#1002: No Respect at All

Jan 09, 2010
This week, Car Talk kicks off with a few choice one-liners from the late Rodney Dangerfield. Then it's off to Vermont where native Burlington resident Sam is in for a load of grief (and a large boat payment) for letting his Civic run out of coolant. Meanwhile, down in Connecticut, Wendy's trips to the dog park have become a tad embarrassing, thanks to the "kick the oil can" sound coming from her Yukon after she shuts it off. Also, married dad Andy looks for help convincing his wife to let him buy a car that could kill him; a cardinal becomes overly fixated on its reflection in a Saturn side-view mirror; and is there such a thing as overly fastidious ice scraping? All this, plus a new puzzler from the Sun-Dried Tomato series, and more this week on Car Talk.

Show Open Topic

A few of our favorite jokes from Rodney Dangerfield.

This Week's Puzzler

What's going on with the weight of Tom's sun-dried tomatoes? Are you on to Ray's deviousness?

Last Week's Puzzler

How could Ned tell that the yellow convertible he was chasing was the wrong car?

As Read on Car Talk



4 Comments

Show Review - 1048

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Crazy Cardinal

I once had this same problem with a Cardinal having a field day with mirrors on my car. My landlady at the time told me that they like to attack their reflection in the mirror. I don't know too much about birds but relieving themselves in the process may be a part of a defense mechanism, because my mirrors and the area below them would be covered in excrement. Since my mirrors didn't fold in, I solved this problem by covering my mirrors each evening with a makeshift sack created from an old t-shirt. Great show guys, keep it up!
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Honda Hybrid - rolling backward - new battery?

I'd like to suggest that the Honda Hybrid that's rolling backward during hill starts may need a new battery. When starting out, the electric motor kicks in first and now that the battery is 6 years old, it no longer has the amperage that it did when it was new
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Honda Civic

I'm going to "go out on a limb" and say that the problem with the Honda Civic was/is the transmission. I had a Honda Civic that I believe had the same Continually Variable Transmission (CVT). When these start to go, the transmission actually s"slip". So, the car would start rolling backwards and definitely shudder. Going up a hill they really shudder, less slow on a flat surface from a stop. The only solution at that time was to replace the transmission. This sounds exactly the same and I would bet that is the issue. Hope the caller sees this info.
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