Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday.
The 2022 Jeep Wrangler Is Still Tippin’
Alright, I’ll confess: Vehicles don’t really get tired during crash testing, but that didn’t stop the 2022 Jeep Wrangler from rolling onto its side in the latest Insurance Institute for Highway Safety small-overlap test. Believe it or not, this is the third time the current JL Jeep Wrangler has rolled during IIHS small-overlap crash testing. The first time was in 2020, which raised some eyebrows over at Jeep’s headquarters. According to the IIHS, “Fiat Chrysler questioned whether this outcome was related to the method that IIHS engineers had used to attach the vehicle to the crash propulsion system.” Fiat Chrysler then gave the IIHS a different attachment method to use, and guess what happened? Surprise surprise, the Wrangler rolled in the second test. Jeep’s engineers then went back to the drawing board and made some structural modifications. Evidently, these modifications don’t seem to have worked. As it stands, the 2022 Jeep Wrangler receives a Marginal rating from the IIHS in small-overlap impact testing, one step up from the Institute’s lowest rating of poor. Hey, at least the safety cage seems to have protected occupants well.
Ford Plans To Go Online-Only For EV Sales
Supply chain shortages and the resulting markups on new cars have proved disastrous for consumers. Add in the costs of marketing and keeping vehicles on a lot, combine with reduced aftersales revenue for electric vehicles, and direct sales start to make a lot more sense for both consumers and manufacturers. Ford certainly seems to be taking notes for future EV sales. According to the Detroit Free Press, Ford CEO Jim Farley said during Bernstein’s 38th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference, “We’ve got to go to non-negotiated price. We’ve got to go 100 percent online. There’s no inventory (at dealerships), it goes directly to the consumer. And 100 percent remote pickup and delivery.” From the sounds of it, Ford’s proposed model sounds a lot like Genesis’ Canadian sales model. If you buy a new Genesis in Canada, concierge, arranged delivered test-drives, filing financing documents, and at-home delivery options for a new car happen online, but some of the groundwork like servicing and pre-delivery inspection prep happens at dealerships. It’s a nifty method that helps mitigate the pain of dealer-to-dealer trading by pulling from a nationwide pool of vehicles and aims to prevent consumers from getting shafted by nonsense add-ons like dentless paint removal and TruCoat. Here’s hoping that Ford gets direct-to-consumer sales up and running shortly, especially in a market with such scarcity.
Acura Taps Vince Staples For Integra Ads
Is it just me, or have car ads been generally quite boring recently. Most TV spots either have a plotline to follow where the car comes secondary, or they just feature glossy studio shots and a backing track that was big several years ago. Thankfully, Acura still seems to know how to make a car commercial. To launch the new Integra, Acura’s teamed up with rapper and singer Vince Staples for three 30-second TV spots, all of which feature fun visuals and backing tracks from Staples’ new album Ramona Park Broke My Heart. Honestly, the collaboration feels like a solid fit. “Acura has strong roots in the South Bay and growing up I remember going to see the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, so teaming up for this launch felt really authentic and was a fun creative experience for me,” said Staples in a press release. As for the ads themselves, Slide has some sick tracking shots and a handful of sweet J-turns, Lemonade shows what seems to be a really fun day hanging out, while Magic is a surreal spot featuring a floating Integra and several clones of Vince Staples just kicking back and relaxing. Good stuff. While I’m a bit cautious about the Integra’s chances of success, these ads are actually visually-interesting and Ramona Park Broke My Heart is a pretty fire album, so I’m pretty stoked to see this collaboration. More importantly, this marketing campaign really nails the concept that cars are supposed to be fun.
The New Mercedes-Benz GLC Seems Just The Right Size For The Starbucks Drive-Thru
Look, I could watch an Integra doing J-turns all day, but reality usually involves being stuck in traffic behind a compact luxury crossover. BMW’s recently facelifted the X3, Porsche’s updated the Macan, Audi gave the Q5 a nip-tuck last year, now it’s Mercedes-Benz’s time to shine with a new GLC. The new GLC is a critical product for Mercedes-Benz, so the German brand’s elected to not mess with the exterior design too much. It’s all-new yet evolutionary at the same time, adopting wider chrome bumper trims, new lights, and a new grille with a single horizontal bar while maintaining a familiar silhouette. Sure, the new GLC is 2.36 inches (60 mm) longer than the old one, but width is unchanged and wheelbase gets stretched by a paltry 0.59 inches (15 mm). Nothing revolutionary here. Indeed, revolution seems saved for the interior and chassis. Let’s start with the cabin. The dreaded central trackpad is gone, replaced with a driver-oriented version of Mercedes’ latest portrait-style touchscreen. Perhaps more importantly, the center dashboard vents aren’t the bin lid-looking vents from the S-Class. Squircle vents and loads of French stitching actually look pretty good, plus Mercedes’ killer ambient lighting is on full display. Under the skin, European-market GLCs offer optional 4.5-degree four-wheel-steering for increased low-speed maneuverability and high-speed stability. Mercedes isn’t offering this system in the states which seems like a bit of a shame. However, an updated two-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine in the GLC 300 launch model gains an electric motor between the compressor and turbine wheels on the turbocharger, helping add a 22 lb.-ft. boost in torque to 295. That’s pretty competitive with the BMW X3. Expect plug-in hybrid versions of the GLC to come after launch, with the initial GLC 300 variant going on sale for the 2023 model year. Honestly, Mercedes-Benz is going to see a ton of leasing customers for these things, and we’ll see them in every school run lineup and posh grocery store parking lot across the country.
The Flush
Whelp, time to drop the lid on today’s edition of The Morning Dump. Happy Friday everyone! Sorry for the lack of posts the other day, we forgot to feed our imaginary hosting Capybara. Hank gets a bit angry when he’s hungry and wreaks havoc on uploads sometimes. Anyway, what automotive adventures are you up to this weekend? There’s a chance I’ll be helping a friend rescue a vintage car from bylaw enforcement’s wrath. Fucking NIMBYs, am I right? Lead photo credit: IIHS Aren’t Jeeps supposed to climb over any obstacle. The only thing I see here is the need for more suspension articulation to get over that barrier. That and not to lose the wheel doing it. Marketing spin FTW. Waiting for the bombastic prophesying statements about consumer’s blood will flow in the streets because they don’t have local car dealers protecting them from the mean manufacturers. As a call to action, it worked. I’ve never hit an unsubscribe button harder or faster, and haven’t darkened any of their group’s doorways since Im willing to bet.. that any other suv / cuv would take a hit to the motor end at the A pillar pivot around the intrusion at the motor and park itself right where it landed. In short… I think the side rail and or IIHS got into a fight ending with each other saying the other is at fault.. and a coupla LOUD FUCK YOU’s and thats it. WHEN in fact.. if they had done this amicably, one of the two would take the hit.. admitting to being a fucking asshole. Park themselves on the Sofa.. the other might come and sit down. Their might be some make up sex.. but that be it. But I admit.. this is very Reptilian, VIPERish in fact… One of the coolest pandemic inventions that seems to have stuck around is the “car parade” past a kid’s house for their birthday. A local group of us exotic car owners is doing this tomorrow for a local little guy who is supposedly obsessed with cars. I’d encourage anyone who is willing and able to do things like this in their community to do so. You certainly don’t need an exotic car to do so, some of the biggest smiles on the kid’s faces are from some of the cars we might consider the humblest. I also clearly remember moments where older people shared their car enthusiasm with me when I was a kid, and I think paying that forward is one of the very best things we can do to keep younger people interested in our hobby. Fly your gearhead flag high & proud-and never miss a chance to indoctrinate the little ‘uns! This auto tip over bullshit… thats prevelant in every vehicle is a bandaid for a consistant issue thats been a Jeep Trait… for nearly 50+yrs. I’ll probably drive the Mustang up to visit my parents later today. I guess I could check the oil in it, just so I can say I did something car-related besides driving from one place to another lol. But the main difference between Wrangler and it’s competition from Ford and Toyota is the solid front axle. I believe that is responsible for shoving the wheel under the frame which is enough force to propel the vehicle over. The Ford Bronco and Toyota 4Runner (as well as the unibody Land Rover Defender) have independent front suspension. If you watch a Bronco go through the same test, the wheel is not forced under the truck during the imapct and does not lead to a tip-over. So, at the beginning of her 3rd semester up in Huntington WV, I get an excited call around 7am one morning. She & her roommates-all swimmers-would go lift weights before practice. At around 5am. “Daddy, DADDY! So it was all black ice this morning and I was creeping like you showed me, but, when I took the turn at the bottom of the hill, Betsy stepped out on me!! The girls were all screamin’ and I KNEW I was gonna hit that parked car, but I heard your voice all calm sayin’ ‘Ok: it stepped out, now whatcha gonna do?’ And I said, ‘Feed it! Feed it, then bring it back!’ So I gave ‘er a little bit & worked it, and SHE CAME BACK!!” That’s my girl! Anyway, what automotive adventures are you up to this weekend? Other plans got cancelled due to unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances. So if the weather holds, hopefully replacing the windshield wiper cowl and an underhood trim piece (yay velcro fail.) Problem is, no garage to work in, and it’s a black car. So if the temperature is any higher than forecast or the pollen count goes up again, at least one if not both of those have to be put off. Again. I’m going to replace the windshield on my ’67 Volvo 122s. It’s so pitted & scratched it’s unsafe to drive at night. Driving towards towards the setting sun is even worse. Fortunately VP Autoparts has them new for $135.00. I’ve never done a windshield before so been watching lots of YouTube videos. Wish me luck! Acura has only had the naming rights for 3 years. Playing Devil’s Advocate here, there is something kinda strange about the test, but I can’t quite put my finger on it right now. I wonder how much of the general shape of the target is to blame. The Small Overlap test is designed to simulate what happens when a car drifts across the center line of the road. Thing is, there’s no car that I know of that has a completely flat front end, a couple of the newer truck lines come close but not quite that far. Other cars are also going to have crumple zones. I’m sure this has been thought of and there’s data to back up the design of the target, but without seeing any of that it just looks… off. I’m also not convinced the wheel isn’t a factor, and it is just the barrier hitting the safety cage, but I’m not here to argue. I love this site and the community and the discussions, and could you imagine The Autopian without any comments or engagement? But back on topic, in the end it’s just a violent messy crash with so much going on so quickly, I don’t think it is a surprise to anyone the high riding Jeep gets knocked over.
