RAY: Ha! We're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, and we're here to discuss cars, car repair and the new/old Puzzler.
TOM: And we are ready to be dazzled!
RAY: Oh, really?
TOM: Yes, we are!
RAY: Why?
TOM: Because I promised that.
RAY: I don't have to be dazzled!
TOM: I promised it!
RAY: Well, I have received some complaints of late that there haven't been very many automotive Puzzlers, and I was reminded of this puzzle when a car that had the same problem came into the shop a few weeks ago.
TOM: No kidding?
RAY: Oh, here it is. A guy came in with his Volvo on the back of a tow truck. And he said, "I'm in trouble. I need your help." He said, "My clutch cable is broken." And I said, "No problem. We can fix it." And he says, "Ahhh! That's not all! The clutch cable has broken five times in the last five months."
TOM: Oh!
RAY: And I said, "Oh, bummer! Well, what happened?" He said, "I don't know. I had a new clutch put in, like, six months ago, and when they put the new clutch in, they put a new clutch cable in." And I said, "Who did this?" He said, "Some guys who have escaped to a different continent." But within that period of time, the clutch cable breaks. So he puts a new clutch cable in, figuring that the one they put in was defective, and, lo and behold, a month later, that clutch cable breaks.
TOM: Bingo!
RAY: Another month goes by, another clutch cable breaks.
TOM: Bingo. Yeah.
RAY: And he says, "By this time I was at my wit's end, so I took it to another shop, figuring the clutch had to be defective, right?"
TOM: Oooh!
RAY: Right?
TOM: He didn't do, he didn't...
RAY: Right?
TOM: He didn't do that? He didn't put a new clutch in?
RAY: He did!
TOM: He put a new clutch?
RAY: So these other guys put a new clutch in and, what?
TOM: Anotherˇ
RAY: Another new cable. And a month later, bingo.
TOM: No!
RAY: The cable breaks. So, he tells me this whole story, and I did all the preliminary stuff first before I got all these facts right.
TOM: Oh, you got his financialˇ
RAY: I got his financial statement, I asked him if he had much exposure in Latin American equities, Iˇyou know. The whole bit. Once I found out that he was on firm financial ground, we put a new clutch in his car. No, I asked him, I said, "That's interesting." I said, "Under what circumstances does it break?" And he said, "I start the car, I go to drive it away, I step on the clutch or I go to shift it in gear, I get to the corner, for example, I shift into neutral, I go to start when the light turns green, I step on the clutch, and the cable breaks."
TOM: [WHISTLES]
RAY: And I said, "Well, does the car start now?" He said, "Well, I didn't bother to start it because I couldn't drive it." And I said to him, "I bet it won't start." He said, "Well, of course it should start!"
TOM: Why not?
RAY: Because it's the clutch that's broken. And we go out to the yard, and we turn the key, and...
TOM: Nothing.
RAY: Nada.
TOM: Absolutely nothing. Not even a click, right?
RAY: Zippo. Zilcho. And he says, "What does that have to do with my breaking clutch cables," and I say...
TOM: Everything.
RAY: "Everything."
TOM: Yeah! I like it.
[ Car Talk Puzzler ]
