The Best Of Car Talk

Kyla will be looking for a new ride soon and she has her sights set on an odd class of vehicle that includes the Geo Tracker and the Suzuki Sidekick, which were supposed to look like off-road vehicles. Well, they got the 'off-road' part sort of right: they never should have been allowed on roads of any kind. But it will take some careful persuasion to talk Kyla out of this potential purchase. That, a new puzzler and more calls on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.

Every car repair shop has that old, grizzled mechanic who's willing to be strapped to the hood of a moving car in order to listen for a noise, or to hold two wires together with his bare hands in order to check for high voltage current. At Car Talk, that mechanic was Krusty. Krusty could not only tell you -with a taste off his fingertip- whether that oil stain was 30 or 40-weight , but he could do it while wafting tailpipe smoke into his mouth as a way of double checking the shop's exhaust gas analyzer. The legend that was Krusty was a feature of the puzzler for decades and here is one of his early mentions.

'Sonja Henie's Tutu'? A 'Full Chicago'? For the uninitiated, Tom and Ray take a moment to provide an insider's guide to a few of Car Talk's shorthand phrases while still finding time to 'help' Toni and others with their car problems. Also, the first mention of perennial puzzler foil 'Krusty' the mechanic as part of the new puzzler on this episode of The Best of Car Talk.

Being the owner of a French car can be, well... challenging. Poor Karen. Her Renault Encore has been in the shop regularly for major work and her most recent problem sounds like a doozie. The car is making a bunch of noises(in French!) that have her worried. Comment dit-on "paiement du bateau" en français? Check it out on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.