Dear Tom and Ray:

I enjoy your column. I find your wit and humor mix well with your obvious mechanical expertise. I've just got one gripe. It's the way you refer to auto salvage yards as junkyards. Come on, fellas. We have enough trouble informing the public that we ain't junkyards. We are the nation's 16th largest industry. We do a valuable service to the public. Where would all the wrecked cars end up, if not for us?And concerning the word "recycling," we invented it. We were recycling salvage cars long before John Doe was picking up aluminum cans. The majority of us are honest businessmen. We sell pre-owned car parts, saving the public time and money. So please cut us a little slack and delete the word "junk" from your vocabulary . . . unless, of course, you're referring to that '63 Dart of yours! - Walter, 20-Year Salvage Yard Owner

TOM: Gee, Walter, I don't know if we're going to be able to help you here. The term "junkyard" is very deeply ingrained in the American psyche. I mean, if we made the changes you suggest, what would we call a junkyard dog? An auto-recycling-center canine?

RAY: Junkyards do serve a very useful purpose. And in fact, the term has positive connotations for us. My brother is particularly fond of junkyards, because that's where nine of his last 10 cars have come from. The tenth would have been at a junkyard, but the guy who owned it couldn't get it started.

TOM: Seriously, Walt, we are great supporters of what you do. Many auto parts should be reused. It saves people money and cuts down on our waste-disposal problem. But I'm afraid you're just going to have to live with the term "junkyard."

RAY: Try to think of it as a term of endearment - kind of like when I lovingly call my brother "fathead."

TOM: Hey!

Dear Tom and Ray:

I have a friend in southern California who is the proud owner of a beautiful, low-mileage 1974 Mercedes 450 SEL sedan. This car belonged to her 92-year-old mother, who drove it very little before retiring from the driving scene. She tells me that she can no longer get regular leaded gasoline and is forced to use the unleaded kind. What is this going to do to that great, big V-8 engine? - Bob

TOM: It's going to turn it into garbage, Bob. So just leave the keys under the mat, and out of the kindness of my heart, I'll be there first thing in the morning to take this terrible problem off your hands for you.

RAY: Don't listen to him, Bob. It's actually nothing to worry about. One of the reasons they put lead in gasoline was to protect the valve seats, which get pounded by the valves every time they close.

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TOM: But the valve seats on a Mercedes are pretty tough. They may wear out someday, but that could be many years from now. And if the seats ever do wear out, you'll just have to have them reupholstered.

RAY: Seriously, Bob, valve seats can be replaced. On an average car, valve seats cost a few hundred bucks.

TOM: So on a Mercedes, it'll probably be about $1,000, or just slightly more than you pay for an oil and filter change.

The Magliozzi brothers' radio show "Car Talk" can be heard each Saturday at 10 a.m. on KUER FM 90.1 If you have a question about cars, write to Click and Clack Talk Cars c/o King Features Syndicate, 235 East 45th Street, New York, N.Y. 10017.

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