The Best of Car Talk - #2678: They're Coming to Steal Your Fish

Episode Date: September 29, 2026

A tornado picks up a car and deposits it in the trees and now they’re coming to steal your fish. Must be the latest 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 Tappertr Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the Home Economics Department here at Car Talk Plaza. I majored in economics, you know. Yes, home or other? Other. Not domestic, but foreign. I have a list of things here sent to us by someone. And the title is signs found in kitchens, but I think it's more like, this could be like T-shirt even things, you know?

Slogans or... Slogans, yeah. Witticisms? Here's one, for example. A husband is someone who takes out the trash and gives the impression he just cleaned the whole house. Oh, true. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, I did it just yesterday. Came back in, sat down at the table. He wanted to these, whoo. Like you just slain a dragon. And Joined says to me, what? I said, took out the trash. Yeah. She says, yeah, duh.

But it's a jungle out there. It's a jungle out there. Okay, here's another one. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator. My next house will have no kitchen, just vending machines. Well, there's a concept. It is my favorite. No husband has ever been shot while doing the dishes.

Yeah, that's true. So I guess if you're in danger of getting shot, do the dishes. Well, our friend, Andrea Levitt, wants to have, instead of a kitchen, with normal appliances, wants to have, you know how some businesses used to have those vacuum systems to suck out the... Yeah.

And some still do. Yeah, they would send money and loose change around. Right, and then a little container would come back with your change and your receipt. Yeah, and it always made a lot, great noise. She wants these hooked up

to the six best takeout restaurants in his car. So you're calling your order, and then you open the door and there's your dinner. Wow. That's a concept. Yeah.

The internet's got nothing on that. No, exactly. Right, you're not going to get that out of your computer, that's for sure. Look, if you need some car advice, because that's what we're here for, you can call us at 888 Car Talk. That's 888-28-255. I can remember that. Hello, you're on Car Talk.

Hi, this is Andrew from Chicago. Hi, Andrew. How are you doing? Doing very well, thanks. I have a 1984 Pontiac Sunberg, and it's a manual transmission. And the problem that I'm having is one day I was driving it, and I couldn't get it into two-four reverse, which is kick back into neutral.

Well, I've often said that we don't need all those gears. Yeah, but reverse would be good. Except for the fact that reverse is one of the ones that you do need. Well, I was able to drive at home, but reverse was a problem because I parked in like a parallel parking space, and of course it didn't dawn on me that I'd need that to get out. So you have one three and five. I mean, if I had to choose, if I had to take one of those groups, I would definitely take the one-three-five group.

Oh, I agree. I agree. But you need R. Yeah, but you need one, three, and five. Yeah, I would choose. You know, it would be great having all of them. I would choose two, I would choose two, four an R. So when you try to put it in, it just grinds. No, it doesn't do anything.

Yeah, just, you try and it's like you can't push it back far enough. Oh, you know, this thing must have a cable shifter. I think you're lucky. You might need it. I honestly don't remember, but a lot of manual shift cars, back in the old days, cars either had the shifter that went right into the transmission, and there were still some cars that have that, or the linkage was actual rods that went from a shifter and attached to the feet on the transmission so that as you moved the shifter lever inside the car, you would actually then move a rod, which would move a foot on the transmission and select a selector for the gear. Okay. But because front wheel drive has made it difficult to do that, many people, many manufacturers now do it with cables. Right.

And it's possible that the reason you can't get two four an hour is that that cable is bound up and rusted. Yeah. The fact that it's all three of them that you can't deal with. Yeah, it's not the transmission. Are all the same, all in the same direction, means that it's not something that's inside the transmission because it's so unlikely that something could have happened to gear four. to NR. So that's good because if you don't have to go in the transmission to fix it, it means the difference of $1,000. And you wouldn't go into this transmission under any circumstances

anyway on an 84 sunbird. So I think you should take it to your repair shop and ask them if it has a cable, which I'm 99% sure it does, and see if they can replace that seized cable. Okay. Good luck, Andrew. You have lucked out, my boy. I mean, we know you're a lucky guy because you're driving an 84 son of her. And you're still alive. And you still have a good sense of humor, so that's pretty good. Take it easy. You too. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

1-8-8-8-8. What is that number 888-court? That's 88, 82, 27, 8255. A lawyer on car talk. Hi, guys. This is Ila from Hardwick, Vermont. I-la? I-L-A? No. E-L-L-A? No. A-Y?

No. Isla? E-Y-E-L-A-H. No. It's I-S-L-A. Like island. Oh, like the Isle of Manhattan. Well, on the island of Ila off the west coast of Scotland.

Oh, really? Yeah. Like Island without the D. In the end. Yeah. Okay, sure. Okay. Wow.

Isla Nublar. There you go. There you go. There you go. Exactly what I was thinking. And where are you from? I'm calling from Hardwick, Vermont. Hardwick.

Hardwick's in the Northeast Kingdom. Oh, it is? Yeah. Would you do wrong? Well, I live in Maine. I work in Vermont, so. Yeah? Yeah.

You know, there's no way to get there. I know that. I know that. No, you know, you need plane. Well, you do. I find it interesting. I mean, we get those sort of three states that are like across from each other, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. and there's really no way to get from one to the other unless you either go through Canada or Massachusetts.

Well, you know why? Why? Nobody really wants to make that trip. That's right. I think they all have decided they want to be alone and they don't like the people next to them. Oh. And they've made it. Don't forget, I mean, they've seen roads.

And they could build one if they really wanted to. And nobody has taken the initiative. And they certainly have not collaborated. want the north to south roads because that brings in the tourists. Right. Exactly. But they don't want the tourists to come from the neighboring states because they don't like each other. Well, they don't spend any money either.

Of course not. They're only coming in to fish. They're going to steal your fish. Right. So, better they stay home. So anyway, what's your problem? Okay. I have a 1995 Jeep Cherokee.

Since last August, I've replaced the rotors front and back three times. Yeah. And when I first, I took it to Midas. I felt like the brakes were getting kind of pulsy and soft. So they replaced the rotors. They put in new ones. I guess. How much do they charge you?

Oh, I don't remember. There's a lot? Yes. Did you cry? No. Okay. No. Couldn't have been enough then.

We have a box of tissues on the counter now. But we hear people to bill. We give them a bill and tissue. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Okay. And a priest. Who works full time?

I'm sorry, go ahead. That's right. So about a month or so after that, going downhill at high rates of speed, it felt like the brakes were getting soft and kind of paltzy again, and it was intermittent. And then in November, it got to be more consistent. And I took it back to Midas, and they replaced the rotors again. Free of charge?

Free of charge. Oh, good. So the same thing happened in February. They replaced them again. Free of charge. But the guy said to me, this is it. We're not doing this again. And when I said, why is this happening?

He asked me if I had a paper route. He thought that was I using the brakes, you know, excessively or he didn't have any theories. How much had you driven in any of those periods between rotors? I put about 300 miles a week. on my car and all long distance and pretty high speed. Up and down mountains. Up and down mountains. And what is your method of coming down the mountain? I do not ride the brakes.

What do you do? I drive. You just career down the mountain and 150 miles and hour? You notice I use the word career. Yes. Yes. Which I know. You had a career opportunity there and you used it. I did because I think it's such a silly word.

We had a perfectly good word, Corrine. Yeah. Which means that's exactly the same. same thing. Why did we need the word career? And so I'm using it only because I know that it's an unused word lying there fallow in the dictionary. He went careering down the road. Well, I do go careering down the mountain. Yeah. Well, I'm sure you have to use the brakes. I mean, oh yeah, but I'm, you know, I'm aware, I'm really aware of how I'm using them lately. Yeah. But that is speeding up the demise of each of the new brake rotors. Why?

Because they are misdesigned. If I'm not. not mistaken, there is a recall on these, not a recall, but a campaign or some such thing, at least on the newer Grand Cherokees there is, because they've had the same problem. Really? Yeah. So what do I do? Well, you go to the dealer. You go to the dealer and you give them your VIN.

Okay. If they're convinced after looking at the car that Midas has done nothing wrong, then there's going to, then the only other possibility is that you're doing something wrong. And if you can convince them that you're not, then they might be willing to do something for you. But I don't know what they're going to do except for putting new roadies in unless they have a new design. Okay. And I don't want to propose lying here. Yeah, but.

But if you didn't have to mention the mountains. Ah, okay. Don't. Okay. Oh, you sneaky. High speed, lots of mileage, no mountains. It wouldn't be lying if you just omitted it. That's what I'm saying.

Okay. If they don't say you, you're not going to drive it up and down mountains every day. are you? If they don't ask you that question, I wouldn't volunteer it. That's all I'm saying. If it were me because I am a sleazeball. Well, I know it now. But you may not be, and you may think that honesty,

you might want to say, as my mother did, well, Ray, what about those Cuban cigars you bought? And she was at the border with my uncle in Canada. Yeah. She was an honest soul. She was an honest soul, but it didn't.

She didn't pass that gene on to this little progeny. Well, good luck, and let us know your make-out. Okay, thanks a lot. Bye-bye. There's a lot more stuff coming up right after the following messages, so stick around. Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack to Tappert Brothers, and we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and the answer to last week's puzzler.

This was the final puzzler of the current. puzzler season. So I should like savor this one. It's going to be a dozy, isn't it? A real season ending splash? Is it going to be as good as the mango tree? Jerk. All right.

There's a rare disease sweeping through your town called, and the disease is called ACI, and it produces irreversible anal-cranial inversion. You may have noticed that my brother has it. Now, of all people exposed to ACI, only 0.1% actually contracted.

Okay, a tenth of a tenth of a percent. Okay. And if you catch it early before the symptoms present, you can get treatment and maybe you can be cured. Fortunately, there's a diagnostic test which can detect ACI up to a year before the inversion. So anyway, you go to your doctor and he administers the test and it comes out positive. Yeah. And you say, oh, I'm done for it. Then you get a little bit encouraged. You say,

wait a minute, Doc, is this test 100% accurate? And he says, well, not really, but it's 95% accurate. 95% accurate. Right. In other words, 5% of the people who take the test will test positive, but they don't really have it. The question is, what are the chances that you will actually have an irreversible anal-cranial inversion. And the answer is, have you worked out the math yet? No, I haven't. Okay. Well, let's do it this way.

Go ahead. What did I say? The rate is 0.1%? Yeah. Okay, so 0.1% of the people who are exposed to actually get it. That's 1 in 1,000. Is that right? Mm-hmm.

Now, you tested positive, and you figure I'm done for, especially when you find out the test is 95% accurate. But if it is 95% accurate, that means if 1,000 people take the test, 50 people who don't have the disease will test positive, right? Let me see, Don't. Well, if it's if it's, if it's go, let's go, let's make it simple for you. 95% yet. Let's say it was 100 people who took it.

Let's start here, Tommy. 100 people. No, I'm with you. I was on a different track. I'm with you. 50 people who take the test will test positive and yet they will not have it. Right. So have 1,000 people who take it.

Yeah. Okay. And you're included in that 1,000. Yes. Okay. 51 people out of 1,000 are going to test positive. One of those people is going to have it, and 50 are not going to have it. Correct.

So your chances of actually having it, even though you tested positive, a 1 in 51 or a little less than 2%. 2%. And that's just another way that statistics can fool you and lie to you and make you suicidal jump off a bridge. Because you're tested positive. Sure. And the test is 95% accurate. Sounds so good. So you're saying 2% is pretty simple.

small. Well, I mean, your chances of having it are 20-fold greater than just a person off the street. Exactly, right, which is only 0.1%. By testing positive. Yeah. But it's still, I mean, considering how dire the news was just a moment ago. Now down to 2%. Two percent. I mean, don't even pay any attention to it. I mean, you had a 2% chance of being hit by Skylab. Is that still up to it? Anyway, who's our winner? The winner is, no kidding. Jeez. What are the chances of this? Wow, the winner is a guy named, and I'm going to pronounce it correctly for us. Frank Milozi, are, as pumped, some people would say, migliosi. Yeah.

From Rye, Brook, New York. Wow. Wow. Could be a misspelling. Maybe our name is misspelled. Exactly. Well, we're supposed to be Tom and Ray Milozy. Who would care?

I don't know. I don't care. Anyway, Frank, for having your correct answer selected at random from the kayak full of correct answers that we got this week, you're going to get a $25 gift certificate to the shameless commerce division at the Car Talk section of cars.com with which you can get like a best-of-car talk CD,

which is guaranteed to bore your kids to sleep on those long summer road trips. You just stick this in the little CD player, and when all those kids are going, yeah, yeah, yeah, right to sleep. Not them right out. Well, we will not be having a new puzzler in the third half of the show,

but we will give you information, news, data, on how you can get your puzzler fixed for the next few weeks. So in the meantime, if you want to call us about something else. For how long

is the vacation of the puzzler? It's being negotiated. That's all I can say. Anyway, the number is 8888-8-8-8-8-2-7-8-25. Hello, you're on car talk. Hi, my name is Daniel Coleman from Warnsburg, Missouri.

Hi, Daniel. No. Warronsburg, Missouri. Yeah. What's up? We'd ask you where Warnsburg is, but we're struggling. right now with Missouri.

I mean, if you said near Kansas City, that would be fine. But if you said near anything else, we wouldn't know where that was either. I have a 94 cavalier, and it seems that whenever I drive on the highway for about an hour or so, whenever I first start to slow down, the car seems to shake violently and then completely stalls out. And I have no clue what it is. I've had tune-ups on it, and everybody says everything's fine. Really?

It's an automatic transmission, isn't it? Yeah, even Doug Berman, our producer, raise his hand because he went, ooh, ooh, Mr. Carter, Mr. Carter. Oh, he said he was checking his underarm deodor at that point he was raising his hand. It stalls out every time when this happens, right? Yeah. And you restart it and it starts, but as soon as you put it in drive, it stalls again? It won't restart. It'll take about a half hour for it to turn over at least.

Oh, really? Yeah, and then I'll go ahead and I'll put it in drive and it'll go. Aha! Oh, do you have a different... You have a different problem. Berman? You're out, man. So you're driving on the highway. You come off the exit and you come to a stop at the end of the exit.

The thing stalls. Yeah. You turn the key. What happens? Nothing. No clicks, no nothing. Uh, maybe a click. But no, ah, ah.

No crank. Nope. Excellent. So you wait half an hour. you turn the key, it starts right up, you throw it and drive, and you're off. Exactly. I don't believe it. Mamma mia, Sonia, Henny's Tutu.

It doesn't crank. Well, if it doesn't crank, then either there has to be something wrong with either the battery. The ignition switch. Or the starter motor. The starter motor. Or the wiring. But that wouldn't explain why it starts up again after waiting for it to cool down. Yeah.

And that wouldn't explain. what would make it shudder and stall. How long do you have to drive it before it does this? I don't know, about an hour. An hour, but you've driven it for shorter periods of time where it hasn't done this. Oh, yeah, I can drive around town all day. Who put you up to this? Yeah, did you cut a deal with Louis Cronin?

I mean, I've been to a few places, and I figured if anybody could help me out, it'd be you to. How long can you wait? Well, we can, Daniel. Well, we will. We will. If you give us an hour. Yeah. I mean, you're not in a hurry, are you? Can you bring the car in?

See, the trouble is there are two things happening here. It's stalling out, which is one whole set of possibilities, and then it won't crank, which another whole set of... There are two things wrong with it there. I agree. There are two things wrong with your car. Isn't that comforting? Well, it's a start.

It's a start. You're going to go through this step by step. If we could figure out the non-start thing, I think that would be a great breakthrough. And let's forget about the fact that it stalled up. Do you have an alarm system in this car? No, I don't. Oh, that's good. If you're lucky, someone will steal it.

Mom, mommy. Oh, here's a good question. Maybe you don't know the answer. If you continue to drive it at high speed. Yeah. Like longer than an hour. Mm-hmm. would it misbehave ever?

No. It's just whenever I start to slow down. Okay, here's what I think. Here's what I think. I'm going back to Berman's original answer. As misguided as that may be. As misguided as it was, I'm going back to it too. Your initial problem with it conking out after driving for extended period of time

is your lock-up torque converter. This car has, because it has an automatic transmission, has a device called a torque converter, which is basically a device which allows to transfer of power from the engine to the transmission via a hydraulic setup. Okay. And because hydraulic torque converters have inherent slippage, they made one that would lock up when you got above 35 miles an hour. So it wouldn't slip. It would, in fact, behave like a clutch on a manual shift car.

And yours isn't unlocking when your speed drops below 35 miles an hour. Wow. Yeah. So you need to have that unfold. plugged. And unfortunately, we only have one answer per caller this week. That's for sure going to fix that part. Yeah. And here's the other part. Well, then, then, then, if it didn't stall out because of this, you wouldn't have to restart it. You wouldn't have to start it. You're all set, man. I like it. But the second problem could be something simple like the neutral safety switch.

Yes, it could be. Or it could be a bad starter motor. It could be a lot of things. But have the one plugged the torque converter. I'm convinced that that will solve problem number one. And then problem number two probably won't go away, but you'll be encouraged that you only have one problem left. Okay. Good luck, man.

Hey, thanks for having me. Bye. Nice talking you, Daniel. More calls are coming up after the break, so stick around. Ha, we're back listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack the Tapper Brothers, and we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and anything else you just want to talk about.

But first, Tommy, you've got some mail, don't you? I do have mail. We got a letter from a kid. A kid. I think he's a kid because he refers to high school. I call that a kid. And this kid has such insight that I think he deserves the car talk, maybe the Peace Prize. Really?

Get this. He says this. His name is Ben Volner, by the way. I don't know where he's from. The society we live in today is hurried, complex, and alienating. People need time to stop and smell the roses. time to savor the finer things in life. So for the good of the nation, I propose the following.

Everybody drive a fiat. The benefits are these. One, community bonding. Driving a fiat would promote increased community bonding and awareness. When all the fiats unexpectedly break down at the same time, people will be forced to reach out to each other for help, encouragement, and to trade useful tidbits of information. Think about it.

Two, economic growth. This is inevitable with the whole society spending money on hourly transportation repair. Mechanics' incomes will rise, industry will expand, and unemployment will decrease. Foreign alliances will also be made due to the widespread need for specialized, hard-to-get automobile parts. Three, personal growth. Each person's character and integrity will grow every time his Fiat baffles, confusions, and angers him. Four, ethnic diversity.

The fiat will help expand the nation's knowledge of Italian rhetoric as each odor pours over the poorly translated Italian to English service manuals. An appreciation for Italian design will also contribute to this cultural diversity as Americans explore the Italian way of taking a simple engine and making it into a masterpiece of confusing complexity. And national health. The health on the nation will be improved by the amount of exercise needed for day-to-day survival. Walking for help in the clean fresh air and building muscle tones,

struggling with Fiat bolts and screws are two small examples. And last, the joy of not knowing. Exilaration without acceleration will be enjoyed by all who drive a Fiat. They will receive hours of thrills from the inability to know where or when they will break down next. Oh, I mean, I couldn't be more in agreement. Isn't he right? He's right on. It supports my thesis that the Japanese have ruined Americans in America by making two reliable cars.

Well, don't forget, they lost World War II and they haven't forgotten it. And they figure they can't get back to us without any nuclear bombs that they're getting back at us by ruining. By tearing apart the very fabric. The fabric of Americanism. Right. While we go careering around in their reliable. cars. Procreating at will.

What a great letter. Hey, Ben Bowler. Is that... Send them five bucks. He sounds like a heck of a smart kid. He certainly does. Good, good letter. Anyway, with the puzzle on vacation for the next few weeks, months or years,

my brother will be dipping into the mailbag quite a bit. So if you have something you'd think, think he'd like to read, send it to him at Mail for Tommy, Box 3,500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair City. Matt 02238. Or you can email him from the Car Talk section of Cars.com. By the way, for those of you who already missed the puzzler, and I know it's only been a few minutes, you can go to the Car Talk section of Cars.com and check out this week's classic

puzzler. Yeah, classic. Is that like an oldie but goodie? Well, it's an oldie, anyway. That's as far as I'm going to go. It's good enough. Anyway, if you have a question about your car, give us a call at 888-8-8-28-255. Hello, you're on Car Talk.

Hi, this is Deborah from Washington, D.C. Is that the five-letter, Deborah? No, it's not. The seven-letter Deborah? Yes, it's the biblical, Deborah. The biblical, yes. Oh, my God. I suspected it was the seven-letter Deborah because I heard the...

The way she said it. Yes. Good, good ears. Yeah. Yeah. Where are you from? I'm in Washington, D.C., You probably told us that, and we didn't hear it.

That's how good our ears are. That's why. Washington, D.C. Yes. That Washington, are you a politician or a lawyer? Well, strangely enough, I'm neither. But I do work in the area of politics. You do.

Yeah. And are you disgusted every day with what you see? Well, I do most of my work overseas now. Oh, that's what I would do, too. Oh, yeah. So you're part of the international spy community. Oftentimes accused, but I'm not, but I do democracy and peacekeeping. work overseas.

Really? Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. Who do you work? Do you tell us who you work for? Well, I am a consultant right now. Oh, you're out of work.

Self-unemployed. Self-unemployed, right. Well, I've actually worked for a number of really good institutes and agencies. So you're a colonialist. Well, no, we're trying to teach all the developing nations how to run elections like we did in Florida this past year. Great. Anyway, what's up?

Well, I have a 1990-audi-80, and this car has some minor creeks and groans, but just keeps on going. The odometer stopped at 197,000 miles. Wow. It was picked up by a tornado once and dropped, and they had to chainsawed trees away from the car, but eventually I got into the car and it drove away. When is it time to retire a car? What will be the symptoms that it's no longer safe to drive this car? Well, I think any car that gets picked up by a tornado would qualify as having nine lives.

How long ago was the tornado incident? The tornado incident, it was actually called a deraco. The tornado-like storm came through, a freak storm came through upstate New York, Labor Day, 1998. Really? Is that like Dorito? Yeah. Dorito, Dorico.

Call it what you will. It lifted the damn car. And wrapped three trees around it. Was this a nacho cheese Dorico? Or did you actually see the thing lift off the ground? No, it happened at about, I can remember well, 1.20 a.m. in the morning. Well, how do you know that it actually was lifted off the ground?

It wasn't where I parked it at night. Yeah, it probably wasn't lifted very high. And after this happened, did you have anyone look at it? Sure, it's had... Oh, it's fine, right? Yeah. Yeah, I'm not worried about that. Your question, however, is, when do you know it's time?

Yeah, my greatest fear is this is that I'm driving down the interstate some point, and my tires sort of roll off with a car breaks into or something. Yeah. Yeah, well, that could happen. Well, I don't know. That would ruin your day. But, you know, I have a strong feeling that once a car gets beyond a certain mileage, and the magic mileage for me is 185.

That's the number. Once you get beyond 185,000, then it could go forever. Oh. Yeah. Well, is it, I mean, do frames break? Well, they do. Especially when they fall out of trees. That would be the kind of thing that you really could check.

Yeah, I mean, the frame is unlikely to break in half. It's because of the fall from the sky. It's more likely to rot away. And anyone that knows these cars, if you have a Bikinnet that you take the car to regularly, they'll know where to look. Okay. And you want the frame rails checked out. You want the floor pan checked out.

Mm-hmm. You also want to make sure that all the steering and suspension stuff is checking, the ball joints, tie rod ends and all that. And if that stuff is all sound, and the brakes are good and the brake lines aren't rusted, then drive it. Yeah, I'm sure there's a little rush just because of the upstate winter. Of course there is. Don't forget that there are cars on the road that are a lot older than this, and there are

cars on the road that have a lot more miles than this. So it isn't a given that just because the thing is 11 years old, that it has to be a complete piece of junk. Unless, of course, it's something that I've owned in the past. But, I mean, there are cars, don't forget, I have a car that's 50 years old. And that's a piece of junk. It's a piece of junk. But there are cars that are 20, 30 years old that people drive every day. Okay. There's nothing that says that it can't go on for a very long time. Especially if you use it judiciously. I mean, I wouldn't jump in this car and drive it to California because there were lots of pieces which you can't test.

Well, that's important advice because I do a lot of traveling. I just take off my car. I just returned, in fact, from Kentucky, which was a nine, ten hour each way trip. And you took this car? Yeah. You're not. You crazy? Well, I mean, the thing is, you can do that if you drive during the daytime.

I mean, I wouldn't want to be in a 12-year-old car in the middle winter at 3 o'clock in the morning driving on some lonely little road. That wouldn't be judicious. But you can do most anything. Yeah, as long as you're on the interstates. Yeah, they'll find your body within day. Just what my mother wants to hear. She's already worried about me in this car. Well, she should be. Yeah. Well, thank you very much. Good luck, Deborah. Bye, bye. See you later. Well, it's happened again. You have squanded an otherwise useful 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 Gibraltar Green. Our engineer is Tad Masamon Kari. Our senior

web lackey is Doug Sheep Boy Mayor and our technical, spiritual, and menu advisor. Just back from his grand slam at the Greater Greensboro, garlic, gherkin, and goat cheese gavotte is John Bugsy Lawler. Our public opinion pollster is Paul Murky of Merkey Research, assisted by statistician Marjor. customer care representative is Haywood Jabuzoff. Our director of allergy research is Teresa Pollinating, and our air traffic controller is Yulanda. You lucky. Our sexual harassment investigator is Hank Pankey.

Our New York-based dispute settlement coordinator is you talking to me. Our accounts payable administrator is Imelda Checks. Our director of summer visits to the in-laws is Don Juan Go. Our Russian gas station attendant is Philip and Top It Off. Our Russian chauffeur is peak-off and drop-off, and our seat cushion contester is Mike Easter. Our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Cheatham and Howe is you Lewis Dewey, known at the mysteriously

empty ice cream shops in Harvard Square and Julie Louie. Thanks so much for listening. We're clicking clack to Tappert Brothers, don't drive like my brother. And 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 our children

petition the courts to change their last names to Bojoldy whenever they hear us say it, this is NPR National Public. radio