Car Talk
 To hear them say it—in their broad Boston accents—Tom and Ray Magliozzi have been shaming National Public Radio for 20 years. NPR's "tragic mistake" of giving airtime to two car-tinkering knuckleheads with MIT degrees now means nearly 600 long-suffering stations with more than 4 million delusional listeners. The Brothers Whim have expanded their wit into columns, CDs, books, commencement speeches, and cartoon movies. Click and Clack are now making their apologies to PBS for a new animated sitcom, due out next summer.
Their anniversary with NPR gives us an excuse to give props to their 11-year-old Car Talk Web Site, where they've posted a photo slideshow of the past 20 years. Tune in, and apologies accepted. First, congratulations on 20 years on the radio part, and the wonderful slide show on your site. We've heard the origin myths about the start of your radio program. How did the Web site come about? RAY: We launched the web site on March 30, 1996. Tom was spending a lot of time around the office, and the staff begged me to come up with something for him to do other than smoke cigars and blow the smoke at his colleagues. The circus had just left town, so we went with plan B, a web site. TOM: It's actually turned into a pretty great Web site. Of course that was after I turned it over to a bunch of far more talented lackeys and went back to smoking cigars. RAY: What has made the site good is that a huge Car Talk community has built up around it. You'd be amazed at how many people have squat to do at work and want to entertain each other. Your voice certainly distinguishes you from other automobile sites out there. What else (besides shameless plugs) did you want your Web site to do, that other auto sites weren't? TOM: Well, we have big mouths. We say whatever the hell we think. RAY: Or even before we think! TOM: Right. Most automotive sites are very, very careful about criticizing cars, because they're afraid to lose their advertisers. What do we care? RAY: If you look at other car sites, you read their reviews, and they say, it's a wonderful car with a powerful engine, however, we think that the cup-holder could be made of better plastic. They're very timid about saying anything negative. Whereas, if I think a car is real piece of crap, I'll just say so. And then blame it on my brother when they sue us TOM: He's done that twice. You guys like going on rants, and the occasional rave. How has your site given you a forum to wax on and off about topics near and dear to you? TOM: Oh, absolutely. NPR is an esteemed public institution, and we have to be calm and reasonable when we're on the radio. But on our own site, we can tick off everybody! RAY: It's more that we can go into more depth about our opinions on things, like that cars today are ridiculously overpowered, at the expense of a fuel economy. TOM: Or that driving while talking on a cell phone is as bad as driving drunk. RAY: Or that Comcast's DVR sucks compared to TIVO's. You send some of your callers to your site, and encourage Car Talk visitors to help one another. Besides absolving yourself of responsibility, how is the online Car Talk community the same or different from your callers? RAY: We think of the Car Talk Community as an extension of our radio show. The show is just one hour, and we're just two guys, so we're limited in the number of wrong answers we can provide. TOM: The site, however, is always there, and anyone can be part of our community. So, it's a great forum for getting answers. It's also a great way to find a trustworthy mechanic. We set up a database called the Mechanic's Files, and we asked our listeners, if they have a wonderful mechanic, tell us about him or her. RAY: And now, anyone can go to the Mechanic's Files, enter their zip code, and read about great mechanics in their own area... personally recommended by some of our listeners and web users. TOM: How come we're not on the list? RAY: Think about it, knucklehead.
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