Tired of driving around in Howard's DeSoto, Richie and Potsie buy a car of their own. The car has several problems including an engine that won't run consistently. This causes problems when they try to impress two girls.

Richie feels that he doesn't have enough privacy, so he decides to move in with Chuck. He quickly discovers, though, that bachelor life isn't quite what he expected it to be.

After getting a ""D"" on a paper for his investigative reporting class, Richie decides to do a story about the corrupt sanitation department that is forcing Howard to pay a weekly surcharge.