‘Car Talk’ column to carry on with one writer

BOSTON — “Car Talk” cohost Tom Magliozzi won’t be dispensing automotive advice from the grave, as some newspapers feared.

Magliozzi, who hosted the hugely popular public radio show with his brother, Ray, died Nov. 3. After his death, New York-based King Features Syndicate suggested the brothers’ newspaper column might continue to list both brothers as cocreators.

Some newspaper editors nationwide threatened to cancel the “Click and Clack” column. Providence Journal executive editor Karen Bordeleau said she worried about the ethics of having it appear as though Tom Magliozzi was still answering readers’ questions.

“We were very concerned about the ethical implications of printing a column that purported to have two people chatting about cars — when one of them was clearly dead,” Bordeleau said. “Our brand is accuracy, and that didn’t sit well with us.”

King Features managing editor Glenn Mott said Thursday the syndicate worked closely with concerned editors to solicit their feedback. He said the column will make it clear that only Ray Magliozzi is writing.

“It was a creative dilemma,” he said. “You’ve got an iconographic format — the fast badinage of the duo. Ray had to consider how he would go forward with that.”

Tom Magliozzi, a Boston-area mechanic and MIT graduate, was 77 when he died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. “Car Talk,” which dispensed advice about car repair mixed generously with sharp one-liners, self- deprecating humor and off-topic digressions on philosophy and the mysteries of life, reached more than 4 million listeners a week at its peak.

The duo, who called themselves “Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers,” ended each show with the catchphrase, “Don’t drive like my brother,” delivered in their signature Boston accents. Their newspaper column debuted in 1989.

CHARLES KRUPA / ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES The late Tom Magliozzi will continue to talk cars with his brother, Ray, in reruns of their NPR radio show, but their newspaper column will be clearly identified as the work of Ray Magliozzi, says King Features, which syndicates the column.