It’s happening. Kia has officially announced that it’ll be bringing a pickup truck to the United States. Not only that, it’ll offer a mixture of hybrid and EREV powertrains. This is the future we’ve all been waiting for, although it’s going not exactly going to be the near future. The Morning Dump has time. The Morning Dump is patient. The Morning Dump is starting to worry that it’s talking about itself in the third person. Is The Morning Dump sentient? Maybe.
While Kia is going to wait a while to get a truck to market, Ford seems to be hoping to get relief from the government on tariffs so it can build trucks now. The response from the White House is a little puzzling. GM’s response to a bunch of Chevy Malibu rear-view cameras failing is a little more straightforward.
And, finally, China’s exports boomed in March. Coincidentally, maybe, Mercedes has seen its exports fall at the same time.
Will The Kia EREV Truck Beat The Scout To Market?
Full disclosure: If you ask me the name of the truck above I will say it’s the Kia Talisman. That’s kind of a cool name, right? The Talisman! It’s actually the Kia Tasman, named for the Tasman sea, which means it’s one of the only cars I can think of named for a Dutch seafarer.
The truck looks strange, and was developed mostly for the Australian and New Zealand market. It’s not for us Yanks, but it is Kia’s first modern attempt at building a body-on-frame truck. Given how strong midsize truck sales have been in the United States, it makes a lot of sense that Kia is trying to get into this market.
What will it be though? There are now numerous electric trucks on the market (R1T, Cybertruck, Lightning, Sierra EV, Silverado EV, Hummer EV, and maybe the Slate truck soon) all fighting for a tiny share of the total truck market. A purely electric truck probably doesn’t make sense.
At Kia’s big Investor Day in Seoul, Kia CEO Ho Sung Song outlined some ambitious targets. He expects the brand, which sold about 850,000 cars in the United States last year, to hit the million mark by 2030. More hybrids is a big part of it (a K4 Hybrid is in the works), and that includes a hybrid/EREV pickup. Here’s what he said according to the transcript:
In 2025, Kia successfully entered the pick-up truck market in emerging economies with the launch of the Tasman, demonstrating strong product competitiveness. Looking ahead to 2030, Kia will expand into North America —the key global pick-up market —by introducing a dedicated HEV/EREV pick -up, built on our core HEV technology.
According to Automotive News, there’s a teaser of the truck out there, but I haven’t seen it yet as the company hasn’t posted its 2026 Investor Day video. If someone has seen it please send it over to me.
The plan is to hit around 90,000 trucks annually starting around 2030, reaching 7% of a market currently dominated by the Tacoma by 2034. That’s not a lot of trucks. Ford sold roughly 70,000 Rangers last year, by comparison, and 155,000 Mavericks.
Because it’ll almost certainly share a platform with the Hyundai truck previewed by the Crater concept, the fact that it’ll be hybrid and EREV isn’t much of a surprise. The big open question is whether or not they’ll be a full EV version. I guess the other question is whether it might end up beating the Scout to market given how slow that truck has been to develop.
Ford Didn’t Beg The White House Hard Enough, I Guess?
It’s hard to say what Ford’s sales would be if it wasn’t constrained by two fires at its main aluminum supplier, which is a necessary material for the F-150. Ford has said it has a plan, although supply isn’t likely to catch up to demand until the second half of the year.
Normally, an automaker would just try to grab whatever aluminum it could find on the global market. The challenge here is that Ford has been getting aluminum from a facility in New York, and the only automotive grade aluminum that isn’t spoken for seems to be available outside of the United States. The White House has put tariffs on imported aluminum, meaning a potential hit either to Ford’s profits or to the price of these trucks.
Because of that, Ford has reportedly reached out to the White House for temporary tariff relief and, per Reuters, didn’t reach out hard enough, with an official telling them:
“While Ford and other automakers have raised supply concerns in light of the Novelis incident, they have not requested tariff relief on this matter in a particularly pronounced way,” the official said
What does that even mean? They didn’t beg hard enough? That’s so weird!
GM Recalls 270,000 Cars For Backup Cameras That Might Fail
Here’s what’s interesting to me in this recall report from General Motors involving backup cameras on its 2023-2025 Chevy Malibu. It’s not that these backup cameras are going dead, as that’s something that’ll happen with certain cars. It’s not great, but it seems like an easily fixable problem.
What jumped out to me is this number: 271,770.
That’s the potential number of vehicles affected. That means that GM sold more than 270,000 sedans in recent history. That’s a lot of vehicles. Maybe we need more sedans?
China Is Exporting A lot Of Cars
No surprise, the total number of cars exported in China jumped a bunch according to Bloomberg:
Overseas shipments jumped 140% from a year earlier to 349,000 units, according to data from China Passenger Car Association released on Thursday. BYD Co., the world’s largest EV maker, accounted for about a third of the total, with Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. and Chery Automobile Co. rounding out the top three exporters for the month, it said.
Rising fuel prices due to the Iran war are enticing buyers back to EVs and hybrids, with showrooms across Asia bustling in the past month as consumers look to shield themselves from volatile pricing at the pump. While it’s unclear how much of a lift the sector will get from the energy shock, data from the UK released earlier this month showed electric car sales climbed to a record in March.
“Chinese automakers can quickly increase their global reach during the Strait of Hormuz crisis,” PCA Secretary General Cui Dongshu said at a briefing. There was a similar shift toward fuel-efficient vehicles made by Japanese carmakers during the oil crisis of the 1970s, he said.
Strike while the iron is on fire, I guess. At the same time, another Bloomberg report shows how much Mercedes has faltered in its own exports in this complicated new world:
The manufacturer’s global deliveries dropped 6% to 499,700 vehicles, as a worsening slump in China outweighed gains in Europe and the US. Its sales in the world’s largest auto market tumbled 27% — a steeper fall than the 19% decline in the fourth quarter.
Demand for high-end vehicles in China remains subdued, while domestic brands continue to gain share. Mercedes has refreshed key models, including its flagship S-Class, to fend off competition from rivals such as Huawei Technologies Co.’s Maextro S800 sedan. The German company previously warned that margins will remain under pressure this year.
Maybe the new CLA will help?
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Here’s another one from my buddy who owns more digital music than any other 20 people I know combined. It’s Chiaré with “Zanzare”
The Big Question
What does a truck need to do in order to succeed in the United States?
I am highly Dubious of Kia getting 90,000 truck sales, let alone 90,000 hybrid truck sales.
Let’s breakdown the sales numbers for 2025 via TFL Truck.
News: Toyota Tacoma Has Its Best Sales Year Ever in 2025 – GM, Ford, and Jeep Improve – The Fast Lane Truck
Loyalty isn’t anywhere near as strong as it is with fullsized trucks but brand recognition and image do influence buying decisions as the numbers show.
At best I see Kia getting Jeep numbers in this segment.
What does a truck need to do in order to succeed in the United States?
In short, cater to women! All these trucks have a high percentage of men buying them. 89% for the Ranger and “typically male” for all the others with the Tacoma and Gladiator having the highest appeal to women.
Also lower the medium income demographic which is from $95,000 and up!
Build and sell to a younger crowd. Every truck listed has a good portion of their sales going to people in the fifties.
In short: Have it fit in a garage, various cab and bed sizes, lower costs by simpler choices, style with quiet confidence and market the hell out of it on social media.
Dear Kia,
Offer a smaller, 2-door version truck, please.
Thank you.
I really think that Kia has a shot at the pickup market and being able to hit the goal they’re setting. Both Kia, and parent Hyundai, have built body-on-frame vehicles and commercial vehicles – so the know-how is there. Also, Kia has a really compelling lineup of vehicles already that perform well and many of them have some really great looks. Which tells me that the interior and exterior will be well-sorted.
The big question though, is if they are shooting to take on the Tacoma, these better be built to last.
I know that some people might whine about there being a non-existent aftermarket for popular truck mods (lift kits, lights, winches, etc…) but if the sales are what Kia expects, I don’t think it would be long before we start to see some of the bigger suppliers begin to offer such accessories.
Finally, let’s all hope that this isn’t going to be a re-hash of the Hyundai Santa Cruz (which isn’t a bad vehicle per se, but it’s sold very poorly here).
Translation of Ford’s problem: the bribe was too small and the offered trafficked women were old enough to vote, so way too old for persuasion purposes.
Good luck Kia…. If that image above is what it really looks like then its going to flop. That and its not like people buy Tacomas buy them just becuz… they buy them because they run forever.
If you body color the arches, it looks no worse than all of the other ass ugly utility vehicles we have today
I think Motor Trend did a decent rendering of it.
https://www.motortrend.com/news/future-hyundai-midsize-pickup-rendered
“Ford Didn’t Beg The White House Hard Enough, I Guess?”
To get anything out of the Crooked Trump administration, they need to THREATEN, not beg.
The way I see it, the best chance they have with getting relief on the aluminum tariffs is if they threaten to stop all political donations to the republican party and threaten to openly support all Democrat candidates at all levels in the upcoming midterm elections.
And if the Crooked Trump administration does nothing, then follow through with that threat.
It’s not like the current administration is good for the auto industry.
That or break out the kneepads and pucker up.
As far as I can tell, they have already been doing that.
And it clearly hasn’t been working.
Stingy with the checkbook, it seems.
Guess they need to use more tongue.
Or swallowing instead of spitting… LOL
I read that as torque at first. Either one works, I guess.
One sounds a little more painful than the other. But I dunno. Maybe he’s into that.
Threats don’t work. Bribes do.
(Which is sad that today in the USA the president doesn’t even try to hide taking bribes)
But I’m sure they are already bribing him and his gang in the form of “political lobbying” money and other donations.
So the way I see it, threating to cut that off is the only logical way forward.
Those are old school 2010 style bribes. This administration requires something a bit more direct.
For example the UAE’s royal family bought $2 billion of Trump’s crypto.
They need a letter from Daddy Putin telling Trump it’s OK.
In order to succeed, I think KIA will need to deliver a legitimate competitor to the Tacoma, like something that can tow/haul the same amount, but with a better interior for the same money or less, and offer decent reliability…. I think that would be enough but then I see the Ranger still lagging way behind Tacoma sales. The Frontier is almost as good as the Tacoma for less money and they aren’t exactly crushing it, plus if you buy the Tacoma it will have really strong resale when you realize that you wanted a full-size truck anyway.
I also think they need to redesign the tASSman before it hits the market, at least do something about the Flanders mustache fender flares.
The new Tacoma on paper lags in all relevant on-paper “truck” stats. It has a higher torque rating with the hybrid but tows less than both the Colorado and Ranger. It has a comparatively low payload. It’s more expensive and offers less equipment than the off-road variants of any truck.
Stats will not lead to any truck beating the Tacoma.
Being featured in a Top Gear segment 20+ years ago is what is needed to beat a Tacoma.
Ford doesn’t push the Ranger here because they make more profit selling the Bronco which is built at the same factory. It also helps them steer buyers to the F-Series and keep those sales numbers up.
For Ford, I can 100% guarantee this is because they didn’t fire the guy who called the president a “p*do protector.” This administration is that thin-skinned and tiny.
What does a truck need to do to successfully compete in the US? Obviously, be badged as a Ford, Chevy/GMC, Dodge, or Toyota. And relative to the others, Toyota isn’t actually very successful at it, their full-size trucks being also-rans at ~150K moved plus ~quarter million Tacomas being pretty much rounding error. But they are better at it than everyone else combined. Nissan gave up on full-size Titans and only managed to flog ~65K Frontiers, even if that was a decent increase over the previous years.
Ford obviously should have bought waaay more TrumpCoin and donated more to the “Ballroom”. Or just had a pallet of hundos delivered directly to Mar-a-Lardo. I’m sure there is plenty of room in the bathroom to store them now that the boxes of classified docs have been retrieved.
Honestly? They need to be at least as good as the same size trucks off road and capability wise.
In regards to Kia judging by the decisions they made with the Talisman I doubt they’re gonna put in the time, money, and effort necessary to make a Truck that is just as capable as the major competitors at a minimum.
IMHO they’d have an easier time making a compact pickup EREV that’s the same size as the Maverick and just as capable.
Pickups like the Maverick do not have the same expectations as proper BOF Trucks (No matter how much Ford tries to blur that line trying to sell more vehicles to people who don’t know better).
Hey Ford, do you hear that sound? It’s the sound of winning
So much winning. Are we all tired of winning yet? I know I sure am.
Translation: Their bribe was too small.
Competition is good, and hopefully the Kia truck will be good, too 🙂
Hyundai also needs to bring the Staria over here. Hyundai/Kia can be a big player in the commercial segment in the US.
Oh yeah – the Staria. It rocks.
Did Jim Farley go hat in hand himself? That worked for us – at least the first time Second time we sent a VP and it was a no.
Perhaps they need to give the emperor another gold-plated peace prize.
If you take out brand loyalty. It hinges on value and capacity. Ford was able conquest buyers from other brands with the eco boost trucks because they said they would tow the same as a 10 year old 3/4 ton and get better fuel economy.
Kia and Hyundais biggest issue is brand image and where they see themselves. They aren’t a premium brand but they are trying to be. They have drastically increased quality to a point while others who have the premium image have decreased quality so they are almost meeting.
You aren’t going to convince someone even looking at anything other then maybe a Nissian to jump ship to Kia or Hyundai truck if they are cost comparable. It needs to be cheaper get better fuel economy and have a decent pay load for thing things people think they will tow. They probably need to do something publicly about their dealers. Putting them on notice. Maybe giving 5 or 6 years of no cost maintenance and everything covered.
If they want to do real numbers go after fleets. The same things work. But many are used to dealers with fleet sales departments and fleet service. Hyundais only real experience with fleets in the US is rental. The rental companies handle just about everything while not all fleets do. Dealers might be their biggest boundary. They might need to make their fleet ordering website easier to get access to and get quotes from for smaller fleets.
Agreed, fleets are free advertising.
Both good and bad.
I rent 12 – 15 cars a year so get to see quite a few different vehicles. My employer has an exclusive contract with Hertz and the locations I visit are stocked with base model Kia, Hyundai, Nissan, and Jeeps. These are some really sadly speced vehicles which give a bad impression of the brand. Crazy to rent a car today that doesn’t even have a proximity key or heated steering wheel.
On the other hand before when we were with National and Enterprise they were stocked with mid-level cars that gave a better impression.
If I was handling rental fleet sales I would not allow companies to buy base models.
Hyundai/KIA products look premium until real premium product roll up.
I’m not sure the average person would see all that much difference in the interior quality of something like an eqs vs an ionic 9. The Genesis might be actually better.
Someone was telling me the other day all the Chinese cars smell like plastic where some of the German cars have a better smell.
Hyundai and Kia have improved there too. 20 years ago they smelled horrible. Though I guess some telluride and palisade still suffer from bad smell. Enough to get lemon lawed.
The EQS is a sad excuse for a car, and pathetic for a Mercedes. The interior of my S212 e-class isn’t what it should be, but the thing still drives 100% Mercedes. And THAT is where the Koreans fall down every time in my experience.
I bought my mother a KIA. It’s “fine”, and serves her purposes perfectly. It is in no way premium. and having had multiple Genesis as rentals, they are, but not very. As I have said on here before, I don’t see the point in buying cheaper substitutes for the real thing.
I can’t see Hyundai or Kia viewed as premium. Mercedes, BMW, Audi are sort of every day cars in Europe I can that happening in the US before Hyundai and Kia are premium. In many ways it’s already happening.
Where Genesis is in all that it’s hard to say. People laughed at lexas for their first few years and they seem to be holding on to their premium image that they built. Infiniti was viewed similar and now there is a question of why it exists.
I’m not sure Genesis has really built a premium image yet but seem to be on their way. I could see it falling flat on its face like Infiniti if they don’t do enough to make them stand out.
Toyota made a MUCH better effort with Lexus than Hyundai did with Genesis originally. The LS400 was a legit standout car, even if it is not a car that ever really appealed to me. Too much Buick, not enough German in it’s DNA. They have done a very good job of maintaining that over the years, even the cheapest entry-level Lexus feel premium in a way that Genesis just don’t, never mind the Hyundai/KIA branded cars. And requiring separate dealers is probably part of that too, especially given how utterly terrible Hyundai/KIA dealers tend to be. Maybe the ones that are allowed to sell Genesis are better, but I kind of doubt it.
The Koreans may get there eventually, but realistically even today Lexus is mostly seen as a half-step below the Germans. The car that gets bought “because they are RELIABLE (and cheaper)”, not because they are actually a better drive or nicer inside. Very few people with “f-you” money bought an LS over an S-Class then or now.
As I have said here before though, I think it is a bit sad that any of these companies felt they had to setup an entirely different brand to sell their best cars. Toyota really should have been able to just sell the LS here as the Toyota Celsior, same as in the rest of the world. But they had to makeup the fake luxury brand to get it to sell.
What’s strange to me is they are starting to bring Lexus to other parts of the world. The f-u money people tend to buy Toyota over lexas. That’s a bit strange in its self.
American dealers are such a mess that might have been a reason why Toyota split lexas off. In other parts of the world the dealers aren’t necessarily the bad guy. In many markets people stick with one dealer. I don’t know why Hyundai didn’t require a similar situation with genisis or why they put themselves in the middle that historically hasn’t ended well.
I know of a Hyundai dealership that was founded and owned by Korean Americans they got a Kia franchise put it in their old Hyundai dealer built a new Hyundai dealership. Then when genisis came they build a new dealership for them. They are all about a mile apart on the same road. That seemed like a good system.
That whole millionaire next door thing is a load of hookum in my opinion (and experience). Truly weathy people drive whatever they damned well please. If they like cars, they drive nice cars (and might well have a barn full of vintage BMWs/Porsches as one wealthy friend does). If they don’t care about cars, maybe they drive a base Camry, but probably not in my experience, much more likely to be a low to mid-spec Volvo or BMW. I grew up with real serious old money all around me – none of them drove anything but quite nice cars. What they didn’t do was *flashy* cars, and there is a big difference there. And they tended to keep thier cars for quite a long time.
There certainly is a wide range in KIA dealers. The one around the corner from me makes you feel like you want an acid dip to get the skeeze off just from walking in thier lot. The one 30 miles away where I bought my mother’s car is “fine”, they tried to play games a little bit but quickly got that I don’t play and got right down to business. The only truly bad experience I have had buying a car was at a Chyrsler dealer – shocking, right?
I grew up around a similar old money set with some newer money mixed in. They drove all sorts of things volvos were popular followed by mercs and bmws some jags and Cadillac then some audis then started going towards Toyotas. The Avalon in particular. Some of the flashier had porshes, Ferraris Lamborghinis, Bentley and rolls plus various collector and vintage cars but would buy their kids a vw or something under a certain amount to keep insurance happy.
There was a set of them that loved gmt 400 and 800 SUVs and kept them going. The Koch brothers apparently were big fans of those too.
I haven’t successfully bought a Mitsubishi from a dealer in a decade they are so slimey. That HKG dealer was bought by one of the shady big franchises and ruined. I haven’t tried dealing with them since then other then getting money back for my aunt for service they didn’t do. Kia didn’t seem to care with I called to say they had a fraud. But the state was interested.
I know of at least three people with Hyundai products and all three of the vehicles burn through oil like crazy. Because Hyundai/Kia still in fact have a LOT of serious quality control issues, made worse by recent internal stories coming out where workers in their plants are run ragged. The cars are being thrown together as fast as possible.
I know I dump on Hyundai/Kia a lot but I will say something that isn’t found elsewhere would be mighty cool and I don’t even mind the Tasman’s styling!
Naturally, given they didn’t cut the wrong or weirdest corners again but who am I kidding…
If it ticks my boxes though I might be ready to be hurt again! (then again my wallet is not)
Too bad due to the chicken tax and production capacity that we in the United States do not have a pickup that is a proven platform and sells well all over the globe with gasoline (edit: now diesel only) and diesel power trains and real capacity for a medium sized truck, the Mitsubishi Triton.
I believe it would do quite well here.
https://www.mitsubishi-motors.com.au/vehicles/triton/range-specifications.html
This x1000
Too bad they sold off their Normal, IL factory (now owned by Rivian).
Perhaps they could use one of Nissan’s facilities to assemble CKD kits.
Well, Nissan is rebadging the Triton as the D27 Navara in the rest of the world. And our Frontier isn’t getting any younger (the current version was a huge update, but it’s still basically the same underneath), and it no longer has any platform mates (RIP Titan).
I don’t see why they couldn’t switch over to Triton production in Smyrna.
Maybe they should just pay the tax to have something sellable here.
25% is hard to overcome.
I know it’s a desperate move but it’s desperate times for them.
I feel for Kia and others – they try so hard to make a good truck, one which fulfills truck buyers’ actual needs. Which are, of course, utterly irrelevant: 75% of all trucks are purchased strictly for image and there is no way for any foreign brand to beat GM/Ford/Mopar for perceived image with those truck buyers.
Can’t they just copy the Tacoma? The formula is there already. Copy it and beat it on price/financing/warranty. That seems to have been the entire Korean play to expand their brands.
Well, the Tasman is ugly with a large number of unnecessary folds, dents, and protrusions, so they seem to be doing exactly that.
He might have meant “copy the 1995 Tacoma”, that would probably work pretty well.
How many people traded in their Camrys for K5s? Corollas for K4s? There’s still a pecking order of perceived prestige and Kia is not a Toyota.
Oh sure, but how many people went straight to a K5/Elantra because of price, warranty, etc? Unlikely to directly poach loyal Tacoma owners, but they might entice people that find a better price point.
That is a fair argument, but I don’t think they can scrape up 90,000 of them.
I wonder if that’s actually the problem, that they’re making direct competition for the big three. The Maverick has been all but a runaway success as it has little to no competition, and caters to a “niche” (if you can call cost-conscious suburbia a niche) that hasn’t had a decent option in many years. Had the Maverick worn a badge from Honda or Kia or whoever, I don’t think the result would’ve been much different. But Nissan (and to a lesser extent, Toyota) has proven just how hard it is to compete directly, without their traditional advantage of undercutting them on cost.
> What does that even mean? They didn’t beg hard enough? That’s so weird!
Means the check didn’t clear, is what that means.
“What does a truck need to do in order to succeed in the United States?”
Call it the Assman.
I’m scrolling back up to read the rest, of course, but I just want to say The Morning Dump nailed what I was thinking about The Morning Dump thinking about The Morning Dump, right as I was reading The Morning Dump.
The Morning Dump needs some relief.
For Kia and Hyundai to grab a piece of the pie, they need to bring to market something that the other brands missed. They won’t be able to compete like-for-like but an E-REV with decent all battery range for the daily commute + range extender for longer distances / towing / truck stuff…
How about:
The E-REV Scout is too much of an off-road beast and too $$$ for anyone just looking for a combination commuter/work/play truck. The other small – mid trucks don’t offer e-revs so you don’t get the advantages of going gasless. A well designed e-rev with instant torque and a commuter friendly small truck form factor is a winner.
So you want a BYD Shark with more electric range and a NA engine instead of a 1.5L turbo
You also want it priced the same as a base 2wd Ford Ranger.
Sure – as a basic model. I think it’s plausible.
Never going to happen for a US built truck. Even the smaller Mexican built Maverick is $30K
Ford is planning their small EV truck to start around $30K with a largeish battery, so a E-REV with a smaller ~1/3 sized battery and simple level1/2 charging + ICE/generator for an extra $5K seems possible. Maybe not probable; but possible.
Kia/Hyundai will also bring their longer warranty to the table so that will help them too.
The Ford isn’t going to be a real truck let alone a body of frame truck.
The Shark with a 30 kWh battery is $50K in Mexico. The average transaction price for a midsize truck is in the mid $40K range and that is where this truck would start today. By 2030 the price no doubt will be higher.
From what I’ve seen of the Ford EV Pickup you’re right. The damn CV axles are inline with the motors, meaning it’ll have fuck all ground clearance, especially when loaded.
That is some good insider info.
Ford hasn’t been shy about expectations though. They have said it will be larger than a Maverick but with a smaller bed. I’m guessing Baja sized to fit a single standard pallet.
Not insider, they did a video on the new pickup teasing various special things about it, that was one of the things.
I think if it’s going to have a RWD and AWD option the RWD one needs a different steering setup to maximize the turning angle to minimize the turning radius.
Otherwise it doesn’t make sense to offer a RWD only option from a cost perspective.
The new Kia will be Ranger sized (new Ranger) so midsized.
Towing needs to be 7,000 pounds in this field if it’s going to be taken seriously. The Maverick should’ve been at least 5,500 pounds towing because that’s what the 2011 Ranger had.
First three years doesn’t need to have an off road beast option but after that they’re going to need a halo truck to keep people interested. (talking about it)
The rest will depend on the market and the demographics they are aiming the truck at.
Kia ran out of ski resort towns, I see.
I still think the US specific truck will have a Texas city name. San Antonio, Houston, or San Marcos seem likey. Though the Kia Permian Basin has a ring to it perhaps they will keep pickups themed to bodies of water the Kia Rio Grande. The grande 4 door shit box of pickups.
The Kia Brownsville.
A town known as one of the more economically depressed areas, they could either market it as low-cost or bulletproof.
SpaceX has changed Brownsville it’s closer to California then Texas prices unless things have changed again. Used to be able to buy a house and some land for $20k. The last time I looked the cheapest was like $350k and newer stuff that was maybe $75k to $100k before was about $700k.
That’s, actually, nice to hear.
The people from there aren’t so thrilled but I guess it was it is. I’ve heard the country club just north is doing well.
Surprisingly Brownsville has good Japanese cheesecake fairly cheep if you ever get down there.
….they have not requested tariff relief on this matter in a particularly pronounced way,” the official said
…by the way, did you know that our new White House Ballroom is totally, privately funded.
You mean the fancy lid for the bunker?
To succeed a truck just needs to make people have the impression that they do tough outdoorsy things way off pavement instead of just commute to desk jobs.
That feels like everything these days.
Along with “How angry can your car make you look?”