The Best of Car Talk - #2652: Bozo's Garage

Episode Date: June 30, 2026

Rob’s family cross-country vacation has turned into a disaster: Black smoke is pouring out of the back of the car, transmission fluid is pouring out from under the hood, his mother-in-law is giving him dopeslaps from the back seat and the only help within 20 miles is a place called “Bozo’s Garage”. Could things possibly get any worse? 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 to Tappert Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the Department of Public Transportation here at Car Talk Plaza. Here's a report, man. 98% of United States commuters favor public transportation. Well, I should mention. For others. This is from the Onion. Washington, D.C.

A study released Monday by the American Public Transportation Association reveals that, 98% of Americans support the use of mass transit by others. There's a quote, with traffic congestion, pollution, and oil shortages all getting worse. Now is the time to shift to affordable, efficient public transportation, APTA, Director Howard Carly said. Fortunately, as his report shows, Americans have finally recognized the need for everyone else to do exactly that. Of the study's 5,200 participants, 44% cited fast. the commutes as the primary reason to expand public transportation. Because if there's not, no one else is on the road, you're going to pass right through.

Expanding mass transit isn't just a good idea, it's a necessity, said Anaheim, California resident Lance Holland. My drive to work is unbelievable. I spend more than two hours stuck in 12 lanes of traffic. It's about time somebody did something to get these other cars off the road. And it goes on and say we should all be using, they should all be, they should all be, they should all be using public transportation. Not we. The campaign is intended to deemphasize the inconvenience and social stigma associated with public transportation, focusing instead on the positives. Among these are the health benefits of getting fresh air while waiting at the bus stop, the chance to meet interesting people from a diverse array of low-paying service sector jobs, and the opportunity to.

learn new languages by reading subway ads written in Spanish. People need to realize that public transportation isn't just for some poor sucker to take to work, Claudia said. They should also be taking in shopping to the mall, to the supermarket, and to the laundrom. Isn't it the truth? Well, if you'd like to talk about the benefits of public transportation, for everyone else, that is, or if you have an actual question about your car because you don't use public transportation, Give us a call at 1-88-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-2-7-8-25. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hello, this is Paul from Aspen.

Hi, Paul, from Aspen. How you? Aspen. Yeah. The ski place? That's where, like, all those big stars go, and they ski, and they break their legs, and everyone goes to see them and drink coffee with them and stuff like that. Something like that.

So, what's your problem? Actually, I have a problem with my 91 Nissan Maxim. It's the best car I've ever owned, actually. Great. Yeah. It's a great car. But for the past couple months, actually, it's been making some funny noise from the, I think it's coming from the left front wheel.

Anytime I press on the brakes, if you press on it a tiny bit, it won't make it. If you press on it too much, it won't make it. But if you hit this little middle spot, it makes this kind of metallic croaking frog sound. Not quite like that. A little higher pitch, perhaps? A little higher pitch and kind of delicate. Sort of like F above middle C. Quite possibly.

Actually, I'll try to make the sound for you, but it sounds a little bit more like a duck. If you can translate it into a frog, it's kind of like, do that again. Hey, that's great. You have to do it again. Okay, one more time.

One more time. When this happens, is there anyone in the car with you? Oh, God. And it only happens when you're, the car is moving, right? Yeah, the car's moving. And it's proportional to, you know, how fast it's going. The rhythm of it will be a lot faster if it's, you know, if I'm going faster. Well, let's tell you all the things that you don't need.

Yeah, exactly. Right. You don't need a CV joint. Right. That would have cost you $300. You don't need an engine rebuild. No. You don't need a transmission rebuild.

You don't need a new glove box door. No. The heater core, 750 bucks, you don't need that either. Don't you feel good, man? This is good news so far. You're right. What does he need?

I have the famous idea. I think you have a warped disc rotor. You do. Yeah, I'm going to ask you a dangerous question. Uh-oh. In that if you give the wrong, answer. Yeah. It could shoot a hole in the whole theory. Uh-oh. If you drive it at high speed and you step on the break a little bit, do you feel a

vibration or a vibration in the pedal or a vibration in the car or an oscillation of the steering wheel? Or does your left kneecap get itchy? Everything depends on your answer to this question. Um, it doesn't really. It doesn't pull. It doesn't. It doesn't. It doesn't. It doesn't. vibrate. You don't feel any pulsation. See, that's why I I was honest at least. I said I have no idea. Wow. Yeah, but then I'm the

default mode. Well, yeah, I knew that wasn't going to, I knew you were going to get a bad answer to that question. I suspect that I might, and that's why I asked it with reservations. And now you're sorry you asked, not you? Because do you have a backup? You always.

No. I do not have a backup position. Oh, you don't? No, I have a new philosophy now. I'm sticking with it. Now, I think you do have a warped rotor, and I think if you take the thing out and drive it on the highway, you're going to say, oh my God, I never noticed that I have a pulsation. It may be very slight. The rotor is so slightly warped that it's not maybe enough to make the car shake or the pedal pulse at high speed. I don't like it. But I would be willing to bet if you took it to your shop and asked them to put a dial indicator on that left front disc rotor that they'd say, oh my God, it's warped,

and if they either replace it or machine it, the problem will go away. Right on. Yeah, the other possibility is that the left front wheels getting ready to fall off. Well, that's the same kind of noise you would get, in fact,

if you had wheel nuts that were loose. Are you serious? Yeah, I'm serious. So you should check that first. This unlikely possibility because you'd probably be dead now. Yeah, no, that's why I'm sticking. I'm sticking with it, Paul.

I'm sticking with it. All right. All right. See you later, man. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. 1-8-88-car talk.

That's 888-227-8-255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Becca. I'm calling from Minneapolis. Becca? Hi. I drive a 95 Jeep Cherokee. This is a regular Cherokee or a Grand Cherokee?

It's a Grand. Oh, it's Grande. Yes. It is. And my ulterior motive for being on the show is that my father and I both love the show. My mom, not so much. So the fact that I'm on the show. What, you don't like her so much, or she doesn't like the show so much?

So now that I'm on, she has to listen. Oh, of course. So that's my ulterior motive. Sure. But thankfully, I do actually have a real car problem to share with you guys. Okay, go ahead. During the week, regular car driving my car, it's beautiful, fine, no problem. But if I go on the highway for a road trip or a long drive over an hour,

whenever I pull into a gas station or someplace to eat, As soon as I start to turn the wheel. Or take a haircut. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It starts to jump around as soon as I start to turn the wheel at all. You can feel it in the steering wheel, and you can feel the wheels kind of shaking.

The whole thing just do-ch-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-. And is it worse, the sharper, the turn you make? Yes. And I'll tell you, my father already has a theory on this. What is it? He thinks that my four-wheel-wheel drive is engaged? He's kind of right.

Kind of right. He's good. But what you can't solve is why this only happens when I've been driving highway speed for over an hour. Well, I'll tell you a little tail. Oh, yes. Okay. I knew you would.

I recently became the proud owner of a 92 Mitsubishi Expo all-wheel drive. For those of you who don't know, it is the replacement for the Dodge Colt Vista. Yes. Not my own vista, which I still own this, but it was the manufacturer's replacement. I did not know that. Yes, well, I'm sure you didn't. Why would you?

And when I test drove the thing, and admittedly it had a lot of miles on it when I took possession of it. Like a million, as I remember. It was close to one astronomical unit, I believe. In any event, I test drove it and it was fine. I drove it around the block like you would drive any other car. checked it all out, and it was pretty good. And then after I drove it one day for about an hour, I tried to pull into my driveway,

and I couldn't. Right. And the thing locked up and shuddered like crazy. Yeah. And I determined what I need, and you need the same thing. Okay. You need something called a viscous coupling. A viscous coupling.

Yeah. My goodness. And what is that? Well, it's a coupling that allows slippage between the front and real wheels. In other words, allows the pair of front wheels and the pair of real wheels to turn at different speeds. Right. So you can pull into tight places. Now, why doesn't it do that during regular driving, though?

Well, because the wheels don't need to turn at different speeds. No, no, but she means why does this thing occur only after an hour of driving? Oh, it has to heat up before it begins up. When it heats up, that's when it begins to bind up, and it's not free. Because what happens when you turn, for example, if you make a right-hand turn, a sharp right hand turn into a parking space, the wheel that has to turn the fastest is the left front wheel.

Okay. And the right rear wheel is hardly moving at all. Right. Imagine if you could pivot the thing around the right rear wheel. Uh-huh. And as such, the two front wheels, velocities added together

would have to be greater than the two back wheels velocities added together. Right. And you require something in the middle to differentiate those speeds, and that thing is called the viscous coupling, except yours ain't doing it.

And it's not allowing the slipping. And what it's doing is it's making everything try to turn at the same speed. And that's why the thing shutters. Right. It has locked up one of the overheats. So you should avoid turns at all costs. No, I mean, this is dangerous. This could be dangerous.

Yeah, this is dangerous. Because if you had to swerve on a highway after that hour, then the same thing would happen. And you could easily lose control of the vehicle and crash. That's not good. So you need to get it fixed. what it costs on your, it costs many hundreds on my poor little exhibition expo. Oh, it's going to cost many hundreds. And your father is basically right. He's a good man. He's a good man.

Your mother we're not sure about, but the old man's all right. Oh, man's good. See you, Becca. Thanks a lot. See you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Okay, Tommy, time to test that steel trap mind of yours. Do you remember anything about last week's puzzler? Did it have something to do with workplace, misunderstandings, moments of terror and unexplained backfiring? Well, you're close. That was the whoopee cushion. We sleep from the bugs of you for the show.

Oh. 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. But first, the answer to last week's puzzler. Firsta, instead of Anda. Firsta.

Firsta. This one was from the early days of aviation. Is it coming back to you now? No. You see yourself with a scarf wrapped around your neck. can. A leather helmet. I used to have one of those hats. You're playing football with Newt Rockney. Oh, the DC3. The pilot.

Yeah. Coast-Lauvania. That was too weeks ago. Oh, darn. Once upon a time, aircraft mechanics were confused. Early aircraft mechanics were confused because the airplane engines seemed to backfire through the carburetor with some kind of regularity. And this would cause damage to the carburetors or at the very least would require the mechanics to do extra maintenance. while they began investigating figuring there was something wrong,

and after thorough investigations, ruminations, recalibrations, and the like, they discovered that the cause of the backfiring was the pilot. And in fact, the pilots were doing it on purpose. The question is, like Tony used to do when he went through the tunnel. Why would a pilot want the engine to backfire through the carburet and thus scaring the pants off himself when it seemed, in the estimation of the mechanics, to have no useful purpose. Yeah, I don't know.

Well, back in the early days before they had figured out this phenomenon, when pilots flew under damp and cool conditions, the carburetors would ice up. Exactly. Oh, and they would make it backfire to blow the ice out. To blow the ice out. Blow it out your carburetor, so to speak.

Blow the ice up, baby. And they would either lean out the mixture or advance the timing or do whatever it took to get the thing to pop back through the carburetor, thus expelling the ice, which if it were allowed to build up, would eventually stall the engine. And that would be not good. That would be not good. And, of course, the same thing happens to automobiles. It can't happen to automobiles.

Yeah. And cars have some crude little device, which prevents this. And, of course, airplane engines don't really have carburetors anymore, but that's why they did it. So who's our winner this week? The winner is Ginger Culbertson from Greenville, South Carolina. And for having her answers selected at random from the truckloads of correct answers that we got, ginger is going to get.

Are you ready for this, Ginger? A $25 gift certificate to the Shameless Commerce Division at the Cartalk section of Cars.com. And with that $25 gift certificate, what can she get, you might say? Yeah. What can she get? She can get a brand new car talk muffler. You have a muffler. It's a black winter muffler, otherwise known as what?

Like a scarf, right? Hey, hey, does it have a lifetime warranty? Yes, it does. Okay, it says Midas on the side. Actually, it's embroidered with the Car Talk logo, and it comes with this, an actual muffler clamp. Oh, isn't that? What a nice touch. Oh, man, my brother ordered too many muffler clamps at the garage last year, and we were dying to get rid of them.

So you're going to get one if you buy the muffler. Wow. Hey, by the way, if you'd like to tell somebody that you really don't like them that much this Christmas, you can find all kinds of Car Talk gifts at the Car Talk, Shameless Commerce Division, which is at the Car Talk session of Cars.com, but you can also call that. Don't we have a number for them? We do. Eight, eight, eight car junk.

There you go. Sure. Yeah. Anyway, we'll have a new puzzler coming up. But it's better to go to Cars.com because then you don't have to answer the phone. You go to Cars.com, no one has to do anything. Go to Cars.com. Don't bother us with your silly phone calls.

We're busy, we're working here. Anyway, we'll have a new puzzle coming up in the third half of today's show, so don't touch that dial. In the meantime, you can call us and ask us a question about anything you'll want. Hey, do you know what time it is? Yeah, time to give Berman his annual petrified fruit cake.

No. It's time to play. Snop the Chops! This is the part of the show where we tracked down a previous caller to see if we were on the ball, on the money. Or if we should be on the lamb. So who's our lucky player this week?

Well, the note here says it's Captain Rob. I remember him. From Oklahoma. He called because his Chevy Suburban was hesitating at high speeds. But the real problem was that Captain Robb himself was hesitating. Oh, he didn't want to go on Operation Desert Excursion with his mother-in-law or something, wasn't it? Oh, I think I remember. I think so.

Well, here it is. is that my wife's family is coming out here to do the grand tour of the West during the hottest time of year with the highest gas prices, and that's a 5,000-mile round trip. Is her mother going? Here's the deal. You hit the nail on the head. Two years ago, when I was stationed in Germany, I had a 1989 Chevy Suburban, not the same one, but same model would make a year. Yeah, yeah.

And we took a big trip through Austria. France and down into Italy and Switzerland. And my mother-in-law, bless her heart, never been out on any major trip, started out the trip by saying, Rob, you're driving too fast. That's why I bought my M.G. No backseat. Mother-in-law proof.

So do we tell him to go on the trip or what? Of course not. We told him to shoot himself to do. Spend the week in the infirmary if he had to. I remember this. And what do we tell him was wrong with the suburban? Well, we didn't really know. We told them it was like a bad, like a bad sensor of some kind, I think. Rob, you there? I'm here, guys. Look, before we find out whether a sensor was faulty. Our reasoning was faulty. We need to verify that the answer you're about to give on stumped

chumps has not been influenced by our staff, the staff of National Public Radio, or the hired assassin we recently referred your mother-in-law to. All right, did you take our advice, or did you cave in and go on the trip? Well, I couldn't get away with shooting myself. you guys told me that you'd say a couple of novenas, I don't think you prayed hard enough. You didn't have? Nah. How bad was it?

Well, let me tell you, day one of this trip. Yeah. We just clear into New Mexico, driving along fine. And your mother was in the front seat, right? No, she's in the middle. She's in the middle, within striking distance of my back,

of my head. We make it into New Mexico. We're two hours away from the middle. Santa Fe, our target. Black smoke starts pouring out the back of the truck. Now, the truck didn't hesitate and the temperature didn't jump up, so we didn't know what it was. We pull over.

I look underneath the truck, and it looks like I cut a main artery. Cherry juice everywhere. Oh, no. So we called AAA. Thankfully, two hours later, they showed up rapidly. And you had them drive your mother-in-law home, right? Exactly. Leave us here.

Leave us a canteen. water. Just take her out. Forget the canteen of water. Just go. I can see it now. Well, they tell us that Santa Rosa, New Mexico is about 20 miles up the road. And since the truck doesn't seem to be in any problem other than the transmission fluid all over the place, I should try and limp that way because it's going to cost me more to tow it anywhere. Yeah.

I'd limp into Santa Rosa. and right there on the side, old Route 66, you're going to like this guy. Oh, man. Bozo's Garage is right there. 24-hour mechanic on duty. My wallet is screaming in my back pocket. Oh, God, no, don't go there. Bozo's Garage.

I mean, anyone who has the courage to put up a name like that has to be good, right? Guys, he is unbelievable. He fixed everything. He puts it up on the jacks. It's not a problem. You blew the front seal and bushing. And every once in a while at a certain speed, that bushing, where the problem was, was allowing that hesitation. So all these problems that you were having when you called us were all solved by fixing the transmission leak? And you know what? I never had a transmission leak that I saw. You know, there was never any fluid that was dripping out. No.

Or anything like that. So it wasn't anything to clue us off that the bushing and stuff. seal were going bad, but after he fixed it, that problem was gone. Right. You were hesitating at high speeds because the transmission was slipping. Yeah. Wow. And he fixed it for a nomative fee, you know, about what you'd expect to pay in any other town. Yeah.

He had the part. You know, while I'm sitting there in his shop, he's got like five million trophies all over the wall for repairing and replacing and fixing up old job. He's got his own museum. You know, he's a Route 66 guru. Jeez. It would be good if you went to Cars.com and put Bozo's name and address in the mechanics files.

I'll do that. Because he certainly deserves it. He does. He was outstanding. Well, Captain Brab, thanks for playing stumped the chumps. Hey, I enjoyed it. Bye-bye. Take care.

More calls and a new puzzle are coming up right after these messages. Ha! 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 automotive puzzler. Automotive? Well, kind of automotive. Okay. You remember our pal Vinny Gumbats? Vinny Gumbats.

Of course I know him. Well, he had, had, I used the past tense, two cousins, Rocco and Throckmorton. Don't ask. It was one of those mixed marriages. Right. And they found themselves in the midst of a little mob fracas. Yeah. And next thing you know, they're both locked in the airtight trunk of a late model.

Lincoln Town. How did you know? Yeah, I got it. So they wait for the brothers. Not Vinny. No, no, Vinny, no, the two, Rocco and Troc. Frog. I never liked him.

Rock for sure. Rock and throng. I never really liked him. Yeah. Well, he was funny. He wasn't like the rest of the family. Anyway, they're locked in the trunk. And after the gunplay subsides, they realize that if they don't get out, they're going to die.

Yeah. So Rocco begins beating on the trunk and screaming, let us out, let us out, let us out. Of course, nothing happens. But he expends considerable energy in doing this. and the air supply is diminishing rapidly. Finally, after several hours, Rocco ceases his banging and screaming. And in fact, he expires.

During this time, Throckmorton has done nothing. Has it made a sound almost in a trance. Yeah. He's just been lying there. Saving his breath. Saving his breath, breathing very slowly. While he watched or witnessed. While he watched, Rocco suck up all the air.

Suck up all the trunk. Suck up all the air. And in the process, kill himself. Yeah. Hours later, Throck Martin, who's still alive, his car approach. And he figures this is his chance for good or bad. Whatever was going to happen, he's going to bang on the trunk. He's still alive several hours after Rocco has expired.

And sure enough, it was the police who came. they opened the trunk and let him free. Yeah. The question is, how could he possibly have survived for hours after Morocco? Morocco. It sucked up all the air. It sucked up all the air and expired. Now, if you think you know the answer, write it on a postcard or grill it, fat side up into a five-inch thick, medium-rear-old-old-horse-ratish steak with a remilad or horser sauce and ancho chili butter and rush it too.

Rush overnight delivery. Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3,500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair City. Matt, 2,2238. Or you can email your answer from the Car Talk section ofcars.com. If you'd like to call us right this moment, the number is 1-888-Cart talk. That's 8-8-2-8-25-5. Hello, you're on Car Talk.

Click and clack, this is Mary in Seattle, and boy, do I need your help. Mary, Mary, we've been hoping you would do. call. I picked my car up at the garage last week, and Rich, the mechanic, said, Mary, you've got a problem, but we have no idea what's wrong with it. And we can keep looking for the cause, but it's going to cost a lot of money. I said, Rich, the ladies at work told me it's time to call car talk. Maybe I really need to call them.

Oh. But it gets better. It gets better. Yeah. He walked over to me. me, he looked around the shop, and he whispered, I'll tell you what, Mary, I love car talk. And if you talk to click and clack, and they can figure out what's wrong with your car, I'll fix it for free.

Oh, man. Yeah, how about that? Oh, okay. Talk about putting us on the spot. Okay, we're ready. Come on. I'm counting on yet. Give it to us.

Okay. I have a 1993 Audi 90s. No, already you're in. Okay. I bought it against my father's advice. Yeah, well. Beautiful pearl white with seat warmers and headlight washers. Well, those in four bucks will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Now that it's got a problem, my dad will have nothing to do with it. And at every chance he gets, he says, my Buick doesn't do that. So. What does it do? You try to accelerate, and there's loss of power for about 15 seconds. and you just sit and wait, you might roll along just a little at a crawl, and then boom, it'll pick up and off you go. But the next time that you stop or you slow down, no power.

Wait, no power at all? No, there's power, but no, no own future. No acceleration. So you start from a dead stop. You step on the gas, and no matter how much you step on the gas, the car doesn't really take off. Right. And all of a sudden, it's like someone put it into a hyper drive and bingo.

Yep. I've got it. It's the dilythium crystals. I know. What you think? Well, this guy, Rich, tell us about Rich. All right. I mean, does he specialize in Audies?

Yeah, they do. They do. They do. He said he had everybody look in the shop. Yeah. He called Audi places all over Seattle. Yeah. He pulled up all of these Audi bulletins to see if it was a problem that's ever come up with this car.

Yeah. No mention of it anywhere. No one has heard of this happening. Yeah. Well, Mayor, you've got a snowballed chance to get this thing to fix for free. At least it's beginning to look like that. But we have to ask you some more questions. Let us work on it here for a minute.

Is there ever a time when it accelerates correctly or does it always be hailed? like this? It does not always behave like this. It is intermittent. And it happened before I bought the car. Oh! But you were so smitten with the car that even though you knew your father was right, you had to have it.

You had to have it because of those damn headlight washers. I'm coming clean. Now, here's the problem. I mean, we give you some ideas. The only trouble is, I don't know how you'd know that it was very, right unless you spent a lot of money. For example, it could be the pump in the transmission, which is weak. Oh, so you think it's transmission, huh? I don't think so. I do. Oh, I think it's definitely engine. I think the thing you do. Yeah, it's starved for fuel. So while it certainly could be

the fuel, when you said pump, I said she could be the fuel pump. And I'm sure Rich has tested the pump. I'm sure Rich has replaced the gas filter. I have his, I have his, invoice and job description here that he type checked it. He checked it from misspellings. He grabbed it from me when I told him I might talk to click and class. Well, what did he check? Okay, let's hear it. All right. We test drove the vehicle and found that at approximately 2,200 RPM, the vehicle hesitates for several seconds. We checked for stored fault codes, and there were none stored. We tested fuel pressure to see if the hesitation was caused by improper fuel pressure, but there was no fluctuation in fuel pressure.

He writes, well, he has a career in journalism, like you see. We then checked back pressure at each catalytic converter, both of which, by the way, I have replaced since I bought the car. It wouldn't be the cats. That cost you a couple of bucks, didn't it? Oh. Well, you know something? The Buick's don't have those.

Yeah. Go ahead. Okay, continue. We reviewed all current Audi service bulletins to see if this was a known problem, and there were no bulletins that referred to this runability problem. Well, first of all, the first thing I notice here is that his description of the problem is not the same as yours. You said, and I'm reading from the court notes here, you said, when you start off from a dead stop, you step on the gas and the car accelerates, accelerates very slowly.

It hesitates. He says this doesn't happen until 2,200 RPM. At 2200 RPM, you should have already accelerated. Does this happen from a dead stop or after you be able to. I object. I think you're badgering your witness. Permission to try the glove on next. Permition to treat the witness as hostile.

Does this happen from a dead stop or doesn't it? It happens from both. If I started a dead stop, it happens. and it will happen at a yield sign. So are you calling Rich a liar? Sellers, this is already dramatic enough to go public with this. Okay. It is. I can see that you've bared your soul here and expose yourself to, so to speak, to ridicule from Dan,

even more than you not deserve, but more than you've gotten. Okay. The answer is we don't know, but I'm going to give you one shot at it. only because my wife has an Audi. And she experienced a similar problem to the one that Rich described, not the one that you described, Barry. And she went to the dealer. They had no idea what was wrong with it. And she yelled and screamed at them like she yells and screams at me.

No, she didn't. I yelled and screamed at them. And I'll tell you what it was. cold to sleep with the garage this time of the year, isn't it? I mean, because the dealership couldn't figure it out, they went to the zone manager. It so happened that the zone manager had exactly the same problem with his car. And even though her car is not the same year as yours, here's what it was. The transmission computer. The car has an engine computer and a transmission computer. They replaced the transmission computer, and it fixed it.

So that's a long shot, because it's not, I don't even know that your car has this transmission computer, because yours is not a 93. But if we're trying to get the job done for free, this is your only shot. You've got to go to Rich and say, they didn't really know either, but how about this? And if it were, you're going to have to make a deal with them, that if he replaces the transmission computer and it works, he pays for it. And if he places it and it doesn't work, you're going to have to pay for it. And leave me the hell out of it. Right. And me too. Good luck, Mary.

Thanks, fellas. Good luck. Wouldn't you really rather have a be awake? See you later. Bye. Thanks for calling, Mary. And let us know. Please let us know. I'll call back. Okay, great. Thanks, fellas. Good luck. Bye-bye. Well, it's happened again. You've misappropriated another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk.

Our esteemed producer is Doug the subway fugitive Bongo Boy Berman. Our associate producers are Louis Cronin the Barbarian and David make that two low-fat tofu dogs and a spirulina shake, green. Our engineer is Tad Massaman Curry. Our senior web lackey is sheep boy, Doug the old gray mayor, and our technical, spiritual and menu advisor just back. Actually, I don't see him, so he's not back yet. expected back from the second annual Lake Louise Catfish stewing is John Bugsie Lawler. Our public opinion pollster is Paul Murky of Merkey Research, assisted by statistician Margin Overa. Our customer care representative is Haywood Jabuzov.

Our new truck reviewer is Zibignourg. Our staff bodyguard is Liam Malone. Our divorce attorney is Carmine Not Yours. Our director of genealogical research is Manny Cousins. Our sexual harassment investigator is Hank Panky. Our director of holiday visits to the in-laws is Don Juan Go. Our Car Talk used car salesperson is Sasha Deal. Our Russian chauffeur is peek-off and drop-off.

The banker at Car Talk Plaza Poker Games is Nikolai Put-in, and our seat cushion tester is Mike Easter. Our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey, Cheever and How is U. Lewis Dewey, known to the used book peddlers with phony police IDs in Harvard Square as Ui-Louis-Louis. Thanks so much for listening. We're clicking clack to Tappert Brothers.

Whatever you do, don't drive like my brother. Whatever you do, don't drive like my brother. We'll be back next week. Bye-bye. Car Talk is a production of Dewey Cheatham & Howe and WBUR in Boston. And even though Anne Taylor reconsiders that offer to be the in-store voice of Walmart, whenever she hears up say it, this is NPR National Public Radio. She's going to love that.

Oh, yeah.