I have been trying to download from cartalk.com for months. It appears that the only link that presently works is iTunes. When I try to buy, I get a popup that reads “Could not purchase ‘#8701: A Bad Idea is Born - The First Show (Car Talk Classic)’. An unknown error occurred (1001) There was an error in the iTunes Store. Please try again later.”
I don’t know much about the podcast, but it looks like a large number of episodes are available here (for free):
The OP is trying to download the very first show, broadcast originally in 1987. (Number 8701). I doubt that’s available on the NPR podcast list. Our highly esteemed forum moderator @cdaquila may be able to help. It seems like it should be a pretty good listen. Best of luck OP.
BTW, after years and years of podcasts, we’re still trying to decide if it is possible to diagnose a car problem from advice on a radio show … lol …
Coincidentally, yesterday Apple announced they are discontinuing their I-pod player.
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I am inquiring about this and will see what’s up.
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I spent almost 2 hours on the phone with Apple, and got it working. However, an “iTunes Download” does not mean the same thing to Apple as it does to the rest of the world. When you pay your $0.99, the file goes to your “Library,” which is just an Apple server. You can not download it to your computer or android device. I assumed it would be an mp3, so I was pretty disappointed. As near as I can tell by googling, I will not be able to export the file in any format.
The only reason I was messing with iTunes, was that the links to “Google Play Download,” “Amazon Download,” and “Audible” do not work.
I love Car Talk, and have rarely missed a broadcast since my local NPR station began carrying it in the late '80s. I load a couple of hundred episodes on my phone every so often to re-re-re-re-listen to! I wish we could get ALL the 1987 - 2007 episodes to listen back to.
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That is on my list of things I just don’t understand . 
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VOLVO-V70, you may be on the wrong website! LOL!
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During the Covid shutdown my onlly web access was via my android phone connected to a wifi hot spot. I was never able to download any cartalk podcasts at all, even from the NPR site, directly to the android. It’s possible I think to download from the NPR site to a computer as mp3 files, then transfer the computer files to the android over the usb interface. (I could listen to the NPR podcasts directly while I was connected via WIFI.) I guess the reason OP is having problems with transferring the file in mp3 format is b/c if that were possible the files could be easily copied, and the 99 cent fee could be defeated. It’s probably necessary to have Itunes software loaded onto your android to get that to work, but I’m not sure if Apple even has an android version of Itunes. Sort of makes your head spin, eh? … lol … That’s why I prefer to deal with plain, old mp3 encoded files. I concur with the OP’s comments that it would be fun to be able to listen to the 1987 shows at some point. I presume this isn’t as easy as it sound, likely there are broadcast rights management issues that have to be addressed. Plus there are probably what are now politically incorrect comments (but ok then) that have to be edited out.
Your web browser probably has a “view desktop site” setting that might have allowed this to work. I occasionally need to do this for poorly behaved web sites.
Thank you for the feedback on the broken links. I did share this with the rest of the team.
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No experience on rights-management subject, but it seems like, theoretically anyway, if you can play it, listen to the content, then you could create a digital sound file, & convert that to an mp3 files. At one time VCR movie tapes had a scheme where you could watch the show on your tv, but you couldn’t copy it by playing it to another VCR’s input. As you might expect scientifically-curious folks figured out a work-a-round straight away.
Yes, that will work, and I have done it. It just takes a long time. I count 35 episodes on cartalk.com that are NOT on the NPR website.