The cartalk.com TIME KILL WEEKLY Special Send Us Your Ideas Edition ______________________________________________ Killing Time, Unencumbered by the Work Process ______________________________________________ Maury Maille, Editor
We're requesting your feedback - but only if you feel like it. There's an idea bouncing around Car Talk Plaza these days, and we're not sure if it's worth doing or not. Here's the story. Say you take your car to the mechanic because you've been hearing a buzzing noise from under the car. You go to work, and two hours later, Vinnie calls you with a somber tone in his voice. He says you need a new transmission, and it's going to be $2,500 for a new one, or $1,200 to rebuild yours. He asks what you want him to do. Now, here's where our idea comes in. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to get a second opinion from someone you trust before you decide? What if you could e-mail a Car Talk-sponsored service, where a good mechanic would compare your symptoms with the diagnosis, and see if your mechanic is making sense? Obviously, they couldn't look at the car for you, but if the noise happens when the car is in Neutral, they can say, "it's probably NOT the transmission." Or, if it sounds like the diagnosis is reasonable, they could tell you whether the estimate is in the right ballpark. Of course, there would be a charge for this service. But we're thinking that maybe people will pay 20 or 30 bucks for that kind of hand holding. Or maybe not? What do you think? Would you ever be interested in such a service? What would it be worth? How would you want it to work? What would be most useful? What would make it NOT useful (hey, Car Talk tradition)? Any other thoughts for us while we bounce this around? You can e mail us anytime via the "Virtual Box 3500" box at http://www.cartalk.com/email/email.html With thanks, Maury Maille Chief Office Strategist Car Talk Plaza P.S. Here's this week's Lame Joke Of The Week, courtesy of Andrew Waller: A man is driving along a highway and sees a rabbit jump out across the middle of the road. He swerves to avoid hitting it, but unfortunately the rabbit jumps right in front of the car. The driver, a sensitive man as well as an animal lover, pulls over and gets out to see what has become of the rabbit. Much to his dismay, the rabbit is dead. The driver feels so awful that he begins to cry. A beautiful blonde woman driving down the highway sees a man crying on the side of the road and pulls over. She steps out of the car and asks the man what's wrong. "I feel terrible," he explains, "I accidentally hit this rabbit and killed it." The blonde says, "Don't worry." She runs to her car and pulls out a spray can. She walks over to the limp, dead rabbit, bends down,and sprays the contents onto the rabbit. The rabbit jumps up, waves its paw at the two of them and hops off down the road. Ten feet away the rabbit stops, turns around and waves again, he hops down the road another 10 feet, turns and waves, hops another ten feet, turns and waves, and repeats this again and again and again, until he hops out of sight. The man is astonished. He runs over to the woman and demands, "What is in that can? What did you spray on that rabbit?" The woman turns the can around so that the man can read the label. It says, "Hair Spray - Restores life to dead hair, adds permanent wave." ******************* Doing some car research? Via our lousy, little homepage you can... *Check important safety recalls *See what your car is worth right now *Check rebates and incentives on new cars *Search your town for new or used cars for sale *Place an ad to sell your car that'll actually be seen by people in your area *Research and compare new vehicles *Get the latest car news *Kill time until 5:00 pm rolls around and you can pack it in. *It's all at http://www.cartalk.com ******************** Got more time to kill? This past weekend's new, lousy Car Talk show is now on the web site, at http://www.cartalk.com/Radio/Show/ ******************** Miss the puzzler? Losing sleep over it? Add your e mail to our Car Talk Puzzler Psychic Friends Network and we'll personally hand deliver Ray's new puzzler to your inbox every Monday. http://www.cartalk.com/ct/maillist.jsp?puzzler_list=subscribe#psychic ******************* Embarrassed by having e mails from Car Talk in your inbox? Can't say that we blame you. Unsubscribe any time, via http://www.cartalk.com/ct/maillist.jsp?mailing_list=subscribe
