Mar 25, 2023
Okay, time for the new puzzler. This one is short and sweet. An automotive puzzler, finally.
A customer came into the shop back in the day. He had a used car and he wanted it checked out. I don't remember what kind of car, and it doesn't matter.
My guy, Ralph, was the one who checked out the car. He wrote down all the things this used car needed.
Ball joints.
Belts replaced.
Coolant flushed.
New fuzzy dice... Lots of stuff.
And the last thing he put on the list was, 'Needs two rear hubcaps.'
So, I looked over the list and I said, "Jeeze, that hardly seems important...Hubcaps are for looks, right? That isn't important."
And he said, "Not to you maybe. But it is important. It is important for safety. It saved my life once."
So, here is the puzzler.
Why is this specific thing important?
Good luck.
Answer time for this puzzler about Ralph and his hubcaps.
To recap. Customer came in with a used car. Asked us to make a list of everything the car needed.
So Ralph takes a look. Writes down all the things the car needed. There were the usual suspects. Ball joints, coolant, belts and such.
But then, at the end of the list, he writes down that the car needs two rear hubcaps.
And I said, "Hubcaps! Is this really something the car needs? Is it really that important?"
And he said, "Well, maybe not to you. But I consider them an important safety feature. Saved my life once!"
So, the puzzler question was, why were the hubcaps so important to Ralph?
And here is the answer.
A while back, this guy drove this old car into the shop. He'd driven up from Rhode Island. And the car was making this horrible sound and shaking all around. Sounded like to whole world was coming to an end inside that car. Turns out, 4 of his 5 wheel nuts had come off this old car. The one remaining wheel nut was holding the left rear wheel onto the car, and it was about the fall off. This wheel was holding on by a thread.
So, if this old car had been fitted with hubcaps, this wouldn't have happened. He would have heard the wheel nuts fall off because they'd be wrattling around in the hubcaps. And he would not have been in such a potentially dangerous situation.
So, there you go.
