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. F&I, Meet FTC A typical guideline with any new car dealership is that no matter how nice your sales guy is, the finance and insurance (F&I) office is going to try to make you bend over by pushing high-margin drivel like dentless paint removal and TruCoat....

Now, when you go on a long trip, you’re bound to run into some possibly helpful advice. You’ve probably heard it before: don’t eat the tuna sandwich from a rest stop vending machine, steer away from the gas station burritos, and you probably don’t want to drink something that’ll make you pee. David Tracy somehow outclasses us all on poor dietary decisions. At the old lighting site, it was an open secret that he stored food in a truck bed during the winter....

If this motorhome looks similar to you, it’s because I actually first wrote about it back in the summer of 2021. Now, I’ve seen it, touched it, played around with it, and have some additional news for you. Back then, Wingamm announced that it was coming to America. So the company’s reps tell me, Wingamm missed its release date. Then, after American RVers tested the European version, the company decided to make changes just for the American market....

Before we get into these Prius body kits, let’s start with a bit of background information on Modellista. A bit like how Mercedes has both Maybach and AMG, Toyota has its own range of in-house tuning companies. There’s Gazoo Racing which handles all the really quick stuff, TRD which plays in a roughly similar arena as Gazoo Racing, and Modellista, which makes things look a bit funkier. If you’re familiar with Autech’s current role in the Nissan ecosystem, Modellista will make sense....

I realize that I’m supposed to be a perfectly “professional” journalist who, when an automaker shows something awesome, just looks down his nose at a notebook while slowly jotting down a few words with a quill. “Irresponsible,” the first line should read. “Climate change liability,” the next bullet should say. “Pedestrian safety,” the last note should read before I underline it twice, with vigor, and chuckle in the snootiest way possible....

Chinese car buyers may look for stuff to improve a car’s practicality, to make the vehicle easier to operate, or to improve its looks. Chinese consumers are helped by living in the “factory of the world,” with zillions of big and small accessory factories churning out everything from seat covers to body kits. These factories are amazingly fast and adaptive, able to design and produce new things in a heartbeat....

Starting in 1974, the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, known colloquially as the Monterey Historics, has been part of the middle of August on the Monterey peninsula along with the Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance. In the beginning, there were only those two events but over the years it has grown to a full week worth of car celebration with more than 30 events spanning the gamut of car interests. Along with the historic races and the Concours, there are numerous car shows in the streets of the town of Carmel, automobilia gatherings, car auctions hosted by Mecum, RM Sotheby’s, and Gooding & Co....

The tension and hostility between Toyotathonians and Happy Honda Daysians is long-standing and well-documented. Papers have been written about it, anthropologists have given TED talks about it, and, sadly, families have been torn apart because of it. It’s a shame because deep down, both saleabrations have the same goal: to put people in high-quality, reliable and sensible cars at end-of-the-year blowout prices. And they both trace their origins to Japan, and both have well-known spiritual leaders....

But before we get to that, let’s see how yesterday ended up: And the green Manta takes a comfortable win. Honestly, I don’t think there is a bad choice between these two; it comes down to preference. I might be tempted to choose the Renault just for the rear-engined novelty, but I’d happily wrench on either. One of today’s picks comes to us courtesy of my pen-pal and fellow contributor Stephen Walter Gossin....

It all started in 1984, the XJ’s first model-year and also the birth year of the Beijing Jeep Corporation, abbreviated BJC and commonly known as Beijing-Jeep. This was a joint venture between the Beijing Auto Industry Corporation (BAIC) and the American Motors Corporation (AMC), which owned Jeep. Under the terms of the agreement, the Chinese side would bring in land, factories, and people, while the American side would bring in the actual cars and technology....

Cash flow for octogenarians is a bitch, it turns out. Cars aren’t cheap, especially these days. And while that definitely was a factor in Sterling, Kansas residents Ralph and Diane holding onto their old van, the biggest factor was that the car was just a tank — one that the couple dubbed the “Super Van.” Trading the vehicle’s maladies for a new set of problems in a “nicer” ride just never did compute to them....

These lovely illustrations were done by the very talented Bernd Reuters, who did automotive ad illustrations for a lot of German carmakers, like Opel and Adler and Wanderer. Bernd, I suspect, had a lot of ideas about what automotive beauty was, and if the Beetle didn’t really meet his standards, well, Bernd would just massage those lines until it did. The result was a lower, wider, more bulbous and, well, sensual Beetle, with curves and lines that really weren’t part of the real thing, as you can see up there....

Maybe it’s for irrigation, but there’s some fire extinguishers there, so I bet that’s not water in those pipes. I think it fits. The R12 does have a sort of lay-the-plans-on-the-trunk-and-point-at-the-thing-that-may-explode kinda vibe. 12 TS were the base model and TL the loaded ones that got fancier photo sessions The US model Renault had quad round headlamps that looked fine but I pined for those smooth Euro lamps. Other interesting “features” included a glass coolant overflow bottle, tall and soft-padded vinyl-clad seats, and despite the longitudinal FWD layout, generous torque-steer in the lower gears....

Congrats on getting this heap up and running – now get it out of your fleet when you get back from Raptor bashing. One thing I would recommend is to WEAR GLOVES when wrenching. Even cheap disposable latex gloves can prevent grease from getting under most of your fingertips (yes you will likely rip the tips of the glove’s index finger, but usually only one or two fingertips will be destroyed in my experience)....

Back in 2009, my mom dropped me off at the Kansas City airport and sent me on my way to Charlottesville to attend college. It was my first time in Virginia that I could remember, and almost instantly I felt out of place. The University placed me in the rowdiest dorm on campus (which the students called “grounds”), where the kids were so “affluent” that they literally used the term “affluent” to describe their childhood neighborhoods....

Ford had a Maverick Tremor set up at Michigan’s Holly Oaks ORV Park — a relatively new off-road park that was long overdue, as Detroit-based manufacturers lacked local spots outside of their proving grounds to test vehicles’ off-road capabilities — as part of a “Maverick Content Capture” opportunity for journalists. Basically, FoMoCo wants to keep the buzz going until people can start ordering these in September before theoretically taking delivery at some point this fall....

Yesterday’s basket cases elicited some entertaining comments. Let’s see how the voting went down: Looks like it’s the Bradley. I think that’s the right call. As several commenters pointed out, a Cosworth Vega in decent shape is actually worth some money, so restoring one is a “do it the right way or don’t do it at all” proposition. With a VW-based kit car, there is no “right way,” because you’re making it up as you go along, and any future owner needn’t care about originality....

The story starts in 2001 with the Suzuki MR wagon, a kei car which is neither mid-engined nor rear-wheel-drive, but is technically a wagon. So what does MR mean? Take a guess. Nope, it actually stands for Magical Relax, which is a bit like saying a car’s a driveable laxative. Anyway, Nissan had an OEM agreement with Suzuki to sell the MR Wagon as the Moco, which worked out quite successfully....

Here on the Autopian Podcast‘s 25th episode you’ll get to see me really geek out, because the Brubaker Box has been a favorite car of mine for decades. The Brubaker Box is a very sporty, low, van-like vehicle built on an essentially unmodified (as opposed to something like a Meyers Manx, which requires the chassis to be shortened significantly) Volkswagen Beetle chassis. The design is a packaging triumph, small on the outside, big on the inside, with nearly all of the interior volume usable for people and their stuff....

This motorcycle has popped up at Mecum Auctions and it’s set to roll across the Las Vegas auction block on January 26. At first, I fell deeply in love with this creation because it’s about everything that I’d want in a vintage cruiser. It’s painted in a gorgeous color, is draped in plenty of brightwork, and even has some practical cases. That’s just the beginning of it, as the frame comes from a BMW while housed under the tank is a 2000cc air-cooled Volkswagen engine....