"Dude, Where's My Car?" - April 22, 2022

[MajordomoTom]

all 7 are US cities in states in the US west.

I submitted Tahoe (as in Tahoe City, CA).

[MajordomoTom]

Wow, memories. The first new car I ever bought was a 1988 Daytona Turbo. That car was FAST. Off the line there was about a half a second turbo lag, and then it snapped your head back. The transvers mounted engine caused it to pull like crazy through 3 gears. So much fun to drive. Then it tried to kill me.

I was on Rt. 3 coming into Boston, doing about 70 in the left lane, when the hood released, wrapping itself over the windshield and the roof. I could not see forward. Time stopped. I got off the gas, and somehow made it across 3 lanes and stopped in the breakdown. I got out of the car and went to the rear, when my knees buckled, I wound up on all fours, blowing out the contents of my stomach. As scared as I've ever been, but it hit me, I guess, after a turbo lag

Turns out that the air pressure caused by the recessed headlights at high speed caused the metal securing the hood to literally rip apart. When I got it back the sheet metal had been replaced with steel. Later models had a cover over the headlights.

that's why they have bolts through the hood and clips on them.

or why BMW hoods (for many years, never figured out why they stopped doing this) opened "the wrong way".

I guess too many of us stupid Americans couldn't figure out how to open a hood that opened from the rear.

[Abide]

This sucker was Hail Mary proof. I still can’t believe the years were irrelevant.

[madhatter5]

Not my favorite

[DrTom]

I got there with so much help that I could not in good conscience submit. I'd also have to say not my favorite but then so what.

Interestingly enough, if you Google the middle clue (___ Legend was born) and include Daytona you get this:

Doesn't make me any happier with the puzzle or my performance, but it is a rather nifty tie-in whether intended or not.

[ChooneyBob]

If the state abbreviations were consistent it could have been a clever puzzle.

But we’re left with:

CO(CA) = California
HY(MN) = New Mexico ?
(CO)DA = Colorado
D(OC)K = also Colorado ?!
H(AZ)A = Arizona
K(A)T(Z) = also Arizona ?!
(WA)NT = Washington

Not a fan.

[Prozach]

Aaargh! So close yet so far! I had the postal codes and I had the car makes …. But I never considered them together!! Even suspected the grid words “coca”, “coda”, “Haza”, “want” etc were involved because of postal codes but just couldn’t see how! And didn’t see a “NM” in a word so was thrown off by chasing that rabbit!
Bravo for those who figured it out!

Same

[Streroto]

Well huh. I actually went down this rabbit hole early on and dismissed it because the state codes were not in order. So the head slap is to remind me that “the only rule in metas is that there are no rules”. Congrats to all who solved.

I had the solution correct as my hail Mary but I don’t submit if I can’t figure out how I got there. My choice.

[Bird Lives]

HyMN for New Mexico? MN is the code for Minnesota. Reversing the letters for one state code but not for any of the others? Doesn't seem fair.

Everybody complaining about the order of the letters: Please see the full explanation from Joe Ross (#278).

The four-letter entries are anagrams. The letters are jumbled. Take the three letters -- postal code (e.g., AZ) plus manufacturer's initial (Kia) -- add the meta letter (T). Jumble them into a new word (KATZ). Sometimes the letters of the postal code will be in the usual order, sometimes in reverse order. Sometimes they will be together, sometimes separated (as in KATZ). Sometimes they will be at the beginning (CODA), sometimes at the end (HAZA), sometimes in the middle (DOCK).That's what happens when you construct anagrams.

[Dplass]

This sucker was Hail Mary proof. I still can’t believe the years were irrelevant.

I submitted TOWN CAR, a perfectly cromulent Hail Mary.

[Lee-Ann]

In the end, I made it to shore- but not by solving the meta. I looked up all the automobiles named for cities, and picked the most "noted" that was 7 letters-Daytona. I had written down each maker and postal code, but got tripped up because MN is Minnesota, not New Mexico. Too clever for me!

[Flying_Burrito]

This sucker was Hail Mary proof. I still can’t believe the years were irrelevant.

I submitted TOWN CAR, a perfectly cromulent Hail Mary.

Ditto. I think we all quickly knew that the answer had to be 7 letters long, that zip codes had to be part of the mechanism and potentially manufacturers. Haza and Want quickly jumped out, but the NM for Santa Fe was the first major blocker; and also where to get the second AZ w/out thinking about the anagram logic. I learned a new mechanism in Matt's quiver, and for that I am thankful, but I am also happy that Mike is next at bat, and I find his metas more aligned to how my brain works.

[Inca]

No judgement here on the puzzle. I have no problem with anagramming in word play puzzles. I have great admiration for the brilliance and skill displayed by the creators of these meta puzzles, both for thinking up the idea and for executing it. Kudos to all who got this one. I "prejudiced" my mind into believing I'd never be able to get this puzzle (both due to the creator and the topic) but truthfully, back in the day when I used to put much more effort into these and couldn't let it go until I had solved the puzzle, I feel that I probably would have gotten this one. I mean I did have the car makes, I obviously saw the relationship with the states, and I saw there were state code in the grid (how many puzzles have words as obscure as HAZA?) but just never put the two together.

[femullen]

I liked @Bird Lives' EDSEL better. I didn't know what an Edsel grill looked like, but it was a more direct solution.

Also liked @Joe Ross' map. I did the same thing hoping lines would cross on some other western town with a truck named after it.

In the end, though, this one was just beyond my metabilities.

[KayW]

Shenanigans! I call shenanigans!

H+NM + Y = HYNM and not NM. Transposing or anagramming the postal abbreviation is not withing the realm of reasonable manipulation for such few number of letters.

(Seriously. I stumbled over the multitude postal abbreviations for CA and CO [didn't know what to do with them but I saw them] and kept stumbling over MN and thinking it was NM backwards which is to general to rise any thing above randomness. )

With those few letters and imprecise mechanics make this mechanism little more than random noise.

I call BS. This was a precise & elegant effort by Matt.


The 100% solid rule for the unique-to-each-car model/city four-letter grid entries:

• One of the letters is the first initial of the car make(manufacturer/division/company/brand).

• Two other letters are the two-letter USPS state code of the corresponding city.

• The extra letter is one letter of the meta-answer.

Very minor point on Dodge durango CO being able to use two four-letter entries (18 DOCK & 23 CODA), but Kia telluride CO forced the correction.

There's no reason these letters must appear within the four-letter grid entries in the order solvers prefer.


The 100% solid rule for the arrangement of the meta-answer letters in the grid is by CLUE NUMBER, only, without regard to Across or Down

• 18 DOCK - D

• 23 CODA - A

• 40 HYMN - Y

• 44 KATZ - T

• 54 COCA - O

• 56 WANT - N

• 65 HAZA - A

There's no reason the letters must appear within the grid as solvers prefer.


Do these rules vary from other puzzles & make it more difficult to solve? Possibly. However, all puzzles' rules vary and there's nothing wrong with this contest crossword as constructed. In no way is this inelegant.

Better said than I ever could!

I found this one very tough but fair. I kind of wondered if Matt didn't get his wires crossed and swap this with his current week 4 MGWCC.

At my first pass, I ended up with columns of the car/city names, the states and their postal codes, county names, and nearest airports I did see the pair of "AZ" words in the grid but couldn't get anywhere with that. Went out for a walk and happened to pass a Chevy Malibu (which BTW is the only one of the theme entries I could have named the make of off the top of my head). When I got home I googled all the other makes and solved a short while later. Solvitur ambulando!

[jenirvin]

Yep. I was right there, and because the MN reversal didn't seem to fit (and NYMPH seemed incongruous because it didn't fit the 4-letter pattern, but follwed the "skip a letter" from KATZ) I sailed right on by the port. Oh, well. Kudos to those who were broad-minded enough to think outside the box!

[FatJack]

Dang, I was sorta close....Recognized that the car models formed a symbol of sorts, but was "googling" brand logos, not front grills. I also circled the state postal abbreviations of the city/model names, but couldn't quite put it all together.

[bread-girl]

I had the states and the makes of the cars but I never would have found their corresponding grid entries! It’s good for someone to keep me on my toes!!

[JoeS]

The answer is EDSEL

“Where’s My Car?” indicates that the key lies in the cars’ locations in the grid. Highlight those locations, and the solution becomes obvious.
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Car puzzle 500.jpg

For this very reason, we knew it had to be a DELOREAN. The grill perfectly matches the DMC Motor Company logo. For those who may object that it was built in Belfest, DMC HQ was located in Detroit. AND the clue "...a noted American car of the past OR present" seemed oddly worded. Why not past AND present. That's when my son revealed that 3 weeks ago the new DMC announced a new Delorean to be built in San Antonio. OR is the perfect choice to draw a distinction for a newer version which may or may not ever be built. Lastly we had pursued the mail code trail much earlier and rejected the inclusion of NM for reasons earlier cited - a seemingly random decision to allow the letters of hyMN to be reversed. DELOREAN was pure genius.

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

The fact that some of the postal codes were in order made people want to find all the postal codes in order. I ran up against this, too, but not having NM anywhere and not having a 2nd AZ put me off that path. (I was on a plane for part of the solve and couldn't Google, so I started to really question whether Sedona was actually in Arizona ) But there were so many of the postal codes, scrambled or otherwise, in 4-letter words that I eventually ended up writing down all the unused letters, but that also included things like HN from CAHN and NE from ACNE.

So that was just a mess of letters, but I applied the important skill I have learned of not beating my head against the same wall too long and started to look for something else, and then noticed that none of the seven car clues included the makes, which is usually pretty standard, and the jumble of letters included the first letters of some makes. At that point I really needed Google for all the makes, so the rest had to wait until after I landed.