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

[Jacksull]

I’m betting this week sets some kind of record for incorrect Hail Mary submissions.

[Bird Lives]

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.
.

[Joe Ross]

[Joe Ross]

[mheberlingx100]

Never in a million years would I have gotten this one! Congratulations to all who did!

[hcbirker]

I must be ignorant, but Daytona is not a car being manufactured now? Not sure of the prompt.

[Bird Lives]

[shalmanezer]

And for those who thought this was inelegant, note also that Daytona is both a car and a place, fitting the 7 cars in the grid.

And that Gaffney may be trolling us all, because the answer to Where's My Car? is basically, On the Beach.

[Conrad]

I must be ignorant, but Daytona is not a car being manufactured now? Not sure of the prompt.

"The answer to this week's contest crossword is a noted American car of the past or present."

[woozy]

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.

[Puzzle mom]

I got it in the end, but I really didn’t like that the abbreviations for New Mexico and Colorado were reversed. I was sure my answer was wrong because of this. But I had nothing else.

[escapeartist]

KAS 5

[escapeartist]

KAS 7

[woozy]

So.... now MODEL T answers?.... cause the grid had two T's in it?

That's what I submitted! (Going for my self created contest on the dumbest but justifiable answer....)

[Jace54]

Is it a coincidence that Daytona is a combination of 1 down (toad) and 41 down (nay), or is that Matt adding some additional cleverness? That was how Daytona got in my mind as a possible answer, but I did not find the path.

[Joe Ross]

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.

[Ergcat]

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!

[JerryF]

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.

[DannyWalter]

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.

[Conrad]

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.