RAY: Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers, we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and the answer to last week's puzzler. Here it is.

TOM: You don't remember it.

RAY: I don't remember it at all. This was supplied by a listener named Shelly Paine and I quote, more or less, with the necessary obfuscations, whatever. Several years ago, my father who lives in Minnesota had trouble with his late-model Cadillac DeVille. His battery kept dying every couple of days; he'd get it jump started, it would run fine for a few days but then die again. He took it to the dealership and they did this quick thing, oh, your battery's all right, your alternator's all right; they sent him away. They couldn't sell him a new car so they gave up.

TOM: What do they care if it starts?

RAY: One morning last winter, after there had been several inches of snow -- remember, this is Minnesota --

TOM: You sure it was winter? Maybe it was July --

RAY: He went out and sure enough, the battery was dead. So he jump started the car and went into town to get a cup of coffee at the local drugstore where he used to hang out. Now, being that he lives in a small town, he parked right in front of the drugstore. He was in a crummy mood and while drinking his cup of coffee he complained to the pharmacist about how his car was driving him cuckoo. The pharmacist asked, "Is that your car right out there?" "Yes, it is," he said. The pharmacist said, "I know why your car is dying." What did the pharmacist see?

Now you've got to remember all the facts.

TOM: What are the facts?

RAY: Just go back and revisit --

TOM: Late model Cadillac; run for a few days; it was winter; the --

RAY: The dealership didn't find anything wrong with it because--

TOM: Because snow is the key.

RAY: There you go.

TOM: The snow is the key --

RAY: The snow is the key, Minnesota; snow. Druggist. Pharmacist.

TOM: The pharmacist.

RAY: Grouchy.

TOM: Looks out-- Ah hah. I've got it. His rear window defogger.

RAY: So close, but yet so far.

TOM: No?

RAY: What the pharmacist noticed was that there was snow on the roof of the car -- he had just started it and driven over there. There was probably even snow on the hood. But, there was no snow on the trunk because the trunk light was staying on; and that bulb, believe it or not, was generating enough heat to keep the snow from accumulating -- -- Can we play the tape from last week's show --

TOM: When I said, "What a great puzzler."

RAY: When he said, "Wow, what a puzzler!" What did you think it was going to be, Martians? You knew all the facts, what did you think the answer was going to be?

TOM: Well....

RAY: Give me a better answer than this.

TOM: Well, actually it's not bad. It's really not that bad, because it would mean that the light had been on for days, and that's why the trunk would have been really hot in there. Sure, I think it's fine. I'll go with it. Ha Ha.

RAY: It is rather disconcerting to get such a vote of confidence one week, and then the Bronx cheer --

TOM: I take it back. I take back the Bronx cheer; I think it's a great puzzler.

RAY: No you don't, not really.

TOM: No.

RAY: Anyway --

TOM: But we do have a winner?

RAY: Yes. The winner is Nathaniel Klumb. That's K-L-U-M-B, Nat, from Red Stick, Louisiana. You know where that is?

TOM: Yep. Baton Rouge --

RAY: Si, si. Oui, Oui. And for the having the correct --

TOM: No, wee wee, that's what the guy did at the races --

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]