The Best of Car Talk - #2467: Fred Not!

Episode Date: August 20, 2024

Fred called us from Hartford... except his name isn't Fred... and he isn't from Hartford... What could be so bad that would make a guy desperate enough to call our lousy show on the Q.T? 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, musical icon, Ani DeFranco. I get a lot of, you know, I loved you in the 90s, you know. It's a lot of, ah, in the high school, you know, we're both 50. She lets me in on the secret to reinventing yourself when you feel stuck in a certain box. That's on the Wild Card Podcast, the game where cards control the conversation. Hello and welcome to Card Talk from National Public Radio with us, Click and Flack the Tappet Brothers. And we're broadcasting this week from the Center for French Infinite Wisdom here at Car Talk Plaza. Now we've been rather

critical of our pals the French recently and we admit we've been trying to defrenchify our language by replacing croissant. What did you say about French fries? By replacing croissant with croissant and Maître D with sneer merchant. And we got a bunch of letters from Francophiles telling us to knock it off, guys. We actually started to feel a little bad, I guess, and we started to wonder if we were being a little bit hard on our Peugeot-loving brethren. And then... And then, we get this letter actually from Dawn Finnessy.

I found the following article on the internet. It comes from some newspaper which is French so I can't say it. Here's what it says. La France repasse le week-end à le deux. No. Here's the American translation. The French government, get this, is proposing to the other countries of the European Union to abandon the system of changing time. You know, this was one of our big platform initiatives. No more standard time. And here's the French. I mean, we read this and we said, my God, And here's the French. We read this and we said, my God, could it be something that the French and we agree on?

And the answer is, of course not. These morons want to abandon daylight saving time. They are trying to tell all the rest of Europe to forget about daylight saving time and simply stay on miserable time all the time right well there's a reason for that i already gave it they said they're more on the top well i mean it's hard to believe that sixty million frenchman could be sold wrong

that they could think that everyone would want to be in the dark all the time and they it maybe they like being miserable I thought they like making other people miserable well they want to they want to make everyone well they are in the dark they don't have to have daylight saving time or anything else they are in the dark and we know that that's it what a bunch of screwballs I don't have anything against the French either. Oh, I don't either. As long as they stay where they are. My wife is French. Is

she? She doesn't speak to me anymore, but... Yeah, that's true. That's a problem. You take your chances in this life. No, I mean, every once in a while, you might bump into a nice one, but it doesn't... Like my wife. It doesn't say that the law that most Frenchmen are wackos is wrong I mean right that's the law of sweeping generalization law of sweeping and sweeping generalizations are extremely important to our lives inaccurate and mostly right I Mean every once in a while I say something and my little daughter who goes to some wacko school says, Dad, that's a stereotype. And I try to explain to her, stereotypes are good. Stereotypes are important to our understanding of the world because they're mostly true.

Yeah. Mostly. Yeah, the French are nuts. That doesn't mean there's not a good one here and there, scattered around. Most of them have moved out of France right we met one of the elevator here a couple weeks ago I won't discuss no we will if you have a question about your car you call us at 1-800-332-9287 you know what when you die and you are reincarnated, you're going to come back as a Frenchman. No! 332-9287.

Hello, you're on Card Talk. Hi, this is Susan from Good View, Virginia. Good View. Good View, Virginia. And what do you have a view of? What do you have a view of South Carolina We have a view of beautiful Smith Mountain Lake, which is in the far southwestern corner of Virginia near Roanoke Excellent. Wow, you have a pretty good view of that lake. I bet very nice view at the lake. Yeah, how did we know that? So what's on your mind, Susan? Well, I have a 1995 Plymouth

Voyager that has about 17,000 miles on it. I've owned four or five of them. I just love them. It makes this horrible sound when you're backing up like a tank, like metals grinding against metal. And I think it's because of what happened to the car to its illustrious history i have to tell you that because you won't understand the old police attack first what happened with the book car in september of nineteen ninety five i'm a schoolteacher so i was parked at the end of the driveway school waiting to make a right-hand turn

and one of the school buses ran into the back of me. The car was like less than 30 days old. Yeah, well what was really good is the bus driver gets out, looks at my car that is smashed and says, are you going to report this? He says that'll buff right out. So I go, well, no, unless you want to write me a check here. So she says to me, well, you know, I'm just two weeks away from getting my good driver pin for the year.

Yeah, guess who ain't getting it. I'm getting me a break. So anyway, the adjuster comes out and gives us the estimate for the car. So we park it at home and that weekend we're doing some work in our yard and we have a 1976 Datsun pickup truck and it's extremely dangerous to drive and no one in their right some work in our yard and we have a nineteen seventy six dot and pick up truck extremely dangerous to drive and no one in their right mind would ever have added inexperienced driver behind the wheel of this car because it's too dangerous i mean the top speed is thirty seven miles an hour but it's a kind of

you can keep it floor the road as you're driving now i have to get up quote there income might wonderful husband of 25 years and my son. And my parents want to borrow the truck. So my son who's 16 years old and suffering from a really bad case of testosterone poisoning decides he's got a learner's permit here.

I want to learn how to drive a stick shift So my husband says well, okay Kevin you can do this So he gets into this truck puts my son in the driver's seat of this red rag Explains to him how to do this. It's parked next to my van Uh-huh. He backs up first and he does okay with that, but then he puts it in first gear and what happens but the thing leap forward up party dot okay with that but then he put it in first year and what happened but the thing we forward matches right into the right passenger side of this new band that is still not even fixed from the other time yet had a gang going on to be a bit like over on the two-wheel on the deep

passenger driver side on two wheels pop up meanwhile he count my bank account account and let me have a driver pk out that my daughter on the deck account money what we did out here uh... he comes running and and and i mean i mean you have to be what you look at it because i i'm not a little snitch

well i go out to find him backing the truck out leading my car dropped to the ground and waiting down the driveway i mean such a coward he rafael to my mother's house and he therefore i find some of the right would not come home all you want to take a right

well he finally you know crawl back home with his son during all of the only weapon of course i think it's a copycat Well, he finally, you know crawled back home. Where's your son during all of this? Oh, he's with him. Oh, of course. Of course, they took off together. So, we go to get that, you know, taken care of. Okay, we get that fixed. So, we have it now fixed, but it makes this really odd sound. My son then gets his license like two weeks later, says, can I borrow the car to go to

work? Fine, he borrows the car to go to work. Your car. My son, our son. Yeah. car to go to work find he part of a card at work my cannot find he can run into the back of a man who's trailering about that carrying a two hundred fifty horsepower motor that's tilted upwards and the motor slices through my grill might radiator my hood and

become impaled in the engine block i think that the motor running with the uh... i don't know if car is a magnet. Yeah. So we get that fixed okay. That's the history. That's the history and you want to know what's the noise? Yes. You know this noise backing up is like it's almost like metal against metal. When you put it in reverse it vibrates a little bit and then it sounds, makes a really deep, almost groaning sound. I'll tell you what the noise is in all likelihood. I mean, not that it's gonna matter because I'm

sure by the time we finish this conversation, some member of your family will have blown it up or something. I mean, it's awful. It's very possible that when he tilted it up on the side like that that he bent No, no what happened was the second accident The second accident with it was something where they had to do something to the engine You don't know what they did to the engine, but they obviously did something they had to have loosened it from its mounts We run into this problem with caravans all the time that there are one two I think there are three, three or four engine mounts. And sometimes you have to be careful about how you set the engine on that cradle and on the mounts because if you don't get it right when it's either in

drive or reverse, you can set up some wicked vibrations and noises. And what they may have to do is loosen all the mounts and jockey the engine on the cradle a little bit and get it positioned so it doesn't make any noise it's nothing more serious than that what did it make noise only after the second accident on third accident rather no it made it after the second accident you know after he after he after he didn't know it made it up well I told him about it when I brought it back for the third accident I know it's not really running exactly right here I got you you know it's we've got it do something about it. It could still be that the engine got

Displaced this so to speak yeah when it was tilted like that or it could be that he bent a wheel or something Yeah, but if he no he probably did knock the engine Skew and they're gonna have to loosen the mounts and reset it But you should suggest that to them. Okay, so loosen the mounts and reset the engine. Yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't be too worried about it I'm sure a big rock is gonna fall Don't let them take it near that lake. Whatever you do I don't even feel safe driving. They want to get a boat and back the boat into the lake over your dead body safe driving they want to get a boat back the boat into the lake over your dead body

but if you're worried about your voyage you have to have them reset the mouth of the most of the mountain at the end of the cradle but i wouldn't like i said i i wouldn't be too worried about it is i'm sure it's not long for this world right and remember boys will be boys a alia from time and so will men uh... see you soon okay thank i talking to you you too bye bye

wow what a story of woe and intrigue yes indeed they rack up the car and chickens and they hightail it yeah they hide under the bed to his mother-in-law's house he hightails it imagine that i mean what kind of danger must he have thought he was in must have been imminent danger when you seek refuge have been imminent danger. When you seek refuge at your mother-in-law's house, you're gonna be terrified. It's like your mother-in-law having a bomb shot. Nah, that's all right, we don't think we're gonna need it. Hey, we've got more calls in

the puzzler answer coming up right after this. On the Ted Radio Hour, legendary soccer player Abby Wambach remembers exactly what was going on in her mind at a crucial moment during the 2011 World Cup. As soon as the ball came off of her foot, I knew that that ball was coming to my head. The only thing in my mind was don't screw this up. How to apply sports psychology to everyday life on the Ted Radio Hour podcast from NPR. The Constitution, our founding document, says a lot about how our country has evolved and who we want to be. But it's not set in stone. So for the next month, we'll be digging into the history

behind some of its most pivotal amendments. Listen to We the People on the Throughline podcast from NPR. The candidates for November are set. I know Donald Trump's type. Between now and Election Day. We are not going back. A campaign season unfolding faster. Kamala Harris is not getting a promotion. Than any in recent history.

Follow it all with new episodes every weekday on the NPR Politics Podcast. Here at Planet Money, we bring complex economic ideas down to earth. We find weird, fun, interesting stories that explain the way money shapes our lives. Inflation, recessions, the price of gas, we've got you. Listen now to the Planet Money podcast from NPR.

All right. Can you remember last week's puzzler? No! Notice how quick that was? Yes. No, that was good. That was good. I remember Larry D'Onofrio was the week before. Yes. That was a good puzzler. Yes. No. That was good. That was good. I remember Larry D'Onofrio was the week before. Yes.

That was a good puzzle. Yes. And I don't remember last week's and the slightest. Here it is. Well, you should remember this because you'll remember it in a second. There are some factories in Russia and maybe in other places as well where the people working on the assembly line, so to speak, are wearing diving suits. Not scuba outfits.

They're wearing the kind of full-body, metal, helmeted diving suit that Gilbert Rowland wore. Remember that movie where he was diving for sponges? Sponges, yeah. What was the big deal with the sponges? He got the K-Mine, you buy all of them from time. Yeah, well, that's because Gilbert Rowland was getting with the suit, man.

He forged away, man. So these guys are in there. Oh, these workers are wearing. They're in diving suits. They're wearing these diving suits with the suit, man. He forged away, man. So these guys are in... Oh, these workers are wearing... They're in diving suits. They're wearing these diving suits with the helmet, the hose, and all that, as they go about their jobs. And yet they never go into the water.

Yeah. The question is why, and the hint is, and you guessed the hint, because you said, what are they, making submarines? Yeah. And I said, yes, they are. Yeah. See, unencumbered by the thought

process. How powerful a tool it is. It's incredibly powerful. It is, it is. I have the strength of ten because my heart is pure. I mean I don't understand what they're doing but submarines, bingo, just bounced out of my little brain. Yes it did. It's little. They are welding, like I said, this may be happening in other factories in the world, probably in the US of A, the hulls of many submarines are made out of, if my sources are correct, out of titanium. And when you weld titanium, you have to do it in an oxygen free environment because it'll burn up as you weld it. So what they do is they bathe the whole area in nitrogen, which is inert.

So these guys are welding in this nitrogen rich environment. And of course they need to breathe. So they pipe in the air with the diving suits. And the only time they ever go in the water is if somebody screws up and the submarine falls over. No kidding. No kidding. No kidding. Anyway, who's our winner?

Gee, that's good. That's very good. The winner is Jeff Chastain from Pocahontas, Arkansas. Wow. And for having his correct answer chosen at random as our winner this week, our buddy Jeff gets a copy of the brand new second best of Car talk I'm sorry the second best of car talk CD and this new album album features 70 minutes of car talk classic moments plus three bonus laugh tracks no it's bogus bogus laugh I could just see Jeff now saying, hon, hon, I won the puzzler. Can't you?

No. No, I can't. But you can use these laugh tracks for various things like you can put them on your computer so whenever you hit the wrong key, it'll go ha ha ha ha ha. Do whatever you want with it. Now, many people called and said,

hey, how can I get the second best of Cartrick if I didn't win the puzzler? And the answer is simple. You're breaking into the house with the guy that did, and we'll send you that list of names and addresses for $9.95. Actually, you can call Car Talk's Shameless Commerce Division at 303-823-8000, and if you weren't ready with a pencil, don't worry, because we give that number at the end of the show about 17 or 18 times.

Or if you missed it here, you can just listen to Don Imus. He gives it every day, too. All right, you can get it with a buffalo t-shirt. You can get a bottle of hot sauce with it. Anyway, we have another new puzzler coming up during the second half of Car Talk today, a puzzler with a... Scientific overtones? Technological and historical overtones.

So stay tuned for that. In the meantime you can call us at 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. This is Fred from Hartford but I'm telling you right now that's an alias because I got something so sensitive if my wife ever heard it or someone told her about it I'd be dead. So your name is not Fred and it's unlikely that you're even from Hartford. You got it. Okay. Okay, that's good. So I'll put Fred in quotes and I'll put Hartford in quotes.

There you go. I've got a... And you describe this as very sensitive? It's very sensitive. Well, let's hear it. I can't wait. This is a potential family issue. Since you said that, I'm going to put sensitive in quotes too.

All right. I've got now three sets of quotes. Okay. Okay, Fred. One more okay for an uphill of a gallon couple years ago yeah i friend bought a a new car ways that we are real friends are just not in a real friend okay uh... i will give you a new property the real story yeah my uh... friend bought a

new car any broader over and i looked at it and i thought it was one of the ugly things that ever seen you never tell anybody that so i think you have a great looking car you got there and i went on and on that the car with my wife was standing there watching me say that cut the two years later but a few months ago uh...

he uh... decides to use the leases up the defy to sell a car that's what i say this is as we get married he brings his girlfriend over and you say that's a quiet nice-looking Say he decides to get married and he brings his girlfriend over. No. And you say, hey that's quite a nice looking girlfriend you got there. She looks just like the front of your car. I could deal with that. That'd be easy to deal with. No. No.

What happens was my wife says, oh come on down to the garage. I need some help moving something. And the car is there with a big bow on it. And she says, I know you liked it so much, I bought it for you. That's what you get. Oh being old web Honest and so I now have this quandary do I? Suck it up like a big guy and just say gee that thanks very much Which I've done so far or do I fess up to her the fact that I really don't like this car and that the fact you're

Probably gonna make me drive it to live a hundred and fifty thousand miles on it just too much to bear she red red red i can't say that you don't deserve every bit of it well i mean well what is is important that you tell us what the car is okay it's a sob and it was the first year that they made the new nine hundred body ninety four so it when i looked at it sort of look bold this and kind of

strange looking yeah doesn't matter I mean that is in the eye of the beholder yes his ugliness yes yeah my goodness even more so yeah see I mean when you took when you started to tell the story and you said that he brought the car over and you thought it was horribly ugly and then you told us but being a nice guy you said to him gee what a nice guy, you said to him, gee, what a nice looking car. I was going to say, there's no reason to say the opposite of what you think. You could have said nothing.

Nothing. Or you could have said good luck. You could have said something neutral like, gee, I understand these are really good in snow. I could have. I could have. Yeah. You could have.

But you opened your big mouth. I could have. I could have. Yeah. You could have. But you opened your big mouth. I did. Yeah, your wife is, I'm sure, a wonderful woman, and the fact that you have, you're about to try to deceive her again. No, you can't do that. You want us to figure out a scheme for you. I mean, it's one thing to lie to your dear friend, but you can't lie to your own wife. Yeah. Trust me on this. You know why?

You think I ought to come clean and tell her I don't like it. They catch you every they catch every time oh yeah they do catch it there's no way you can they take time they always catch it so you have to fess up all right yeah I think so you have to tell her hun this is the sweetest thing you could have ever done and I know you it's put you out seventeen thousand,000. That's the number. But I have to tell you that I, I mean, do you still hate the 94 Saab as much as you did then? No, not as much. Well, as your penance, my son, not only

so you tell the truth to your wife, but you shall drive this car for at least two years before you sell it. And say, three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys. All right. And make a novena. If you don't know how to make one, I can get the plans for you. And I know where to get the lumber chief

Yeah, I think Jeez, I just come clean on the whole thing. I think you just got all absolutely. Okay. I have to come clean It's the only way and you will feel an incredible lightness of being when this happens or an incredible hit to the head Yeah, a dope slap may be in order an incredible hit to the head. Yeah a dope slap may be in order. I'll have to take it. You are in it deep. You would buy a lot of flowers Fred. Yeah well I'll call you from the hospital after I tell her. I mean I am curious to know how you make out because this would be experience for us as well. All right. Because things like this could happen in our lives, and I would like to know how this advice we gave you works. I mean, she may turn around and dump you and run off

with your friend. On the other hand... He's got a nice Lexus now. Yeah, yeah, he's got a new car, right. Let us know how you like sleeping in the garage anyway. I will. See you, Fred. Thanks. Bye. See that? He was just trying to be nice. Boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, can you get yourself in trouble by not telling the truth? Well, you know, I was thinking about this just the other day, and lots of times, you don't really tell a lie, but you don't really tell the truth either, and sometimes you do it just to be polite I remember I was in the presence of someone the other day and I can't remember who it was but I'm sure he or she will remember and then call me about it and he or she said something that I really wasn't interested in at all and I you know

conversation to make conversation I did the nodding and all, really? Oh gee, that's interesting. I nod off. That saved me. Instead of saying, you know, I don't have the slightest amount of interest in what you're telling me, you do say things like, gee, that's really good. And then if they pick it up, oh, you really like it? Well, I can get you one, you know? And all of a sudden, you're in over your head.

Right? You say, no, no, no, I don't want you to trouble yourself. No, I was just lying. I was just trying to be that's the time when you should tell the truth when it gets in that first crossroads yeah I didn't mean it I was just lying yeah hey stick around for more calls and the new puzzler coming right up Stick around for more calls and the new puzzler coming right up. Okay, so tell me if this sounds like you. You love NPR's podcasts. You wish they weren't interrupted by sponsor breaks like this one. And you want to support NPR's mission of creating a

more informed public. If this does sound like you, then it's time to sign up for perks across more than 20 podcasts with the NPR Plus bundle. Learn more at plus.npr.org. On this week's episode of Wild Card, author Tathi Brodesser-Akner talks about the strange places we can find peace. I've always felt safe when I was in motion. I think that being in transit is actually the only time you can stop. I feel very safe.

I'm Rachel Martin. Join us for NPR's Wild Card Podcast, the game where cards control the conversation. I just don't want to leave a mess. On Bullseye, the great Dan Aykroyd talks about the Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, and his very detailed plans about how he will spend his afterlife. I think I'm going to roam in a few places. Yes, I'm going to manifest and roam. All that and more on the Bullseye Podcast from MaximumFun.org and NPR.

They're all over the internet and bumping out of people's cars. They're the songs of the summer. And this year includes the domination of Charli XCX and Brat Summer. She's really tapping into this moment where we are all chronically online but also chronically outside. We are talking about The Songs of the Summer and why they're so catchy and inescapable. Listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR. Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk on National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers, and we're here to discuss cars, car repair and S206 forms.

This is sent to us by Larry Sherman from somewhere. The British military writes officer reports called OFRs, officer fitness reports. The form used for Royal Navy and Marines fitness sports is form S206. And the following are actual, we don't have it on any authority except Larry's here, these are actual excerpts from people's 206s. This officer is really not so much of a has-been, but more of a definitely won't be. He would be out of his depth in a puddle. That's good. This officer should go far and the sooner he starts the better. And here the last two

works well when under constant supervision. And my favorite favorite this man is depriving a village somewhere. I worked with him, I think. Alright. I have to catch my breath. It's time to be serious for a minute here. It's time for the puzzler. Oh, that's serious business. Yeah. Well, this has to do with railroads. We've had lots of railroad puzzlers. We have. This is yet another. Yet another. Now we, we had a little problem with this because we had to do a little research and you may notice that Bugsy hasn't been here for a while because I

asked him to do a little research. A little research trip. And I asked him very simply to measure the distance between railroad tracks. That is from the middle of the track to the middle of the other track and find out what that distance is because we wanted to find out if it had any relevance to anything.

Sure. Exactly. Right? I mean, yeah. Well, Bugsy decided to, he's always looking for a shortcut. He couldn't find any railroad tracks as he was leaving here a few weeks ago on his mission, but

he did enter the subway and unfortunately he measured from the third rail and we haven't seen him since. But what he did discover as he was gasping for breath was that the distance between tracks, between the middle of the track and the middle of the parallel track is on average 4 feet 11 and three quarter inches. Wow, this sounds like he did some actual measuring yes four feet Eleven and three-quarter inches now what kind of a stupid number is that? prime

No kidding four feet eleven and that is a very unusual number But so the question very simply is, from whence did we get this four feet, 11 and three quarter inches, and feel free to go back in history. As far as necessary. As far as is necessary. Right.

In fact, we want you to go back in history because we don't want some stupid little answer like, well, that was how far apart the train tracks in England were. In fact, that's exactly how far apart they are. Exactly. We knew that. So what?

So what? Not good enough. Why did they choose that number? That's what we want to know. And if the French are involved in this in any way, leave it out. We don't want an answer. Now, if you think you know the answer, send it to us at Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge, Power Fair City, Math 02238 or you can email us your answer from CarTalk.com by clicking on the Talk to Car Talk section.

And if we choose your correct answer at random as the winner next week and you catch us, we'll send you a second Best of Car Talk cassette or CD in a plain brown wrapper. If you'd like to call us with a question about your car or anything else for that matter, our number is 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Peggy from Union, New Jersey. Hi, Peggy. Hi. Okay, I have a car with my boyfriend. It's a Least 1995 Chevy Tahoe. Uh-huh. Ninety-five, yeahoe nandita leah until june of ninety eight and the issue is we've had a couple of boo-boo's on it on the rear left and the rear right

side panel that's almost defender they've been dented in and pain has fallen off in one of them is a significant amount of pain it's like five inches square almost uh... it's not creased so the metals and fine shape underneath but the paint is gone and this is the issue. He says we're gonna wait until the end of the lease and have all the repairs at the same time and then turn it in to the leasing company. Oh I see so his philosophy is right a week before the lease is up you find

some gypsies in a parking lot someplace to do the body work. In the Union Mall. Right. Well, the thing is if it's going to get done again, he doesn't want to think about that five times. Yeah, and your position is, but what happens if it starts rusting away? Exactly. Then we're going to have to repair ruined metal. So you think it's going to rust through. It probably won't rust through. I'd put some nail polish on it.

You're supposed to help me. This is why I'm calling you. Nail polish is good. You could. I mean obviously you don't care what it looks like. No it's not that bad. It's just like a push in. It's not even that bad at all. It's just that the paint's gone and you see this beautiful gray metal underneath. Not rusty. The gray metal is the primer. Oh. I believe. And if it is the primer, then you're okay. Does it look shiny, the metal, or is it dull? It's hard to say. It's kind of speckled. It looks to me like it's probably the bare metal

that's waiting to rust. You can easily determine that by trying to scrape some off with a fingernail. And if you scrape something off and what's below it is shinier, then it was the primer that you scraped off. And now it will. And you shouldn't have touched it. And now you have to go put nail polish on it.

But you can go to an auto parts store and you can buy a spray can of paint and probably even match the original color. Okay. So you could do this yourself. You could just sand it down lightly, prime the bare area. And then after the appropriate amount of drying time, you could spray paint it

And if you did it before the weather got too cold which may be too late for already you wouldn't get too many runs So I'm calling to get support for my position. Yes, and we're supporting your position Peggy that may not be entirely clear But we are in fact supporting your position that it's simple. It would be helpful if you'd say he's wrong He's wrong. OK. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't think we want to say he's entirely wrong. The truth is that you may be wrong.

But. I mean, his logic is very simple. The prudent thing to do is what you want to do. Wrong or right. Right. Isn't it so simple to do? And I think it's a good compromise position. Rather than go to a body shop and spend hundreds of dollars, which it will cost you, to get

this fixed because I'll have to paint the whole side of the truck perhaps to make it blend in properly. Your approach is okay. You're going to doctor it up a little bit so it won't look terrible and it won't rust. And then at the very end, you're going to have to get it fixed again, which is going to cost you that $700 it would have cost you initially plus whatever inflationary costs are involved but you might save by by the fact that there may be a second accident so you will have benefited from not having fixed the first accident

that's right and if you're accident prone typical guy mentality of and there's no downside to spraying on a little paint to make sure that it doesn't start rusting away and remember it it's not your car. Yeah but it's her money. Is this reasonable wear and tear? No no accidents not reasonable wear and tear no. So yeah you are you it doesn't matter who's right the prudent thing to do is go down to the auto parts store buy yourself a can of Chevy Tahoe light green or whatever it's called. Red. Light green would be close enough. Light green, red, and spray it on there and follow the instructions on the can.

And you may discover a new career. I mean... Yeah, maybe you could become a gypsy in the Union Mall and fix cars. But do something, because it'll make you feel better. Okay, it will actually. And calling you was actually enjoyable and made me feel better too. Oh, that's great. Well, Peggy, you're a pleasure to talk to. Thanks. Bye bye. Say hello to your boyfriend. Well, you've wasted another perfectly good hour listening

to Car Talk. Our esteemed producer is Doug, the Subway fugitive and he will remain so. We got some mail on that. Yes, he will remain so. Not a slave to fashion, Berman, our associate producer and Dean of the College of Autonomous Ecology is Ken Babyface Rogers. Our assistant producer is Catherine Petutti, Cathode, more names for her, Ray. Our engineer is Karen Given and our technical advisor is John Bugsy Sebastian, Mr. Height, Sweet Cheeks, Free Lunch, Twinkle Toes, Donut Breath, Hoola Lips, 2 Gigabyte, make that 3 triple cheeseburgers, I saw his face on a milk carton lawler. His hair's standing up straight now since he touched that third rail.

Our public opinion pollster was Paul Murky of Murky Research, assisted by statistician Margin O'Vara. Our automotive medical researcher was Dr. Denton Fender. Our marriage counselor was Marion Haste. Our secretary of airline lubrication is Federico Penzoyel. Our director of new product repair is Warren T. Myfoot. And our sexual harassment intervention counselor is Pat McCann. The curator of Tom's car collection is Rex Galore.

Our director of pollution control is Maury Missions. Maury Missions. Maury Missions. Good. I know you get it. I'm still working on Pat McCann. Our director of cold weather starting is Martina Never Turnover and the chairman of our Joint Chiefs of Staff is John Shalai Bapaweely. And of course, our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Cheatham and Howes, you

Lewis Dewey, known to the students in cardigan sweaters as Huey Louie Dewey. Thanks so much for listening. We're Click and Clack of Tappet Brothers and don't drive like my brother! Don't drive like my brother. We'll be back next week, we hope. Bye bye. And don't drive like my brother! Don't drive like my brother! We'll be back next week, we hope. Bye-bye. ["Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy"] If you find yourself in urgent need of a cassette copy of this week's show,

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