Dear Car Talk:

I have a 1997 Mazda B2300 pickup. It has a brand-new fuel pump, new clutch and new coil packs. Sometimes while I’m driving, it will buck a little bit, like there’s a misfire, and then the bucking will stop. Also, when I’m going uphill, it will lose power and lose speed. When I get to the top of the hill, it goes back to normal speed again. I also smell gas sometimes.

At least the check engine light has not come on. I’m lost. Any ideas? — Ken

Add “broken check engine light” to your list of things to fix, Ken.

When you turn the key to the run position, just before you crank the engine, all of the dashboard warning lights should come on as part of a self test. If you don’t see the check engine light then, it’s not working. And I suspect it’s not.

But even though the light is not on, your computer may still be storing a code. Or multiple codes. So try scanning it. It may tell you which cylinder is misfiring. A misfire could explain everything. It would cause bucking, low power on hills, and I suppose, under rare circumstances, it might even create a smell of gasoline if enough gas goes into a cylinder but doesn’t get combusted because there’s no spark. Or you might just have a separate fuel leak.

Your truck is a quarter-century-old, remember.

The things that typically cause misfires are components of the secondary ignition. You’ve already replaced the coil pack, but it could be a bad spark plug, a bad plug wire or a faulty crank sensor. The crank sensor tells the car’s computer which plugs to fire. The part costs about $20 and is easy to change.

So I’d start with a scan and see if that helps you narrow down the location of the misfire.

Then, I’d try the crank sensor, then plugs then wires. Then, a new truck. Not necessarily in that order. Good luck, Ken.

Dear Car Talk:

I purchased a 2019 Toyota RAV4 XLE with 10,400 miles on it in October 2020. It came with a remote start feature on the key fob that I used last winter.

I went to use it this winter, and it did not work. I come to find out I have to pay for it. Apparently, I had it on a “free trial” for a period of

time, but if I want to keep using it, now I have to pay a monthly fee. Nobody told me this when I bought the car.

Have you ever heard of this? It doesn’t make any sense to me. Isn’t it like having brakes but having to pay extra to use them? — Phil

Welcome to the Subscription Age, Phil.

If you haven’t already noticed, every company, from Peloton to Alaska Airlines to Coca-Cola, has figured out that it’s more lucrative to charge you a monthly fee forever than to just sell you something once. So, expect to see more of this.

Toyota, hoping to get on the subscription bandwagon, decided to make its Toyota Remote Connect plan a subscription service. That “plan” includes services that use the car’s built-in modem -- things like checking the status of the doors and windows from an app, emergency calling services and remote start.

But here’s what owners figured out: You don’t need the car’s modem to use remote start. You can use your key fob.

Unfortunately, Toyota programmed the system so that however a remote start is requested, the system first checks to see if you have a paid-up subscription. If not, it tells you to get lost. How did this go over with customers? Well, kind of like how it went over with you, Phil. They’re ticked off.

Toyota says they are surprised by the customer reaction, and that they’re “reviewing” the plan. But there’s no guarantee they’ll change it.

So if you really want the remote start, Phil, you’ll have to fork over the monthly fee, and buy the whole Remote Connect plan.

I’m not a big fan of subscriptions for the same reason that companies love them. They’re relatively small monthly payments, charged automatically to your credit card. And when a fee is automatic and small enough, you forget about it, and you keep paying whether you use the service or not. See also: my gym membership.

So my suggestion is to resist, if you can live without it, Phil. And let Toyota know you’re disappointed. If we don’t put up a fight, before we know it, we’ll be putting a quarter in the dashboard every time we want to recline our seats.