After several years off the air, Ray Magliozzi is taking calls again for NPR’s Car Talk. For decades, Ray and his brother Tom helped listeners over the air with car issues via the syndicated show. Now that assistance is streaming exclusively to NPR+ supporters.
The new Car Talk+ feature allows listeners to speak directly with Ray once more, as he says, “Whenever I can fit it in between my yoga classes, Mahjong games, and mechanics’ romance book club meetings.”
The Magliozzis retired in October 2012, with NPR airing repurposed episodes from the program’s 25-year archive, as Ray continued to record new taglines and sponsor messages. The program was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2014, the same year that Tom passed away.
The Best of Car Talk ended its run on September 30, 2017, with NPR officially ending radio distribution in 2021, transitioning the show into a twice-weekly podcast featuring restored early episodes in chronological order.
Bonus material for NPR+ supporters includes selected archive clips, Tom Magliozzi’s mail segments, and early collaborations with Susan Stamberg from Weekend Edition. Supporters will also have access to more than 800 original Car Talk episodes.
Magliozzi added, “It’s been really fun to talk to listeners again. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to answer all their questions. Not correctly, but they all got answers.”
