a check?

I got to get your check right here. Okay. Okay. Well, obviously, we can't be of any help to you, Kurt. But I'm going to... It is a motor mount. No, I'm going to go back and say it's the clutch is no good. Oh, come on.

It's a motor mount. Of course it's a motor mount. Because the motor mounts aren't doing anything when he's in neutral, when he's not moving. He's not causing the engine to move very much. Yes, he is. I don't buy it. Either that or the motor mount is so broken. I really had to get it really screaming for this to make a difference.

No, if you get it really screaming any, any... First of all, If you get any engine really screaming, there is no car, which you can shift into first or reverse. Did you try any other gears? Yeah, I tried them all. Yeah. For every action, there is an equal in opposite reaction. No, I'm sticking by Kurt.

Yes. Don't listen to my brother. She's nuts. Every car, if you get the RPM's high enough, is difficult to get into any gear from neutral. Mm-hmm. Okay. All right, so what's the bet now? You're betting that it's the clutch, and I'm...

No, I'm not betting it. the clutch, I'm still sticking with a motor mount. Well, that's what I said. But you have the wrong reason, and the reason counts for everything. Well, who owes who ten bucks then? Berman owes us both ten bucks. Hey, Kurt, get the motor mounts checked because that's what it is. Okay.

We don't know why, but that's what it is. All right. Thanks a lot. Thanks for your help. Love the show. Kurt shaking his head and be willing to me. He said, what do I waste my time with those jerks? How can they both have different explanations and have the same answer?

Well, it's happened again. you've blown off another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk. Blown off. That's a good description, huh? Yeah. Our esteemed producer is Doug Bongo Boy Berman. Our associate producers are Louis Cronin, the Barbarian, size 8, I believe, petite. Is that correct?

Size 8, petite, yes. Three quarter lengths you wanted. Don't forget that. And David, it's not over till the fat lady sings green. 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, getting ready for his annual neighborhood-wide turkey trot

is John Bugsy Lawler. Our public opinion poster is Paul Murky of Merkey Research, assisted as always by statistician Marge and Overa. Our customer care representative is Haywood Jabuzov. Our director of new product repair is warranty my foot. Our shop foreman is Luke Busy. Our new truck reviewer is the big new rig, and our overseer of Florida voting practices is Emmanuel Recount.

Our divorce attorney is Carmine, not yours. Our director of genealogical research is Manny Cousins. The Car Talk lottery ticket coordinator is Jason Rainbows. Jason Rainbow. Our Russian chauffeur is peak off and drop off. My favorite. The banker at Car Talk poker games is Nikolai Pukin. And our seat cushion tester, as always, is Mike Easter.

Our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Cheever and How is U. Lewis Dewey, known to the Death Wish Pedestrians in Harvard Square as Ui-Louis-Dooey. Thanks so much to listening. we're click and clack to tap it brothers don't drive like my brother don't drive like my brother we'll be back next week bye bye back next week

bye bye bye car talk is a production of doing Cheatham and Howe and WBUR in Boston and even though deep space asteroids change course and veer away from planet earth whenever we say it this is NPR

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