The Best of Car Talk - #2662: Camry vs Ferrari

Episode Date: August 4, 2026

Steve emerged from a divorce without his beloved Ferrari and now he’s driving a Toyota Camry. Is there any way he can get some of the thrill that he used to get from driving his v-12 in his current 4 cylinder replacement? Find out on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. Car Talk's perks include full archive access, new call-in bonus episodes with Ray, and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.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 moving violations department here at Car Talk Plaza. This seemed like a good time to do a little update on the whole cell phone driving issue because a lot of people have written to us lately and said, hey, you guys have been on the case for years now. Has it gotten better or worse? Well, I'll tell you how it's gotten.

Oh, sounds good. We have a little selection of... some emails that we got here. I'll just read of excerpts. Are you being fair about this? Are you just picking the... No, I mean, these are people who have written to us with stories. Stories. I was riding a bicycle to school in the bike lane, of course, and I saw headed right at me another bicyclist, also in the bike lane, but on the wrong side of the street. I was getting ready to take some evasive action so I wouldn't collide with this jerk. When I noticed that not only was he riding on the wrong side of the road heading right for me, but he didn't have

his hands on the handlebars. You know, that's like where the brakes. are, the steering. Not only did he have no hands on his handlebars, but he's dialing his cell phone. What has the world come to? How hard is it to stop a bike on the sidewalk and talk on your phone? Well, if you're not using the brakes, it's tough. P.S. I think the only thing I have yet to see is someone talking on the cell phone while riding a motorcycle, but then I've only lived here a couple of months. Okay, you want that? Here's another one from Luke in Cleveland. I used to think talking on a cell phone and smoking a cigarette was the ultimate way to seek to remove your genes from the human gene pool. However, I recently had to revise my opinion. I saw

someone combining two of the highest risk activities on the road. The guy I saw wasn't smoking, and he wasn't even driving a car. He was driving a motorcycle and talking on his cell phone. Think about that for a second. First, it meant he wasn't wearing a helmet. And second, driving a motorcycle generally requires two hands. You got to shift, break, and all that stuff. The only way for him to use both when needed was to stick the phone between his shoulder and his head, bending his neck at an interesting angle to hold it there. Of course, that means he couldn't move his head to look around at precisely the time in driving a motorcycle that he needed to the most. Now, if he'd only lost his gas cap and had a rag hanging out of the tank.

Here's one from Andy. It's now early season here in Colorado. I had the opportunity to venture to one of my favorite resorts. just asked for a nice dump of power. While stopping for a moment on a good run, guess what? Here comes a dude down the mountain without polls, going way too fast,

talking on a cell phone. He wipes out a couple of kids who are minding their own business. Will this madness ever stop? So how do you legislate against that? Foof, is that it? Are we done for the week? Well, we may be done for more than a week if the cell phone lobby, if it catches up with you.

Anyway, we're happy to answer questions about your car or anything else. you want to discuss. I'm sick of this now. Sick of it. I haven't ranted for a long time. Calm down. These guys are getting me crazy. What's getting me crazy is the fact that the cell phone lobby is so powerful. It's crazy. There isn't a legislator in the world who shouldn't have brains enough to know what he's got to do and he won't do it. Why? Because the cell phone lobby is saying it's going to cost him a lot of money. Tough. Well, it's going to interfere with the economy and everyone's worried about his 401k. Yeah, well, start worrying about your kids and your

wife and everybody else who's going to get killed by some jerk walking around, driving around with a cell phone. That's it. You feel better now? I'm beginning to feel a little better. Thank God. How does my hair look? The hair's not any better. The number if you'd like to call us is 888 Car Talk. That's 8882-278-255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hey, this is Andy. I'm calling from sick of Alaska. Like the Sitka Spruce. Yes, exactly. That's what they make guitar tops out of.

Yeah. So what are you doing up there, Andy? What am I doing? I mean, I don't know why we should ask, but it just seems like for us down here in the lower 48. Yeah. Right. How many pairs of long underwear do you won't? And how many are you wearing right now?

Not enough. Anyway, what's up? Okay, well, I've got this 79 light Toyota pickup 4WD. Yeah. Okay. I got it for free a year and a half ago, and I've just been milking it ever since. Price is right. Yeah, but these days I get up in the morning and I turn it on and let it warm up for a few minutes.

I'm sitting in here having my coffee, and I can hear it making sounds like it's going... What? You're sitting where? What are you in your igloo? I mean, you shut this thing off? You can't shut this off? You should just start it up in September and let it run all winter. Yeah, right. So by the time you get into the car, the truck, is it still making noises? Yeah, a lot of times it is. It's, you know, it starts racing, and then it's, like, backing off,

and then it's sort of like stuttering, like, da-da-da-da-da-d-d-d-d-drub. It's been a long winter, hi, Andy. Been a long winter, but a lot of times to get a little lonely up there. You don't know the happen is. Let me tell you. Oh, she's a long and dark, Lou. So what the hell are you doing up there? Haven't your parents called you every week asking you to come back?

Always forgiven? How long have you lived up there in Sitka? I've been living up here on and off since 93. No kidding. Why? Because it's so beautiful up here. Don't tell anybody down there that. It's so beautiful.

I get to catch fish here. So you get to catch fish and listen to your engine, self-destruct. Exactly. Pray about it. Yeah. It sounds like a thrill to me. Not bad. But does the noise abate after the thing warms up?

I mean, part of the reason it's making noises and backfiring and all that is because it's so damn cold. And the engines don't like to run when they're breathing ice cold air. Right. But when it finally does warm up, i.e. the engine warms up. Yeah. Does it seem to be lacking most of these noises then? A bunch of them. stop and then it starts doing it, it starts to race.

My RPM thing is right. It's showing it running like 3,000. Oh. So you don't actually drive this thing. You just start it up so you can have some company. Let me fire up the old song for it and listen to the edge of ride for a few hours. See, you don't go any place, do you? Well, we only have 17 miles of road.

It doesn't really matter that much. It doesn't even matter if it runs. Yeah, I'm totally cut off living on an island out here. Oh, the island's a boat. You are a masochist, man. Also, you can catch fish? Yeah, it's the best. You can buy you, fish.

You go to a fish store. For a couple of bucks, you can buy all the fish. Yeah, they got some nutcases up in Alaska, catching them for you. Oh, boy. You're right. I should move to Seattle. Yeah, yeah.

Oh, man. Okay. So you still have noises, but, I mean, again, now, a lot of it is probably due to the fact that the thing is revving so fast. Well, yeah. It doesn't like to rev that fast. That's no good. Does it ever come down to like a thousand RPM? It does.

See, it's kind of weird because some days I'll be driving along. I'll stop at the stop sign and, you know, it's working just fine. Oh. But then sometimes I'll drive. to the stop sign and it's like as soon as I take my foot off the gas it it wants to stall and so I'll you know I can barely get across town I have to keep started up good hint good hint Andy yeah I think you have uh this thing has a carburetor right and it has a two barrel carburetor and I think what's causing the racing and the stalling are you going to have a chance to use

the answer that you used the choke pull up 20 years no no is that you have a the secondary throttle is sticking. The primary throttle is the one that's actually operated by the gas pedal. If you were driving around at low speed only, you would only use the primary throttle. When you got out on the highway, if you ever did, and you stomped on the gas pedal, both throttles would open up, allowing you to go faster, you know, travel at highway speed. When you took your foot off the gas and coasted, the secondary throttle would immediately close down. Yours doesn't. It sticks open. And you can find this out by you. You can find this out by getting a long skinny screwdriver and with the engine racing, reach in where that secondary throttle

is. Take off the air cleaner first, right? Yeah, take off the top of the air cleaner and look in there and push on that throttle. And you'll either push it more open or you will push it closed and when you do, the racing will disappear. And the noise is, oh. Well, the noise is likely to be on an engine this age, a timing chain. Okay.

So it is the beauty of the place that is that is keeping you there, all the different. years. Yes. Yes. It's nice because there's not such the hordes of people or the McDonald's. Well, you know, I have to say that as much as I dislike the cold, that you make a point that that the rest of what's going on is pretty bad. Yeah, that's why I'm up here. Starbuck. And it's unfortunate that you have to go there. Wouldn't it be great if you could go to like Bermuda? Well, I hope you enjoy your stay there. ever come back, give us a ring. We'll have coffee. Okay. We'll do. Because you know we're not coming up there. And good luck with your Toyota. All right. Thanks for the answer. Thanks. Thanks for calling.

Okay, Tommy, look, it's time to help you. I like this actually. Instead of just embarrassing you every week, I'm helping you to remember last week's puzzler. Go ahead. I'm feeling lucky. Okay. Do it. Here you're filling the blank hints. You ready? Ready? Ready? Yes. On last year's tax return, you reported that your net worth was blank. Zero. I said net worth, not self-worth. I was looking for a thousand bucks. Oh, all right. I have a good year.

Here's the second hint. When someone hit the numbers right, Uncle Nunziot would slip him a what? Mickey. Well, sometimes what I was looking for, envelope. Oh. Because the puzzler was about a thousand bucks

and ten envelopes or envelopes. 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, the answer to last week's puzzler. I guess you'd have to call this a mathematical puzzler. And the one thing I liked about it is that it was brief.

It was brief and it left little room for obfuscation and it didn't need any obfuscation. All right, here it is. Go ahead. I gave Tommy a thousand one dollar bills and his assignment was first to come up with ten envelopes. And once he did that, he had to figure out a way to put various numbers of dollar bills. in those 10 envelopes so that no matter what amount of money I asked him for, he could hand me some combination of envelopes and always be sure are giving me the exact right amount. The question is, how did he do it?

That's the question. I thought the question was, what was going on in your mind that you gave me a $1 bill? And I could have given a hint last week and said one of the envelopes has $489. in it. Oh. Could have given that hint. Really? Well, yeah.

And the other envelopes, the other nine have $1. I like that. $2. Yeah. $4. $8. $16. $13.

$32, $164, $128, and the ninth envelope has $256. 256. Now, if you add those up, 256, 128, 64, 32, you come up with 511. Because in base two, the next number

would be... 512. Would be 512. Yeah. Okay, or 2 to the 10th would be 512. But you couldn't put 512 because you don't have it

to put in there. No. So you can put 489. So you can get any possible number between 1 and 511 by using the first nine envelopes. And then anything beyond 511 up to 1,000, using 489 plus 1 gives you 490, 49,

plus 2 gives you 49-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Man. Pretty good, huh? Wow. Give me my thousand bucks back. It was only all loan. Give me my envelopes back. A further demonstration of the power of two.

Of two. Man. You can't do it. unless the number is two. There you go, see? The power of two. Right? They'll never let you.

They just won't leave you alone, you know? I'm almost feeling sorry now. I'm going to have to stick up for my little brother. Way off the guy. Jeez, I know. Relentless. And it's everybody, too. I told him to do it. And we have a winner.

The winner is Betty Benson. from Houston, Texas, and for having her answer selected at random from the waistbasket full of correct answers that we did get, Betty's going to get a $25 gift certificate to the shameless commerce division, which is at the Car Talk section of Cars.com. And with that $25 gift certificate, Betty can get 1.3927566.67s of a Car Talk t-shirt that says, don't blame me, I voted for click and clack. There's one of these in the Smithsonian, You know. There is?

Yeah, Smithsonian Transmission Rebuilders on Landowners. Good luck, Betty. Congratulations. Anyway, we'll have a new puzzler coming up in the third half of today's show. That power of two again. So stay tuned for that. In the meantime, our number is 1-888-8-8-8-8-8-2-57-8-25-5. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hey, guys, it's Merse from L.A.

How are you doing? As in Mercedes? As in Mercedes. Merse. M-E-R-C-E? Yep, that's me. Mercy, Mercy. What's up, Merce?

You ready for this? Okay, we moved out here about a year and a half ago, and I brought the sexiest, the coolest Red Miata ever in the entire planet. It is the best car. But lately it's developed kind of a problem. Yeah. Every time we come to a stop, if I have her in gear, she starts to shake. And if I have her in idol, she doesn't shake at all.

She's actually totally fine. So if it's in gear and your foot is on the clutch, it shakes. Yep. But if it's in neutral and your foot's off the clutch, it doesn't shake? Yeah.

And, okay, here's some other info for you, okay? I'm also a production designer out here. Well, I'm going to be the next most famous, incredible, prolific, artistic production designer

that ever existed. And I've been carrying... How long have you been there? Two weeks? So I've been carrying all these four by eights of particle board and, you know,

plywood and everything I can fit. Oh, so you're the gopher. No, I'm not a gopher. I'm a production designer. She's a production designer. So are you a barista at Starbucks yet, or are you just a lowly... I'm in grad school. But you're not working at Starbucks to make ends meet.

Yeah. You are. Okay. All right. Here's the deal. Okay. When you got your foot on the clutch, it ain't really working well. And so it's really trying to be still...

in gear. Yeah. Right. And that's why it's vibrating. You may have noticed, I hate to ask a question like this because you should never ask a question that you don't know the answer to.

But you may have noticed that it's a little difficult getting into reverse these days. Yes. Oh, that's the right answer. That is the right answer. And the reason? Go ahead.

Go ahead. The reason is. The reason you can't get into reverse readily is the clutch is not completely disengaging. So even though your foot is all the way down on the pedal, it's like, if your clutch are working correctly, it's like you have your foot like halfway up. I got it, and that would make a change. That would make a change. It would run slowly and also make it very difficult to shift.

Uh-huh. So you need probably one of the following two, three, or four things. Just give me the cheapest, listen. If you're really lucky. in terms of low price to high price. You're really lucky you need a clutch slave cylinder. A slave cylinder. Slave.

Kind of like what you are. Okay. All right. You need a grad student. You need a clutch slave cylinder, maybe. Or you could need a clutch master cylinder. Okay, we're up in price now. And that's more money.

That's one and a half to two times. Or you could need a new clutch. Or you could need a new car. Or you could need a new car. you could eat any two or three of those. Okay. We're betting on the slave cylinder, though. I'm betting on the slave cylinder. Me too.

Really? Yeah. And that's not going to be terrible. Even a grad student production designer slash barista could afford to do this. Okay. And then you'll be back in business. And when you become famous, we're sure you will. You better believe it. We know.

Don't forget your old pals, Tom and Ray. Yeah, don't forget us because we'll be our star. Our star will be setting. Okay. Actually, it may be a black hole by then. But try to remember us and be kind. I will. Thanks, Merse.

Hey, good luck. See you. Thanks. Bye-bye. Hey, Tommy, you know, you've been in this cramp little studio for going on like 40 minutes now. Yeah. You know what you need to do before the new puzzler? What?

A nap? No, just the opposite. Some fresh air. You need to go outside, walking around the block. Get some air, man. You want me to get you a coffee, too? Cream milk shirt, hurry up. We only got 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 discuss cars, car repair, and the new, gee, I have to call it folkloric. Folklore, cultural, historic. And it's a true story. Oh.

Well, minus the misrepresentations, the obfuscations, and the outright lying that I'm going to do. But other than that, now you will know the rest of the story. Other than that, I think it's a true story. Think, no, you think. Well, I heard it. It may be a true story.

Everything may be a true story. All right, just give it to us. It takes place during World War II. It turns out that a young American fighter pilot had his plane shot up pretty bad, but he managed to parachute out and land in northwest France. Yeah. Outside a little village where he was discovered. covered by the townspeople, understandably shaken up, but otherwise unharmed.

And they realized that they had to somehow get him back to his unit, you know, in England so he could continue to fly his missions to help liberate France from the grasp of the Nazis. You're with me so far? So to this end... You mean save the sorry, sorry, ungrateful butts of the French people? Something like that, yeah. Okay. So to this end, they figure they have to disguise him and give him some phony ID and the like.

So they remove all of his clothing and discard it, including his shoes and his socks. Of course. They destroy his dog tags. They dress him up. You know, typical French garb. He's got a waist-length woolen jacket. He's got a pair of sabos. He's got a French beret.

Two or three days growth of beard. And he even looks French. I'm with you. So they, of course, travel under the cover of darkness with their. American pilot, and he is going to meet with a little boat, which is going to take him across the channel. While their last night in France, they stop a little inn to enjoy a little repast and some cognac. And while they're there, a group of German soldiers comes in. Was Paul Hornreed?

One of them? Paul Hornreid. Paul Enreid was one of them. And one of the soldiers scans the room. He's out of earshot of any one of these people sitting at this little table. Yeah. And he points to this person. And he says, that's the American.

How did he know? They all stand up and say, Allons of all de la patria. I saw that money. Whoa. Did I give enough hints? Did I obfuscate, misrepresenting, lie enough? That was beautifully done.

If you think you know the answer, write it on a postcard. Or etch it into the snowblower attachment of a bobcat, 753 compact tractor with cab heater and seat warmers. And ship it to hope this makes you happy, hon. And ship it to Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3,500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair City. Ma, 02238, Attention, Monique. Or you can email your answer from the car talk section of cars.com, of course. And while you're there, you might want to check out the early results from our contest to rename Daimler Chrysler's upcoming humongous SUV, which they're calling the Unimog.

We thought, what kind of a name is Unimog? I mean, what's one mog? Anyway, we got a few suggestions. Unis-Mogg, Trachopotomous, obnoxi-Moron, excruionator. I like it. P.T. Crusher? I like that. Testosterone and the Freud Mobile.

You can check out the rest of the suggestions we got, and feel free to add your own suggestion at the Car Talk section of Cars.com. I thought that we should try to figure out the acronyms. I think it should be like, unbelievably nonsensical, inanely, massive, obnoxious gargantuan. Maybe Unimog is their codename

for exactly that. I'll bet it is. Oh, my God. Anyway, the meantime, if you have a question about your car, you can call us at 888 Car Talk, and we can give you a wrong answer, too. That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Remember, it only works if the number is two.

Hi, this is Steve from Seattle. Steve from Seattle. How is it shaken? It was shaken pretty good, unfortunately. I was driving north with some friends going on a fishing trip, and I never felt anything. You guys were very lucky, though, huh? We were really lucky.

Well, that's good. We need some luck once in a while. Indeed. So what's going on? We need some luck right now, bro. Well, this is an emotional support question. I'm currently driving a 1997 Toyota Camry. And you have to hear the whole story about how I got to drive the Camry.

I've always been into cars. I've been a complete car junkie. And when I was younger, I had a Oldsmobile 4-4-2, and then I had a Volvo P-1800. Then I made a little more money, and I really got into cars. I had some seven series BMWs. That explains why you have no money now. No, no, it gets worse.

The last car I had was a Ferrari, a 400-I. That'll explain it. This explains it what happened to me while I had the Ferraris. I got divorced. And now you've got a Camry? I like to get excited about my cars. I need your help. getting excited about a car with cloth interior and a four-cylinder engine.

Yeah, I might take Viagra. Steve. Steve. Give us a break here, will you? Yeah. Do you have any hair left? I've got some hair left. Define some.

I've got a big forehead. Which state is it comparable to its size? Is it on Rhode Island? Is it Texas or Rhode Island? Massachusetts. It's like Massachusetts. Oh, that's not bad. Are you currently using anything to keep the borders from shifting?

Well, you've got to know these things because if you feel good about yourself, it doesn't make any difference. I'm not using anything to stop it. I'm just trying to stay in shape. Yeah. How long have you been divorced? About six years. But how long you had the Camry? Well, so it's like 97 maybe.

How's that grabbed you? Is that true? That's correct. So you had a gradual doubt. For three years, you still had the Ferrari. Actually, I had a used car in the interim. Yeah, oh, an interim. AMC PACER.

And he stepped up to the camera. Consider yourself lucky, man. Man, this is... It's a dilemma. Are you, what's the word? Are you romantically involved with anyone at this point? I actually got remarried. You got remarried?

I'll ask you again, are you romantically involved? The answer to that question, yes, my wife. Okay. That's good. But you long for those days where you could have a Ferrari. Well, maybe not. You may not need the Ferrari anymore. I mean, the Ferrari may have been simply a manifestation somehow of the,

unhappiness of your previous marriage. And now that you're remarried, hopefully, more happily, you may not need a Ferrari to tell you what a wonderful... Thank you, Dr. Laura! I mean, the camera may be fine. I have the car for you, Steve. I'm ready. You're going to take your sum to find one of these,

but it's going to be the right car for you. An El Camino. Yeah. Yeah, with a 327 engine. Yeah, I just, I don't know why. I can see him in it. I can just see you now with the wind blowing through your bald spot in the whole bit. I can see you in an El Camino.

I mean, I was going to recommend, you know, something more affordable, like a Z3, which you'd probably like. Yeah, that'd be great. Oh, sure, he would like a Z3, but I don't think he needs it anymore. I think he's on his own now. I think I think he's become the man he wants to be. You think so. I think so. I think he doesn't need the car anymore to be a statement of who he is.

I can feel it. You know, you sound happy. I am. You are. Yeah. So what does it matter what you drive? You could be on a scooter and it wouldn't matter. No, no, he needs something to feel good about.

To feel good about besides his loving relationship with his new bride and... Z3. Yeah, Z3. We get the El Camino. I think it's a Z3. Yeah. Hey, Steve, we wish you the very best. All right, thanks you guys.

Good luck, and enjoy the El Camino. You'll see. It's a deal. See you later. All right, bye-bye. Bye-bye. 1-8888-8-8-8-8-8-2-7-8-25. A lawyer on Car Talk.

Hi, this is Connie in Bellingham. Bellingham, Washington? Yeah, that's right. You just had Steve on. I'm 90 miles north of him. You know, Steve. Steve? No.

Would you like to meet him? No. He's happily married, calling. Yeah, right. Anyway, what's up? Well, I want to take a road trip. Yeah. An extended road trip.

And I want you guys to help me decide what kind of car to go. Oh, I thought you were looking for a company. Well, that too, actually. Well, if you have a Z-3, you can get Steve to go with you. No, I want to drive to Rio de Janeiro. No kidding. Yeah. But I have two problems.

One of the guidebooks said if you were driving in South America that they had kind of wimpy gas. They have gas with an 85 octane and that it's often dirty and that it wouldn't go well with high compression type engines. And I thought, oh, dear, should I buy a gasoline engine with an extra tank or should I buy a duly thing with propane or should I go diesel? You could go diesel. You'll listen to that racket for about 25,000 miles. It's going to be a long drive. And then, beyond that, do you think I could get away with like a front-wheel-drive minivan-type thing? Or should I go for sure with a four-wheel?

Well, I have the ideal vehicle of mine, but before we get there. Why do you want to go? What's in Rio? I haven't been there. Well, you haven't been to Tierra del Fuego either, but you ain't driving there. I'm a travel-holic, okay? Yeah. And I cruised around the world for about six years in a small sailboat,

but that only goes five miles an hour. So I decided that I wanted to see South America, and the best way to do it was to drive. Now, I don't know how I'll get across the Panama Canal or if I will, but I know I'm going to need higher clearance and something that maybe I could work on, and I thought maybe diesel would be a better idea. Well, how do you know that?

I mean, do you have any idea? what kind of roads there are between Texas and Rio de Janeiro? I mean, have you got your tripticks from AAA? Well, I got this awesome Atlas. Yeah. So I have this wonderful Atlas that has all these neat red lines. And, no, I'm doing homework. I'm not going to leave for about nine months or so.

So I'm going to have plenty of times to sort all this out. It sounds really exciting. Well, absolutely. And as a matter of fact, I looked up on Travelocity to see what brands of cars they had. Yeah, yeah, good. Like in Brazil and stuff. Right.

And they rattled off a bunch of Volkswagen models that we don't have, of course. And they also said that you could never take a car that you bought down there back to the States because it wouldn't meet code. Right. So I thought, does that mean they couldn't fix one if I took one down? Well, that may mean that. My feeling about this kind of adventure is that it would be comforting if it any, point you could abort.

Oh, yeah. And if you invested $30,000 in a Nissan Pathfinder and you broke down someplace and they couldn't get the parts, you'd be stuck there until they fixed it. On the other hand, if you had a $2,000 Nissan Pathfinder and they couldn't fix it, you'd say it's yours. Who cares? So I think you want, I want a very used vehicle. And I was going to suggest that you buy.

And I was going to suggest that you buy it down there. Well. I would say that you drive whatever you've got. And you park it in the Walmart parking lot. Wait, wait. They won't bother you for at least six months. That's a good idea. And when you get there, you buy a Volkswagen thing.

Uh-huh. I've driven a thing. Sure. That's what you want. When you get to Venezuela, you're going to buy some kind of, or maybe when you get to Brazil, you're going to buy yourself some kind of. an indigenous vehicle.

You do whatever you're going to do with it, you drive back to that spot. And whoever gives you... And you go back to Walmart. Right, whoever gives you 50 pesos, you can tell a day you can have it. Well, that's a pretty good idea, but are you guys going to be available

to tell me that I got the right kind of creature with it? Yes, we're going to keep in constant communication. So as you get closer and closer to the time you're going to leave, you need to call us back. And then while you're on your trip, We'll have the Odyssey of Connie on our website I would love to know how that goes Well, I think it's going to be a kick

I think it's going to be really fun This is a great adventure Oh, I'm excited about it You're nuts But I wish you're the very, very best Anything can happen in the next nine months But you could be committed, for example And you wouldn't be able to go on the trip

So that's possible too They may catch you Oh, well, yeah. You need you? They'll take me back? No, not that. Take you back to the home. We'll be talking to you, Connie, I'm sure.

Okay. Thanks for your call. Good luck. Bye. Boy, she sounds like a fun gal. I wish I could go. My wife's probably going to buy me a ticket already. One way.

Well, it's happened again. You've blown off another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk. Our esteemed producer is Doug the subway fugitive Bungo boy Berman. Our associate producers are Louis Cronin the Barbarian, and David Armington's built on a fault line, green. Our engineer is Michael Garth, our senior weblacky is Doug General Sherman Mayer. Our technical, spiritual, and menu advisor just back from his barge, Buick, and Barker-Longer tour of Greater Beloit is John Bugsy Lawler. Our public opinion poster is Paul Murky of Merkey Research, assisted by statistician Marge and Overa. Our customer care representative is Haywood Jabuzov.

from a security expert from the island of Jamaica is Euripides-upman, who is not related to our tailor, Euripides, I menadies, or to our staff bouncer, Euripides, I break your face. Or to the proprietor of our men's clothing shop, Euripides, you own a Diz. Our divorce attorney is Carmine, not yours. Our sexual harassment investigator is Hank Panky. Our credit counselor is Max Stout. Our meteorologist from the New Delhi office is Luke Outavindo.

Our director of Pavlovian research is Isabel ringing, and our Russian chauffeur is peak off and drop off. Of course, the banker at Car Talk poker games is Nikolai Puddin, and our seat cushion tester is Mike Easter. Our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Cheeverman Howe is ULewis Dewey, known to the burnt-out college presidents in Harvard Square as Ui-Louis-Douy. Thanks so much for listening. We're clicking back to Tappert Brothers, and remember, don't drive like us.

You'll be back next week. Bye-bye. Car Talk is a production of Dewey Cheeverman-Hau in WBUR in Boston. And even though Carl Castle reconsiders that offer to call bingo games for carnival cruise lines

whenever he hears us say it. This is NPR National Public Radio.