"Car Talk" Host Tom Magliozzi, RIP

[lisab]

I just heard Tom Magliozzi died! You may know him as half of the Car Talk duo.

http://www.npr.org/2014/11/03/357428287/tom-magliozzi-popular-co-host-of-nprs-car-talk-dies-at-77

One of my all-time favorite shows! RIP, Tom:(.

 

[DiracPool]

Damn, that's too bad. I didn't realize he was 77. I always thought these guys were in their 50's and still running a family auto repair shop while doing the npr thing on the side. I guess that's the image they wanted to portray. They were still producing a current weekly show, weren't they?

 

[RonL]

I just heard Tom Magliozzi died! You may know him as half of the Car Talk duo.

http://www.npr.org/2014/11/03/357428287/tom-magliozzi-popular-co-host-of-nprs-car-talk-dies-at-77

One of my all-time favorite shows! RIP, Tom:(.

I don't think I ever heard them ?

 

[jedishrfu]

They were fantastic talk show hosts. They would take on the oddest car repairs as people called in and described what their car doing.

One of my favorites was the puzzler of the lumpy tire where in the morning the tire would drive lumpy but then clear up later in the day. Various mechanics looked at the car but couldn't figure out why.

The answer was water in the tire that would freeze at night making the tire spin off balance and thaw in the afternoon when the mechanic had time to look at it.

I wondered why they ended the show a year or so ago and I guess I know why now.

Will really miss their humor. I still listen to replays when I can.

A favorite quote from the show:

Don't drive like my brother, and his brother would say don't like my brother...

 

[DiracPool]

From: http://www.npr.org/2014/11/03/357428287/tom-magliozzi-popular-co-host-of-nprs-car-talk-dies-at-77
[When it came to cars, Berman says the brothers really did know what they were talking about. But, he says, that's not why people listen to the show.

"I think it has very little to do with cars," he says. "It's the guys' personalities. And Tom especially — really a genius. With a great, facile mind. And he's mischievous. He likes to prod people into honesty."]

I wouldn't place Tom over Ray. They were really an equal team. Ray played the straight guy in the act and Tom usually came in with the timely one-liner, followed by his signature guffaw. This is characteristic of most of the great two-man comedy acts, pick one, they feed off each other and need each other. It's a delicate chemistry, it's either there or it isn't.

 

[dlgoff]

...died on Monday of complications from Alzheimer's disease.

From what I've seen from people with Alzheimer's disease, this may have been a blessing; a really hard thing to realize for me.

 

[edward]

They also had an animated show in prime time for a while on PBS.



BTW they were both MIT grads.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

He was really special. As a duo there were none better. Total class.

 

[lisab]

I don't think I ever heard them ?

He and his brother Ray had a radio show on NPR called "Car Talk". People would call in with car questions, and Tom and Ray were both knowledgeable and hilarious. They went by "Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers."

 

[lisab]

From what I've seen from people with Alzheimer's disease, this may have been a blessing; a really hard thing to realize for me.

A coworker said the same thing!

The show has been in re-runs for a couple years now. If he went from able to be on that show to dead in two years, that's much preferable to dragging it out years (sometimes decades).

I hope his family can take some comfort that it was relatively quick.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I always thought these guys were in their 50's and still running a family auto repair shop

Ray is 12 years younger than Tom.

The garage was a great place - you could rent tools and do it yourself. Often the only thing keeping you from fixing your own car is that you don't have the right tool, and buying it is more expensive than paying someone to repair the car. And, as Ray told me once, customers could turn a $50 repair into a $500 repair in seconds. With the right tool.

They were still producing a current weekly show, weren't they?

Not for a couple of years. Tom had Alzheimers.