Sony and Honda finalize an EV deal, Citroën breaks out the beachwear, Ferrari firms up EV plans. 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.
Sony And Honda Make It Official
Good news for anyone beguiled by Sony’s Vision-S 01 and 02 concept cars, it looks like some sort of Sony EV will officially see production. While Sony and Honda previously announced plans for a joint venture, those plans have now been finalized. According to a press release issued by Honda, the new joint venture company will be called Sony Honda Mobility Inc. and plans to produce electric vehicles in 2025.
Honestly, a three-year period to develop a production-spec EV, homologate said EV, establish a distribution network, and build a new assembly line seems fairly aggressive, but Sony’s been working on EV tech for a few years now, so it’s not quite the same as starting from scratch. What’s more, the joint venture seems to be taking an interesting approach on what mobility means, judging by a statement from planned President and COO Izumi Kawanishi.
“By combining the many strengths of Sony and Honda, we intend to accelerate development and lead the evolution of mobility by realizing mobility as an emotional space rooted in safety and security, and the related services.”
Honestly, this feels like the right approach. Forget robotaxis and owning nothing, cars should be sanctuaries of sorts, bubbles of personal space in a crowded world. As for what security actually means, it’ll be interesting to see Sony Honda Mobility’s interpretation of that word. A focus on cybersecurity would be huge considering how much data new cars collect, and Sony’s tech background means that such an interpretation isn’t out of the question. For now, I’m looking forward to 2025 as Sony Honda Mobility seems like one of the most promising new EV companies in a while.
Citroën Goes To The Beach
Is it just me, or are not enough companies making electric beach buggies? The concept sounds awesome, high-torque fun in the sand without spewing tailpipe emissions and noise. Thankfully, Citroën seems to be stepping up to the plate with the My Ami Buggy. I mean come on, how can you not love a dune buggy basically called the friend?
Oh, and while Citroën refers to this fun little toy as the My Ami Buggy numerous times in the press release, the special serialized plate on the dashboards adds onto that, calling this thing the My Ami Buggy ULTRA SPECIAL LIMITED EDITION. Don’t you just love to see it? Honestly, ultra special feels about right, seeing as Citroën is only planning to build 50 of the things. So what exactly do these 50 beach specials get over a standard Ami? Well, the khaki exterior finish is a great place to start, contrasted nicely by a gold set of wheels.
The standard Ami’s doors get ditched for a set of tube doors, while the roof is now a roll-back canvas affair, a bit like on a 2CV. Add in some wonderfully adorkable touches like lime green dashboard inserts and a mildly comedic rear spoiler, and you get one seriously cute vehicle. Well, when I say you get one seriously cute vehicle, I mean that if you live in France and manage to secure an online reservation on July 21, you can get your hands on one of these cute little guys. Pricing isn’t hideously expensive either, Citroën’s announced an MSRP of €9,790, or roughly $10,240. Yeah, I’d be getting in line too if I lived in France.
The Repo Man Doesn’t Knock
While the COVID-19 pandemic created a seriously weird car market, it also created some really unique conditions in the car loan market. According to credit reporting company Experian, car loan delinquencies were quite low through the third quarter of 2021, at 1.66 percent for 30-day delinquencies and 0.55 percent for 60-day delinquencies. That’s much, much lower than historical norms as reported by the U.S. Federal Reserve, although it seems like this era of low loan delinquency rates may be coming to a close.
Automotive News reports that Ford CFO John Lawler made some comments about rising loan delinquencies at the recent Deutsche Bank Global Auto Industry Conference. This rise isn’t a huge cause for concern, but rather part of a slow return to what are described as more normal delinquency rates. As Lawler said, “It seems like we’re reverting back more towards the mean.” Honestly, I’m not terribly surprised to hear that auto loan delinquencies are going back up. Inflation is squeezing the absolute bejeezus out of the average consumer, and massively-inflated car values hurt anyone entering the market. Hopefully cooling measures calm inflation’s gale-force headwind into more of a brisk breeze. Until then, maybe just keep an eye on the auto loan market and try to keep your current fleet going as long as possible.
Ferrari Reveals More Details On Electrification
I feel like we all kind of knew that an electric Ferrari was coming at some point. After all, electric vehicles are a sound way for a car company to reduce its new vehicle fleet emissions and it’s hard to imagine the screaming V12 in the 812 Superfast as a particularly green powerplant. However, I’m not sure if anyone was expecting a Ferrari EV in the next three years or so.
According to a Reuters report, Ferrari Chief Executive Benedetto Vigna told investors on Thursday that Ferrari’s first all-electric vehicle is coming in 2025. A bit of a rapid shift considering the V12-powered Purosangue SUV is set to debut this September, but hey. Honestly, it makes sense if you take Ferrari’s projections into account. The brand believes that pure EVs will make up 40 percent of Ferrari sales in 2030, while hybrids will make up another 40 percent of sales. Helping fuel this charge is Ferrari’s plan to launch 15 new models between 2023 and 2026, rather grand ambitions for a boutique exotic car brand. More importantly, Ferrari sees a way to keep its soul while going electric. Chairman John Elkann seems really positive about electrification’s effect on Ferrari’s DNA, saying “The opportunity set of electrification and electronics will allow us to make even more unique cars.” Needless to say, this will be an interesting transformation to watch.
The Flush
Whelp, time to drop the lid on today’s edition of The Morning Dump. Happy Thursday everyone, Friday’s little brother is finally here. To celebrate, how about playing a little game? Let’s say you’re given unlimited money to build an eight-car collection. The only catch is that each car has to be from a different decade, starting in the 1950s and finishing with the 2020s. What eight cars are you choosing?
Lead photo credit: Sony
I wasn’t sure about my list until I saw “flatisflat(s) list. Too perfect! Sign me up for the 2nd batch!
50s – 300SL
60s – Miura
70s – 930
80s – 959
90s – 993 Turbo
00s – Ford GT
10s – GT350R
20s – Taycan
Jaguar XKSS
Ferrari 250GTO
Iso Grifo
Lamborghini Countach 500S
Subaru 22B
TVR Sagaris
Morgan Trike
Porsche Taycan GTS Sport Turismo
1950s: Mercedes 300SL
1960s: Aston Martin DB5
1970s: Chevy Cheyenne K-series truck
1980s: Lotus Esprit Turbo
1990s: McLaren F1
2000s: Honda S2000 or Acura NSX (probably the latter…)
2010s: A Porsche 911 with a manual. (too many choices to narrow from there)
2020s: A Jeep Grand Wagoneer, but only once they find a way to get 20 MPG. (Yeah…doesn’t exist yet)
I wonder how many of those repo’s are from people now realizing that they paid $15-20k extra for the privilege of buying a vehicle, and realized it’s better for them to simply walk that pay off all that?
This is an amazingly tough list to make as I love too many cars. I’m also amazed how many Chrysler products made it onto the list as well!
1957 DeSoto Fireflite Sportsman
1966 Imperial Crown
1970 Dodge Coronet Super Bee 440-6
1985 Lamborghini Countach LP5000 QV
1992 McLaren F1
2009 Dodge Viper GTS
2010 BMW M5 Wagon (E61)
2022 Porsche Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo
1950s: Morgan 3-wheeler
1960s: Aston Martin DB5
1970s: Jensen Interceptor
1980s: Lamborghini Countach
1990s: McLaren F1
2000s: Lotus Esprit V8 Twin Turbo
2010s: BMW i8
2020s: (too soon to tell?)
I love weird little cars, especially electric ones, so I’d probably go with these:
1956 BMW Isetta
1960 Henney Kilowatt
1971 Citroen DS wagon
1980 Renault Le Car ‘Lectric Leopard
1999 Honda Insight
2006 Smart Fortwo
2014 Mitsubishi i-MiEV
2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5
I know for a fact that I would be very happy with any and all of these vehicles.
59 Dodge Custom Royale Convertible (swivel front seats!!!)
68 Iso Griffo
70 Maserati Ghibli
87 Ferrari 288 GTO
98 McLaren F1
09 Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder (an actual usable exotic)
19 Tesla S 100D
23 Ford F150 Lightning
1959 VW Beetle – Just because I want a beetle and this seemed the best place to slot it in
1968 Shelby Mustang GT500 – Unicorn
1974 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Spyder – So I can live out my Miami Vice Dreams
1989 Porsche 930 Slantnose
1995 Toyota MR2 – Plenty of exotics, need something reliable and I lusted after these when new
2001 Ferrari 550 Maranello
2015 Porsche Cayman GT4
2022 Ford Ranger Lariat or a 2022 Lucid Air Dream
SYNONYMS FOR whelp
cub
dog
pup
puppy
An unlimited budget calls for really outrageous cars that have no real business being on the road.
1954 Mercedes 300SL
1963 Ferrari GTO 250
1978 Lamborghini Countach LP400 S
1986 Porsche 959
1995 Acura NSX
2009 Koenigsegg CCXR
2019 McLaren Senna
2023 Bentley Bentayga EWB
The NSX is by far the weakest link and the one I just dropped in because I was tired of thinking of this question.
The Bentley is there mostly because you need something to drive around in, I really like long wheel base cars. And if the back seat doesn’t compare to the front seats in comfort, it’s not really as much of a luxury car as it could be in my mind.
I’m really shocked that there are exactly zero convertibles in my list. But I don’t find my answers particularly interesting because “how would you spend all the money if you had all the money” isn’t really all that interesting a question.
Now this is fun
1950s: 1958 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser with Breezeway window. Second choice is a Plymouth Cranbrook 2 door.
1960s: Toyota Stout or Corona. Close was a ’64 Ford Galaxy 500 2 door 4spd or a ’65 F-100 I-6/4spd.
1970s: I picked a colonnade GM yesterday, so I’ll go with a 1978 Mercury Zephyr Z-7, 200 I-6, manual, full gauges.
1980s: tough choice. 1986 Ford Taurus LX sedan. The game changer. Coulda picked an 87+ Bronco w/ 300 I-6.
1990s again too many good choices. 1992 Ford Tempo LX V-6 5-speed. I had a ’92 LX, automatic though and I always wanted a manual. I’ll take green with grey interior. Mine was white with red interior, definitely not my personal choice, but I had little choice for a V-6 Tempo in 2001. A ’91-97 Explorer XLT 4WD 4 door 5 speed with the upgraded cloth interior is a close second. I already own an example of a second gen Taurus.
2000s oh geeze. Not my era. A 2002 Accord EX 5 speed 4 cylinder sedan with cloth interior. Almost put a 5spd/4wd first gen Kia Sportage.
2010s 2012 Ford Taurus SEL. Again, not my decade, but my mom has one and it’s a great car. I guess a 2016/17 Accord coupe 4 cylinder manual as a second choice. Last of its kind.
2020s: I’ve picked a Bronco several times for these hypotheticals, so I suppose 2022 Ford Maverick XL AWD 4K tow in Area 51.
Unlimited money and you’re stacked with mostly practical domestics! Wow.
(Actually quite cool, if you ask me.)
Can’t help it, heart wants what it wants.
There’s plenty of non domestic cars I’d have in addition, but I was picking what’s closest to my heart.
53 Vette
69 Nova SS
70 Superbird
82 Accord Hatchback (Honda Red, my first car)
96 Impala SS
09 S2000
14 CTS-V Sport Wagon
2020 Shelby GT500SE
I decided to make this first list more realistic than “cost no object”. I think I could pull this collection off if I so chose…
50s: By far the most difficult as there’s not a whole lot I really lust after that’s affordable. But let’s say a mid-50s Studebaker Commander or Champion Coupe
60s: 1968 Dodge Dart convertible with the 225 “leaning tower of power” (I have right of first refusal on one should it ever sell)
70s: Square body Chevy pickup from the very early 70s with standard cab and 8 ft bed
80s: Bitter SC (selling my ’88 Jaguar XJ6 to help finance it)
90s: 2nd gen Honda CRX Si
00s: The 2007 Suburban I already have is quite satisfactory, but an upgrade to a 2500 version with a 6.2 would be nice
10s: You can pry my 2018 Fiesta ST from my cold, dead fingers; would probably become a track/AutoX weapon
20s: A modest electric car, something like a Bolt or Ioniq
Cost no object
50s: A 4-wheeled Morgan
60s: An Icon-built 60s Dodge Crew Cab coachbuilt to 3-row SUV or already in SUV body from import market (cheating, I know, since it’s modern running gear underneath)
70s: Big ol’ Cadillac convertible
80s: Aston Martin Lagonda (and while we’re at it, one of the estate conversions)
90s: I still want a 2nd gen CRX Si
00s: Acura NSX
10s: Heavy duty pickup
20s: A high dollar electric car like the Lucid or the Taycan
But overall most of my real automotive dreams are pretty modest and affordable
Working backwards
2020’s – F150 lightning
2010’s – Aventador
2000’s – Murciélago
1990’s – McLaren F1
1980’s – Empty space (maybe a beater BWM?)
1970’s – almost any truck with an 8+ ft bed
1960’s – Morgan 4+4
1950’s – Something small and British
1950’s – Porsche 356 Speedster
1960’s – Maserati 3500 GTI
1970’s – Lancia Stratos HF
1980’s – Porsche 928 S4
1990’s – Ferrari 308 Quatrovalvole
2000’s – Audi R8
2010’s – McClaren Senna
2020’s – Bronco Raptor
The 308 was an ’80s car but the 928 S4 was available into the 1990s, so you could swap those two.
1956 Porsche 550
1962 Porsche 356B
1973 Porsche 911 RS
1988 Porsche 959
1993 Porsche 911 Turbo 3.6
2007 Porsche Carrera GT
2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder
2022 Porsche 911 GT3 Touring
I mean, not really….but I always like seeing that this sort of list is possible. 🙂
Porsche, there is no substitute.
*Insert Risky Business gif
He had a 928, right? For shame. lol! ;P
I think I would swap in a 918 for the Boxster but if your list came only as a fixed set I could live with it.
“Let’s say you’re given unlimited money to build an eight-car collection. The only catch is that each car has to be from a different decade, starting in the 1950s and finishing with the 2020s.”
– 1959 Checker A10W Superba with a Chrysler LA 360 truck and A904
– 1968 AMC AMX “Von Pirahna” with the 390
– 1977 Jeep Wagoneer and we will not be answering questions, only causing them
– 1986 Dodge Daytona TurboZ C/S with a pre-1/1/86 build date
– 1995 Dodge Neon ACR with full SCCA prep package (including airbag removal)
– 2002 Mazda RX-7 Spirit R
– 2012 Porsche Carrera 4 GTS, oh hey…
– 2022 Jeep Grand Wagoneer with all the warranty I can get my hands on
1959 Coupe DeVille
1964 Aston Martin DB5
1979 Chevy K20 (nostalgic purposes)
1981 Chevy Citation (nostalgic purposes)
1998 Nissan Skyline GT-R
2004 Ford GT
2017 Dodge Challenger
2022 Rivian R1T
1959 Austin Healey 3000 MkI
1967 Sunbeam Tiger Mark II
1970 AMC Javelin SST Mark Donohue
1987 Lotus Esprit Turbo HC
1991 BMW M3
2009 Honda S2000
2014 Mitsubishi Evo X
2023 Nissan Z
As always, ask me again tomorrow and this list may be different, but for today:
1955 Lancia Aurelia B24 Spider
1967 Plymouth GTX
1975 MGB GT V8
1985 Ferrari Testarossa
1991 Nissan D21 “Hardbody” 4×4 V6 manual
2002 Buick Park Avenue Ultra
2019 Chevy Camaro 4 cyl manual
2023 Toyota Corolla GR (in bright orange or something)
These choices I know I’d actually drive.
I mean if that Citroën is truly going to go onto the beach, especially loaded with batteries, it’s going to need some wider tires than that. Skinny tires are going to sink right in (I can attest to my electric car’s weight on the beach). Maybe some balloon tires to truly get that bouncy beach buggy experience?
Eh, the Ami is very tiny and can probably get away with it. Google says it weighs 1069lbs including battery, but I don’t know how that compares to other dune buggies.
First, I like the beach buggy. It is a nice alternative to the golf carts.
Now for eight vehicles, in no particular order. I used general style when there was not a specific preference.
1. 2000 – 2010 Work truck.
2. 1969 Ford F-100. Special place in my heart.
3. 1998 z28 (see user name).
4. 1970s Station Wagon.
5. 1980s Ford Panther platform.
6. 2015-2020 SuperC or Class A motorhome.
7. 2021 -> 2022 Jeep Wrangler. Flat tow for number 6.
8. 1958 Chevy DelRay
1956 Continental Mark 2
1967 Corvette 427
1972 Chevrolet Blazer
1989 Porsche 959
1994 McLaren F1
2002 Ferrari 360 Spider
2013 Viper GTS
2022 Raptor R