RAY: Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, and we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and, uh, the answer to last week's Puzzler. I can't take any blame for this, fortunately.
TOM: No.
RAY: Last week on "Stump the Chumps," we had Will Shortz -- you know, the puzzle master -- and he was unable to stump us. We actually correctly diagnosed his car, but he was able to stump us with a Puzzler of his own. So we turned around and put the Puzzler to you guys, and here it is: Take a current make of vehicle, like Dodge or Ford or Lincoln, OK? You got it like that?
TOM: Yeah, what else?
RAY: Add a letter to it. Scramble the letters.
TOM: Or unscramble them. They will ... they will be scrambled. We want you to unscramble them.
RAY: There you go. So take a current make of vehicle, add a letter to it, unscramble that mess, and come up with another make of vehicle. Like, for example, take Saturn. If you add an E to Saturn, then unscramble the letters, you have neratsu.
TOM: Well, that's good. Would that be the answer?
RAY: Not quite, but they're working on the Neratsu.
TOM: It's also ...
RAY: Yeah, Stunera. Yeah.
TOM: How did Will Shortz know that word? I didn't know he was Italian.
RAY: Anyway, we racked our brains for hours ...
TOM: We did. Yeah.
RAY: And, of course, we didn't come up with the answer, so fortunately we had Will do it, and he has assured us that this is the one and only answer: Isuzu.
TOM: Isuzu.
RAY: I'll repeat. Isuzu, spelled ...
TOM: It only works with Isuzu.
RAY: I-S-U-Z-U. You add a K to that and you get Suzuki.
TOM: After unscrambling.
RAY: After unscrambling.
TOM: You don't have to do a lot of unscrambling either.
RAY: No. In fact, this is so easy that we should have gotten it.
TOM: Isuzu, su, zu, if you just take the I, stick it on the end, and put a K just before it, you've got Suzuki.
RAY: Yeah. Why didn't you get it then?
TOM: Well, I did! I have to get a lot of hints though.
RAY: Yeah, like it was Japanese, obscure, and starts with an I. Anyway, who is our winner this week?
TOM: Oh, the winner is James Napoli. We shouldn't show such nepotism by always giving the prize to an Italian. People are going to start catching on to this. The winner is James Napoli from Los Angeles, California, and for having his answer selected at random from the hamster-cage-full of correct answers that we got this week, James is going to get a $25 gift certificate to the Shameless Commerce Division of the Car Talk division of cars.com. And with that $25 gift certificate, James can get 2-3/25 taped copies of the second "Best of Car Talk."
RAY: Really?
TOM: Isn't that good? Which, by the way, is better than the first "Best of Car Talk." Now isn't that counterintuitive?
RAY: How did that happen?
TOM: I don't know.
RAY: Anyway, we'll have a new Puzzler coming up in the third half of today's show, and I can't let you in on any more than that because ...
TOM: You don't know yet.
RAY: I really don't know what it's going to be. So stay tuned for that, and right now if you have a question about your car or anything else, the number to call is 888-CAR-TALK. That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk.
[ Car Talk Puzzler ]
