#25102: Happy Camper

A merry melange of motor maladies on this end of the year episode of the Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Typically when arbiting marital car disputes, it helps to know what each spouse does for a living. Lawyers, for instance, are always right because lawyers can sue radio hosts. Physicists and other scientists are usually wrong because they’re know-it-alls. And then there are Bryologists -whatever they do. Click and Clack are just as clueless as the rest of us, so let’s all find out together on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Happy Holidays from the Best of Car Talk! We had our eye on a really ugly holiday sweater for you, but they didn’t have your size. Instead, we thought you might like to take a break from all the holiday hustle and bustle and revel in the merry misery of someone else’s car trouble. Ray has been taking car questions of late and Kyle and Chloe were lucky enough to catch him in the studio. These calls are usually for NPR+ supporters only, but in a very uncharacteristic moment of magnanimity, we decided to spread the schadenfreude around and let everyone listen in. If you have a car question for Ray, call 888 522 5478, and have a wonderful holiday season.Get access to occasional new calls like these and other prehistoric Car Talk gems, as well as about 1000 episodes of Car Talk, by heading over to plus.npr.orgLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Katie is a hiker and camper but she called the least ‘outdoorsy’ guys possible to find out if it’s safe to pour her old camp stove fuel into her car’s gas tank. Click and Clack the Wilderness Brothers ‘break camp’(and a few other things) on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Diana’s dyin’ to ditch her Dodge unless our dummies can decode her dilemma: a smell so bad that it almost defies description. Hold your nose and open your ears for this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Eric has a modest proposal: Shouldn’t the cost of the $4 part that his mechanic is replacing on his car also bear some resemblance to the cost of the labor to do the job? Afraid not, piston puss! How would mechanics ever pay for their boats if that were the case? Click and Clack expound upon various schemes- uh, theories!.. on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Bruce’s son is a lawyer in Orlando, Florida who, like most of the other lawyers in the area,  drives a Lincoln Town Car. Except this one is not really helping his image. Instead of looking stylish and high class, paint is falling off in sheets leaving Bruce wondering whether repainting it would even work. Grab a brush or a can of spray paint and check out this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Gina was tooling along a local country road when an humongous spider descended in front of her eyes and into her lap. She doesn’t have any questions about removing stains from upholstery but there is the matter of the hedges and lawn furniture she wiped out as she careened down the embankment towards the waterfront. Brace for impact and check out this episode of The Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Ivan was enduring an attempt to upsell him on a special oil treatment when he heard this doozy from the mechanic-turned-salesman: “We’re not the problem. We’re part of the solution.” We agree, if the solution he’s referring to is a sleazy soup of grease and jargon. Click and Clack wade through this and other messes on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Karen from Virginia has two problems: Her Ford Taurus wagon shakes something awful from time to time. The second problem is her physicist husband’s theories about the source of the shimmy. We ain’t Fakin’, Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ on in this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy