They were known for offering “excellent mechanical advice,” but also for getting things wrong, particularly on mid-90s and later models with their increasingly electronic components. The brothers themselves acknowledged that they could miss the mark sometimes. For example, in their regular segment, “Stump the Chumps” (and later, in a similar segment, “Where Are They Now, Tommy?”), they spoke with listeners who had called in on a previous show to determine if the hosts’ advice was accurate, and sometimes it was not. Even so, they used these mistakes as opportunities for their audience to learn along with them.
Above all, “Car Talk” was entertainment. The humor could be corny, but it had an endearing, self-deprecating quality to it. Many of their catchphrases and running gags still ring in my ears, such as “Don’t drive like my brother!”/”And don’t drive like my brother!”, the fictional law firm of Dewey, Cheetham, & Howe, and “Well, it’s happened again—you’ve wasted another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk.” As a radio host myself, currently on public radio and formerly on college and commercial radio, I appreciated the brothers’ ability to blend information and humor in the way that they did.