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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. Tesla Suspends Cybertruck Reservations Outside Of North America More than two years after Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck concept, the pre-launch saga of Silicon Valley’s big shiny object continues. According to Reuters, Tesla has stopped taking non-North American reservations for the Cybertruck....

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. Kia Prices The 2023 Niro Pricing for the 2023 Kia Niro Hybrid is out, and it’s a pretty big climb from the base model to the range-topper. The entry-level LX trim starts at $27,785 including a $1,295 freight charge, the mid-range EX trim climbs to $30,385, and then an EX with the Touring package stickers for $32,685....

See, BMW’s doing fairly alright through the semiconductor shortage. The marque is focusing on higher-volume cars, cutting a few options like adjustable passenger seat bolsters and working quickly to onboard new suppliers. However, just because new semiconductor suppliers have products that fulfill BMW’s needs doesn’t mean that BMW’s software will work flawlessly with the new hardware. Automotive News Europe is reporting that because of a change in chip suppliers, some new models may not get Apple CarPlay or Android Auto capability until a software update is pushed out, possibly as late as the end of June....

1979 Ford F100 – $1,900 Engine/drivetrain: 300 cubic inch OHV inline 6, 3 speed automatic, RWD Location: Portland, OR Odometer reading: 101,000 miles Runs/drives? Yep It’s almost impossible for me to write an introduction for a Ford F100 without using the phrase “good old.” Or “trusty.” Ford’s basic half-ton truck has been a reliable workhorse for so long that it has earned a permanent place in the collective psyche. There are other trucks, but if someone just says “good old trusty truck,” I’m willing to bet that the truck that appears in your mind’s eye is a Ford F100 or 150....

The Great Tesla Sell-Off Continues First, there was the great sell-off in Tesla stock, with the company losing 64 percent of its value in the last year (based on the current stock price, which I Googled about two minutes ago.) Then came the Inflation Reduction Act, with a quirk that meant new Teslas suddenly could qualify for the full $7,500 tax credit until the end of March. The problem? New Teslas were mostly too expensive....

Smart’s existence in the United States is one that could be described as a failure. The concept of Smart–tiny cars that look a bit silly, are cheap to insure, cheap to run, and make city driving a cinch–works in Europe and China, where the brand enjoys healthy sales. Smart once even found some sales in Canada by giving residents of that country the thrifty and economical diesel Fortwo CDI. For the United States, the initial plan was to follow the trends....

“Before long I will call Pick-A-Part and have them tow both cars away,” read the first line, referencing an old Nash Metropolitan and Morris Minor. “Both need work, both have clear Ca. titles and current tags in my name,” the email went on. “NO ONE WANTS TO WORK ON THEM AT ANY PRICE so it’s time to junk them both,” Nate, the sender, continued. “Sad but I’m physically unable anymore and I’m also broke, barely making my monthly nut anymore so everything has to go dirt cheap or free before I wind up in the street....

Earlier today, Jason wrote about how the first NHTSA crash test–performed on May 21, 1979–involved a 1979 Plymouth Champ. This Mitsubishi Mirage doing business in America as a Chrysler and as a Dodge Colt performed better than you’d expect. Sure, the kid isn’t going to make it to school and the front seat passenger found a new way to open the glovebox, but it’s not so bad! Searching the NHTSA database, the organization performed 139 crash tests in 1979....

As Airways Magazine writes, the first passenger flight of the Airbus A380 was a momentous occasion. Singapore Airlines, the aircraft’s launch customer, set up a display at Singapore Changi Airport, noting that the October 25, 2007 flight was going to be the first commercial flight in the world for the new plane. Passengers, as Airways Magazine wrote, had to bid for seats on the aircraft, with proceeds going to charity....

The stylists at Zagato are masters of making things that are sexy but also slightly ugly at the same time. The Giulia SWB Zagato is no exception. It’s a pretty kind of dirty, some of the proportions are very wrong but the balance tips toward attractive the longer I look at it. The compromises of trying to turn a sedan into a low-slung coupe are glaring like the midday sun, yet they don’t completely ruin the shape....

To celebrate the last model year of the F-Type, Jaguar’s launched the F-Type 75 and R 75 to commemorate 75 years of Jaguar sports cars. Back in 1949, the Jaguar XK120 became the fastest production car in the world, topping out at 124 mph. While this seems a bit silly now, imagine wandering down an A-road in your Ford Anglia, only to get absolutely blitzed by a swooping specter of inline-six speed....

What should I talk about first here, the Villager or the Nautica trim of the Villager? I suppose the grammar of automotive names dictates that I should handle the Villager part first, so what the hell, let’s do it. [Editor’s Note: Someday Jason will actually meet the Monday deadline for Mercury Monday. It’s meant to go up Monday because that’s the only day of the week with the same first letter as Mercury!...

I’ve been aware of some of these cars for a long time, but the reason I decided to write about it now is because I just recently learned that a car I’ve been familiar with for years went by this name, at least for a short period and in specific markets. And it’s not a car that I think most of us associate with the Clipper name at all, which is why it’s so interesting....

The story of the radical rear-engine, air-cooled Chevrolet Corvair is always something that gets me fired up. No, I’m not talking about Ralph Nader and his book. Instead, I love to read about all of the awesome things Corvairs can do. My favorite is how Corvairs crossed the Darién Gap, a strip of roughly 60-miles of road-free mountainous jungle, swamp and rivers that separate Panama and Colombia. Two Corvairs (allegedly) made it all of the way though, which couldn’t be said about their two four-wheel-drive support trucks....

Do you see what I mean? There’s something about the central framing of the car in the city, abut the looser brushwork of the background, about the visibility of the people inside, clearly in mid conversation, those birds– everything, really. It feels like it’s just an italicized caption away from being a New Yorker cartoon. Should we try and think of some captions? That seems difficult. But let’s try: “No, Claire, that’s not Minerva, it’s Athena Nike, the goddess of victory....

Let’s start with the new base engine, a 6.8-liter pushrod V8. Based on the 7.3-liter V8, it features an identical 4.22-inch bore, but a shorter 3.68-inch stroke compared to the 7.3’s 3.98-inch stroke. Throw in a slight compression bump to 10.8:1, and this sounds like one interesting motor. Intake runner length is almost absurdly long, so expect decent torque out of this unit. The second new engine is a high-output version of the 6....

Here’s the video, complete with a soundtrack from what I think must be Joe Rogan playing in the background, and some surprisingly low-energy in-car reaction shots after the action, in case you needed that element to fully appreciate the experience: Did I already say holy crap? Because holy crap. What happened here? Is there something going on with how the wheels are turned there, as the Mini merges? It looks like the wheels are pointed to the right, which, as you seasoned highway-mergers know, is the wrong way to turn to merge to the left....

Although I’ve been going to Pebble Beach for 20-plus years now, driving up this time as an official Autopian with Torch and Tracy was something special. It is especially fun for me to not only experience the incredible car shows, auctions, driving events and more, but now to be able to share them with you all as well. Plus it was really fun to see how uncomfortable David was at first, but quickly found out he actually fit in perfectly....

Despite my love for all things aviation, I’ve been flying airplanes since just late 2016. Up to that point, I’d just never needed to fly. If I traveled, it was almost always via the driver’s seat of an SUV, likely towing a camper somewhere. On October 20, 2016, that changed when I boarded my first-ever plane flight, a 7:45 AM trip aboard “Fallon The Falcon,” a Frontier Airlines Airbus A321 that had taken its first official trip just four months prior....

Here’s the tweet that got all this started: (this is a serious request) — Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) August 9, 2022 The thread continues, including this tweet that should make anyone with a spouse and child feel a nervous pang of pain in the pit of their stomach as they imagine this conversation: — Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) August 10, 2022 After this tweet, we get one that explains what the hell is going on a bit more:...