I’ve only played soccer competitive twice in my life, the first time as a kindergartner and the second time as an adult in a Brooklyn league. Hewing to the old school Texan belief that only communists play sports with their feet, it’s just never been my thing. Perhaps that’s why I was made goalie, which ended with me breaking my thumb.
My biggest fear probably should have been related to the fracturing of a phalange, but I was more worried about an own goal. It just seemed so embarrassing. The Morning Dump is going to start with an own-goal of sorts, which is our current economy, which is constantly being rocked by seemingly avoidable choices made by the federal government. That’s probably how it feels to be Ford, too, which just got randomly hip-checked by the Secretary of Transportation.
There’s a lot of competition for the most off-balance automaker these days. Volkswagen can probably make the strongest argument in their favor (or disfavor, I suppose). It’s not all grim, as the new ID.Polo is finding fans. Ineos is another carmaker I wonder about, though the company seems to think it has a potential military customer base.
‘Gas Cost, War, Inflation, Unemployment…” Weigh On Dealers, Too
Yeah, so here’s a chart:
The market is currently waiting for Friday’s release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing the state of inflation as measured in consumer prices (CPI). That’s last month’s report, and it’s not great. Everything getting a little more expensive is just what happens, but energy prices are there like a big middle finger to consumers.
It’s impacting everyone, and the cause is pretty clear: a war being waged against Iran for reasons I personally do not understand, for goals that aren’t particularly clear. Thanks to China, this hasn’t caused the most catastrophic increase in fuel prices, but it’s been bad (especially for diesel).
Cox Automotive tracks dealer sentiment in quarterly surveys, and dealers in Q3 have started to trend negative in their views.
The index remains below the neutral threshold of 50 and has now been in negative territory for more than four years. Independent dealers continue to be more pessimistic than franchised dealers, with many citing inflation, fuel prices, elevated interest rates and economic uncertainty as factors reducing consumer confidence and limiting purchasing power for usedvehicle buyers.
As one Honda dealer told Cox, “Gas cost, war, inflation, unemployment and increase in the cost of doing business have impacted business.”
It’s not possible to go back in time and see what would have happened if the White House hadn’t decided to start a trade war, cancel EV incentives, and then follow all that up by starting an actual war. Maybe we’d have ended up in the same place? The market has remained resilient even with all of the above, though I wonder for how long. My guess is that the overall economy and car market would have been happier without the disruption.
DOT Secretary Duffy Attacks Ford
The old joke is that the most dangerous place in the world is the space between Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy and a camera. I’d just add that perhaps the more dangerous place is anywhere near an airport since Sec. Duffy took over the department.
Sec. Duffy has, for some reason, decided to absolutely rail Ford for its connections to Chinese automakers:
I am writing to express the profound concern of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) regarding the strategic trajectory of Ford Motor Company (Ford or Company), specifically as it pertains to American national automotive manufacturing integrity, supply chain exposure, and reliance on technologies of foreign adversaries. While DOT recognizes the intense competitive pressures of the global market, the Company’s recent strategic decisions paint a troubling picture of a foundational American brand actively intertwining its future with Chinese state-backed enterprises.
The letter goes on to criticize Ford for building a factory in Michigan that uses technology sourced from CATL, that it’s “delaying” the return of the Lincoln Nautilus, and doing a joint venture with Geely in Spain.
I’m not sure where to even start with this, but the hypocrisy is a little hard to swallow. At the highest level, this administration and the Republican party in general (Duffy was formerly a Republican Congressman) have been resistant to electric car development. In particular, the One Big Beautiful Bill took a hammer to investment in EV technology and manufacturing. That makes this criticism fairly galling:
DOT remains deeply alarmed by Ford’s continued reliance on licensed technology from Chinese battery manufacturer CATL at the operational BlueOval Battery Park facility in Marshall, Michigan. Although the facility has commenced production and assembled initial Lithium Iron Phosphate or LFP cells, the prioritization of imported Chinese technical expertise and operational know-how—even in a scaled-back capacity—challenges the spirit of American national and economic security and supply-chain independence policies.
I gotta say “challenges the spirit” is such a perfectly meaningless phrase in this context. These are new jobs, in America, and by dropping the ball on battery development, Ford is in a situation where the CATL LFP technology is basically the best there is right now.
Ford has its own response, which you can read here, calling the letter a “wrongheaded attempt to capture headlines at the expense of a company that has done more for American manufacturing than virtually any other in the nation’s history.”
As Ford points out, there’s a White House press release from two weeks ago that touts the plant as a response “to the Trump Administration’s America First agenda.”
You can read the dueling letters and make up your own mind. Duffy’s epistle seems like a random hit at an automaker that has seemingly tried to placate the current administration. Toad, scorpion, et cetera.
People Seem To Like The VW ID.Polo
My general sense is that the new VW ID. Polo is cool. The base model us under $30k, and though the shortest-range battery gets you just over 200 miles on the WLTP test, that’s probably fine for a lot of people
As Automobilewoche reports, the car is already sold out:
With its ID. Polo electric city car, VW has clearly struck a chord. Even before the car is officially on sale, thousands of orders have already been placed. Demand for its sister models from Skoda and Cupra is also significantly higher than expected.
Neat!
Ineos Is Going After The UK’s New Light Mobility Vehicle Program
The UK Ministry of Defense is looking to replace its Land Rovers and Pinzgauers, and it has a number of potential vehicles vying for a spot in its £2 billion Light Mobility Vehicle program. Up top is the Ineos application, which gives a very The Troubles kinda vibe to me.
Everyone is going after this award, which prioritizes basing vehicles on existing production cars, as opposed to new vehicles. Different defense companies are looking to base vehicles on the GM Colorado, the Toyota Land Cruiser 70, the G-Class, the new Defender, and the Ford Ranger.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
For the video of “Walking on the Moon” there’s a moment where the drummer for The Police plays drums on a Saturn V rocket. That’s pretty good.
The Big Question
Which current production car would make the worst military vehicle?
Top photo: Adobe Stock, Depositphotos.com
They weren’t worried when they were putting huge markups on cars, were they?
Adding thousands – tens of thousands – for no reason whatsoever, just because they could.
The reason was that if you go from selling a hundred cars a year to selling 40 cars a year, but your overhead doesn’t change, something has to give.
And because they could – idiots paid the money. Heaven forbid they just wait a year or two for the new shiny.
How’s that been working out for Maserati?
Maserati is just one small piece of a much larger company – Stellantis can float them for as long as they are willing to. And I assume there is no such thing as a stand-alone Maserati dealership. Even if there was, not like they were selling hundreds of cars a year. Going from 20 cars a year to five is a not nearly so much of a problem as being a Ford dealer who went from selling hundreds to dozens because of the supply issues. Every new
And there is a BIG difference between having product that nobody wants to buy, and not being able to get product that people want to buy.
I assume there is no such thing as a stand-alone Maserati dealership.
You tell me:
https://www.maserati.com/us/en/shopping-tools/dealer-locator
Looking at what I assume is your local Tampa dealership’s website I don’t see any other makes offered:
https://www.maseratitampa.com/
Going from 20 cars a year to five is a not nearly so much of a problem as being a Ford dealer who went from selling hundreds to dozens because of the supply issues.
How about from selling some cars to no cars?
https://www.clubalfa.it/en/maserati-struggles-in-the-us-as-60-of-86-dealers-record-zero-sales-in-july-2026-44189
They are part of a big dealer group. May be a standalone showroom, that doesn’t mean anything.
I would imagine service and parts on Maseratis has LONG been the path to riches, not selling the cars themselves. And of course, the real profits are in used cars anyway. I doubt the Sarasota Maserati dealer (also Alfa and Fiat, and owned by the CJD store) sells jack for new ones, but they always have a choice lineup of used cars out front.
During the pandemic aftermath, nobody could get used cars either. The dealerships around here, no matter the brand, were nearly empty parking lots. That’s a tough situation to be in when you have millions in overhead that doesn’t stop just because you can’t get product to sell. At least Maserati dealerships can get all the used cars they want presumably, and they are all tiny operations to start with, and/or a corner of a much bigger store. I don’t feel bad for them, I do have a LOT of sympathy for the big mainstream dealerships 4-5 years ago that were built to have 200+ cars in inventory and had 10. My local (assholes, but whatever, they sell TONS of cars) KIA dealership normally has over *500* cars in stock – during that time they had ONE short row right in front of the showroom.
“I would imagine service and parts on Maseratis has LONG been the path to riches, not selling the cars themselves.”
If so when nobody buys Maseratis that revenue stream dries up too.
“And of course, the real profits are in used cars anyway.”
Nope. Selling used cars IS more profitable than new but the real money is in F&I and as you already mentioned in service and parts.
https://planbuildr.com/resources/business-planning/car-dealership-profitability/
Unless people buy new Maseratis there won’t be any used Maseratis for sale either.
Ultimately all dealerships need people to buy new cars and if people can’t buy new cars dealerships don’t sell anything at all.
You still have all the cars previously sold to service for a long time. And sure, there is lots of money in F&I, but we are talking about the cars themselves.
Obviously, they don’t just sell used Maseratis.
New car dealerships can just become primarily used car dealerships. Which is basically what has happened to all three “mainstream” Italian car brands at this point. Fiat is even more of a joke in terms of new cars than Maserati, and Alfa is barely hanging in there.
Hell, there was an actual, official Peugeot dealership near me in Maine for nearly 20 years after Peugeot stopped selling cars in the US completely. Parts, service, and used cars only for years, then eventually they picked up a Subaru franchise, and remain a Subaru dealership to this day.
Hell, there was an actual, official Peugeot dealership near me in Maine for nearly 20 years after Peugeot stopped selling cars in the US completely. Parts, service, and used cars only for years
Dirty money doesn’t launder itself you know.
https://www.motorbiscuit.com/criminals-laundering-dirty-money-buying-and-selling-used-vehicles/
What better way than through a dealership of a defunct brand?
Get a grip.
No you’re right. Why would they need to do that when there’s a fortune to be made servicing and flipping the tens of decade old Peugeots still around?
They weren’t just servicing Peugeots. They were a very competent general import shop working on pretty much anything European. Though they did in fact, service LOTS of Peugeots, because they were the only authorized service center remaining in Northern New England in the end, and people brought them cars from all over. It was usually a few week wait to get a car in there – had them work on mine a few times. Peugeots were not uncommon cars in New England, little Maine actually had THREE Peugeot dealers when Peugeot pulled out of the market in ’92. Note that Maine has only EVER had a single BMW dealer, and had no Lexus or Acura dealers for the first 15-20 years of those brands. Those last cars still had four years of warranty on them too.
And of course, they sold all sorts of used cars, but mostly imports as well. But it made perfect sense for them to pick up the Subaru franchise, there wasn’t one in the mid-coast area, and they were and are wildly popular in Maine. Before that it was about an hour from there to the next nearest in any direction. They filled a hole pretty nicely. Still have a good reputation too.
The new electric Citroen Ami / Fiat Topolino, the one that goes 28mph
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citro%C3%ABn_Ami_%28electric_vehicle%29
“The Big Question:
Which current production car would make the worst military vehicle?”
In this case, Miata Is Also The Answer.
came here to say this
Miata Is A Terrible Answer
What’s the functional difference between these two, and what’s the impact (if any) on customers? And in case there’s a customer difference, how does one identify what kind of dealer it is?
Independent dealers is shorthand for used car dealers, aka not franchised new car dealers. There is no such thing in the US as an independent new car dealer, you have to be franchised to sell new cars. Unless you are a Tesla/other startups and just sell them direct.
Ah ok, thanks. Makes total sense. a not-quite-euphemism.
Good song. The Saturn V was awesome. I built a ¿Revell? model of the full Apollo atop a Saturn V that was around three feet tall. And I still remember seeing and actually touching the three rockets at the World’s Fair grounds in Flushing as a kid.
“Which current production car would make the worst military vehicle?”
Torch’s Changli.
I don’t know, it might have a big element of surprise factor when the opposing forces are too busy laughing at it to realize that they are about to be ambushed.
Pack it with explosive and slowly roll right up into the midst of them. KAPOW!
But before the explosion, out comes the chainsaw!
Worst yes, but Russia has been deploying Chinese golf carts to attack fortified Ukrainian positions. Its gone about as well as you’d expect
Christ! What’s next, a mounted cavalry charge?
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Well at this point that’s worth a shot too.
If I had to guess, I would say the Cyber truck would make a terrible military truck. All it takes is a Steel ball to break the “bulletproof” glass.
And enemy soldiers would be extra motivated to shoot at it, because they likely hate it too.
I think our soldiers would shoot at it too.
This was from a time when the Police were your friends.
Sounds like Ford shoulda kicked in for Duffy’s little road trip. Gas ain’t cheap, you know?
Ford getting grief from the current administration for doing business things might be the most on-point statement they’re on a better track than the other two guys from Detroit.
Yeah, that’s what I thought. Isn’t Ford the member of the big 3 that builds the biggest % of their stuff domestically?
TBQ: I nominate the Cybercab. You can’t even steer it. Cybercab, evade! *BOOM*
“I’m afraid I can’t do tha…” *BOOM*
“energy prices are there like a big middle finger to consumers”
Maybe you should have used a pie chart.
Worst current production car for military hmmmm…..maybe a Dodge Daytona EV? It probably wouldn’t make it a couple miles without some electrical issue or failure especially if it needs to go off road.
I had to requote something from 2019 yesterday and the CPI inflation rate is 30%, but with the massive increases in steel pricing, tariffs, and labor since then the actual number is closer to 60%.
If you look into how CPI is calculated, you realize it’s a nearly meaningless number. There’s so much room for manipulation that the only real surprise is when they don’t massage the numbers to show that we’re spot on the 2% inflation target.
Truly. Pre-2018 (first round of steel tariffs) it was a fairly decent proxy, but now I have to look at pricing for so many different aspects of a product.
Apparently, appearing in the “Real World” does nothing to prepare one for living in the real world. Duffy is clueless and it’s obvious how he spends most of his time: Sheesh, didn’t he ever watch “Eight is Enough?”
Its going to get bad. Its already bad and people don’t fully acknowledge it. As of right now close to 50% of all economic growth is tied to Ai, which is massively overleveraged with companies pouring their entire net worth into it while at the same time laying off 1000’s. Its going to pop like all bubbles do. And when it does, a lot of people won’t find new jobs…. because those companies won’t need to hire people. It can all be done with Ai- or at least they will try and do that.
Meanwhile its over $6 a gallon where I live, a small smattering of groceries cost me over $50 and we are in a dumbass trade war with Canada and a war in Iran nobody wanted. The US economy will crash. And when it does nobody is gonna’ be going to any of the dealerships to buy F-350s either.
Worst military vehicle? Probably the Mirai. That is still in production, right?
According to the Ukrainians they make really good bombs.
What the Ford? These administration fossil fuel simps previously railed, regulated and/or voted against any American battery development. Pretty rich of them to now turn around and criticize Ford for going to arguably the best in the world for LFP technology. And, this plant has been in the works for a looooooooooooong time.
I hope the “bulletproof” Cybertruck is submitted so that it can be removed from consideration at an early stage. Musk crashing out about that would be a nice change of pace from his usual crash-outs.
QOTD: Renault Twizy
Affordability, an issue? You don’t say.
It feels like it’s been 18 months of people saying “I told you so”, before being gaslit some more.
Maybe if we rename another body of water all our other problems will just go away.
Did you hear about the South Park announcement that they’ve changed their name to “SOUTH AMERICA”? I don’t normally like entertainers embracing politics, but that’s pretty funny.
There aren’t that many top level federal government officials. You’d think it would be possible to maintain consistent messaging across like 15 people.
They’d have to be capable of listening to a voice that isn’t their own.
TBQ: The Cybertruck!
Not because of Elon or some political reason, but where am I going to mount a giant quad barrel anti aircraft gun with a bed that small and high? There’s a reason why it’s the Toyota wars lol.
Was going to say the same.
No to Tesla. Troops are already in enough danger of dying in fiery deaths.
Jeep 4xe enters the chat…
I wanted to say a 4xe but they aren’t current production anymore are they? Thought they were shit canned
That’s by design, it’s a land mine / IED disguised as a car.
At least you shouldn’t end up trapped in it. The doors come right off, correct?
Ironically, the EV Hummer would be near the top of the list.
Sean Duffy attacking Ford for partnering with China to make better EV’s after getting paid by Toyota, Shell, Waymo, and Lyft to make a crappy reality tv show about him and his family for YouTube is pretty rich.
I will resist the answering the question with “Miata, the answer is always Miata.”
I know there will be those that will insist that wages have kept up with prices but new cars seem like too much of a risk and too expensive than they were 10+ years ago.
If I had to pick the worst I would vote for ID Buzz.
I knew someone had already mentioned the answer is always Miata. But now I really want Mazda to submit an unmodified Miata as a candidate. It’d be especially funny if they put it through any level of testing before eliminating it.
Miata police pursuit car.
I saw a guy delivering pizzas in a Miata recently. LOL.
It wasn’t even an old beater but a third gen one in nice shape. All labour deserves dignity!
I routinely see pizza delivery drivers with nicer cars than mine. It’s depressing.
I saw a not that old Audi S4 with a pizza sign on the top once. WTF??
If it is for an independent delivering for themselves that may make sense. Pizza is one of the most profitable restaurant types, and an owner of a small shop in a decent location can easily clear low six figures. My favorite local shop recently sold, but the old owners had better boats and vehicles than most of their customers. I think the new owners didn’t take notes on how to make the pizza and I don’t go there any more.
Nah, this was some college kid doing it as a part-time job. Probably to support his Audi habit, LOL.
Just saw a Fiat 124 Spider doing the same outside of Louisville, KY last Saturday. The Dominos sign was attached to the trunk lid.
At least the Miata makes sense–it’s small and relatively efficient. I’ve seen people doing door dash in F150s. There is no way that can be profitable.
I’ve known folks who have done the whole Doordash/Instacart thing. I have an idea how much money they “make” doing it, although I don’t think they are making all that much. By the time you factor in gas and wear/tear on your vehicle, it’s pretty much a wash. I’m sure there’s exceptions but seems to me like it’s only profitable if you’re in a dense area and can bike or at least restrict your driving to a few miles per delivery.
Boston/Cambridge is awash with unlicensed scooters, presumably uninsured, with the necessary insulated black food box attached. They all have their faces covered by a turtleneck thing (for anonymity, I assume), and they drive wherever TF. Traffic rules are not part of the program.
That’s the formula for making delivery pay.
I am going to be run over by one of these scooters one day – just so someone can get a sandwich or pizza from a place a mile away instead of the place a block down the street that you walk to
Allow me to recommend wearing full hockey or football padding (your choice) any time you leave the comfort of your abode.
Oof. Glad we don’t seem to have that issue around here. The drivers and e-bikes are already bad enough without that.
I think the key is not just the dense area, but doing multiple delivery services at once and trying to stack them. If you can do that mile with two or three deliveries that are all pretty close, it probably works. I don’t know, though. I know I’m not interested in doing it for a few reasons.
I bet you’re right about stacking orders.
I’ve seen groups of them hanging out in alleys (in the inky shadows) waiting for orders to come in, vying to be the first to grab an order.
I’ve never ordered anything delivered except pizza, and that was ages ago, when pizza joints employed their own version of Death Wish Scooters. In the ‘burbs (where I live), delivery adds an hour of waiting. In the city (where I work), I’m walking to get it.
I have a friend who did Doordash while he was unemployed. It was great because it gave him an OK income while being completely flexible for interviews and whatnot – and he was applying for exec jobs where he had to travel for interviews quite a bit. But even he admitted it only made sense if you ignored the cost of the car.
One of my friends is making deliveries in a 10 year old BMW with nearly 150k on the odometer. It was already at 130k when she bought it last year. She’s got at least four years of payments left, at 20k/year that’s well over 200k miles before it’s paid off. I hope that doesn’t come back to bite her…but she got her oil changed for the first time just last month, which doesn’t bode well.
Eesh. I bleed blau und wiess for certain BMWs, but I would never be THAT stupid. Hope she has comfy walking shoes, she’s gonna need them.
One of my overriding financial principles is I refuse to owe more payments on a car than it has months of remaining factory b2b warranty.