The amazing thing was that they actually diagnosed mechanical failures over the phone. And in later years, they'd call back some earlier callers to ask whether

The amazing thing was that they actually diagnosed mechanical failures over the phone. And in later years, they'd call back some earlier callers to ask whether they had been right or wrong, and they actually had a pretty good track record. My favorite piece of advice was that if you had a car with an actual old-school carburetor, you should make sure to select a mechanic with at most one tooth, because only the old, grizzled mechanics really had a feel for them.