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 McLaren Artura Is Barely On Sale And Now It’s Being Recalled I’m cautiously excited about the McLaren Artura, which is the supercar company’s attempt at hybridizing its volume-selling, entry-point supercar....

The past seven days have brought a number of firsts for me. On Friday, I flew into Los Angeles aboard a Boeing 777-200. It wasn’t just my first time in a 777, but my first time riding in a wide-body aircraft of any kind. While here, I’ve gotten more firsts like my first time at the Petersen Automotive Museum, first time at the LA Auto Show, and first time in Pasadena....

Oh but before we dig in, let’s talk about the name for a moment: Prologue. It’s impossible to think about this name and not be reminded of the Honda Prelude, because I’m not sure any other automaker is so fond of naming cars for things that happen before the main thing starts. Unless Suzuki released a car called the Appetizer I forgot about, or if there’s maybe a Chevy Prequel or a Ford Antecedent....

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 Nord Stream Pipelines Have Sprung Suspicious Leaks A bit of news on gas pipelines may seem strange to see on an automotive website, but bear with me. New car production in Europe relies fairly heavily on gas-fired electricity, and a shortage of gas could really throw a wrench in the works....

The first thing you’ll notice about the Ram 1500 Revolution Concept is how it looks quite different from any Ram you’ve probably seen. There are a few good reasons for this, so let’s start with the big stuff. Ram has pushed the base of the windscreen forward to create more room in the cabin. This results in a short dash-to-axle ratio which looks a bit dorky compared to the pickups you’re used to seeing but should be incredibly useful....

The Smart #1 is built on Geely’s Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) modular electric vehicle platform, as part of a partnership between Chinese automaker Geely and Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Smart’s parent company (Smart hasn’t been part of Swatch for some time, in case you haven’t been keeping up). The platform variant used for the Smart #1 is a rear-motor, RWD setup, which, though unusual for most carmakers transitioning to EVs, has been the traditional Smart Car layout from day one....

Reviews of the new Prius are out today, and it’s getting solid marks; make sure and read ours here. With those comes official pricing from Toyota: the new hot hybrid starts at $27,450 for the base LE trim. If you want a fully loaded Limited AWD model, that goes up to a still-reasonable $35,865; see the chart below for details. (As with Toyota’s numbers, ours exclude delivery fees.) Like the looks of the car, the verdict on pricing is Not Bad....

As you can see the by the pictures, the MIAG was a luxurious, refined, high-speed, long-distance Autobahn burner, an early 1950s GT car, one that rivaled – okay, okay, I can’t keep that up. Of course it’s not that. It’s the exact opposite: a low-speed, heavy-hauling little work beast. These are the sorts of machines MIAG has been making since about 1922: tractors, haulers, forklifts, basically things to move other things....

So how does one build harpoons for car doors? You certainly won’t find off-the-shelf harpoons for this application from Tractor Supply or the tenth-tallest pyramid in the world that’s currently a Bass Pro Shops. In this case, Bell got some parts laser-cut out of quarter-inch steel, then welded the parts together, and also made one harpoon with titanium arms for good measure. Perfect for shooting out of a can cannon....

[ED Note: The Bishop, our daydreaming designer, regularly shares with us his wild ideas. From a reborn Mustang II to a tiny RV house, his ideas range from thoughtful and practical to outright loony.] Ford’s late sixties to mid seventies mid-sized entry (well, they CALLED it mid-sized) was quite popular and was available in some exciting versions. The sinister-looking 1969-71 GT coupes could be had with the Cobra Jet 428 and were arguably quite underrated latter day muscle cars at the time....

Look on that grille! That’s not a horse, it’s a big cat, threateningly swiping its big paws around. Ford actually had quite a history of putting cat badges on its cars, usually in threes. I wrote about this years ago, and it has to do, of all things, with the coat of arms of Richard the Lionhearted. That’s not all Ford was willing to borrow from Europe, though. One of my favorite parts about this styling model is how it has the expected general Mustang look that we know, but odd oval headlights that change the whole face of the car....

Wow. I thought you all had more intestinal fortitude than that. C’mon, where’s your sense of adventure? Where’s that can-do spirit? Oh well, suit yourselves. If I throw out the chicken vote, it looks like the Range Rover takes the win, so it will move on to Friday’s bacchanalia of bad ideas. Today you’ll need a good deal more gumption than that to make a choice. Today, you will need to take the most critical part of some other car and put it into one of these cars to make it complete....

Looks like smooth sailing for our Packard Clipper to an easy win. The Olds might be a little easier to find parts for, but its eight cylinders are arranged the wrong way. Today, there is no theme. No tie that binds. Once or twice a week, in the course of looking for vehicles to feature, I come across something that just doesn’t have an obvious mate, that doesn’t really match up with anything else....

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. Someone Blows The Whistle On Cruise A whistleblower claiming to be an employee for GM’s Cruise autonomous vehicle company has reportedly filed a letter to California regulators over claims of sub-optimal safety culture at the firm....

Autoliv is a major supplier of car safety items, yet its presence in Detroit was more like that of a university or startup company. In fact, before I put the airbags and the Autoliv name together, I thought that this was a startup. But it’s far from that. Autoliv opened in 1953 by Lennart Lindblad. Back then, it was called Lindblads Autoservice AB. And right from the start the company was about making safety equipment....

This is a situation that I can relate to. Back in 2017, I was towing my parents’ Adirondack 31BH behind a Ford Expedition EL. As we neared our destination–a campground near the Indiana Beach amusement park in Monticello, Indiana–the GPS took us off of the interstate and onto some country roads. As it was around midnight, I traveled down these country roads locked at the speed limit, keeping my eyes peeled for wildlife....

On last week’s installment of Prove Me Wrong, our Matt Hardigree boldly proclaimed: “Steve McQueen looked cool but wasn’t actually cool and you shouldn’t pretend to be him. Instead, if you feel the need to cosplay as mid-century actor you should model your life after James Garner. James Garner was cooler than Steve McQueen ever was.” This resulted in a fun comment section full of stories and enthusiastic discussion. As it turns out, Hardigree didn’t have that hot of a take....

What if the new Supra, for example, came in a fastback and coupé form? Or if you could get a notchback version of the Kia Soul? Or even two- and four-door versions of the same car? That’s pretty much gone, too. Is that bad? Good? Honestly, I don’t even know anymore. Maybe it was confusing, maybe it was fun? Probably both. It’s also quite possibly the first time a Japanese company gave North America a car that could not be bought in Japan or Europe – the GT-S convertible was only ever sold in the United States....

Last year, when I still worked for the ol’ German lighting company, I held regular car meetups for Detroit-area Jenoptik customers. Now that I’m here at The Autopian, those meetups won’t be stopping. As always, Saturday’s will be completely unsanctioned. Here are the details: Where: Walmart Parking Lot in Troy, MI (2001 W Maple Rd, Troy, MI 48084) When: 7 P.M. We’ll meet in the parking lot, hang out there for an hour, and then cruise Woodward before breaking off for the night....

I’m officially a married woman, which means that my finances can begin flowing back to cars and earning my pilot license. This is bad, and this list reflects the bad ideas that I have if I had enough money. I search the entire country for a good balance of price and vehicle condition. But sometimes, some really cool cars end up for sale with really high prices. It’s disappointing, of course, but there’s nothing wrong with window shopping and dreaming....