That's 1-888-227-8255 Hello you're on Car Talk

[TheDarknessGrows]

Any of you here fans of an old radio show called Car Talk? Used to listen to this on the weekends with my Dad when we were driving to the diner to meet my uncle for breakfast.

Man... there was so much gold in this show. I've found some archives here and there but it seems like a lot of it is lost or buried inside iTunes and NPR's awful database. There is a un-seeded magnet link that is supposed to have over 20GB of the show archived. And I found this Google Drive that has a few dozen episodes. But otherwise it seems lost.

Any of you remember this one? I still hear them rattling off the phone number and laughing like maniacs to this day.

UPDATE! We have a new link:

You're live on Car Talk!

http://k2cup4wxfwby4idpone4x6urbgeh4nfkta636njwjeccolh3cxuzpsid.onion/

 

[Asian tech support]

Hello this is David from Kilmbgrrewepshb
Where's that?
Oh it's about 45 minutes north of Minneapolis
How much snow have you got?
About 8 feet
chuckles
Alright David, what's the trouble?
Well you see, I've got this '94 Sunbird and blah blah blah...

Those guys take me back.

 

[Phalanges Mycologist]

 

[Peaches the Wonder Cat]

Don't be like my bruddah

 

[Point and Laugh]

Just reading that took me back to hanging out with my dad and running errands on the weekends. What a great show that was.

 

[TheDarknessGrows]

View attachment 5654297

That's an XKCD, isn't it?

Totally forgot about that guy.

 

[Phalanges Mycologist]

That's an XKCD, isn't it?

Totally forgot about that guy.

Yea I've not paid attention in years but that one I remember.

 

[Jimjamflimflam]

Used to listen to alot of talk radio but never them. Not a car person so didn't think the show was for me. Apparently I was wrong and it was pretty fun (even if its car centric in the end), have never heard a bad thing about them.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

Car talk was the good shit

 

[think]

Unfortunately, your best bet is the Best of Car Talk Plus which charges $2.99 for archival access. I actually checked it out and compared it to the Google list and Internet Archive references that I could find. NPR still has the most comprehensive archive of the show even with the large missing blocks of episodes.

The good news is a "decent" portion of the episodes are not lost and you can use the following to get all currently hosted episodes known and download them. Only downside being is that it has obnoxious "modern" ad reads in the newer stuff. I wonder if you can run mp3 files through an AI-driven ad stripper or something.

https://github.com/bheinks/car-talk-archiver

NPR still compiles older previous material when releasing these "Best of" new episodes. I have not found anything previous to the year 2007. The total amount episodes go from around 717-2430 with large 50ish episode gaps for missing episodes. Around 693 are missing throughout this range. This awful lack of archival reminds me of the old Dr. Who lost episodes.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

looks like there's a mess on archive.org

 

[Bobson_Dugnutt]

Don't drive like my brother.

 

[TheDarknessGrows]

looks like there's a mess on archive.org

I had gone there and found that a bunch of their "archives" were locked... which baffles me. But I will go back through.

@think I'll check that one out, thank you.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

I had gone there and found that a bunch of their "archives" were locked... which baffles me. But I will go back through.

@think I'll check that one out, thank you.

I had searched by googling car talk archive.org
Archive's search engine sucks ass

 

[IrishGuy088]

This takes me back. I always liked the puzzler segment of the show. Josh should do this on his podcast each week. Some of the puzzles they came up with were really challenging and their jokes about how to send in your answers were always great.

If you think you know the answer to this week's puzzler, write your answer on the back of a 77-inch Sony A95L OLED television with extra remote control and a lifetime subscription to Netflix included and mail it to Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza.

 

[BoobWhiskers]

Man, it's understandable but a shame that this stopped airing. I don't know a goddamn thing about cars, but listening to this with my dad on the weekends while running errands was always fun.

Always enjoyed their legal team, Dewey Cheatem & Howe.

 

[Return of the Freaker]

God damn this takes me back to driving around with my dad in the summer to different clients and nurseries...Car Talk and What Do You Know

 

[Asian tech support]

@TheDarknessGrows
I've been talking to a Car Talk superfan family member about archived episodes. He's on the case. I'll post again in a few days with whatever he turns up.

 

[Lone MacReady II]

My mom always listened to this in the car when we were going to sunday school.

 

[Dammit Mandrake!]

There appear to be 611 Car Talk episodes on archive.org but they're all restricted. What exactly is the point of archive.org if files can be restricted and not enjoyed? Moreover, didn't my taxes subsidize the production of this show and the network as a whole?

Editing this in because PROGRESS WAS MADE and maybe someone can help. I found Podcast Bulk Downloader and I went to the Best of Car Talk page at NPR because it has a RSS feed link. I plopped the RSS feed link into the bulk downloader and it spit back four episodes! But only four. But it worked. So how do we get more?