"Car Talk" Putting on Brakes

Sad news out of Boston Friday: Tom and Ray Magliozzi, better known as the Saturday morning radio mechanics on NPR's "Car Talk," are calling it quits, according to information released on their website and the AP.

The show will continue to air in reruns on local NPR stations, but after 25 years (35 years in total because there was life before NPR) of giving at once useful and hilarious advice on car maintenance to callers with every manner of malfunction, no new episodes will be produced after October. Older brother Tom is 74 years old, while Ray is 63.

In true Car Talk fashion the brothers announced told listeners of their retirement through this exchange on the their website:

TOM:  And with Car Talk celebrating its 25th anniversary on NPR this fall (35th year overall, including our local years at WBUR)…

RAY:  …and my brother turning over the birthday odometer to 75, we’ve decided that it’s time to stop and smell the cappuccino.

The show was first broadcast on WBUR in Boston in 1977. It's now the most popular program on NPR and is heard coast-to-coast. Car Talk can be heard in Ledyard at 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Saturdays. Tune in to WSHU at 89.9.