The Best of Car Talk - #2503: It's Gettin' Hot in Here!

Episode Date: January 11, 2025

Chris and her family were a few hours into their car trip when her hubby noticed that the engine was starting to overheat. He insisted on turning the car's heat on and, whoa nelly- it got hot in there.... What was hubby thinking? 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

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers and we're broadcasting this week from the Department of Revealing Information here at Car Talk Plaza. Now Now I have in my hand the results of the fourth annual mechanics poll. This is legit. This is conducted by Valvoline in conjunction with ASE, Automotive Service Excellence Organization. Well here's the news. 200 mechanics were surveyed and asked the following question. While working on your customers cars, what items are you most likely to find?
Starting point is 00:00:48 Here are the results. I'll look at one here. Ninety-eight percent of mechanics mentioned dirty clothes. I understand that. Tied with partially eaten food. Ninety-five percent found money. Ninety, 91% found personal letters, 88% found personal hygiene items, what in the heck would that be? 67% found a dead animal, and 55% found a live animal.
Starting point is 00:01:19 Well, quite honestly, I was kind of disappointed that they didn't kind of follow up and go more in depth, you know. Sure, I mean, there's more to be learned here. There's much more to be learned. So I have some questions that I'd like asked in the next mechanics survey, the fifth annual, when they do it next year. Yeah. These relate to those items mechanics find in our cars. Number one, did they at least try on the dirty clothes they found?
Starting point is 00:01:39 I saw Ralph in a miniskirt next to a 72 Fiat the other day. That's a good idea. Number two, what percentage of the partially eaten food did they at least taste? Pete doesn't even bother bringing a lunch anymore. You figure somebody's going to have something in his car. Number three, we know that they kept the money they found, so we don't need to ask anything about that. Number four, did they read the personal letters they found?
Starting point is 00:02:03 Were they able to read the personal letters they found? And my final question is about the personal hygiene items they found. Did they know the personal letters they found? Were they able to read the personal letters they found? And my final question is about the personal hygiene items they found. Did they know what they were? Hey Vinnie, what's this anti-perspirant stuff? Yeah. Well, I think you should be in the questionnaire development business. I mean, you got a little knack for this, buddy. I felt a little, what is it, slighted that I wasn't asked to participate in one
Starting point is 00:02:28 formula, either as a participant, as one of the persons that answers the questions, or one of the ones that formulates the questions, but maybe next year though. Well, now that they know that you're interested. They'll never call, I'm sure. Do I get a chance to read anything? No. Fine. If you have a question for us, you can call us at 1-800-332-9287. sure well i got a chance to read anything no fine
Starting point is 00:02:45 your question for us you can call us at one eight hundred three three two nine two eight seven hello you're in car talk this is your truly from st louis hey joe what's happened uh... not much question i had to ask you guys uh... the car in question of an eighty seven uh... accurate legend and uh... uh... it has two hundred and thirty thousand miles on it
Starting point is 00:03:05 about half of which i put on myself and as far as i'm able to determine the car has its original shock absorbers on it but i i i'd just have a feeling after two hundred and somewhat thousand miles i want to be ready for shock absorbers except that the angel tested method of bouncing on the one of the front bumpers on one side and watching to see if the car keeps a bouncing
Starting point is 00:03:30 but doesn't doesn't tell me anything if the car stopped bouncing immediately now if i go down the street here to uh... shock for us and say do i need shot to say of course you do you bozo how much money do you got and what i need to know is whether i need shock absorbers but I need to ask the question of someone who isn't trying to sell me shock absorbers first of all it is it is true that if if you put all these miles on the car most of those miles are probably highway miles and so you wear out shocks slower that's
Starting point is 00:04:01 number one number two the shocks that came with the car originally are very good shocks. The car is a very high quality car and it's possible the shocks could still be good after all these miles. I find that unlikely though because 230,000 miles no matter what kind of driving you do the shocks gotta be gone. I mean you should be on your fifth set of shocks now. Well I'm only one way. I got it. Wait, wait, wait. I got. Well, I'm only on my... I got it! I got it! I got it too! I'm gonna give you a prediction!
Starting point is 00:04:30 Joe, I am gonna tell you how tall you are and how much you weigh. Alright. Okay? Alright. You are between... No, no, between! Well, give me a little... cut me some slack here, will ya?
Starting point is 00:04:46 You wanna know what color the car is? Alright, plus or minus the standard 2 inches. 2 inches. You are 5 foot 8 and a half and you weigh 157 pounds. Oh, that you were right. Oh, that you were right. Oh, that I was right. Nah, I'm 5'11 and a half and i would do that
Starting point is 00:05:07 because that the or uh... i i i i hesitate to ask why in the world you even have that you could have made a guess as to his height and weight based on what based on his his call of ralph a patient school sure a lot of car is driving the whole box of lasted this long Based on hit. Did you grab the location? Sherlock! Sherlock! The car he's driving. The fact that the shocks have lasted this long. No! The color of the car.
Starting point is 00:05:28 If he's a little, lightweight guy. Yeah, yeah. He wasn't pushing down hard enough on the car to do the shock test. The shock test, as you know. Oh, and this was your way of asking Joe if he was a pencil-neck geek. Exactly. Because if you go down to Shocks R.S. down the the street you will notice that the guy who they call out Igor to do the shock test Brutus
Starting point is 00:05:49 Igor is six four and weighs 300 pounds and he can make the car bounce at ten times So if you don't push down far enough and hard enough, then the shock test is not quite valid I had to do I would I'm to guess that you don't need shocks. Really? I'm going to guess you don't need shocks. And I'll tell you no, I don't think they're seized either. If they were you'd be bouncing all over the place number one. Number two, your tires would be all chewed up. If you're not chewing up tires. No, not at all. Then your shocks are still okay. Yeah, but I mean I do I have to say I find it very hard to believe that you don't need shocks, but all the evidence seems to suggest that you don't. Yeah, but I mean I do I have to say I find it very hard to believe that you don't need shocks but all the evidence seems to suggest that you don't. Yeah, really. They may be they may be something they may have over engineered
Starting point is 00:06:32 them over designed them or over built them and they certainly will overcharge for them when you go to replace them. It's a spectacular car I mean greatest car I've ever owned. Well I happen to be right now test driving an Acura 3.5 TL which are our L my question is if you had a legendary name like the legend Why would you give it away? Why would you throw it away? Give it away? They're just they're big Yeah, no they don't you think they're banking it Yeah, I think they're gonna come out with they're little leapfrog over the the rl and come up with
Starting point is 00:07:06 a new legend yes all uh... some of legend uh... i thought i will let you go i mean jobs obviously got stuff to do it because i don't think i can do i think i appreciate the help alright great see you later thank thanks to like one eight hundred three three two nine two eight Hello. You're on car talk. Hi. Hi You sound so thrilled that you finally did
Starting point is 00:07:41 Stephanie I'm calling from Bozeman, Montana What's up? Well, I own a Stephanie, I'm calling from Bozeman, Montana. What's up? Well, I own a 95 Subaru Impreza, the first all-wheel drive vehicle I've owned and I have noticed when I bought it, it was driving perfectly fine. And then at about 12,000 miles, I noticed a slight hopping when I would turn, I cranked the wheel like to make a 90 degree turn at a slow speed, it would kind of hop. And it was getting progressively worse, so I took it back to the dealer, and the dealer said, there's nothing wrong with your car, this is the way they drive. And
Starting point is 00:08:14 I said, okay. And then over the next couple weeks it got worse, I took it back, I made the guy get in the car with me, I drove it and I showed him and he said, oh, I know what this is. So he put some fluid in in it didn't tell me what it was He said drive it for a few weeks and see if it gets any better So I did and put it into what the engine somewhere in the engine under the hood yes under the hood and Sure enough within a few days the hopping was gone. Then it started coming back again about three weeks later Now I'm at 20,000
Starting point is 00:08:45 miles and I noticed it. I took it back in and it was a different man and he said, no there's nothing wrong with your car. Don't you love it? And he sent him some crazy woman. So I thought next time I take it back maybe I could have some suggestions as to what I might be experiencing or if... So the first guy wasn't there when you went back the second time? No. Well, first for our first question is what happened to the first guy? I have no idea He got rich he he patented his anti-hop ingredient. I know it's anti-hop additive
Starting point is 00:09:19 So it's unlikely that he put this aha into the engine Do you have an automatic you have an automatic transmission? Yes I do. And you saw where he poured it? No I didn't. Why not? Because I was inside the dealer, it was like raining and I was watching him outside. He was outside, he was like, oh it took him five minutes. He didn't write up a report or anything.
Starting point is 00:09:40 You know, because he wanted to get me in and out. I mean, I can only imagine that he added some automatic transmission fluid to it. First of all... But I'm not leaking anything. Well, that's the question. I mean, maybe it wasn't filled up from the beginning, but you may be leaking something now. Well, I've been checking my parking spot. You know, I park in the same place every day, and the engine's not leaking. I don't see any noticeable leaks anywhere.
Starting point is 00:10:01 Well, the symptoms certainly suggest something was leaking. He added something. No, Ashley, no, Ashley, the symptoms suggests to me that there's something wrong with the center differential this thing has no full-time Four-wheel drive right you can't you can't deter you're in four-wheel drive all the time right right? I mean figures out where to send the power explain to me this on an all-wheel drive car Do the back and front wheels turn the same no they don't turn the same That's that's that's because the center differential controls the rate at which the, each of the four, you have three differentials on this car.
Starting point is 00:10:31 You have one between the two front wheels, one between the two rear wheels, and one between the front and back. So it's possible, under certain conditions, and necessary for all four wheels to turn at different speeds. That's why this thing is called a differential, because it allows the wheels to turn at different speeds. That's why this thing is called the differential, because it allows the wheels to turn at different speeds.
Starting point is 00:10:48 And old four wheel drive technology did not allow this, and in fact you could not drive the thing in four wheel drive when in fact you were on dry pavement. For this very reason, because it would hop. So when I go back to the dealer, which I will, because it's bothering me, I should just tell him to put him in the car with me and let him experience it and yet and they and tell him that the previous guy put some fluid into something and you don't know what it was
Starting point is 00:11:15 to do the final yet he did i think it i think it's a little bit i can tell you that now that i remember it look like he was back toward that the steering wheel side of the of the driver in the back part of the... Yeah, against the firewall, as they call it. Yeah, he had a transmission fluid to it. You may have a leak.
Starting point is 00:11:32 So go back. Well, good luck, Steph. Okay. Let us know what happens. I will. We may call you for Stump the Chumps someday. Okay. You never know.
Starting point is 00:11:40 Bye-bye. Bye-bye. We'll be right back with the answer to the puzzler right after these very important messages. Okay, Tommy Baby! Yeah, yeah, I know! The puzzler's on vacation! You have said it a million times! Well, for those of you who actually enjoy the puzzler, both of you can check out this week's archival puzzler at Cartalk.msn.com. Please note that we're doing our best to keep you distracted at work until the puzzler returns in the fall. It's our responsibility. Everyone's got a job to do, right?
Starting point is 00:12:12 And ours is to help you waste otherwise valuable time. Speaking of which, 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Cartalk. Hi, I'm David and I'm calling from Subway Fugitiveville. Ah! Subway Fugitiveville, for those that don't know, it's Washington, D.C. Yes, the place from which our esteemed producer, Douglas Q. Berman, is a Subway Fugitive. Yes, indeed. For eating, is that, do they still have that law? Absolutely. Of course they have a law. You can't not eat, you can't drink.
Starting point is 00:12:41 In fact, it's now called the Berman law. Anyway, Davidid what's happening uh... you keep complaining that nobody ever called in with cars and drive with the deep fixin and i got one cool great that means then that you are not a lawyer but you might be a politician neither i'm even worse than an engineer really great fall in in on a mechanical engineer
Starting point is 00:13:04 no i'm an electrical engineer knowledge everyone today is an electrical engineer because there are no mechanical things and there are no chemical things everything does electronic one way or another well i wish this was uh... maybe friends with an eighty seven mitzvah she mirage that i've been working on and history is that he had
Starting point is 00:13:24 all new op ed rotors turned to shoot at her at her at her by the year and a half ago and then and and estate very which they are not making this up somebody stole the car or am i somebody stole the car and they got arrested for coolant messen we got the car back but it it it took a year to get the insurance company to make a reasonable settlement what sat there
Starting point is 00:13:47 and now it's ready to be running again but it simply won't stop uh... it even with tremendous pedal pressure yeah it just doesn't want to stop the group the break booster definitely works you started up and you uh... in the pedal sinks in the effort goes way down but even so at reasonable speed
Starting point is 00:14:07 uh... iq it if it doesn't want to stop i mean i'm standing on as hard as i can have you jacked up the car and felt to see if the wheels are turning when someone steps in the brain yet it yet at at i don't want you know and and i think i've looked at the pads in the roaders and you've checked them all four wheels uh... it's rare drums and I must admit I didn't check the rear drums, but I checked both fronts. Not good enough.
Starting point is 00:14:29 Well, it is good enough. The fronts aren't working. Even though you think they're working, they're not. So what's happening is the piston is moving one pad, but the caliper is supposed to slide in a groove in a way. And that is supposed to move the other pad against the other side of the disc, so that in fact the disc gets clamped between the two pads.
Starting point is 00:14:50 What you're seeing is the piston, if in fact that's working even that well, the piston is moving one pad against the disc, and then the disc is being bent, and is making contact with the other pad, but barely. So it looks to you like you're Clamping the disc between the pads, but you don't really know that you're bending the disc. Here's what you need to do Take the pistons take the great pads out of one wheel and
Starting point is 00:15:17 See if you can slide the caliper back and forth the caliper should slide Okay, you can tap it with a mallet, with a rubber face mallet, and it should move in one direction, and then it should move in the other direction, and then have an assistant step on the brake pedal gently and see if the piston moves freely, and see if you can push it back with a pry bar. If that's the case, put the pads back into that side and go check the other side. If that side's okay, then stop listening to the show. Oh no. So David, why are you... Well, you know, I'm just having a side here. We had a fellow in our show. I shouldn't divulge
Starting point is 00:15:54 this because this could be a good puzzler, but... Yeah, so what? No one's listening. No one... Would you listen to this show twice? I haven't. What's the chance of anyone hearing this show, hearing next week when you come up with this as a puzzle? No one will know. Is there any possibility that the engine idle speed is too high? Yeah and that's why the car is hard to stop? Sure would be. Yeah. You remember the Audis, those Audi 5000s years ago that had all those problems? It's hard to stop a car when the throttle is down to the floor. Yeah, that's a good question.
Starting point is 00:16:28 I mean, I think we could safely rule that out. Alright, I trust you. You're an engineer. You know your electrons. And you're not at work, so you're either unemployed. And he knows his electrons from his elbow. Hey, well, good luck, David. And call us back and let us know how you made out. I will do that. Check those caliper slides. I'm pretty sure that that's where
Starting point is 00:16:52 you're going to find the problem. I have to say that this is an excellent theory. OK. But remember, it's only a theory. It's only theory. See you, Dave. OK, thank you. Bye bye.
Starting point is 00:17:01 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Chris. Hi Chris, where are you from? Tell us where you're from, we'll tell you how to spell Chris. I'm from Georgia. Georgia, C-H-R-I-S. That's right. Okay. Okay, I need your help settling a little bit of a domestic dispute that my husband and
Starting point is 00:17:19 I are having, and I'll give you a little background. In July, this summer, we were driving ournie son stands a wagon which is nineteen eighty seven uh... down to florida it was about ninety six degrees fahrenheit we're going about seventy miles an hour and um... we read about our sixth hour of driving with a five-year-old and a three-year-old in the back seat and temperature indicator moved up just a little bit you expect and my husband and i want to eat for black
Starting point is 00:17:51 like i said it was a six-hour so my reaction escalated to a pretty animated level uh... you didn't you didn't keep your cool so to speak and now i didn't just my cool like i'm rationally and quietly say on now and i was turned out off now there were some choice word to you know uh...
Starting point is 00:18:11 what do you know more on our watch that are you crazy and i think you have to have the heater on yeah and uh... don't say that he said that those guys on the radio told him to do it and now he did not told good. He said I'm cooling the engine And I said well, you're not cooling me. It's too hot in here to run the heat That's crazy and the the indicator hasn't gone up into the red areas or any to cause us any alarm. That's ridiculous Well, the truth is and if you I'm sure call it because you want the truth, and we deal in the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Starting point is 00:18:49 Good. When we know it. Except when we're wrong. Except when we're making it up. He is right. I mean, turning on the heater will in fact cool off the engine because what you're doing is introducing an additional component to the cooling system, which is the heater. The heater is just like another little radiator stuck onto the radiator
Starting point is 00:19:05 Yeah So by turning on the heat and and having the cooler air relatively cooler air of the passenger compartment Blow through this thing and dissipate the heat from it. You're returning coolant to the engine that's been cooled off from 200 degrees or maybe 220 down to maybe 150 And then and so imagine if you could you could add several of these little heaters and you could cool the car off very well even on the hottest day. On the other hand I think what your husband neglected to realize is the relative importance of having the engine be cool as opposed to having your wife
Starting point is 00:19:40 be cool. Exactly. Well let me tell, I've discovered. Is he an engineer? No, he is a scientist. Forever more, he will be questioned about everything he does. I've had some wacky ideas in my lifetime and it's now gotten to the point where nobody trusts me anymore, no matter what I say, because I've had so many wacky ideas and I have I I have what you call that I've besmirched my own reputation yeah I've lost credibility yes and he has he has damaged his own credibility by this very move so that now no matter what he does no matter how authoritative he sounds in the back of your mind you're gonna say he's a moron you're gonna say he's a moron. Well because it is a common problem with scientific types. They fall into the trap that we in the scientific world call local suboptimization. They don't
Starting point is 00:20:40 look at the big picture. He was absolutely, was he wrong? He was 100% right about what he said. But should he have done it? No. You wanna hear a little story about this? Bunch of people are on one of these little commuter airplanes and they're flying into Seattle. And all of a sudden they hit this terrible fog and the pilot is flying around and the passengers are getting nervous
Starting point is 00:21:06 I mean, it's a little plane they can see the pilot and He doesn't know where to go. I mean, it's so foggy. He can see nothing. So he figures I'll go down lower He goes down lower and he sees this huge building and he starts circling the building and he actually sees a guy Inside the building and he opens the window and he yells out to the guy, where am I? Pretty good, huh? The guy yells back, you're in an airplane. So no sooner does the guy say that, the pilot turns around, goes right straight down and lands perfectly on the runway all the passengers applaud and they say how did you do that and he
Starting point is 00:21:52 says well when the guy in that building told me what he did when I said where are we and he said you're in an airplane he gave me information which was perfectly accurate but useless so I knew I was at the Microsoft technical support building And I knew the airport was exactly five miles east of the building So that's what happens to scientists that is it is they're absolutely right But so what question everything he does from now on, Chris. Yeah. I will. See you later. Thanks for calling. Be sure to stick around for more calls and the new puzzle are coming right up. Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk on National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack the Tappert
Starting point is 00:22:58 Brothers, and we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and further inroads by Big Blue. This has to be from the onion. Kabinda Zaire. In a move IBM offices are hailing as a major step in the company's ongoing worldwide telecommunications revolution, Mwanyi Ndeti used an IBM Global Uplink network modem yesterday to crush a nut. I could not crush the nut by myself said the 47-year-old Ndeti. With IBM's help, I was able to break it.
Starting point is 00:23:33 Ndeti discovered the nut-breaking 28.8 baud modem yesterday when IBM was shooting a commercial in its southwestern Zaire village. During a break in the shooting, which shows African villages eagerly teleconferencing via computer with Japanese school children, Ndedi snuck onto the set and took the modem, which he believed would serve well as a smashing utensil. It's a smashing utensil! Ndedi was so impressed with the modem that he purchased a new state-of-the-art IBM workstation. The tribesman has already made good use of the computer system fashioning a gazelle trap out of the wires, a boat anchor out of the monitor
Starting point is 00:24:15 and a crude but effective weapon from the mouse. I am using every part of it. I will cook this gazelle on the keyboard. later and then he capped off his delicious gazelle dinner by smoking the computer's 200 page owner's manual. I think that's wonderful. It's gotta be the onion. They're the only ones screwy enough to write stuff like that. Alright, talking about screwy. The puzzler is still on vacation.
Starting point is 00:24:46 That means no new puzzler this week. That's right. But remember, you can always get a puzzler by visiting our website, Cartalk.msn.com, where we have posted some of our favorite puzzlers from the past. And these are some buttes! Oh yeah, right! And! Hahaha! If you want to help my brother out with some semi-interesting puzzlers that he might
Starting point is 00:25:06 be able to use in the fall, you can email them to us from Cartalk.msn.com or you can send them the old-fashioned way. Walk them over here? No, no, not that old-fashioned. You can mail them to Cartalk Plaza, Good Puzzler Division, Box 3500, Harvard Cambridge our first city mass Acheus it's 0 2 2 3 8 in the meantime you can call us with your car question or anything else at 1 800 3 3 2 9 2 8 7. Hello. You're on car talk. Hello. Hi, who's this? Right. I love you show. Thanks. Yeah, my name is Steve. I run a mo
Starting point is 00:25:42 I know last names please see the Rapids, Iowa Cedar Cedar Rapids Cedar Rapids, I can't say that I've been there. That's what I thought when I first heard it. Yeah, where the hell is it? Where were you coming from when you did that? So you went from California where in California? Oh Fresno? Fresno, yeah, and you went from Fresno to Cedar Rapids. Yeah What so what what drew you there be a woman? No. Yeah. Yeah, my wife made me do it Is she a Cedar Rapidian? Yep. She is she is she was born out here in Iowa. That'll do it. Yeah every time Now that you're leading this life of quiet desperation, what can we what can we do for you?
Starting point is 00:26:24 Yeah, I got a what is is it? It's a 83 Honda Accord. Yeah. And that sucker is blowing smoke out of the, what is that? Tailpipe? Tailpipe. No, out of the valve cover gasket. And sometimes out of the carburetor. Oh yeah?
Starting point is 00:26:41 I've heard three different things. It could be the PCV valve and my 18 year old thinks it's the rings. Your 18 year old is onto it. You think so huh? Oh yeah. You've got what's called in the trade wicked bad blow by. Oh okay.
Starting point is 00:27:00 Wicked bad WBB. WBBBicked bad blow by Oh that's two words blow by? Oh yeah. I always thought it was one. Oh no no. Yeah how many hundreds of thousands of miles are on this car? It's got a hundred and thirteen thousand miles. Gee that's soon. It was a used car I paid $400 for it. Oh It ran good, yeah, well it still probably runs pretty good. Yeah, it does. I want to rebuild the engine on it Yeah, well, that's you're about to do that. Okay. It's time to do that. Okay, Ash is the 18 year old son going to participate? Hi, he wants it to take it to his high school and take it to the auto shop. Excellent! Yeah, he's it to take it to his high school and take it to auto shop. Excellent! Yeah, he's good at these things.
Starting point is 00:27:47 Yeah, I would say that you should do that because you have very little to lose. Okay. Actually, it's pretty easy to do a ring job on this thing if you're not, well, if you don't want to rebuild the whole thing. No, just the rings. They can just take the cylinder head off. Okay. And drop the pan and you can do a ring job.
Starting point is 00:28:03 Okay. Which is- That shouldn't be too difficult. Oh no, and you have to pay for the parts? Is that the way AutoShop works? Yeah, we pay for the parts and he does the labor for free. That way he's learning. Oh, that will be his own personal project. Yeah. Oh, this is great!
Starting point is 00:28:19 Yeah, I think so too. It's about time they teach him something in high school. Besides that reading, writing, arithmetic stuff. Yeah, get him into mechanics. So they can do something useful for dear old dad. You will be the beneficiary of your son's knowledge. Yeah, I think so. And then you can give him the car as a gift. My 18-year-old one's a Harley. He don't think small.
Starting point is 00:28:43 No. Tell him to work on the Honda. That's about his speed for now. He's 18 years old and weighs 280 pounds and he's 6 foot 4. Oh, the Honda's too small for him. Yeah, so is the Yugo we got. You got some real winners. No, I know. Hey, that Yugo. I don't know. I'd start looking for a nice GM car for that 250 pound Son of yours. I want to give you a full size Chevy van. Yeah, you're talking. That's what he needs. With the TV, VCR and.
Starting point is 00:29:08 Yeah, yeah. That's what he needs, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he needs one of those. Well, with all my kids and as big as they are, we had a minivan and no room. Of course, the name implied, it's a minivan. Yeah, I know, but you got kids that are 200 pounds plus.
Starting point is 00:29:24 I think you need a trip back to Fresno, Steve. Yeah, I know, but you got kids that are 200 pounds plus. I think you need a trip back to Fresno, Steve. Yeah, I'd love to. I'm getting tired of Iowa anyway. I can see that. You're starting to flip out, man. Don't you have any family back home where you can freeload off for a week or two in Fresno? Oh yeah, my mom and dad and all my brothers are in the Fresno area.
Starting point is 00:29:44 Yeah, go visit. Yeah, I have been. You're losing it, man. Six years since I've seen them. Oh, they probably moved. They certainly changed the locks on the doors. I told my wife that once the kids are around, I'm going to move and I ain't going to tell them. Once they're out of the house, we're gone. That's it. Well, Steve, good luck with the Honda. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure talking to you. Same here.
Starting point is 00:30:09 Bye-bye. See, another guy, you could have cappuccino. Oh yeah, Steve's all right. They may not have cappuccino in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I've never had the pleasure or displeasure of being there, but Steve, you know, you can just tell this is a guy. You can tell. Well, you've wasted another perfectly good hour listening to Card Talk.
Starting point is 00:30:25 Our esteemed producer is Doug the Subway Fugitive, not a slave to fashion, Punk and Lips Berman. Our associate producer and dean of the College of Automusicology is Ken Babyface Rogers. Our assistant producer is Catherine Cathode Ptooty Ray. Our engineer is Karen I've Already Given. And our technical, spiritual, and menu advisor is John Bugsy, free lunch, milk carton man lawler. Our public opinion pollster is Paul Murky of Murky Research, assisted by statistician Margin O'Vara. Our director of new product repair is Warren T. Myfoot. Our staff butler from the Car Talk Mumbai division is Mahatma Kote. Our document security expert
Starting point is 00:30:59 from the island of Jamaica is Euripides Uttman. Our director of upward mobility in Eastern Europe is Zibignu Chrysler. Our marriage counselorides Uppman. Our director of upward mobility in Eastern Europe is Zbigniew Kreisler. Our marriage counselor is Marion Haste. Our director of moral support is Yu Duman. The chairman of the Federal Lubrication Board is Alan Griespan. The manager of our weekly shrimp buffet is Sheldon DeVane. The curator of Tom's Car Collection is Rex Galore. And our chief counselor from the law firm of Dewey Cheetahman Howe is Hugh Lewis Dewey.
Starting point is 00:31:24 Known in the public fountains of Harvard Square as Huey, Louie, Dewey. Thanks so much for listening. We're Click and Clack the Tappan Brothers, and remember, whatever you do in life, don't do anything like my brother. We'll be back next week. Bye bye. And now with an important announcement here is Card Talk Plaza's Chief Mechanic, Vinnie Gubach. Alright now listen up, if you just want to copy this here Card Talk show which is number
Starting point is 00:31:54 35, here's what you do. You click on the shameless commerce division of CardTalk.msn.com. Can't you just call in your order? Hey, hey, hey, don't interrupt me alright. You can call in your order at 303-823-8000. That's three. Three-oh-three! That's exactly what I said.
Starting point is 00:32:10 303-823-8000. You can get the best of Card Talk and all the other Card Talk junk the same way through cardtalk.msn.com, all by calling 303-823-8000. You got anything else to add, Mr. Funny Man? No, I don't. Car Talk is a production of Do We Cheat Him and How and WBUR in Boston.
Starting point is 00:32:33 And even though Ray Suarez has a good cry every time he hears us say it, this is NPR National Public Radio.

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