What would you like to see on the Car Talk web site?

Maintenance/Repairs
61

The answers to the puzzler are about 2 months on behind and do not seem to be updated regularly. Can this be updated more timely?

62

I don’t care what your '52 MG is like.

Tommy is sobbing in his milk. Now apologize to him right now!

63

They already have streaming. You have all week to listen to a show before it is taken off the site and replaced with that week’s show. I understand that you have family obligations, but if you can’t find the time throughout the whole week, what makes you think you will find the down the road to listen to several weeks worth of shows?

I think that having one week’s show online is generous enough, especially during pledge drives.

64

You don’t have to “do” anything. Posts you have made will automatically have the pencil icon on them so you can click on that and edit that post. You will not see the pencil on anyone else’s posts, just your own.

65

Thanks Ranck.

66

Anything to keep you healthy.
~Michael

67

Agree with Mountainbike. In the future American drivers will be hit by cataclysmic changes, we have the obligation towarn them:

  1. The US imports 50%+ of its oil. Much of this oil comes from unstable and/or dangerous areas. Most supplying countries are hostile to the US. Canada is one of the few stable, friendly suppliers with huge reserves. Oil prices will be set by the highest cost producers, plus a “fear and uncertanty” factor. $100/barrel oil is just around the corner, and $4.00/gallon gas should be in everyone’s budget when planning to buy a car. Gas in France sells for $7.50 per gallon, as it does in many other countries. Buying only as much car as you need should be our message. Clic & Clac have mentioned this several times.

  2. Motorists are becoming more & more interested in calculating operating costs, which include insurance, depreciation, repairs & maintenance, fuel, etc. A dialogue on the best combination of these would be beneficial.

  3. Because of all the safety and environmental gear, cars are becoming mindlessly complicated and expensive to repair. I was stunned to find out that a car without air bags was cheaper to insure than one with them. Most accidents are property damage, and replacing air bags is very expensive. Consumer Reports still pushes people into buying the maximum number of safety features rather than urging US drivers to raise their driving skills to the levels of Germany, England or other European countries. These countries have 50% of the fatality rates on 4 lane hoighways that the US has, and they have much higher speed limits. Driver ed courses in US schools have pathetically low standards for passing students

  4. When posting a repair or maintenance topic, the poster should state:

a) Make, model, and year of car
b) Driving style, urban, highway, mixed, miles per year, and what region of the country they live; climate is important
c) Try to accurately describe the problem to the best of their knowledge

This will get better and quicker responses from us.

  1. The car business is also changing rapidly. We need to regurlarly inform readers on major changes, and warn them if a car is becoming a potential orphan, without access to future service or parts. As mentioned elsewhere Chinese companies will make a major impact in the future, but parts makers such as Canada’s Magna International are able to produce a whole car with key engine research partners. They already build Chrysler minivans and Jeeps in Europe. The globalization of the car business will see Research & Development, detail design, testing, manufacturing and final assembly all carried out in different countries by whoever can do it best and cheapest. The Chinese are doing more research on fuel cells and other leading items than many developed countries.
68

Thanks, all, for your many thoughtful comments and ideas. They’re much appreciated.

We’ve circulated your list of feature ideas on this end, and will be discussing them in more detail in the coming weeks. Our folks who help us with the back end for our new Car Talk Community are aware of your comments for this section, as well. As many of you know, we’ve addressed a number of concerns, and added new features. We’ll continue to do that, as time and resources allow. (Translation: your patience is appreciated. We’re doing our best!)

Thanks. Of course, continue to post ideas here. We’ll take note.

Best,

Doug Mayer
Senior Web Lackey
Car Talk Plaza

69

A small section on trivia might be interesting for Car Talk enthusiasts as well as you gentlemen. It need not be strictly about cars, but could be informative and fun if it were. Readers could submit some questions and you could submit some. For example: Snow will soon be here. In what year and by whom was the first snow tire invented?
Thanx,
John McMasters

70

Anything that emphasises driver education and driver responsibility for safety. Too many drivers place all their trust in engineers to keep them “safe.” Airbags, seatbelt pretensioners, ABS, et al, should be called survival equipment. If you need any of those things you’ve crossed the safety threshold and now are in the survival mode.

71

How 'bout a way to organize comments/suggestions by car make/model? That way I don’t have to read something about Hondas when I’m driving a Dodge truck.

72

Or highlight any post dated after the last time the reader was logged in.

73 
I would not mind some sort of alert to any thread I had previously responded to and/or maybe a list of threads that have had a response directly to a response I have made.
74

I would like to get my question answered, after all isn’t this website designed for answering questions?

75

After some not insignificant work, we put in a series of fixes last night around the search (http://community.cartalk.com/search/filters.page) functionality on the car talk community site. Hopefully, this addresses some of the comments made earlier in this discussion and noted by several who have sent helpful pointers to our inbox. Thanks.

Of course, there’s more we’d like to do with search, but we are limited by the engine we’re using. For now it at least works a heck of a lot better and behaves more reliably. If you find issues, please let us know (http://community.cartalk.com/help/contact.page).

Also added a login/redirect convenience to take you back to where you left before logging in. Some leftover “secure/insecure items” alerts from the SSL transition. Corrected ‘last post date’ known issue. Addressed dozens of minor items on the admin side and probably a bunch of things I’m forgetting…

76

If I understand your request correctly, have you tried clicking the magnifying glass at top of a discussion? It watches a discussion for new comments and emails you (once) if there’s a status change since you last visited.