The Best of Car Talk - #2441: Gone to the Dogs

Episode Date: May 21, 2024

Jackie is tough, so the squeaky brakes on her Ford only bother her a little bit, but her pet Chihuahuas aren't so happy and Jackie needs to scrape the little guys off the ceiling everytime. Can Click and Clack placate these puppies? Find out on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Get access to hundreds of episodes in the Car Talk archive when you sign up for Car Talk+ at plus.npr.org/cartalkLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

On this week's episode of Wild Card, actor Chris Pine tells us it's okay not to be perfect. My film got absolutely decimated when it premiered, which brings up for me one of my primary triggers or whatever is like not being like. I'm Rachel Martin. Chris Pine on how to find joy in imperfection. That's on NPR's new podcast, Wild Card, the game where cards control the conversation. Hello and welcome to Card Talk from National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack the Tapit brothers. And we're broadcasting this week from the Center for Undesirability here in Car Talk Plaza. Now we have this week the 1996 list of vehicles least likely to be stolen.

Now, there are two ways to look at the list, I guess. One is these cars are theft-proof, bullet-proof. The other way to look at it is these cars are so undesirable, so lousy, that you can't even get the thieves to steal them no matter what you do. Here they are. You ready for this? The most undesirable car in the entire country. Least likely to be stolen.

Go ahead. Least likely to be stolen. The most undesirable, that's right, is... Da-da-da-da-da-da-da! The Chevy Lumina. Ha-ha-ha! Followed by, interestingly, the Saab 900. Yeah. It's that key between the... the lock between the seats.

That screws up the thieves. But the Lumina, it means you could leave the keys in the Lumina with the engine running and nobody would take it. What's the rest of the list? All right, Chevrolet Lumina, Saab 900, Buick Skylark, Buick Park Avenue, Saturn station wagon, Buick Lasse, Basubaru, Impreza, Buick Regal, Ford Aerostar, that's an ugly piece of junk, and the Ford E50 Club Wang, and how many Buicks? One, two, three, four Buicks! So despite the fact that Chevrolet Lumina is at the top of the list of undesirability, there are four Buicks in the top ten!

And half of the cars, five out of ten, General Motors. Okay, now on the other end of the spectrum, we have the list of the cars most likely to be stolen. Yeah, this these are the most Desirable cars you I want you to just read this list cuz look look what's at the top of that list This is the list you could think of it as the most desirable cars Why is this one hurt him by hand? I don't know that came that way. Oh, yeah from the printer Yeah, what just read just read it 63 dodge way. Oh yeah? From the printer. Yeah, just read it. 63 Dodge Dock, followed closely by the Toyota Land Cruiser, Mitsubishi Montero, Mercedes S-Class, Acura Legend, BMW 3 Series

convertible, the Mercedes SL-Class, the Acura Legend, Lexus GS 300, Nissan 300 ZX, and the BMW 3 Seriesseries to do it She BMW's got two mentions Mercedes has two men know those are all the cars that everybody wants leading the list of course accurate I think three accurate has to mention dodge Dottra and if you can't remember all those names you can find them They'll probably be posted on the world so if you got one of those cars and was most likely to be stolen You're gonna have to buy two so you'll have a spare with them first one gets swiped Yeah, anyway if you'd like to call us with a question about your car,

if you still have it, or about anything else that's bothering you, our phone number is 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Susan calling from Unity, Maine. Susan! Yeah. What's happening? I have an 84 Ford Ranger pickup with a billion zillion miles on it. Yeah, I would believe that

the problem with the truck is twofold one of them uh... i think it on file probable the other one is probably pretty big the car the truck stalls all the time all the time winter spring summer fall when i'm happy when i'm fat it's all the time and my question is that and we've got it looked into and we can't figure it out of my husband and i are willing to live with that uh... when the truck stalls and i'm going to a rolling stop like you'll find a perhaps uh... stop sign i'm rolling along

and i put the clutch and i can pop it uh... and started again or i can turn the key and get the started the engine to start that way too and my question is pretty basic which is better for the truck? Oh! Which is better for the truck. So you don't want to solve the stalling problem, you want to know what is the best way to restart it. Well, if you guys can, I would love you forever if you could solve the stalling problem. And if we couldn't?

I still love you forever. Oh, good. if you could follow stalling problem we've uh... and if we couldn't i don't know if forever all good uh... i mean i suppose a lot of things have been done the carburetor has been rebuilt uh... and then they've added a figure uh... fix it so the engine review built in this is back in eighty nine who and that didn't fix it uh... to give you a little bit more information on that the truck only stalled in the good weather when you're coming to a stop and you put the clutch in and the truck stalled

uh... before you come to a stop truck will stall much more regularly in the rain and in fact more interestingly enough if you're going along kicking along a fifty miles an hour it'll lose power in the rain uh... and sometimes you can get it started get it revved back up again by putting your foot on the clutch and just uh... pumping the gaffing and volume the black smoke come out the back before it cost into life again so

it stalls whether it's cold whether the engines been warmed up not testing warmed up no i don't get cold warmed up it doesn't matter it's much worse when the engine cold but you could be driving it uh... on the highway at the exit and stop at the exit sign and it'll stall. It's most annoying. Well, I mean, we'll throw out a couple of things, which you may have had done already.

One possibility is you have a weak ignition module or a weak coil. And either one of those things could cause the problem you have, but it's more likely it has the feel. It has the feel for me also of a fuel-related problem. Ah, not to me it doesn't. No, it doesn't. No, it has a feel of a vacuum problem. And I would have to guess. Well, that's fuel-related.

From my vast knowledge of Fords, that it could easily be an EGR valve that's hanging up and not closing, thus creating, in a sense, a vacuum problem, but it's even worse than that because you're sucking in not fresh air that's in disproportion of the amount of gasoline, but exhaust gas from the EGR. So you might want to have someone yank the EGR valve off and check to see if the problem gets solved by testing it. It may be just sticking, it may need to be replaced, the port may be carboned up, any one of those things okay now they get to your other question

we disagree on that too we are good well we'll see go ahead we'll see well here's my here's my rationale turning the key is the way the car wants to start I mean that's the way it's supposed to start you turn the key to the start position and it starts right anything you do that deviates from that front to the car wants to start. I mean that's the way it's supposed to start. You turn the key to the start position and it starts. Right. So anything you do that deviates from that is an affront to the car. Exactly. Well, I'm not finished yet. On the other hand, popping the clutch, you might say, not on the other hand, on the same hand you might say popping the clutch is a traumatic kind of way to start the vehicle, but I like it. I mean, the reason that turning the key is the time-honored method of starting the truck

is that that's the only method there is unless you are parked on a hill, in which case the truck would be perfectly content to have you roll down the hill and pop the clutch and start it that way. Right, and if you're moving, you're essentially rolling down a hill. Even if it's not a hill, you got the thing moving. I would pop the clutch. Ah. Don't disagree on this one. Oh. Isn't that bad for the clutch though or not? No. No. It's hardly any hardship for the clutch which is... In fact it's less... ...designed to endure much greater punishment than that. It's less wear and tear on the clutch than you would inflict by starting from a dead stop. Got it. So that's what I would do. Good. But I'd get the stalling

problem fixed. That's what I would do. Why bother now? She's got the answer to how to start it. Check the EGR valve. Hey Susan, you have introduced an extraordinarily interesting little theory here. You said it stalls all the time, winter, summer, whether I'm happy or sad. You're suggesting that mood has something to do with it. That there is some relationship between how you feel and how the car feels. Oh, well, you could discuss that with my husband at great length. He thinks that I hate the truck and that's why it always acts up on me.

I think he's partially right, but it also acts up on him. Yeah, I think that you are absolutely right that a person's mood and attitude, especially attitude, if you've got an attitude, that vehicle is going to have an attitude right back. Should I seek counseling for this? Newton figured this out. For every attitude, there is an equal and opposite attitude. The attitude.

The truck needs counseling. Thanks, Susan. Oh, there you go. See you. Thanks for calling. Bye-bye. We'll be right back with the answer to the puzzler after these messages. With NPR+, there's more to hear, like extended interviews with some of the experts we talk

to at Planet Money and The Indicator. It's a mistake for economists to only think about economic efficiency when considering policies because you'll actually wind up with a worse outcome. And with NPR+, you help keep NPR going. Learn more at plus.npr.org. The Embedded podcast brings you eye-opening reporting. There's something that hasn't been disclosed yet. Immersive journalism.

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Over on Shortwave, a science podcast, we're only kind of kidding. We're bringing you the wondrous world of animal science to your daily life. From queer animal love stories to songbird memories, we're showing you how critter knowledge informs human science. Listen now to Shortwave, a podcast from NPR. All right, Thomas. In order to avoid a long drawn-out routine in which you look for the piece of paper which you forgot and which you thought you wrote down the same clues about last week's puzzler, but you forgot to do that, even if you had that piece of paper and the clues, you still wouldn't remember the puzzler because you couldn't read your own handwriting.

In order to avoid all that, why don't you just come right out and apologize? I apologize, because I don't even have the little piece of paper. I'm looking for it now and it's not here. Here it is. This came to us via email from David Olson in Cambridge, Minnesota.

You ready? You listening? This was an historical puzzler. Bob was a rabid car restorer, foaming at the mule, who delighted one day in rescuing a derelict car from a farmer's field. It was a 42 Chevy sedan. And a quick check of the car's serial number revealed to Bob, we've changed the names of course to protect the guilty, that this was one of the last Chevrolet's built before production at the Chevrolet plant switched over to building B-24s for the war effort. Wow.

Holy cow, says Bob. And he gets the car and takes it home and begins to disassemble and refurbish every nut, bolt and everything on this old Chevy. 15 months later the car is done. The thing glistened in its new original color paint. The mohair interior was spotlessly restored. The chrome sparkled and the engine ran like new. However, when he entered the car in competition, you know they have these competitions to show off these old jalopies. You wouldn't know about anything like this.

I have heard of them. It failed to beat several cars, which clearly had not been carefully, as carefully restored as Bob's. In fact, he was almost disqualified from the competition. The question was, what happened? He was almost disqualified from the competition. Something to do with what he ate, I think. What happened he was almost disqualified from the competition Something to do with what he ate I think

I Have no idea you have no idea No, well as all as always the case with these with these puzzles the answer is embedded Yeah in there and in the place where it's embedded is in the paragraph 22 B I'll repeat the thing glistened in its new original color paint the mohair interior was spotlessly restored the chrome Sparkled there was no mohair in 1942 because of the war effort and the mohair all went to making parachutes So very close. There was no chrome in 1942 because the

chemicals used to chrome things were considered vital to the war effort or could have been vital. They decided that cars at some point, they stopped using chrome and those surfaces that would have been chromed were just painted. So when he restored his car, it was one of the ones that had never had chrome on it. He thought the chrome had worn away.

Not to throw a monkey wrench, so to speak, into this puzzler. But how did the people who were judging... They checked the serial number because they knew... I'll repeat from paragraph 16A, section 1. It was a 42 Chevy sedan. And a quick check of the car's serial number revealed that this was one of the last Chevrolet's built before production at the Chevrolet plant switched over to building B24s. One of the last. So who's our winner?

Wow, that's good. The winner is John john c madden from st. augustine florida and for coming up with the right answer to that historic folkloric challenging and into well not interesting three of the four isn't bad our pal john c madden from st. augustine flora will get his own copy of the best of car talk on cassette or CD. Go for the cassette, John. You can't record something good over that CD. That's true. Anyway, we have a brand new puzzler coming up, an automotive one. I might add another automotive one. Ah, good. During the second

half of today's show, another chance for you to stir up your brain cells. So stay tuned for that. In the meantime, our number is 1-800-332-9287 Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Daniel from Petaluma. Daniel from whom? Petaluma, California. Petaluma. Well, here's the problem. I have an 87 Honda. It's a four-door wagon and it's a four-wheel drive. And the thing is it runs great.

It's tuned up perfectly. Lots of acceleration. No problem at all except one thing and the background on that is honda says to idle it at one thousand r p m which it does and then they take turn the headlights and the event and on and i i don't drop to seven fifty r p m which it does which makes sense but then the problem is when you're driving

when you close to a stop, the car will stall unless you have the headlight or the fan on. Then it won't stop. So it's backwards. Oh, that's very good. Well, there's an idle boost device. In fact, I think the adjustment for it is located on the passenger side of the carburetor. If you're looking at it from the front of the car, there's a little Phillips screw that you would turn to adjust that. And I think you have it adjusted wrong.

Are you monkeying with this? Why did you change this adjustment? What was wrong with it from the factory? I haven't touched it. Oh. Yeah. Someone has touched it. Right.

Yeah, someone has definitely touched it. Well, I had the car smogged in here in California and maybe they tuned something there. Does it ever not actually stall but just seem like it's gonna stall? Yeah. Um, it does, but by the time you come to full stop it's stalled. Oh. You know. So you've never actually caught it trying to idle it like six hundred a five hundred

uh... it does it might sure it would i'm rafid and and and i'll be on the verge of stalling and if you pop the fan on real quick it won't go or do you know right by doing that might be if you turn on for example the air conditioner right it will that devices is designed to boost the idle so that the load imposed on the engine by the introduction of that load right cause of the at all won't won't make it stall you boosted the island that's what that device is

doing its job but then when i'm idling in the garage if i do that i'll be idling of take fifteen hundred right i'll be above their spotlight but there's there's another screw that's that that maybe they monkeyed with in the back of the carburetor uh-huh that is the the curb idle screw was designed to set the idle speed to its base idle right and I suspect that they messed with that when you went in for your smog test because they couldn't get this beast to pass and they said how can we

do this well let's try all the tricks in the book there will retire this timing will adjust the mixture will lower the idle speed, and they finally, with some combination of things, how much money did you have to pay them for the sticker? It was legal. It was legal? Right. Well, my guess is that they monkeyed with it. Yeah.

So, you may have other problems with the car that are going to preclude your adjusting it to factory specs because it may not pass. Right. Again. Again, right. So when you get everything adjusted correctly you may be you may be in violation of the uh... of the law do you have like a hundred and fifty thousand miles in this car because he does hundred and seventy five nah

yeah uh... it runs great great acceleration on the highway here no other problem except this no other problem except this right well i would get it to the Honda shop. And just have it tune up on a carburetor? Well, tell them what it's doing. OK.

They'll figure it out. And then when they call you up and tell you need a new carburetor for 900 bucks, you'll regret having done anything about it. I think I'll try the screw first. See you, Daniel. Thank you very much. Good luck. Bye.

Bye-bye. Right after these messages, you'll hear more calls and a new puzzler coming right up. Summer is for going to the movie theater because it's too hot to stay home. It's for driving the windows down, listening to your favorite music. It's for stretching out while you're on vacation to gobble up a TV show. For a guide to some of the TV, movies, and music we are most excited about this summer, listen to the pop culture happy hour podcast from NPR.

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series. Find us wherever you get your podcasts. You care about what's happening in the world. Let State of the World from NPR keep you informed. Each day we transport you to a different point on the globe and introduce you to the people living world events. We don't just tell you world news, we take you there and you can make this journey while you're doing the dishes or driving your car. State of the World podcast from NPR. Vital international stories every day. Hi, we're back to listen to Car Talk on National Public Radio with us. Click and clack the Tappert Brothers and we're here to discuss cars, car repair and give Tommy a break.

This comes from, I'll just read this, I don't want to, I just want to read it. Someone who doesn't want to tell who he is, KW in SF, who says right away, I could have printed this on company letterhead if I wanted to. He says, Dear Click and Clack, Tommy, I guess my original suggestion to make a backup copy of your puzzler reminder pad comes too late. I'm surprised someone who seems to have more than a passing knowledge of Sherlock Holmes has not seen or at least stumbled upon the perfect excuse for lapses in memory, especially in regards to the puzzler. When explaining to the faithful Watson his strange ignorance of such subjects as modern literature, etc., the great Holmes said, and you'll remember this quote,

I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across so that all the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out. Whereas the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain attic from a study in Scarlet. What's good enough for Sherlock Holmes is good enough for anyone. Tommy has more important things to worry about than whether the Sun revolves around the planets, the planets around the Sun, or last week's puzzler. You got all those bus schedules to memorize, man. Obviously, certain items crucial to the struggle of daily life are going to take precedence

over the charming but insignificant puzzler. The next cup of cappuccino, for example, the most convenient spot to head when I'm in urgent need of a haircut to name just a few. Why the contemplation of this week's headline, Heaven Photographed by Hubble Telescope, would tax the brain of even the great Sherlock Holmes, thus crowding out useless facts. So Ray, give Tommy a break. I couldn't have said it better myself. Evidently.

Give me a break. Will you cut me some slack here? All right. Well anyway, it's time for the new puzzler Yeah, and this this is rather lengthy as you can see from the the plethora of typewritten pages. I have Puzzler well, I have to adapt. I have to adapt condense and obfuscate. Oh Okay, and I played to do that. This puzzler came from Steve Pinkston from Molalla. I think Molalla. Molalla. Oregon. I don't know where it is, but... Oregon. Molalla. Anyway, this is a true story about his, sadly, his dear departed wife, Raeanne. and I obviously I'm gonna skip around a lot and leave a lot out but I will get the essential obfuscations and and the essential key ingredients of the

puzzler I'm sure in the early 80s Rayann owned the 74 mercury comet da da da da da da da da da da da da da da this is three pages of da da da's we're gonna hear go ahead at one point the comet also known around the house as the vomit, developed a very puzzling problem. The engine would die almost every time Rayanne came to a stop. It would just completely go dead and everything would conk out except for the headlights, I guess. Yeah.

The engine ran just fine. It would always start right up again without hesitation. If she very, very gradually came to to a stop the engine would not die But on a normal stop it would die every time He says I did the normal stuff. I replaced the fuel filter checked all the ignition related components Look for loose parts or connections nothing helped Interestingly this never seemed to happen when I drove the car Interestingly, this never seemed to happen when I drove the car. It's only when Rayann drove the car.

Got it. So we took the car to the local dealer to have it checked out. It died seven times. She was driving on the way to the garage. We left the ignition key with the mechanic and asked him to drive it around so he could observe the problem. Never happened for him either. Nothing ever happened to him, but that didn't stop them.

They charged him 300 bucks anyway and called them up and said it's all set come and get it. What they had done was they replaced the ignition module because these things are notorious for being intermittent. No that's not it. Okay well you know that's not it because otherwise it wouldn't be a puzzler. Anyway he Steve goes and picks up the car drives it home and it's flawless. Sure. He hands Ray in the key and he says, I'm sure they fixed it because I stopped all the, every time I, every opportunity I could.

Yeah. And the car never stalled. Sure. She says, wonderful. She puts the key back on her ring and everything is fine. Needless to say, she comes back in tears a few hours later, it's not fixed.

It's still doing it So they go back to the dealership and he's ranting and raving Takes the key off her ring slams it on the counter and says fix this damn car. Are you or else whoop? Right. Yeah, so they drive it around and again the thing behaves perfectly Yeah, he hates perfect But they fixed it anyway. They put another new module in, thinking, well, it could be a faulty module. Anyway, he picks it up again, he drives it home, and the thing is fine. His wife drives it later on, and she's convinced that it's fixed.

She comes to a stop, and you know what happened. Yeah. Sad. Sad! They're in the car together, and she's all upset. He didn't know what to do, he, he, he couldn't, he couldn't think of anything. The mechanic had done everything. He had done everything and he was sadly was trying to console her when suddenly he realized

what was going on. It all came to him. Yeah. The question is what could have caused this problem that perplexed even the top mechanic at the dealer? And why would anyone want to 74 comment in the first place? Excellent. Now, as I stated many times before, it could be any number of things obviously, but there's only one correct answer to this and the hints are embedded deep in this puzzle. There's only one correct answer based on the information. Based on this information. Exactly. Right. Based on this information. Cars will stall for many

reasons as we all as we well know. If you think you know the answer or you have extra time at work and want to take a guess either email it to us by visiting CarTalk.com or send your answer to Puzzler Tower, CarTalk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA 02238. And by the way, if you just want to hear the Puzzler or read it again, it's also posted every week at CarTalk.com.

Anyway, if we choose your correct answer at random and you catch us, we'll send you a copy of the best of CarTalk on cassette or CD. If you'd like to call us, our number is 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. This is Jackie. I'm from Opelika, Alabama. Hi, Jackie. Opelika?

Opelika. How do you spell that? That's just up the road from Smut Eye and down the road from Slap Out. Right next door to Auburn University. How do you spell Opelika? Opelika. O-P-E-L-I-K-A. Oh Opelika. Yeah. I like Opelika. Cool. So how are you Jackie? I'm fine. And what can we do for you? Well before you start laughing now I have an eighty nine escort but that but i could afford not only do not let me know i have an escort and i don't know if i believe that i have squeaky break

i have the transmission replaced and i have to tell them about the squeaky breaks in he said break just squeak no because this is the transmission shop that did this okay now they did it before i had the transmission replace but the problem is

i can show to while i was all you do and when we're driving down the road and i put the brakes on and they squeak it's hard to steer and scrape the chihuahua off the roof of the car. They must go nuts. They hear that howl and they go, rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr if he can spell chihuahua. C-H-I-H-G-U-A-H-U-A. Correct. I owe you 100 bucks.

Okay, Jackie, since you said correct, send me 50 of it. Yeah, right. I drive an escort, remember? That's right. All right, 10 bucks. Now, and I can't get these dumb dogs to go to work to support me. No, they won't do that. No, and they can't pull very much anyway.

They're not so dumb, are they? They're little. No, no. They're saying, boy, we got this dumb Jackie supporting us. Driving us all over, showing us off. And all we have to do is bark once in a while. No, I do show them in the legitimate show i'm sure you know it must be fun it's a lot of fun

it uh... get it's getting expensive but the fact that i also do a fashion show but i don't model they do a doggy fashion show that's cool at your wallop fashion show they bottle everything from bikinis with the sunglasses

To a wedding party it must be a riot Let's get back to your squeaky breaks did they start squeaking right after you had a break job done Probably not long. Yes. Yeah, and did you have this brake job done at the local? Garage and charm school. Yes. Yeah, that's it. Well. I mean there are there are many brands of aftermarket brake pads and disc rotors and There are many chemicals which can be applied to these things to keep them from squealing and it's possible that they put on a cheap Pad and they didn't put any of these chemicals on it that prevent the the squealing and so you may have to go back to these guys and insist that they

change the pads again and or or at least put this this disc brake quiet stuff on just to to muffle some of the noises and when this breaks first came out they all made noise and everyone in the world was coming up with a different chemical to stop the noise and it seems nowadays that they've got it licked finally after a 20 odd years they figured out how to make disc brakes that don't make noise anymore or very little noise so this is a simple problem to fix but you have to go back and be insistent now if you had a bigger dog, you'd probably

have a little better luck. But you're not going to intimidate any garage mechanic with a couple of chihuahuas wearing bikinis and sunglasses. Well I have eleven of them. Eleven? Well maybe they can gang up on them. I'm going to borrow a Rottweiler for the afternoon. So I guess I would have to borrow a Rottweiler. Borrow a Rottweiler. Yeah. Borrow a Rottweiler and go in and ask nicely that he replace the brake pads and put some

chemicals on those pads so they don't make any more noise and that will solve your problem and you won't have to scrape any more chihuahuas off the headliner. Thanks a lot for calling Jackie. Bye bye. Bye bye now. She's having a good time. Yes she is. That's good.

Well, you've blown another hour of your precious news. Yes, we have. Listening to Car Talk, our esteemed producer is Doug the subway fugitive, not a slave to fashion, punk and lips Berman. Someone from a tuxedo company wrote him an email saying, I hear you're getting married, can I interest you in a tuxedo? And he emailed back and I saw both pieces. He said, the boys are buying me a new t-shirt, that's as far as I'm going. interest you in a tuxedo and he emailed back and I saw both pieces he said the boys are buying me a new t-shirt that's as far as I'm going. Our associate

producer and Dean of the College of Automusicology is Ken Babyface Rogers our engineer and assistant producer is Jennifer Travel and Leisure Loeb and our she's been here for weeks at a time now I don't know what's going on what is going on? It must be an airline strike or something. Our technical advisor is the elusive John Bugsy Sebastian Mr. Height sweet cheeks free lunch twinkle toes hula hips donut breath two gigabytes make that three triple cheeseburgers lawler our public opinion pollster is Paul Murky of Murky Research assisted by statistician Marge and O'Vara our automotive medical researcher is Dr. Denton Fender our

literary critics are Ernest and Julio Hemingway. Our staff filmmaker is Bertha Venation. Bertha Venation, Bertha, never mind. Our director of new product repair, you like this one, Warren T. Myfoot. Our director of gender studies is Amanda B. Reckonwith. Our staff grief counselor is Ariel Bummerman. A real bummer.

A real bummer, man. Yeah Yeah I know you'd get that one. I get it. Okay. Our director of pedestrian operations is Carlos Castaneda. The designer of our casual clothing line is No Tai Wu. Our staff urologist is Willa Cathadda. Our director of country music is Stan Beierman. The chairman of our underemployment study group is Art Majors. The head of our empty threats department is Mr. Y.I. Otter. The director of the Car Talk Psychic Network is LaToyota Jackson. Our fleet manager is Oscar DeLaRentale. Our staff marriage counselor is Mary Haste.

And the chairman of our Joint Chiefs of Staff is John Shall I Pop a Wheelie? Our chief counselor from the law firm with Dewey Cheatham and Howe is U. Louis Dewey, known around Harvard Square as Uee Louee Dewey Cheatham and how is you Louis Dewey known around Harvard Square as you We do we thanks so much for listening. We're clicking clack the tappet brothers and don't drive like my brother drive like my brother We'll be back next week. Bye. Bye If you want a cassette copy of this week's show, which is number 20, you can order it electronically on the World Wide Web through the Shameless Commerce Division of CarTalk.com or the old fashioned way by calling 303-823-8000.

You can also order the best of CarTalk the same way. Click on the Shameless Commerce Division at CarTalk.com or call 303-823-8000. CarTalk is a production of Dewey, Cheetah, and Howe in WBUR in Boston. And even though FCC investigators perk up in their chairs when they hear us say it, this is NPR National Public Radio. Numbers that explain the economy. We love them at the indicator from Planet Money, and on Fridays we discuss indicators in the news,

like job numbers, spending, the cost of food, sometimes all three. So my indicator is about why you might need to bring home more bacon to afford your eggs. I'll be here all week. Wrap up your week and listen to the Indicator podcast from NPR. You care about what's happening in the world. Let State of the World from NPR keep you informed. Each day we transport you to a different point on the globe and introduce you to the people living world events. We don't just tell you world news, we take you there. And you can make this journey while you're doing the dishes or driving your car.

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