Starting this month (October 2021) the podcasts are from show tapings many years ago. I’m not sure how far they go back. I haven’t had a chance to listen to either yet, but I’m especially looking forward to the first one about the Yugo.
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I haven’t listened to NPR or related for years actually. Sometimes I’ll tune in for a couple minutes in desperation but then hit the search again. On a long drive, I’ll sometimes catch an old Click and Clack on the sat which is interesting but that’s about it.
The Yugo/s mentioned along with the Renult Alliance when a caller asks what to buy as a cheap daily driver. Might be calls from different shows but sounds like early 90’s. With new intro’s recorded by Ray. Tom mentions his 1974 Caprice classic convertible during one call.
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I have, they’re really wonderful. It’s a treat to get to put on Car Talk whenever I want, especially since they’re officially off the radio now.
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Operation Desert Shield was mentioned, so that was 1990.
I did a paper in college about the Renault Alliance, so I was shocked to hear it was a terrible car. I never heard anything about the car after I turned in the paper.
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They said we wasted an hour at the end, but it was a half hour. All the other podcasts have been an hour.
Also, Boston, not Cambridge, is “Our fair city”.
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I would demand a refund if I were you.
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they cut out the ads on that one.
As already mentioned by the Car Talk staff’s prior announcement, the 1/2 hour postings are mitigated by having two podcasts per week now. I still haven’t had a chance to listen to the 1/2 hour versions, but I’m looking forward to hearing about the merits and demerits of Renaults, carburetor adjustments, timing belts, drum brakes, & the like.
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Merits: You don’t own one.
Demerits: People who do own one will break down and tie up traffic, inconveniencing you anyway. 
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About what I thought, I was starting High School about that time.
I heard him mention it but that doesn’t change things. When we got a full hour, I don’t know whether we were getting a full episode that already aired or something put together out of some material previously aired and some that was not. I still feel like I’m missing something if episodes were an hour even back then.
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The new, twice weekly podcasts will be about 35-40 minutes in length. “We’re taking out the worst stuff from each show, and leaving just the pretty bad stuff,” said co-host Ray Magliozzi. Each show will include a puzzler, a puzzler answer, some great calls, and plenty of Tom and Magliozzi’s famous, and often hilarious diversions.
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I was going to start a new thread about the “extra” podcasts, but I’m glad I read this thread first. I’ll listen to car talk as long as they keep making them!
I got behind on the podcasts due to technical difficulties associated with the pandemic. But now I’m almost caught up, so I’ll be listening to the new 40 minute versions within the next month or so.
I expect the staff at Car Talk plans to discontinue posting podcasts at some point, thinking that eventually interest will wane. But I don’t expect interest is going to wane. Reminds me of the BBC TV series Dr. Who. Interest has never waned for that. At least not much. It started in 1963 I think. Took a bit of a hiatus during the 1990’s, but resumed in the early 2000’s, new episode continue to be produced. DVD’s of the 1960’s episodes are a major revenue source for the BBC. Unfortunately the BBC’s 1960’s economy experts decided to copy over quite a few of the early programs to save on the cost of vdo tape … lol … that turned out to be a very expensive mistake.
Neighbor had one. He died. I don’t know if there is a correlation or not but why take a chance?
That bean counter mindset goes way back to film too. When Lou Gehrig gave his famous speech announcing his disease they only video’ed a short part of it to save “money”. They do have the whole speech on audio but just a part on film. Baseball experts shake their heads over saving penny’s for such an important event.
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Update: Ok, I’ve now listened to a couple of the new 40 minute podcasts, pretty good, pretty pretty good. Ray mentioned that a 1982 car was (at the time of the original broadcast) 10 years old, implying the podcast is from a 1992 show. Makes sense, all the vehicles discussed were 1980’s and 1970’s. In fact Ray mentioned in his opinion the 1982 Corolla was the best car ever made. In other words, this is my kind of show … lol …
One of the debates was whether the student caller who needed some cheap transportation, which should she choose between the Renault Alliance and the Toyota Corolla. Tom said “Corolla” even though even a used one was out of the student’s budget; Ray said “Alliance” b/c a used one could be had for $400.
The puzzlers are pretty good too, one is about a diy’er who’s confused b/c, when removing the transmission to change the clutch on his Honda Civic, automatic transmission fluid leaks out from some of the connections. How could that be? … I had no idea what the answer was, speculated either it might be related to the speedo cable, or some transaxles use a different fluid for the main shifting gear-set vs the final drive (the differential). So I learned something new, another + 
All in all, congrats to the Car Talk staff for their great idea to take the podcasts back to near the beginning of the NPR versions. Very fun!
Late to the discussion, but I do wish they’d air the entire shows, not just half hour versions of them. As a side note, since they started the podcasts many many years ago I’ve fallen asleep nearly every night listening to Tom and Ray, hearing every podcast five or six times a week as I nodded off to sleep. It’s strange to think of them as my lullaby (especially as someone who is in their 50s), but that’s what they are. The day they stop posting the podcasts will be a sad one. I wish I would have kept them (had a couple of CDs in the 90s).
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I generally end up listening in segments, fall asleep before I make it through the entire episode. Seems like a good thing.