Mitsubishi posts a profit, Carvana lays off 2,500 workers, Toyota hops aboard the downsized turbocharged four-cylinder engine train. All this and more on today’s issue of The Morning Dump.
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.
Good News For Mitsubishi
It’s been a rough decade for Mitsubishi. From a massive fuel economy scandal to a drought of new product to Nissan taking a controlling stake in the Japanese company, good news was far and few between. Then, signs of life started to appear. The new Outlander crossover SUV is actually really, really good. The Mirage subcompact car may be a bit old, but it’s the recession-proof car we need right now. The upcoming 2023 Outlander PHEV offers an impressive 54 miles of range on the WLTP test cycle and Mitsubishi’s ten-year powertrain warranty has remained unwavering. Now, in the midst of supply shortages and inflation, Mitsubishi has even more good news to share.
According to an Automotive News Europe report, Mitsubishi has made a profit. While an operating profit is largely expected in the car business, going from a $70.6 million operating loss to a $257.6 million profit in such a tough year is absolutely incredible. Moreover, Mitsubishi’s predicting continued profitability through fiscal year 2022, even in the face of rising supply costs.
Look, we’ve all ragged on Mitsubishi for such questionable decisions as the Eclipse Cross and routinely pumping Botox into the Outlander Sport, but it genuinely pains me to see any car company doing badly. Call it tough love, but the new car landscape is better with more brand diversity, and the best way to stay in business is to build better cars. Here’s hoping that the next all-new Mitsubishi carries the same fundamental goodness as the new Outlander and that the Japanese carmaker can better serve its niche of providing customers with great value and a great warranty.
Mayday! At Carvana
When will startups learn how difficult it is to disrupt established industries? While I can’t speak to the greater tech bro zeitgeist, Carvana’s used car fantasies are crashing down right now. In a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 10, Carvana announced the layoffs of 2,500 staff members and the temporary pause of executive salaries. Not exactly brilliant news on the eve of acquiring the second-largest wholesale used car auction company in America.
So what’s the takeaway here? Besides the fact that ‘staff’ and ‘member’ are both synonyms for ‘penis,’ a tidbit of information that should make looking at employee directories significantly more entertaining, it seems that offering sky-high values for used cars is a bad idea and that trying to trade on volume during a global shortage is a lot harder than it sounds.
Honestly, it’s hard to argue that Carvana’s aggressive offers on private vehicles haven’t hurt the private used car market in some manner. As with most situations where dealerships get involved, consumers are the ones who end up getting screwed. While my heart goes out to the employees who’ve found themselves victims of e-commerce’s hubris, I feel no sympathy at all for the executives who’ll forgo their salaries for the rest of the year. You’ve made your bed, now lie in it.
Land Rover Claims The New Range Rover Sport Can Reduce SARS-CoV-2
No, I’m not joking. Land Rover claims in the press release for the new Range Rover Sport that its new Cabin Air Purification Pro system “…combines PM2.5 filtration and nanoe™ X technology to significantly reduce odours, bacteria and allergens, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus.” While this certainly raises an eyebrow or two, it’s probably the least-interesting thing about the new Sport. Let’s quickly dive into the latest Range Rover model and see exactly how comfortable your realtor’s next vehicle will be.
On the outside, Land Rover’s put in some serious work to make the new Range Rover Sport more subtle. The character lines are softer, while flush glass, flush door handles, a laser-welded roof, and a full-width tail lamp treatment make this enormous SUV a bit sleeker than its predecessor.
More importantly, all these little touches give the new Range Rover Sport a drag coefficient of 0.29, which should help facilitate a quiet cabin. On the inside, it’s much the same story with the Sport as it is with the big Range Rover. There’s an enormous 13.1-inch curved touchscreen for the infotainment, a powerful 29-speaker top-spec Meridian sound system on offer, a set of winged airplane-style headrests and available vegan upholstery.
I know, it’s easy to roll your eyes at most vegan upholstery considering vegan leather is often plastic, but the vegan upholstery option in the new Range Rover Sport will have you rolling your eyes for an entirely different reason. Land Rover’s calling it Ultrafabrics. Look, good fabric beats leather for luxury, but Ultrafabrics? Let me pop my Ultrabagel into my Hypertoaster and pour myself a cup of Megatea while we’re at it.
While Ultrafabrics is a rubbish name, the Stormer Handling Pack is anything but. It’s actually a nice nod to the 2004 Range Stormer Concept. This package includes active anti-roll bars that run off the vehicle’s 48-volt electrical system and reduce body roll, four-wheel steering, an electronically-controlled limited-slip rear differential, brake-based fake torque-vectoring and customizable drive modes. All good things, so definitely tick this box or spring for either 500-plus-horsepower powertrain to really put the Sport in Range Rover Sport.
Speaking of powertrains, Land Rover’s famous, screaming, hollow-wolf five-liter supercharged V8 has been sent to the shadow realm in favor of a BMW-sourced twin-turbo V8. While 523 horsepower and 553 lb.-ft. of torque aren’t figures to sneeze at, the V8 isn’t the most interesting powertrain available in the new Range Rover Sport.
That honor goes to the P510e model which blends the glorious smoothness of a boosted inline-six with a 105 kW electric motor and a 38.2 kWh battery pack. Expect that powertrain to offer a 0-60 mph time in the low five second range and 54 miles (88 km) of all-electric range on the admittedly optimistic WLTP test cycle. Not that we’ll know what the P510e will do on the EPA test cycle, Land Rover’s reportedly not bringing it to America.
It’s not all bad news though, an all-electric Range Rover Sport is coming in 2024. In the meantime, we’ll get a 355-horsepower inline-six, a 395-horsepower inline-six, a 434-horsepower inline-six plug-in hybrid, and the aforementioned V8. Realtors and dentists, your chariot has arrived.
Toyota Hops On The Turbo Four Bandwagon
Toyota are notoriously late adopters of just about everything. The Corolla soldiered on with a Mikuni carburetor into the early ‘90s before fuel injection made it across the entire range, and made it to 2015 with a four-speed automatic, long after competitors had adopted six-speed or CVT automatic gearboxes. When an industry trend finally rolls around to Toyota, it’s a sign that trend will be with us for a very long time. The latest bit of tech Toyota’s finally hopping on? Downsized and turbocharged four-cylinders in place of V6s.
Granted, the Lexus NX compact luxury crossover has featured a turbocharged four-banger for a very long time, but the 2023 Highlander marks the first time a turbo four has replaced a V6 in a mainline American Toyota vehicle. Displacing 2.4 liters, this turbo four is likely the same T24A-FTS motor seen in the new Lexus NX 350.
However, it does feature a reduction in output, likely signifying an engine calibration for regular fuel. The new four-banger puts out 265 horsepower and 309 lb-ft of torque, down 30 horsepower from the V6 but up 46 lb-ft in the twist department. Weirdly enough, this new turbo motor isn’t expected to benefit fuel economy at all.
In a press release issued Wednesday, Toyota says it’s expecting 24 mpg combined out of the new engine, same as the V6. However, the new engine is expected to reduce emissions, most notable a 50 percent reduction in NOx, a 50 percent reduction in non-methane organic gas, and a reduction in CO2.
In comfort news, the updated Highlander gets Toyota’s new-generation infotainment system that’s much faster, slicker and higher-resolution than the outgoing system. The wireless charger is relocated to the shelf below the climate controls, the XLE and XSE trims get a hands-free power liftgate and the hybrid powertrain option continues undisturbed. Pricing and arrival timing for the 2023 Highlander haven’t been announced yet, but we expect it to roll onto dealer lots sometime this year without massively moving the needle on pricing.
The Flush
Whelp, time to drop the lid on this edition of The Morning Dump. Happy Wednesday! We’re halfway through the week. While Mitsubishi may be cleaving their way back from the brink, some brands weren’t as lucky. I once owned a 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme and while it was certainly plush, it felt a bit behind the times of the 1980s. Oldsmobile may have made great leaps in the next 19 years, but even the glorious form factor of the Aurora flagship sedan couldn’t stop GM from pulling the plug. Honestly, I wish Oldsmobile soldiered on a bit longer, even just to see a proper second-generation Aurora rather than the Aurora badge slapped on the Antares project. My question for you today is quite simple. Have you ever owned a car from a dead brand, and do you wish that brand was still around.
Lead photo credit: Mitsubishi
1974 Amc Gremlin ($25 out of a guys back yard)
1976 Amc Gremlin (had still functioning a/c in 1999!)
1985 Mercury’s Xr4ti (I know, a Ford Sierra with a funny nose)
2005 Saab 93 Linear (perfectly pleasant commuter/long haul car that didn’t mind the occasional twisty road)
Wife had a 1998 Isuzu Rodeo(4×4 auto v6). Those were just a solid, easy to own body on frame Suv.
Damn auto correct, Merkur, not mercury.
Saturn. ’01 SW2, ’07 Ion Quad Coupe. Plus four more that were in my family for the fifteen or so years the brand was around. I grew up in Saturns, going to a Saturn dealer, and I miss it, even if late-aughts Saturn had become nearly unrecognizable from its origins.
Plenty, actually. Plymouth, Mercury, Saturn, Yugo, Oldsmobile, seems like more I’m forgetting.
I’d like to see Oldsmobile, Pontiac Mercury, and Plymouth back…not as they were, but as they could be.
I’ve often wondered if, for example, Ford couldn’t bring back the Mercury Cougar and sell it as the Lincoln-Mercury Cougar through Lincoln dealers (where they exist independently). Stretched, more luxurious version of the Mustang, like the original.
But, most anything with a trunk has virtually imploded, and I don’t relish the idea of Mercury returning as rebadged Mach E, so best let sleeping dogs lie in this instance.
Likewise as Plymouth returning as a value-oriented mainstream brand. Other than another crossover on the same 15+ year old platform as everything else, what could they offer Plymouth? The LX cars days are numbered, and I don’t think a civilian-version of the base Charger police car to sell for 3 years max would justify the marketing budget required just to announce it.
Here goes:
1957 Plymouth Savoy
1978 Pontiac Sunbird
1979 Plymouth Volare Duster
1981 Mercury Cougar
1985 Plymouth Duster Turismo
1986 Mercury Grand Marquis
1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais
1993 Oldsmobile Delta Ninety-Eight Regency Elite
1994 Saturn (base model)
1994 Pontiac Trans Sport
1995 Pontiac Bonneville
1995 Oldsmobile Silhouette
1995 Oldsmobile Regency Elite
1998 Oldsmobile Silhouette
Out of that, I’d say I miss Oldsmobile the most – had great luck with their used offerings, followed by Saturn. After that I wouldn’t mind seeing Pontiac return as a niche performance brand, and Plymouth sneak back into the game as something along the lines of the Chevy Spark. Mercury for whatever reason, just elicits a shrug.
“However, the new engine is expected to reduce emissions, most notable a 50 percent reduction in NOx,”
That’s weird. I thought one of the problems with small turbo engines was high nox emissions. Surprised to hear it would be better than a NA v6.
Also, my first car was a Pontiac, which I believe I still owned after Pontiac stopped existing. My parents had a knack for picking dead or dying cars, although not necessarily entire brands. Just off the top of my head, they had: A Saturn SL1, Saturn SC2 (I think), Mitsubishi Eclipse, Pontiac Vibe, Ford Fusion, Dodge Dart, and probably a couple I’m forgetting. Some of them were bought because they were dying and cheap, but others were just cars they liked.
The only dead brand I owned was a Mercury Grand Marquis, I guess I wish they had lasted, but only if they were making cars like that, if they just survived to peddle rebadged EcoSports, don’t bother
“ Besides the fact that ‘staff’ and ‘member’ are both synonyms for ‘penis,’”
Bwahahaha!!!
I had an 88 Old Gutless Supreme.
However, most people overlooked the 3.8L badge. My friends thought it was 2.4 or 2.8. Only one fellow gearhead understood….
That motor in that car was a beast. It wouldn’t win a drag race but I could keep up with people easily.
My god yes!
9 years ago my mother bought (on my recommendation) a beautiful black 1994 Saab 900 Turbo with cream leather and only 90,000km. I LOVED THAT CAR! I had been fascinated by Saabs since I was a young kid. It was comfortable, quick and the engine hummed a perfect pitch A at about 110kmh.
Unfortunately she wasn’t driving it much and it was parked outside. She offered to give it to me but I already had 2 cars in my condo parking lot and couldn’t justify a third. So after 4 years of ownership we sold it back to the Saab specialist we bought it from after only putting 11,000 km on it.
I miss that car almost every day and now finding one in similar condition is impossible.
Of all the car brands that have gone, only the loss of Saab still makes me sad. I loved their design language in the 70-90s (before be utterly ruined by GM in the early 2000s) and always thought they had such a fantastic design language but after 26 years of GM mismanagement there was little left to build on.
1972 Plymouth Satellite Sebring Plus
Does Datsun count? They rebranded as Nissan in the US, but still technically dead as a brand? If so, 1977 Datsun 810 Wagon – 4-speed manual, too.
Going to immediate family, Mom had a ’72 Olds Delta 88 Royale Convertible, my brother’s first car was ’75 Mercury Montego, my sister’s first car was ’78 Datsun 810 Sedan, and she subsequently had a first-gen Saturn SC then a second-gen Saturn SL.
My god yes!
9 years ago my mother bought (on my recommendation) a beautiful black 1994 Saab 900 Turbo with cream leather and only 90,000km. I LOVED THAT CAR! It was comfortable, quick and the engine hummed a perfect pitch A at about 110kmh.
Unfortunately she wasn’t driving it much and it was parked outside. She offered to give it to me but I already had 2 cars in my condo parking lot and couldn’t justify a third. So after 4 years of ownership we sold it back to the Saab specialist we bought it from after only putting 11,000 km on it.
I miss that car almost every day and now finding one in similar condition is impossible.
Of all the car brands that have gone, only the loss of Saab still makes me sad. I loved their design language (before be ruined by GM) and always thought they had so much potential but
I once owned a Triumph TR6. I miss that specific car, but not so much the brand. I guess it depends on what they were selling.
I’ve owned several cars from now-dead brands, including a Saturn, a Geo, a couple of Plymouths, and a Saab. But the best was an Oldsmobile, a 1988 Calais 4 door sedan. It was the best “sleeper” around: maroon, with all the chrome trim on the outside, but with a Quad 4, a Getrag 5 speed, and the FE3 suspension package. That thing would fly around on-ramps; I surprised quite a few people with it. You don’t expect Grandma’s going-to-church car to move like that. It’d be slow now, but back in the late-90s when I had it, it was a hoot.
Very nice! A car I’d love to own.
I owned a Swift GT and almost bought a Kazashi when the brand was still around. The only reason the second purchase didn’t happen was there was no dealer inventory of the configuration I wanted. Suzuki really understood how to combine simplicity with good engineering and at least in the cars I experienced, surprisingly good build quality for the price. I think their GM joint venture GEO cars probably dragged down their reputation some, and then there was that Daewoo fiasco.
I bet Mitsubishi has saved a fortune by having one of their employees kids do all their styling. They probably focus group in the daycare too. Was that front end really the least bad option?
I have had several Suzukis and I will definitely buy more (imported, 25+). I also had a Peugoet 505. But neither brand is actually extinct, they’re just not available in the US.
If I can’t buy ’em in Canada, they’re dead to me!
That kids/daycare comment ????????????
The Triton’s front end is one i genuinely can’t unsee.Even those few seconds when an oncoming one flashes by,i immediately see the squinty thin lipped face
In the past i’ve seen owner survey results showing Susuki up the top for reliability and/or satisfaction.I’ve never owned one but respect them a lot
I had a Datsun 200SX which I guess Nissan still lives so maybe that doesn’t count.
I’ve also had an ’87 Conquest/Starion, ’88 Conquest/Starion, ’91 Talon TSi AWD, and a ’97 Eclipse GSX which do count. Despite the lead article in this dump, Mitsubishi is dead to me. Its reanimated corpse may be accidentally turning a profit but the Mitz I knew isn’t even recognizable today.
I’ve always wanted to at least drive one of those Conquest/Starions but the opportunity has never come up. I have a sneaking suspicion it might be one of those ‘don’t meet your hero’ moments but they’re just cool looking!
Hey I had a Datsun 200SX too. A black 1982 hatchback. I dig your taste in cars.
I rock a 1988 200SX to this day.
The executives “foregoing salary” for a year is pure fucking theatre.
Their salary is about $450k and fully taxable.
They will still be receiving well over $2M in stock grants (at today’s trading price) which are taxed at a fraction of that rate, as well as their other benefits like a company plane, fully paid health, life, and car insurance, nigh unlimited ‘expense’ accounts, and a guarantee of employment at notorious BHPH lot DriveTime.
Oh, and Carvana isn’t a “startup” or “disruptor.” They never were. Their ‘founder’ is Ernest Garcia III. He’s the son of Ernest Garcia II, the owner of DriveTime and business partner of Thomas Duck Jr of Ugly Duckling cars. Two of the most notorious BHPH, predatory subprime dealer chains in North America. (They’re the ones that literally would prepare tax returns for people and use an under-estimated refund as the down payment on the car.)
Oh, and if you’re old enough to remember the S&L scandal? Ernest Garcia II is a convicted felon who was heavily involved in Lincoln Savings and Loan Association. So should give you some idea as to the actual ethics of the ownership.
Lifehack! Make your struggling, underperforming brand part of a gigantic auto empire and then just rebadge someone else’s stuff = instant profit. Look at Opel/Vauxhall.
Not to mention closing factories and making cuts the previous owners refused to.
The factories might actually stay due to local commitments. Engineering, design R&D, eh, why bother? Just assemble a badge engineered version from something else at the new mothership.
I’ll second the Saturn sentiment. I had an Aura that I liked a lot. It wasn’t super fancy, or a knockout in the looks department, but it was comfortable to drive. It had a decent engine, got good MPG, and it just felt like the right size. It was a good car.
Drove a 68 Javelin, 74 Jensen Healey, Isuzu Vehicross and Amigo. Loved them all.
Yes! Isuzu was another defunct (here) brand I’ve owned. I had a Trooper 2 door 5spd 4 cylinder. I loved it and it’s much the reason I have my heart set on a new Bronco in the same configuration (where possible, for example if Ford offered a hardtop 2 door Bronco for cheaper than the removable top, I’d probably go for that).
Ugh I wish we had an edit button. I’ve often pined for a Vehicross myself.
Oh and I had an Isuzu Hombre, rebadged S-10.
I wish we had a delete button for some of my beer soaked later comments
While I’m sad to see the 2GR go, holy shit Toyota is finally embracing turbos! I can’t wait to have that t24a in a Camry, and it finally looks like we’re going to see it happen.
“When will startups learn how difficult it is to disrupt established industries?” – from what I’ve read / seen, this seems to be the ‘thing’ when major VC gets involved. Dollar signs trump everything, so what’s the most dollars possible other than taking over the entire industry?
I’ve wondered how many major startups actually would have preferred to just ‘play along’ as just another entity in their field, but in their early stage planning to begin their rounds of VC pitches they are persuaded to aim higher and bigger because it’s what the investors want to see for their money.
Lets see…
1988 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale Brougham
1991 Mercury Grand Marquis
1995 Plymouth Neon Sport
I have no particular affection for any of those 3 brands.
What was the old Cd of the RR Sport? I’d love to see a comparison picture of the body with the Cd change.
Wife, back when she was the girlfriend, owned an ’01 Saturn SC (SC2, I think?) Eventually she sold it because it needed a new clutch and she wasn’t interested in paying to do it. It was a decent little car, and I’m kind of sad that the Saturn brand left the world.
I feel that now more than ever a brand dedicated to being affordable, and standing up to the rigors of the modern world (meaning the plastic doors to resist dings) has a place.
Other than that, only vehicles I’ve ever owned were Fords and an El Camino. Wouldn’t mind seeing Utes become popular again.
I drove a 1992 Oldsmobile Toronado/Trofeo I bought off my dad while I was in college. I loved that car. It ran beautifully, drove like a dream, and looked great. Well, at least it looked good until a drunk girl hit me and totaled it out. But, I bought it back from my insurance company and continued to drive it for another year. Oldsmobile made some damn nice cars.