The concept of a boat that’s also a camper actually dates back more than half of a century. In 1955, Englishman Ronald Sams made the Otter Amphibious Caravan, a camper that could be used on dry land or on water. In the 1960s, an English company produced the Caraboat, a vehicle built around the same idea. There’s also the Nomad, a fiberglass boat that did double duty as a pop-up camper of sorts....

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. Dealership Turnover Lowest In A Decade Since 2011, the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) has been studying dealership employees to watch employment trends in the industry. This year’s survey is out, showing that in 2021 salaries rose and turnover dropped by a large amount....

But unlike the guy who had no business taking an 8 a.m. class, Mazda has no choice but to electrify, and that’s a tough proposition for a small, independent automaker that isn’t flush with investor cash—one of the last, really. So can Mazda’s only EV (for now) be more than it is? It says yes, and one answer for now at least is bringing back the rotary engine as a range extender, not unlike the Chevrolet Volt or the BMW i3....

There are almost no similarities between the Alpe Concept and the Escape that Ford ended up building other than the grey body plastic cladding. I feel like the c-pillar that extends up into the roof rack is inspired and the chrome strip that runs from the front fender and across the greenhouse is an idea that needs to be realized. The wheel covers that seem to turn with the wheels themselves and are separated from the body?...

Here’s a video about the design and building of this important new VW product: VW really brought it for this build, as you can see. Take the lighting system, integrated into the armrests. There appears to be both DRLs that match the look of VW’s current design language as well as actual projector-style headlamps set within, along with turn signals, taillights, and the “party light” multicolor LED mode they showed in the video....

I don’t think Reagan ever owned a Thames van. Feels too British, even despite his famous compatibility with the UK’s Margaret Thatcher. Reagan did own a Subaru Brat, though: You can see him with his Brat here, which appears to not have the in-bed, rear-facing, handgrip-equipped jump seats, and instead has an open truck bed, which in this picture is holding a large dog, which, based on Reagan’s body language, may be a filthy commie that needs to get out of the truck, stat, pinko puppy....

The other aspect of driving in England I really like is driving on the left. For an American, it totally screws with your mind. You’re driving on the “wrong” side of the road. You’re sitting on the “wrong” side of the car, you’re trying to shift with your left hand, and the mirrors are all in the “wrong” places. You’re very aware of how concentrated you need to be on the act of driving while at the same time navigating roads that are more like a funfair ride than actual roads....

I mean, technically, all that fire means that some things didn’t go like they should go at all, in a pretty big way, but those jets of flame are the result of safety systems performing as designed. First, though, let’s marvel at the sheer raw, flaming, Death Metal-style violence of this: ✍️AJ#Europe pic.twitter.com/RGRxkJY121 — New_Vision_News (@N_Vision_N) April 20, 2022 Holy shit, right? That’s legitimately terrifying. But let’s dig a bit into just what is going on here....

[Ed note: This is one of our holiday gift guides, which is a service we’re doing to help everyone with their end-of-year shopping. This post also contains some affiliate links, which means we might get paid a commission if you buy something listed here or, usually, anything else on one of the sites. We won’t do this often, but it’s a way to support the site if you’re so inclined....

This morning, fellow big wheel lover Adrian Clarke sent me a link to a cool bus. The thumbnail had me hooked from the start. The bus in the top image is from Neoplan, a German manufacturer of distinctive buses. I could probably identify a Neoplan design from a quarter mile away. And at least for a short time, even Americans got to enjoy the weird things. But the Neoplan that Adrian sent was more than just a cool bus, as it was converted into a home, too....

Unfortunately, I missed out on giving you a Christmas hit of Mercedes’ Marketplace Madness. I had just finished enjoying Volkswagen Golf GTI goodness, but I couldn’t get home. Much of the country shuttered thanks to a massive weather system that featured heavy snow, high winds, and dangerously low temperatures. But that’s fine; let’s just start off 2023 with some wacky, some fast, and some rare vehicles, courtesy of Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace....

See the lady dangling that bird in a cage over the NSU’s behind-the-seat cargo area? We’ve seen this before, remember? When I showed you that brochure for the Volkswagen Type 3 Ghia! Look! More birdcages! And also in a rear-engined sports car with a trunk up front, over the engine in the rear, and a cargo area behind the front seats! This can’t be a coincidence! There’s a message here, if only we can puzzle it out!...

We don’t really need to look at yesterday’s results to know which car won, but just to make it official: Ouch. A couple of you wondered whether the Mercedes was legit, and not a scam. I have some doubts myself, but judging by the tone of the ad, I think it might be one of those rare instances when the seller really does not know what they have. So somebody go hurry up and snag it before they come to their senses....

Good morning Autopians. Today The Autopian has off for the holiday, but I figure I’d say hello to you from Boston, where I’m hanging out with my mom (who flew in from Germany) and brother (who flew from Charlottesville) to watch my other brother graduate from MIT on one day and Harvard the next. “Dude, do you think I could get an MBA from HBS while simultaneously doing my Ph....

I am completely unsurprised. As I mentioned in the comments, the Aveo was a last-minute substitution; the car I wanted in there was a 2006 Scion xB, but it sold sometime in the three hours between finding the ad and writing yesterday’s edition. It happens. I suspect the xB might not have had its ass quite so thoroughly handed to it as that Aveo did. Anyway, let’s talk about vans....

The convertible itself isn’t a factory job, but rather a conversion by coachbuilder Drop Top Customs. However, Dodge has boldly taken steps to streamline the ordering process. Starting Tuesday, customers can order convertible versions of V8-powered Challengers directly through Dodge dealerships, with Dodge offering expedited shipping from the Challenger’s Brampton Assembly Plant to Drop Top Customs in Florida. Once the roof gets cut off and a soft top gets fitted, finished vehicles are sent directly to Dodge dealerships....

The Jeep takes it, by a comfortable margin. I agree. This may not be the Holy Grail, but I still feel you have chosen wisely. So… Off we go to Memphis. Or “Mimphis,” as the locals often pronounce it. One of a few American cities named after ancient Egyptian ones, along with Cairo, Illinois, which you would think is pronounced like the Egyptian city but in fact is pronounced “kay-ro....

I mean, I there are certainly more EV roadsters coming, and I suspect that if you really dig, you can find something on the Chinese market that qualifies as an EV roadster, but this is absolutely one of the very few out there. The Freze Froggy EV Beachstar The Winners Edition (I’m just going to call it the Freze EV, if that’s ok) is based on the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV, but DARTZ has done a lot of modifications to the car, not the least of which is lopping the whole roof off and turning the boxy little four-seat commuter EV into a two-seat fun roadster that feels decidedly unlike a commuter EV....

At first, I thought my $700 Chevy Tracker was the deal of the century. After all, once I’d replaced the main fuse that was preventing the 4×4 from running (and that enabled me to snag the machine at such a low price in the first place), the Tracker fired right up. Between the healthy motor, the lack fo rust, and the beautifully-shifting five-speed manual transmission, I was elated with my purchase....

Other big questions this morning in the Dump: What’s the point of having an electric sub-brand if your whole brand is going to eventually be electric? How much can you trust what the CEO of an electric car company says (no, not that one) on CNBC? Will American companies be the big winners in the EV future? Porsche Considering Letting Google Into Its Dash For many consumers, it’s just nice to connect your Android or Apple phone to your car and seamlessly merge your outside-the-car life with your inside-the-car life....