I am slow to recognize a pattern, so it wasn’t until late last week that it occurred to me how many overlapping news stories are coming out tomorrow, May 20th. This is, as far as I can tell, a day of no special significance on the calendar. Other than occurring right before the Memorial Day weekend, it’s just another Tuesday.
Because some of this news is embargoed, I can’t tell you about everything happening, but I can give you, dear Morning Dump readers, a little heads up as to what to expect.
If you’re an employee at Italdesign, I should probably let you know that Volkswagen might not own your company for that much longer, assuming it can find a partner.
Nissan maybe could have ended up with a Toyota partnership, apparently, as the much larger automaker reportedly made an overture when talks with Honda failed. Is that a good or a bad thing? I don’t know. I do know that when long-time car hauler Jack Cooper went out of business, I was curious who might pick up the slack. At least some of that work is going to a group put together by a former driver. That’s nice.
It’s Super Car (But Not Actually Supercars) Tuesday!
The first one is the easiest one. We’ll have someone (Sam) on the ground at Toyota’s HQ in Plano for a bunch of different cars, reveals, and experiences. Expect a lot of Toyota and Lexus news this week from your favorite car website.
Right off the bat, come back tomorrow at 9:00 PM (ET) and you’ll get to read about the 2026 Toyota RAV4. Will it be hybrid-only? How much tougher will it be? It’s the bread-and-butter car for Toyota, so they can’t go too crazy with it. Or can they? I haven’t actually looked at any of the embargoed information, so I honestly can’t tell you. Presumably, Sam has, and he will tell you tomorrow at 9:00 PM.
Do we have a review? Yes. Am I allowed to tell you that a review of the Hyundai Ioniq 9 is coming tomorrow? Is the date of the embargo actually embargoed itself? I don’t think so. That’s also written by Sam, and so will be an insightful, thorough read like all his great reviews. Just to make it exciting, I won’t tell you when exactly. It’s just tomorrow.
The last piece of news I have to be more circumspect about. It involves a company that’s made one of the most iconic vehicles on the road for years. It’s a low-volume manufacturer and hasn’t, to this point, ever gone racing. It’ll debut its first fleet of race cars ever tomorrow morning, and you’ll be able to read all about it right here at 7:01 AM ET.
Why is this happening now? I think the New York Auto Show gave me hope that there was some life left in the traditional auto show, even if the reality is that most automakers don’t want to share the spotlight. Automakers typically don’t like to do news on Memorial Day, which is all about sales, so this is sort of the last week to squeeze product stuff in before the official start of summer
Either way, look forward to a minimum of three big car stories tomorrow, plus whatever else I missed.
Report: VW Is Looking To Do Something With Italdesign
Founded in the late ’60s by the great Giorgetto Giugiaro, Italdesign is one of the strangest and most important of the Italian design and engineering firms of the 20th century. The original Fiat Panda and the Lotus Esprit are both Italdesign/Giugiaro products. In particular, some of the biggest Volkswagen cars (Scirocco, Passat, and Golf) all have roots in Italdesign.
The company was gobbled up by Volkswagen during Ferdinand Piëch’s Imperial Era VW, when it bought seemingly every brand or automotive outfit for sale. Italdesign ended up under Audi, which is also responsible for Lamborghini and Ducati. Ultimately, you can argue that Piëch’s ambitions played a big role in ruining the company, and now the new leadership is trying to do what it can to survive. One strategy is to offload many of these assets, including Italdesign.
Per Reuters, who is getting this information from the company’s union, the sale is already in process:
Volkswagen, has received preliminary expressions of interest from four or five counterparts, the union representatives said after a meeting with Italdesign management, adding the German company will not consider offers from competitors or financial groups.
“The management confirmed in the meeting that Audi is assessing a possible sale of Italdesign,” Gianni Mannori of Fiom union told Reuters, adding alternative options could be considered.
The process could take a few months, Mannori added.
Rocco Cutrì, the head of FIM Cisl union in Turin, said Audi was running a preliminary due diligence process at Italdesign, to prepare the unit for the plan.
Would Audi/VW consider a Chinese automaker a competitor?
Toyota And Nissan At Least Had A Chat
For all the issues that Nissan has cultivated over the years, it sure seems like a lot of companies are interested in its potential. There was the prospect of Nissan-Honda-Mitsubishi. And then Nissan-Foxconn. Now there’s some reporting out of a Japanese daily, via Automotive News, pointing out that Toyota at least gave a friendly “how you doing?” to Nissan as the Honda deal was falling apart.
When negotiations between Nissan and Honda Motor Co. abruptly ended in February, a Toyota executive contacted Nissan to offer support, Japan’s Mainichi daily reported May 18, without saying where it obtained the information.
The report did not detail the results of Toyota’s overture.
But neither Nissan nor Toyota has publicly disclosed discussions on partnering or cooperating. A spokesman for Nissan declined to comment on the Mainichi report. A Toyota spokesman said the company was looking into the report.
Toyota currently wholly owns Daihatsu and has a stake in Mazda, Suzuki, Isuzu, and Subaru. Nissan doesn’t not make sense in that lineup. Plus, as Automotive News goes on to mention, new CEO Ivan Espinosa says the company is “evaluating potential partners that will bring additional corporate value to Nissan.”
Ex-Jack Cooper Driver Launches Hauling Business
Vehicle hauler Jack Cooper started in the business in 1928, not quite making it to its 100th birthday as both General Motors and Ford decided to cut the company as a supplier this year, effectively dooming it. Why did this happen? It could have been a cost-cutting issue, or just the idea that Jack Cooper itself wasn’t a stable business spooked its customers. Whatever the reason, it left a lot of drivers without a job.
One of those drivers was McKinley Archie, who told the Detroit Free Press that the news shook him up a bit.
“As the steward, my coworkers looked to me for leadership and guidance, so I had to be strong for them on the outside. But internally, I didn’t know what I was going to do either,” Archie said. “Then when I saw my mom she said, ‘What’s wrong? Your face looks heavy?’ I broke a couple tears and said, ‘I don’t know if I’ll have a job.’ She reminded me that I’m a child of God. He will take care of me. She said to suck it up, keep moving and it will all work out.”
Archie and a few of his lifelong friends were able to get enough money together to lease a few of the ex-Cooper trucks, and have started hauling Fords and other vehicles under the name Squirrely LLC, saying it’s “Because we are all over the place.”
I love the spirit of it.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Lola Young got a lot of attention last year with her “Messy,” which was her vulnerable and on her backfoot. It’s a great song, but her best music is when she’s on the offensive. The new “One Thing” is definitely her throwing hooks.
The Big Question
What’s some car news you’re looking forward to?
Photo: Toyota
I’m sure none of this will happen anytime soon if at all, but auto news I would look forward to would be:
News that some new vehicles are becoming simpler, lighter, and smaller.
News that new battery options are widely available in EVs, in the US and not just China, such as sodium ion.
News that Maserati is producing a new coupe with a high strung NA V8, running off renewable methanol (with fueling infrastructure), a manual transmission, and zero screens.
My prediction is Toyota will zig where others have zagged. The next Rav 4 will be a low slung stick shift sports coupe.
That’s a bold strategy Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for ’em. lol
Well you see the Rav4 nameplate is so established and popular that Toyota marketing feels it will bring attention and hype to their new sports car.
Automotive news I look forward to reading? Telo is real and arriving on schedule and price this year with full production capability and copious financial banking.
“Stellantis appoints an AI chatbot (Pictured above) as their next CEO.”
Let me get this straight – Ford and GM drop contract with long term car hauler fearing instability, then hire a bunch of ex drivers working under a startup? I call shenanigans.
Car news I’m looking forward to…
Elon goes to Mars, leaves Tesla in capable hands
Stellantis moves non-Jeepy Jeeps to Chrysler/Dodge lineups
Alpha isn’t vaporware, Wolf/Ace/Saga all launch and are reasonably priced
Slate adds soft top option for open air suv option.
Toyota News? Is It finally Celica/MR2 announcement day? I can only handle so much
That Italdesign Columbus looks like a brain-breaking AI fail. Good thing I’ll never see one in the wild or I’d run myself off the road.
I really hope that AI models have to train on concept cars like the Columbus and other oddballs’, so that when you ask for it to generate some sort of vehicle, it just has completely incomprehensible shapes like that thrown in just to make everything sliiiiightly less realistic. Honestly just posting pictures of the Columbus with tags and pings to more popular production vehicles would probably achieve that goal when the internet gets haphazardly scraped for training data.
Reality show idea…two teams of builders are given the same AI prompt and must produce a fully functional version of whatever the system generates. The wild card is each team can add one additional secret element to the other’s prompt to help gum up the works.
Interesting. Considering how spectacularly some of those abominations miss the mark, Physics-wise, full function might be a bridge too far. But your wild card is a great hook!
Retired Morgan craftsmen in high demand to train the next generation in constructing biogenetic composite vehicles.
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/revolutionary-superwood-stronger-than-steel
It could happen, It’s better than bad, It’s wood.
only if it’s in pairs
And rolls down stairs?
and fits on your back and is good for a snack, obviously
Don’t forget it has to roll over your neighbor’s dog.
Oh Man! My neighbor’s dogs will not shut up!
you know what to do, my friend
I will put my guess of Singer on the record here.
Lambo
Lamborghini may not have the racing pedigree of Ferrari, but it absolutely has one, including Huracans in the GTD category of IMSA right now.
Does Singer even technically count as a manufacturer? IIRC all their vehicles are titles as the 911s they started at and are technically restomods, rather than new builds.
I think it mostly leaves Pagani and Koeniggsegg. Rimac makes no sense as EV racing is nonexistent outside of Formula E, which wouldn’t count as a “fleet” of their own cars, Bugatti has an obvious racing history in it’s previous forms, Bentley and Lamborghini have recent and former history, most other small batch Mfgs are likely too low volume for such expensive things (Pininfarina, whatever you consider De Tomaso and Hispano-Suiza reboots, etc)
I know these seem to be the popular picks, and I understand why, but “iconic” is not a word I associate with either of them. Obviously impressive vehicles, but not icons in the way some others are.
I’m not sure I can necessarily argue with that, I’m just not sure who would be left if those two are discounted. Even Morgan has has some racing endeavors, so I’m not sure what other small Manufacturers could be less that have more brand name recognition than those two. Meyers Manx Dakar competitor??
I love all of these guesses. Honestly, Meyers Manx racing sounds awesome.
Other guesses I’ll throw into the ring (Accuracy by volume FTW!) are Caterham (they have their own in-house championships but that’s it AFAIK), Pyeonghwa Motors (my dark horse candidate), Mitsuoka because it would be awesome, and then two semi-serious bonus guesses of Ariel and Noble as actual manufacturers with no racing history that I could actually see doing this.
My guess is Caterham
I used to be a Nissan guy, they were my favorite Japanese marque until those pea-soup eaters got a hold of it. Since then, Nissan and Infiniti are shadows of their former selves, and the sales numbers prove it.
Nissan would benefit mightily if somebody sprinkled some Toyota on it.
As a 90s kid who grew up reading car magazines in the early aughts Nissan and Infiniti were legitimately cool to me. Obviously there was always the forbidden fruit R34 that the Fast movies made famous, but even a lot of their regular cars were cool. The 300ZX was an icon when I was a kid, the 350Z was cool as hell, the XTerra was always an attainable dream car, and this was also back when Infiniti came for the German marquees and drew blood with products like the G35 and the FX crossovers.
The state they’re in today is just sad and I’ve been rooting for them to pull themselves out of it for years now. Not even 20 years ago they had a host of desirable and unique products. Now all the name conjures up is PTSD flashbacks of nearly being killed by Altimas and Talltimas doing 115 in a 55 on donut spares….
It sucks that they are in this position. The only new car I care about from them is the Z. Then again, I am an enthusiast.
I can’t imagine the general public are considering their products, minus the below 400 credit score crowd.
The rest of their cars are all sad, sorry rentals. I hope they are able to make a turnaround.
I saw a Z up close for the first time this weekend. It really is a great looking car. Unfortunately it isn’t a very competitive one, but it sure is easy on the eyes. I’d love to pick a manual one up as a weekend car in a couple of years.
Wow, first time!? I’ve seen a decent amount where I live (close to Dallas/Fort Worth.)
My dad was considering one as his retirement car, but he’s changed his mind and now he wants a C8. We test drove one and we really liked it, thought it was pretty gutsy. The mark downs were epic, 8-10 grand for many of them. Not sure how they are now though (especially with how more of them are being sold.)
I’m planning on eventually looking at a C8 as well depending on how far they come down. At this stage I’m convinced the best bang for my buck in the next 10ish years is going to be getting a boring but useful daily and squirreling away little chunks of money for a true sports car. Once all my personal boxes are checked the only one car solutions that’ll work are all $60,000+ and German and I don’t want to deal with either.
If I’m gonna spend that much money or more I’d rather split it between two cars. Anyway it was the first Z that I saw up close. I’d seen a few driving but this one was parked in my neighborhood and I got a good walk around for the first time. It’s a very pretty car with a surprising level of attention to detail.
Unfortunately it was an auto-tragic. As you all know I’m hardly a manual diehard but if you’re buying a two seat sports car I’m not sure that I’d settle for anything but rowing my own…and alas, that’s my biggest C8 hang up.
I just saw one this weekend too! I like how the styling makes it look more lithe than the 370, which wasn’t bad looking, just heavy-looking to my eyes.
I’m up to two sightings. Tampa bay here.
My parents just bought a condo on Longboat Key and boy is that area lovely
I’ve been several times. There’s a lot of lovely here. See Dunedin, FL where we live.
I can’t say I have seen a single one in Charlotte County. Or I just didn’t notice – which is not good for an enthusiast’s car.
I am right there with you. Kid of the 90s and Nissan had it going on. Now, yes, all the major japanese brands did, but I feel like Nissan hit more homeruns from an enthusiast standpoint since so many cars were RWD. Most of the other brands really only had maybe 2-3 iconic cars, but Nissan had more. The S13 and S14 were masterpieces back then, cheap, light, RWD, good looking, had good engine options or good for swaps too. the S15 never came to the US, but it was great. Then of course the Skyline/GTR, any Z car (twin turbo 300zx was especially cool), 350z was about the best styling ever when it came out, so bold and unique. Even the Sentra had some cool options. The G35 was a solid car too, but that seemed to be the turning point into what it is now. I had a friend who’s parents worked at Nissan in the early 2000s through the 2010s, basically got to see the failures roll out in real time. Oddly I’ve never owned a Nissan, I got pulled into the Mitsubishi and Honda life (i.e. cheap as hell), but I hope someday I can correct that when I win the lottery and can get an R34 or LS swapped clean S13…
“ pea-soup eaters “
I didn’t know Nissan was ever owned by the Dutch or Quebecois.
Something I picked up from Kids In The Hall.
Ugh – Kids always get things wrong.
Best news I could get would be that those giant banner ads that take over the whole screen on mobile and then throw you to a random spot in an article IF you’re able to get past them without an accidental click are banished for good. There are two of them on this post alone, and they make the site near-unreadable. I’d even take the auto-play video ads that were supposedly turned off for members over these…
Im looking forward to updates on the muscle sedans. The Charger Six Pack first drives should be coming soon-ish and I find that product to be very intriguing. A hatchback sedan with 420ish horsepower in base guise and standard all wheel drive with what’s essentially a ZF 8 speed transmission isn’t something that exists outside of the luxury segment. I have a few questions I’d like answered:
1). How much does it weigh?
2). How bad is the gas mileage?
3). What’ll it cost?
And the big one…how does it drive? I love the car on paper because it’s basically a yee haw M440i, but I have almost no faith whatsoever in Stellantis to make it good.
Which brings me to the other one…when will we get an update on the Mustang sedan? Apparently dealerships have been shown renderings and Ford has been seen testing a CT4V BW. There’s a lot of smoke here but almost no concrete information. I would like some, please and thank you.
I’m cautiously optimistic that the mileage will be better than that because the Hurricane returns 17/24 in all wheel drive Ram 1500s, which are aerodynamic bricks that weigh 3 tons. I wouldn’t be shocked if it flirts with 20 city and 30 highway, and if it does that’ll be good enough for me.
As for the weight just get it into the low 4s. I’m not expecting a featherweight here or anything because that’s never been Dodge’s MO but despite what Ze Germans will tell you any car with sporting pretensions has absolutely no reason to weigh 4,800+ pounds.
Mopar Insiders says the have info that’s led them to expect the GT (base straight 6) will start in the low 40s. That would be a goddamn miracle, but if I can get a loaded-ish one in the 50s it would be near the top of my next shopping list. I don’t need EVERYTHING, just give me leather, the upgraded audio, and the performance package so I can throw it around a track attack day at some point.
Re: manual they’ll never do it. It would be cool, but there’s just no way they’re gonna sink the R&D costs into getting a Hurricane to get along with the Tremec…especially since it’s a rear wheel drive transmission and for whatever reason Dodge decided to make all the Chargers all wheel drive.
Considering the only manual that could properly handle the Hurricane was built and sold from Tremec to FCA/Stellantis, I can’t figure out what manual is just lying around for them to use, even if they wanted to?
Sounds like they’d have to strike a new deal with the company that makes them in order to have more of them…. like they do for most of their transmissions anyways.
I have none of those questions because the car is 206-inches long. Way too big for my tastes.
My next car is going to have to do a fair amount of family duty so the size doesn’t bug me much
Same as a Park Avenue but less than a Crown Victoria.
Messy by Lola Young has been stuck in my head on and off for months.
Car news I’m looking forward to? Tesla cancels Cybertruck. Oh, and gets a new CEO. But I think the former is much more likely that the latter. (And neither is imminent.)
My favorite would be that Elon gets booted from Tesla and has to return a lot of his stock for not meeting goals. That would make my year.
And ends up personally liable for all of the lawsuits created by doge, although that’s not really car news.
I look forward to finding out what a Wienbermobile is from the tags.
You mean the chassis? It’s been an Isuzu NPR for a good chunk of time.
Well, ifficially whatever GM calls them when they import them, but Isuzu makes them.
Not the Wienermobile, the Wienbermobile. Check the article tags.
Lol, fixed.
Too late, I’m going all in on Oscar Mayer being the mystery company to reveal their racing lineup tomorrow.
They’ve got a long ways to go to ketchup to Sahlen’s.
Think they’ll be able to cut the mustard? I’m sure they’ll relish the chance.
I’m sure they’ll play things cool afterwards acting all “bun there, done that”.
Is it Chrysler? It’s Chrysler, isn’t it? Looking forward to the first GTD car with Stow ‘N’ Go.
I suppose, these days, they could be considered a “low-volume manufacturer.”
Well, I bought a raffle ticket for the St Jude’s Dream Home. If I don’t win the house, I guess some car news I’d look forward to is finding out I won the F150 that’s also up for grabs.
On the industry side, I’d love to hear that every manufacturer is putting in physical controls for functions like HVAC, drive mode, and seat heat/cooling.
Realistic news? Eh, I’ll just take that as it comes.
I want the news like:
Nissan announcing a rubicon/raptor fighter Xterra based off the Frontier with 35s and lockers for $30K.
or
The Jimny 4 door will be imported into the US as a (pick a company)
Koenigsegg? Pagani?
…Mitsuoka? (I’d love to see the Orochi win Le Mans hahahah)
As always, any introductions of new coupes, convertibles, or vehicles with 8+ cylinders will excite me.
I assume you have heard the rumors about the revival of the Viper then? and the possibility of a V12 edition?
There have been rumors about that since 2017.
I was in the room when Ralph Gilles was asked about it directly in 2018 (He demurred).
At this point, I put zero credence into it, but done right it could be really neat (It won’t be done right).
Thats totally fair. I suppose I should clarify that these are new rumors. Still could be total crap, but Mopar Insiders has mentioned it and Hemmings even ran an article. Those outlets typically try to avoid the total garbage rumors in my opinion.
Anyway, food for thought, or possibly just extra fuel on the disappointment fire.
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/will-the-dodge-viper-strike-again/
It’s a V10, but the V10 is just a range extender.
It’s a manual shift, but you choose gears from the touchscreen.
It has a side exit exhaust, and it still burns the shit out of your calves after all these years.
It’s a rear exit ehaust that burns your calves when you get out.
I’d still be listening….
It’s an EV and the side exhaust gets hot from the heat pump and that’s how you efficiently burn your calves.
If it were six months ago, I’d expect Stellantis to announce the Viper Cross, under its own Viper brand, sold only in Viper stores (within Dodge dealers).
It’d be a 3-cylinder turbocharged 48V mild hybrid entry-level crossover coupe, with power-retractable running boards shaped to look like side exhausts. They would festoon it with fourteen red, glowing Viper logos, including a giant lighted one in the middle of the front grill the size of a cantaloupe, with side mirror puddle lights — also red — that project a three-foot diameter Viper logo that flicks is tongue.
Viper.
This part they tried already.
Now this would be cool.
They didn’t try it when they only have one model to sell! Plus have a requirement of a giant 10 x 12 foot Viper logo be on an entirely separate sign separate from the stores’ other roadside sign(s). Of course it would be glowing red, and flicking its tongue.
Why have a logo when you can have an entire car as the sign
If they did this with the Hornet we’d all be fine right now.
I’ll watch for that, but what are you going to cover here?
Ouch
I kid. I couldn’t even think of another website to claim as my favorite. I think we all know I spend too much time here to even find another car site.
My Rav4 prediction is that it’s going to look absolutely wild, everyone here will hate it, and it’ll be the best-selling vehicle of the last 450 years.
The teaser photos make it seem pretty good looking from what i can tell
Matt is such a tease today.