The Hunt for a Lone Stick Shift

RAY: Here's the answer. I knew it from the window sticker.

TOM: Yes you did.

RAY: The window sticker lists all the equipment in the car. Now at that distance, like 15 or 20 feet away, I couldn't possibly read standard shift.

TOM: But you could see the big mileage numbers.

RAY: Exactly. I could see the city mileage and the highway mileage. And all the automatics were the same, whatever they were, 27 and 34. And then when we got to the stick-shift car, it was 28, for example, and 36. And I knew it was a --

TOM: Just a slight difference.

RAY: Just a slight difference, a little better. And I knew that that car couldn't be an automatic, but it had to be a stick shift if it was a Corolla. Pretty good, huh?

TOM: Not bad at all.

RAY: So who's our winner?

TOM: The winner this week is Kelly Deihle from Hattiesburg, Mississippi. And for having her answer selected at random from among all the correct answers that we got, Kelly will get a 26-dollar gift certificate to the Shameless Commerce Division at cartalk.com with which she can get our new CD collection called Four Perfectly Good Hours. This set features four of our favorite shows exactly as they aired on NPR.

RAY: You know, when we come out with our next set of four shows, we'll be able to promote the two sets together as a sleep aid. I guess if you listen to both sets you'll get a full eight hours of sleep.

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]