GM squeezes the throttle on Silverado and Sierra pricing, Kimi Räikkönen heads back to NASCAR, VW unleashes an even more potent Golf. All this and more on today’s issue of The Morning Dump.
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.
GM Cranks Up Full-Size Truck Pricing
It used to be fairly normal for each new model year of a car to come with a price hike. A little on the top for inflation, bing bong, out the door. Now though, things are shifting so rapidly within the automotive industry that the 2022 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and 2022 GMC Sierra 1500 have received their third price hike since they went on sale. Third. [Editor’s Note: I’m fairly sure the Jeep Wrangler JL has gotten a price hike every year. This isn’t unusual, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck for consumers. -DT].
GM Authority reports that this latest round of price hikes adds $800 to the base price and $100 to the freight charge. That’s $900 extra across the board, whether you order a base-as-hell work truck or a fully-jammed Silverado High Country. Ouch. Still, it could be worse. If you need a Silverado HD for hauling anvils, towing bulk osmium, or pulling another Silverado HD, prices are going up by $1,000 on the MSRP and $100 on the freight charge. But what if you need to tow a 747 on your daily commute and don’t want a hideous truck? Well, that’s where the GMC Sierra HD comes in and it’s really going to cost you. Expect to pay an extra $2,000 across the board on MSRPs, plus another $100 ‘fuck you’ for the freight charge. Seriously? Right in front of my bagel? Look, I get that parts and raw materials are expensive these days, but why pump up the price on a GMC $1,000 more than the price on a Chevrolet? Is there just an ugly discount going on for the Silverado or what?
The Iceman Goes Back To NASCAR
How’s this for a weird headline? Kimi Räikkönen to race one of Pitbull’s NASCAR cup cars at Watkins Glen. Yes, it seems like Trackhouse Racing, owned by Justin Marks and Mr. Worldwide, is truly going worldwide with its Project 91 initiative. But wait, how did we get here?
According to Trackhouse Racing, Project 91 is an initiative to bring some of the best international drivers from all disciplines into NASCAR. For Räikkönen, it was a fairly easy step to take. The Iceman’s run at Charlotte twice, once in a Nationwide-series Car of Tomorrow, and once in a truck, so there’s some NASCAR experience on the table. What could help Räikkönen is the nature of the Glen. Even though NASCAR doesn’t use the full course, there’s still plenty of elevation change and spots to attack, things that almost seem tailored to a driver coming from open-wheel cars. Set an alarm for August 21 at 3:00 p.m. if you want to see what Kimi can do on a road course in a Gen-7 cup car. I must admit, I’m pretty excited.
Volkswagen Launches A Special Fast Golf
It’s hard to believe that the Mark IV Golf R32 launched in Europe 20 years ago, but here we are. While it definitely wasn’t perfect – the Mark IV was a bit of a pudding – it really set a super-hatch blueprint. Transverse powertrain, all-wheel-drive, sport seats, plenty of power. While we definitely won’t see another small V6 in a hatchback any time soon, nearly every really fast hot hatch in the past ten years followed that template. Of course it also helps that the R32 looks wicked with bold blue paint as the signature color, a sweet set of 18-inch OZ Aristo wheels, and a front bumper as deep as Jay Leno’s chin.
As it turns out, I’m not the only one feeling nostalgic – Volkswagen is too. In celebration of 20 years of R, the former Beetle-peddlers have drummed up a special version of the latest Golf R. Dubbed the Golf R 20 Years, the name may be very “does what it says on the tin,” but the tweaks go beyond visual modifications. Sure, blue-faced wheels are shocking and various marks of “20” add a certain flair, but the real meat and potatoes is the revised powertrain calibration. Power is up to 328 from 315, there’s a new Terrify Your Neighbors Every Morning Before Work mode that revs the engine to 2,500 upon startup, and the ECU can now pre-load the turbocharger to reduce lag (possibly a spark-cut function). If you’re the sort of person who knows what part number 199 398 500 A is, you’d have likely realized that this is the most powerful production Golf of all time. Job done then. Oh, and before you think this is some sort of European-only deal, some version of the Golf R 20 Years is coming to North America. Here’s to hoping we get the full 328 horsepower.
Dodge Drops A Gaudy Durango
Is Halloween your favorite holiday? Did you own at least one article of clothing with Jack Skellington on it? Are you a Mopar fan with questionable taste? If you answered yes to any of these, Dodge might just have the vehicle for you. It’s called the Durango R/T Hemi Orange, and it’s a great concept with somewhat sub-par execution.
Look, V8s are good, yeah? So a throwback-inspired Hemi Durango sounds very good on paper. Unfortunately, not everything happens on paper. Instead of anything bold or stylish, the Durango R/T Hemi Orange gets a sad offset black-and-orange stripe, orange emblems, orange interior stitching like a Nissan Sentra SR, and a satin black tail light that Dodge currently isn’t showing. Opt for the confusingly-named Tow N Go package and you also get orange Brembo brake calipers. Look, I understand that orange is an important color in Mopar history, but why half-ass this? Paint the whole damn SUV orange, give it massive black strobe stripes, make the Tow N Go package with its Bilstein dampers and massive brakes mandatory. Ensure bystanders know that it’s a factory job rather than some kid who got hold of some Plasti-Dip. I understand that this special appearance pack is meant to mimic the Hemi Orange Challengers and Chargers, but it just doesn’t work on this scale. The stripe on the Durango doesn’t even go over the roof. Now, if you do happen to like poorly-executed stripes, you can tack the Hemi Orange pack onto any Durango R/T for $1,995. Honestly? I’d recommend putting that $1,995 toward the excellent Tow N Go package instead.
The Flush
Whelp, time to drop the lid on this edition of The Morning Dump. With Kimi coming to NASCAR for another race, I figure it’s time to play a fantasy game. If you could get any driver to compete in any discipline of motorsport, what would be your first move? Personally, I’d really love to see Sebastien Loeb do some dirt oval racing in a sprint car. There have to be some transferable skills there, right?
In the same vein as the Silverado price increases:
My sister-in-law’s boyfriend ordered a Camaro ZL1 1LE about 6 months ago and has heard that if his car doesn’t get built soon as a 2022, the price (in Canada at least) will be getting bumped up $5000 in 2023. I’m not sure if the price increase applies to all ZL1s or just the 1LE package (or a combination of both), but it sure seems like GM is actively dissuading people from ordering cars GM really doesn’t want to build.
I want Seb Loeb to race on ice in the Andros Trophy
I bet he’d win the championship outright
A friend bought a new 3.0 Duramax Silverado last month, and I got to drive it across the state. I feel like there are obvious quality issues that GM skipped on. The sheet metal on the fenders is so friggin thin, that he dented it just while leaning against the truck. A lot of squeaks and wind noise from the window paneling. The interior was a cheaper feeling than I would’ve thought.
Don’t even get me started on the belt driven oil pump.
At least they’re ugly…oh, wait…
It would literally be impossible for the people in charge to care less about the middle and lower classes of this country.
Not to be a negative nelly.. but I’m not really seeing a “wicked” or “sweet” Golf there. Looks boring AF to me.. truly yawn-inducing… but to each their own.
If this was the golden age of NASCAR, ol’ Kimi would get a good share of rubbin’ (racin’), if not spun clear off the oval as a welcome from his fellow drivers. I’d tune in for that.
And pray that your current car doesn’t get totaled in a rear ender (mine did). The insurance adjusters haven’t caught up to the current market yet. I ended up paying paying quite a bit more for a lesser version of the car that got totaled.
How long ago did this happen? Did you appeal the adjuster’s decision?
Because Progressive just paid out far more than the remaining loan value for a car totaled in January, and I thought the loan was very upside-down. It was bought used last year, around March, based on immediate need, for what I thought was a ridiculously inflated price. And now the insurance payout is more than the original purchase price.
Average consumer:
“Price hike? Meh, just tell me what my monthly is. So I take another year to pay it off. Big deal.”
Let’s get the Block family as an F1 team.
“That New Chevy Silverado You Want Just Got Even More Expensive”
That’s impossible. I’d have to want a truck that looks like … THAT! YUCK! I’m a lifelong GM truck fan, but GM screwed the pooch on their current trucks. I’d take one for free, but I certainly wouldn’t pay actual money for one.
A face only Mary Barra could love.
Not gonna lie, I completely forgot the Durango still existed.
How could you forget that minivan?
My town actually just bought one as their latest police cruiser. It looks odd amongst all the Explorers.
Eventually one of the OEMs will start producing cars and cut prices and everyone will follow. if they don’t, a Chinese company will come in and undercut them. either way eventually they’ll change their tune. Its going to suck until then though.
Honestly Kimi might be competitive at Watkins Glen. The new cars they’re running now has modern race car things like competent brakes, independent suspension, and a sequential transmission. Trackhouse has been running really well this year too and already has a win on a road course so they know how to set a car up to go left and right
Watkins Glen is a fun track to drive, especially in a street car. 55 mph doesn’t seem fast except in the turns, especially the esses. The guide cars make it look easy. For someone unaccustomed to performance driving it was eye-opening.
Stock cars around it are always a hoot, like bears tap-dancing. Can’t wait to see Kimi wrestle one of those overpowered and under-braked beasts around it.
It’s just a bad time to buy a car, and a really bad time to buy a used car. I had to buy a truck last year. I was looking at 2019 Ram 1500’s and was finding that the used ones with half the warranty gone were only about $2000 less than a new one was going for (if you could find one). I was able to find a 2021, mostly configured the way I wanted, and at a dealer that charged me MSRP but still gave me the supplier discount (about $6500) plus another $500 conquest rebate). It felt crazy at the time to spend that much, but 10 months later, after seeing the price hikes and no improvement in the supply chain, I don’t feel as bad about spending that much or about buying new. The trade in value is still higher than I paid (because things just don’t make sense right now or money is just worth that much less), and a new one with the same equipment is almost $4000 more in 2022. And at least I traded in my 8 year old car for only about $3000 less than I had paid for it after using it for 5 years. I don’t typically buy new cars, but it was a better financial decision than getting my typical 2-3 year old car last year. it just means I’ll have to keep it for 8-9 years instead of my typical 5-6. I have to replace my wife’s car next year, and I want to get an EV again, but those are super hard to find. I hope it’s better by March.
Crap, I wasn’t even close with my “$4000 more”. I just priced my truck again, and it’s just shy of $7000 more if I bought it today. Trade-in value is still about the same I paid for it a year ago, and a private party sale would get me my tax payment back too. This is all just stupid and the price of used cars and gas (and transportation costs of goods and food) hurts so many hard working people in our economy.
Yeah Rootwyrm, I get the death-spiral, and I don’t feel like anyone is doing anything to pull us out of it. I don’t want it to turn into a political discussion, because I come here to talk about cars. I don’t know that it’s the manufacturers of the cars so much as other forces. I see the parking lots around me full of trucks that they can’t sell because they are missing chips. History has proven that the automakers will produce way more cars than they should and then discount the crap out of them (through leases or rebates). Maybe they are changing their ways now that they see the scarcity causes them even greater profits, but I think the costs have much more to do with scarcity of certain components and transportation costs of those components. Regardless, it’s all bad and the impacts for the poor and middle class are going to be unbearable if something isn’t done to slow things down. In my industry (electrical distribution for buildings), components are up in cost almost 40-50% over last year, and yet factories still can’t make enough. The Consumer Price Index is a lie. Inflation is considerably worse that what is being reported. Whew…. that was a post full of joyful optimism for the future.
Thank you for this informative comment.
Well said. Overdue.
It should be mandatory reading for everyone who has ever whined about that “other” website being too political.
Politics is simply the art and science of dividing up the benefits a society gets by being civil with each other. EVERYTHING in society is political. Anyone who argues “I want a space free of politics to just enjoy things” is deliberately avoiding basic facts.
And the more we avoid politics in our daily lives, the more the extremists and radicals get to set the agenda. Don’t avoid politics in daily life.
There are other factors to consider regarding this death spiral:
1) Conventional oil production peaked in the 2000s decade. The oil industry destroyed our ground water supplies and poisoned the land via fracking in order to keep production up, and now unconventional oil production may be peaking or may have peaked. It’s still too early to tell. Within our lifetimes, the oil will become scarce. This effects the price of everything dependent upon oil.
2) The U.S. Petrodollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency is in peril. Because of ending the Bretton Woods agreement and going off the gold standard more than 50 years ago, there is nothing else backing the U.S. dollar other than military force. A lot of the meddling abroad by the U.S. government has been in effort to preserve the dominant status of the petrodollar. Once that goes, say hello to out of control inflation, or possibly even Weimar-republic style hyperinflation.
3) There’s also the issue of the COVID relief stimulus. Trillions of dollars were printed up out of thin air and handed to the largest corporations and the billionaires. They got to spend all of that money first before it lost value. All the average person got was a few minor stimulus checks.
I think we’re eventually going to end up living in a set of circumstances where the automobile market in the 1st world becomes akin to the way it currently is 3rd world geographically isolated areas, where ALL cars even clapped out used ones, are precious and over-priced, where efficiency, serviceability, and reduced operating costs will be the most desirable traits, where even a clapped out used car could end up costing 2-3x the yearly wage of the average working person. Note that this is NOT a worst case scenario, quite far from it. We could be facing full-on civilization collapse depending upon what happens.
Environmental collapse? Nuclear war? End of industrial civilization? Some combination thereof? Don’t dismiss it outright because it sounds outlandish. It’s actually quite plausible considering current trends.
5. A “Hemi Orange” package that includes a little bit of orange on the hood stripe of a white or gray SUV is almost as bad as calling a model “Plaid” and not including plaid interior trim.
If Dodge built an ultralight streamliner with one-half the weight and one-third the aerodynamic drag of an ordinary car, retaining the engine from a Hellcat or Demon, it would get Prius-like fuel economy in ordinary use, AND the performance would be totally bonkers. But that doesn’t jive well with the auto industry’s ethos of planned obsolescence. But there would be less sobbing at the gas pump, for sure.
That’s simply not true. You can’t avoid the fuel penalties of additional friction and mass.
You can’t build a driveline tolerant of brutal performance without adding a lot of weight and losing efficiency. You can’t contain a Hellcat or Demon motor in an ultralight chassis and still remain a decently safe vehicle. A heavy driveline requires sturdy surrounding chassis, and then all that weight then requires additional strength to protect the occupants at the cost of even more weight.
The aero gains you propose simply aren’t there to attain. To be useful as a vehicle, you have to have a certain frontal area, and the coefficient of drag is already pretty low on most vehicles, including several cars with big motors, yet they don’t get the economy you think is possible when driven carefully.
There is some efficiency lost to styling of the Challenger and the Charger. But even if you went full smooth aero, the difference is nowhere near enough to get Prius economy out of that driveline.
The Hellcats and Demons are already fairly large cars as it is. And they use conventional materials, with a body on frame design. Build a composite monocoque sturdy enough for using that powertrain as the various supercars do, and it may be possible to cut 1000+ lbs off of the weight. THEN you shrink the size from a midsized car into a compact with a low frontal area, reducing material use and cutting weight further. Keep the interior rather spartan, with maybe just AC and roll-up windows, minimizing features to keep weight down, and dare I say it’s possible to keep the weight in the upper 2,XXX range, lugging that oversized powertrain around. It wouldn’t exactly be unprecedented given the supercars that exist today.
Hell, someone managed to put a Hellcat engine and powertrain in a Mazda Miata and still kept the weight well under 3,000 lbs, although it had zero traction. The article was showcased long ago on Jalopnik.
The average new car has a drag coefficient on par with the 1921 Rumpler Tropfenwagen, about 0.28. There are plenty of gains to be made, considering decades ago there have been road-worthy concept cars that had close to half the average drag coefficient. See the GM Precept, GM Ultralite, Chevrolet Citation II, Ford Probe IV, Ford Prodigy, Ford 2000 concept, ect. A Cd in the mid 0.1X range is very achievable in a road-worthy car and isn’t even approaching the Cd values of solar cars and velomobiles(Those can get into the < 0.10 range). Such a design won't appease the marketing team, but there is no technical reason it can't be done.
Regarding drag, the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat is even worse than today's average new car, with a Cd of 0.41 and a frontal area of 27 sq ft, having a curb weight of about 4,500 lbs. It gets 22 mpg highway according to the EPA.
Couple a Cd in the 0.1X region with a frontal area reduction to roughly 20 sq ft(slightly smaller than a Prius), and we can get to about 1/3 the overall aerodynamic drag and half the weight vs. a standard Hellcat. Doing so will translate most of that load reduction into a proportional reduction in fuel consumption. Yes, I get that there are still all kinds of pumping losses and frictional losses in the engine that don't go away, and they are negligible compared to wind resistance and rolling resistance.
You could select your gear ratios and using a BSFC chart of the engine of choice, run a calculation of what the fuel economy would be in steady state cruising at various speeds. The Hellcat engine would be an excellent demonstration given how shitty and inefficient it is. Because even with that engine, in the right chassis, sufficiently light and streamlined, 50 mpg @ steady 65 mph may be possible.
Throw a modern 3-cylinder in such a car and it would approach 100 mpg at the same speed.
I meant to say “Chevrolet Citation IV” in that last comment. The Citation IV had a Cd value of 0.18, but even well before the 1980s, the auto industry knew how to make road-going cars with drag coefficients in the 0.1X range. They simply had no desire to even attempt to sell such a thing.
Load reduction has arguably been where most of today’s fuel economy gains have come from versus 30 years ago. And massive amounts of load reduction were achieved in spite of greatly increasing the mass of the vehicles today versus then. Most of the load reduction came from aerodynamic drag reduction and improvements in tire technology, along with optimizing the gear ratios available to allow the engine to operate at more efficient points on the BSFC map. This is how obese cars with antiquated dead-end engine technology and brick-like aero like the Hellcat can still manage 13 mpg in the city, when 30+ years ago a car with the same engine but less tech would have been in the single digits.
Sadly, this load reduction we’ve seen over the decades was annoyingly incremental. There’s a lot of low-hanging fruit to pluck, given that today’s automobile designs aren’t very slippery(matched by the 1921 Rumpler) and are also extremely obese and feature-laden to cater to the upper middle class and wealthier that can actually afford these vehicles since everyone else is too broke to afford much of anything.
I would like to see Ricky Bobby do F1
Or as Jean Girard would say – “Formule Une”.