I’m a few weeks behind but last week I heard that they were going to start contacting people who had called in and see if their advice worked. The first one wasn’t called by the name but if their advice didn’t work, that would mean the caller had stumped the chumps. It was also quite detailed compared to later ones.
Stump the Chumps is “new” on the podcasts b/c the current podcasts seem to be from older shows, early 90’s. A little Googling suggests the first STC was broadcast originally in 1991. I enjoy these early 90’s podcasts b/c my car is an early 90’s model, and while my truck is 20 years older than the car, pretty common car age for those callers.
This week, I am listening to a show with the feature actually being called “Stump the Chumps”, with the music. Advice given was good, so the correct answer music was played. But the fix did not fix the problem so the wrong answer music was also played.
Ray seemed to hold to the theory that it is better for the show’s host to tell the caller the most-likely cause and imply that alone is what is causing the caller’s symptoms, rather than equivocating, saying "it might be … " . I expect in many cases the caller later discovered Ray’s idea for the cause was incorrect , hence the need for Stump the Chumps. No Stump the Chumps segments on the recent podcasts I’ve been listening to for some reason. I did hear the Vowels to Bosnia and Max and the Dog segments the other day though … lol … .
There was a Volvo call that on Stump the Chumps they found out that the mechanic had switched vacuum lines between two particular parts that caused the car to die at high altitudes’. Helmut was the mechanic’s name.
When that segment was popular, I referred to Tom and Ray as chumps on this forum. I thought that since they used the term, it was OK for fans to use the term too. The post was flagged and deleted. Nope, can’t refer to them as chumps. These posts should be flagged and deleted.
If it is of any help, your post should not have been deleted. I think we all understand the moderators here can’t spend hours and hours deciding on the merits and demerits of posts; they just have to go with their gut feelings about the post’s intent. Sometimes humor in written form comes across as mean spirited, while the vocal inflections when you hear exactly the same thing as told verbally doesn’t carry the same negatives.
Shouldn’t the Car Talk lackeys be familiar enough with the show to know that the brothers referred to themselves as chumps? If I had used a demeaning term that they never used it would be different. I’ve been over it for more than a decade btw.
I get notifications that a post of mine was deleted from time to time, but so far I’ve never been able to figure out which post it was, and worse than that, I can’t even find any posts missing. I just presume it is some sort of technical glitch and no post was ever deleted. Maybe that’s the case with yours too.
At this point the call for Stump the Chumps is randomly selected. I heard the feature a couple of weeks ago.
The show I am listening to right now had a 1996 list of least desirable cars, so that must mean it is 1996.
And why is that revelant in 2024 ?
When you get a notification that your post has been removed ( and it is mind boggling that your content would offend anyone on here ), if you don’t see the reason or which content was removed, simply refresh the page repeatedly until the reason and the content show up.
A glitch is causing the reason to not show up the first time you open the envelop.
I know you so well over the 7 years being here; I know the kind of contributor you are. I just can’t imagine anyone reporting you.
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Thanks, I tried that and it worked. Good to know. The flag it turned out was for my asking for advice here whether or not flexible brake lines should be periodically replaced? What a crime!! … lol …
I figured it would be mind boggling.