MATERNAL COMBUSTION

What do mothers and auto mechanics have in common? On this sixth collection of the best calls to “Car Talk,” the popular NPR weekly show, Tom and Ray Magliozzi, often with the help of their own mother, attempt to settle domestic clashes involving strange smells, car choices, and driving lessons. The brothers are naturals in front of the microphone, with their comedic timing, their raspy Boston accents, and their outrageous laughs. The calls, coming from a decade of shows, are woven into a unified laugh-out-loud whole as Tom and Ray lead us from call to call--from Heidi, who wants a Mazda Miata and can’t face the fact that what she really needs is a minivan; to Nancy, who can’t trust her 27-year-old daughter to rotate her tires; and Terri, who needs to talk her 16-year-old son out of buying a “muscle car.” For its addictive and side-splitting effects, these excerpts from “Car Talk” ought to come with a warning label. S.E.S. 2006 Audie Award Finalist © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 05]