#2560: Death and the Dodge Caravan

The Best of Car Talk

NPR

Comedy, Automotive, Leisure

4.8 • 16.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We've all seen old jalopies wobbling down the road and we've heard their familiar 'death rattles', but Ellen has a mechanic who claims to be able to smell the imminent demise of her old Dodge. Who is this sommelier of soon-to-be clunkers? Find out on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.
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Transcript

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0:00.0	You have your job, but you also have a life, and you're not just one thing.
0:06.3	Neither is the Here and Now Anytime podcast.
0:09.2	Every weekday, we break down the biggest story of the day and something else, like a new trend everyone's talking about.
0:15.7	It's Here and Now Anytime, a daily podcast from NPR and WBR. Hello and welcome to car.
0:43.0	Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us,
0:44.3	Click and Clack the Tapper Brothers,
0:49.7	and we're broadcasting this week from the Historic Preservation Pavilion here at Car Talk Plaza. Historic Preservation Pavilion.
0:52.0	Well, we received in the mail recently two very interesting in his products of historic
0:57.5	proportion.
0:58.3	At least one of them is.
0:59.5	We've referred to this one many times on the show.
1:02.8	I mean, it's an urban legend, this stuff.
1:05.5	It is.
1:06.1	I mean, it's one of those things that you don't even know if it really ever existed.
1:10.5	It's sort of like
1:11.4	Atlantis. I mean, people keep talking about it, but no one's ever actually seen it.
1:18.5	Or a Red Sox World Series victory. Yeah, one of those. And here it is a spray can of
1:26.2	Cosmoline. Oh, my God. Cosmeline exists. Here it is. Cosmeline does exist. I'll hold it up to the microphone. This is the stuff of legend. It was reported that there were thousands of U.S. Army surplus jeeps that were for sale. I remember when I was a kid, they were 50 bucks a piece. They were always 50 bucks. Yeah. And they were packed in Cosmoline, in fact, in 300 dollars worth of to preserve them. So no matter what happened to them. Yeah, I mean, you couldn't even pack them in $50 worth of Cosmoline. Well, where did that story ever come from? Well, it may have come from Houghton International, which is the maker of Cosmoline. And they still make the stuff and they even get it in the spray can.
2:03.2	These cans are from World War II.
2:05.7	No, they still make it and it contains, I suppose I can devolve.
2:09.0	There's a reference here to Dwight D. Eisenhower.
2:13.3	Anyway, the stuff contains three very interesting ingredients, which I will share with you.
	...

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