#1005: A Used-Car Salesman Repents

Jan 30, 2010
This week on Car Talk, a used-car salesman chooses an opportune time to turn into a consumer advocate. Meanwhile, out in Oregon, Danni could've used someone to tell her not to buy the second-hand Range Rover that called her name, in the midst of P.I.S. (that's, "Pregnancy Induced Insanity"). She's already been hit with a few thousand bucks worth of repairs and her husband can't even fit in the car. Also, how not to use propane to check for a vacuum leak--if you'd like to keep your eyebrows, and Tommy cooks up a brilliant but wacko solution to an overheating problem. All this, and more, on this week's encore edition of Car Talk.

Show Open Topic

The story of a used car salesman who comes clean-- at the last possible moment.

This Week's Puzzler

Can you figure out how Manny fixed the elderly woman's Lincoln Town Car?

Last Week's Puzzler

Uncharted waters: how did the sailor manage to measure the correct spark gap?

As Read on Car Talk



6 Comments

Show Review - 1079

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Always GREAT

I have been a listner for many moons and really like your show. I listen while on the "Throne" helps pass the time.
Favorite Moment: 
Not sure but you make my day start off right!
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This Show's a Classic

How can you not rate this show four wrenches? It had everything. Danni from Oregon with her Range Rover experience; Kim with her car heating problem and Tommy's self-professed absolute solution to the problem, which will automatically make this a prime candidate for "Stump the Chumps," and the the absolute top moment of the show, Ron's run-in with the propane tank while trying to fix a vacuum leak, resulting in him almost becoming the first man to Mars. I could not stop laughing the whole time, in fact I almost had to pull over a couple of times.
Favorite Moment: 
Has to be the propane tank, although the story at the beginning of the show was also a classic.
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Your were wrong

Several years ago you had a puzzler about coming to a stop light and decideing to stop behind a cement truck or another big truck. You said to see if the drum on the cement truck was turning; if it was, stop behind it because that meant the truck was empty. Cement truck drivers always leave the drum turning when empty so the heavy drum will not wear indentations onto the roller tracks. If the drum is stopped, the bouncing of the drum will cause this to happen.
Favorite Moment: 
The laughs!!!
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Rerun

Well, it's a show from the mid to late 1990s, which is why I gave it a bad review. Listen to the cars the people are calling in about, and the price someone paid for a 1989 Land Rover. "Classic" reruns of CarTalk are fine -- just tell us at the top of the show so I can stop listening to the podcast.
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Art History major? - better off with a bicycle

Great work with the UVA art history major. Far better for most college students to have a bicycle and use mass transit. The transition to a job will also be less painful. GS
Favorite Moment: 
The opening introduction and criticism.
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