RAY: Hi. We're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack, the Tappert brothers, and we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and the answer to last week's Puzzler.
TOM: I can hardly wait.
RAY: And this Puzzler was inspired by an email I got from a guy named Dave Trayers, I think.
TOM: And does that mean you stole it from him?
RAY: Well, of course. Anyway, here it is. Last week, I was sitting at a restaurant and at the table next to me were two old geezers chatting away about the good old days, lamenting about how all the modern cars looked the same and going on and on about how much they missed their old cars and how much they hated their new cars. At some point, I had to place my order and I kind of lost track of the conversation, and when I tuned back in I heard one of them say, "Oh yeah, I miss that, too," and the other one chimed in, "Geez, so do I. I used to look forward to seeing that every year or so in my own car."
The first one says, "Geez, I kind of look forward to seeing it, too. Do you see it in your new car?" The second guy says, no, no way, not likely to see it the way I drive either. And the question is, what the heck are they talking about? What is it that you can see pretty much every year in your older car, but you wouldn't see in modern cars, at least not for a long time?
TOM: A broken water pump. I used to look forward to that broken water pump all the time. No, am I wrong? Am I right?
RAY: You're close. You don't realize how close you are. No, what they lamented not seeing was all the digits on the odometer reading the same. Back in the old days, your odometer would read five digits, so it would go up to 99,999 and then it would flip to all zeroes. But, just about every year, assuming you drove 11,111 miles, you would see all ones and then the next year you could see all twos and all threes, but with newer cars having six digit odometers, you're not going to see that until you get to 111,111 miles and you may only see it once in the time that you own the car. Pretty sad.
TOM: If you're lucky enough to live that long.
RAY: And the way these old guys are driving 700 miles a year, they're never going to see it. So who's our winner?
TOM: Wow! The winner, the first winner of the new Puzzler Season is Roger Cook, from Burlington, Vermont. Did you know that I went to UVM in Burlington? Anyway --
RAY: For a visit?
TOM: No. For having his answer selected at random from the El Camino full of answers that we got, Roger is going to get a $25 Gift Certificate from the Shameless Commerce Division, which is at the Car Talk section of Cars.com and with that gift certificate, he can be the first one on his block to get a copy of our brand new CD, Car Talk Car Tunes, which we have right here in the studio with us. We just got it. It is the "Car Talk Compendium of Disrespectful Car Songs."
RAY: This is a collection of what? Songs about heaps and bad mechanics and bad drivers...
TOM: And trashing rental cars. You know, the real songs about cars. None of this 409 stuff.
RAY: Yeah.
TOM: You've heard some of these songs on our show when we go to the break, but now we have a collection of our favorite funny car songs, and, Roger Cook, you can get one from the Shameless Commerce Division. Congratulations. Of course, they are $25 and a nickel.
RAY: Nine cents. Anyway, we'll have a brand new Puzzler coming up in the third half, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, if you'd like to call us, the number is 888-Car Talk, that's 888-227-8255. Hello. You're on Car Talk.
[ Car Talk Puzzler ]
