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.
Tesla Revives Enhanced Autopilot
In a classic move of reviving old options, Tesla is bringing back its Enhanced Autopilot driver assist system to bridge the gap between its Autopilot and Full Self Driving Beta assist systems. As such, it shouldn’t be surprising that Enhanced Autopilot now starts at $6,000, or half the price of Full Self Driving Beta. But wait, what exactly does Enhanced Autopilot do, and what prompted Tesla to bring it back? Enhanced Autopilot takes the standard Autopilot Level 2 assist system and adds features focused on controlled-access freeway driving, like interchange navigation, on-ramp and off-ramp assistance on navigation, and suggested lane changes on cruise control. It’s a much more honest representation of Tesla’s hardware and software capabilities than Full Self Driving Beta, although it’s still very much an assistance suite rather than anything approaching autonomy. As for why Tesla brought it back, it’s a simple money-making proposition. The current $12,000 charge for Full Self Driving Beta is a stiff one for most consumers, so this $6,000 option could see higher take rates and thus increase profits for the Texas-based company. For context, the optional advanced driver assistance system on the BMW iX retails for $1,700, while the Mercedes-Benz EQS includes high-spec Level 2 driver assistance as standard. The Genesis GV60 small electric crossover includes Highway Driving Assist on its top-level Performance trim for $68,985 which splits the difference between Long Range and Performance trims of the Tesla Model Y, and the Polestar 2 gets upgraded driver assistance through the $3,400 Pilot pack. Consumers may also have very well-justified fears about Full Self Driving Beta putting them into dangerous situations, so this intermediate step may be an acceptable compromise for some consumers. While more choice is usually a good thing, Tesla now has three different Level 2 driver assist systems, all with incredibly confusing names. Autopilot is really just a fairly basic Level 2 assist system and not in keeping with society’s image of an autopilot system. Enhanced Autopilot doesn’t really spell out what its enhancements are, while Full Self Driving Beta definitely isn’t self-driving. It’s not even Level 3 autonomy, let alone a higher level of mind-off automation. However, Enhanced Autopilot seems more competitive against the latest crop of Level 2 driver assist suites, and as long as informed consumers make themselves aware of Enhanced Autopilot’s limitations and don’t use the stupid summon feature, it seems possible to use safely.
German Investigators Raid Hyundai And Kia Over Emissions Allegations
I’m sure we all wondered how big the industry fallout would be from Dieselgate, but I’m not sure any of us expected it to go on for this long. Reuters reports that German authorities have raided properties associated with Hyundai and Kia on the grounds of suspected defeat devices that may have been used on 210,000 diesel vehicles. See, German authorities believe that Hyundai and Kia employed software developed by Bosch similar to the software used by Volkswagen to cheat diesel emissions tests, although that’s a bit vague as we’ve seen defeat devices function in different ways. Some run a different engine map when a vehicle’s sensors detect that it’s on a chassis dynomometer, while some crank up urea injection metering under testing conditions. Whether or not Hyundai and Kia actually used defeat devices is yet to be seen. Honestly, it’s going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. The use of defeat devices is a pretty serious allegation and while an alleged 210,000 affected units pales in comparison to Volkswagen’s number of cheaty diesels, it’s no small number if authorities’ claims turn out to be true.
Ford Recalls The F-150 Lightning
The all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning may feel like the truck of the future, but it’s definitely not immune to mistakes of the present. What do I mean by that? See, EVs are heavy, which often means increased tire pressures over combustion-powered cars to cope with extra load. While cold tire pressure spec for the F-150 Lightning is 42 psi, Reuters reports that the tire pressure monitoring systems in many units are only programmed for a cold tire pressure of 35 psi. Hey, direct tire pressure monitoring is just about everyone’s least-favorite automotive gizmo due to being expensive and temperamental, so I’m not surprised lower values were punched in. However, because tire pressure monitoring is deemed a safety issue, Ford has recalled 2,886 F-150 Lightnings in owners’ driveways and on dealers’ lots. That breaks down to 2,666 American-market trucks and 220 in Canada, so we’re not talking about a massive recall here. What’s more, no recall-related crashes have been reported, and owners won’t have to do much to get their trucks fixed. F-150 Lightnings in dealer inventory get a simple 20-minute reprogramming, while owners who don’t want to visit the dealer will receive an over-the-air update in the next 30 days. Easy as pie.
New Vehicle Sales Forecast Slip Lower
While many automakers predicted the chip shortage to ease this year, I’m not sure if anyone expected the general supply chain shortage to last this long. Automotive industry analysts at Cox Automotive think the way out of the woods is a long, rutted path, and have slashed their 2022 new vehicle sales forecast from 16 million vehicles to 14.4 million. According to Automotive News, Cox Automotive’s predictions for 2022 aren’t particularly pretty. New vehicle supply has declined by around 280,000 units year-over-year, with a massive 1.6 million vehicle deficit compared to this time in 2020. Worse still, supply chain shortages are still expected to create shortfall in the new car market, even as rampant inflation pushes some buyers out of the market. “Even though economic conditions have worsened in the past months, the lack of supply is still the greatest headwind facing the automotive industry today,” said senior economist Charlie Chesbrough. While it’s easy to take the opinion of one analysis firm with a grain of salt, it’s a bigger deal when multiple specialists are forecasting similar shortfalls. Edmunds also announced expectations of a year-over-year decline on Tuesday, while LMC Automotive is forecasting a year-over-year sales decline and total expected new vehicle sales of just 13.1 million units in 2022. That latter figure is a rather worrying 2.3 million unit decline over 2021 sales. Buckle up, everyone. Things might be getting even bumpier.
The Flush
Whelp, time to drop the lid on today’s edition of The Morning Dump. With the car market expected to stay absolutely batshit for a very long time, I want to know how your car buying plans have been affected. Have you been pushed around by a dealer lobbing markup in at the last possible moment? Is a cheap, reliable used daily driver out of your reach? Are you holding off on acquiring a new toy? Whatever the case, I’d love to hear your stories of trying to shop for cars in this seller’s market. While I could have made many times more than I sold that van for then if I sold it now, I’m sure the Prius’ adjusted price would have eliminated any possible gain. And at any rate, the maintenance cost on the van was averaging way more than the monthly payment on the Prius. So I’ve definitely come out ahead. We also have a 2019 Subaru Outback 3.6r Limited, that I bought new back in mid 2019. I got a decent deal on it because they were clearing out remaining stock for the new body style. Checked KBB…. ~$37,000. Right at what I paid 3 years ago. So both vehicles are worth more now than what we originally paid, and I’d love to take advantage of that and trade them but there is nothing to trade them for that isn’t also astronomically marked up right now new or used. I guess I’ll just be content knowing that we got new vehicles at the right time and we don’t have to deal with the crazy market. Looked around, realized everything sucks, did the math on what sort of break-even we might have with my old truck’s mileage and new prices, then buried my head back in the sand. I’m tentatively searching for something sub $4k with known issues that might give me better mileage, better than break-even means 25+MPG though and that’s rough considering what is available. I wound up buying a new Hyundai Elantra. I only got that because I saw the truck in the parking lot when driving by the dealership. They pulled two cars off the truck for that lot, and I got one. The plastic was still on everything inside, and I had to actually wait for them to enter it into their inventory. I didn’t have to haggle with price. They didn’t try to throw on any unwanted fees or warranties. As soon as I said ‘no’ they just moved on. It helps when it’s a locally owned family business. It’s not what I wanted, but I’ve been loving it so far. There’s a lot of stuff on it that I wouldn’t have optioned myself, but I’m enjoying it. I’ve gotten nothing but compliments on it. It’s a nice looking car. It gets great mileage. And the air blows ice cold. I didn’t become an enthusiast until after purchasing my current daily – an anonymous midsize sedan. But here I am 10 years later with a garage full of tools and a brain full of confidence and maybe even some mechanical knowhow. The desire is to sell my beigemobile and replace it with the aforementioned quirky, high-mileage, potentially unreliable runabout. Here’s the problem: if your quirky, high-mileage, potentially unreliable runabout craps out, you can’t just go find a cheap, boring, reliable replacement in this market the next day. You just can’t. So my happy ass is waiting out this market until there is a decent supply of safety options on the market as a fallback for whenever my quirky, high-mileage, potentially unreliable dream runabout self-immolates or something. Definitely going to need a citation for this one. Maybe unnecessary for the enthusiast who obsessively checks their tire pressure regularly, but for normal drivers it’s a nice feature with basically no downsides. Expensive and temperamental don’t make sense as criticisms to me, I’ve driven hundreds of thousands of miles in TPMS equipped vehicles and replaced a grand total of one sensor ever. I think the most reviled automotive gizmo is start/stop, I don’t know of anyone who actively enjoys it, and quite a few who loathe it. When the lease on my wife’s car expired, did not want the car due to a bad dealer, I went on the hunt for a good commuter that wouldn’t break the bank. I found a slightly higher mileage Subaru (2018 with 74k or 18.5 k per year) in excellent shape and full warranty for under $15,000. Sure a few years ago that would be insane money. Now that is on the rare find stage. With a good down payment and terms, it is under $300 per month. We were very skeptical but it was a small family owned dealer so there was no fuss. Got the Bronco Sport in the exact trim/color she wanted at MSRP with no paint protection or any other BS. Finance office took 10 minutes and did not try to push us into anything. They even let us use our own financing without the usual complaints. Frankly, we were surprised it went so smoothly. Just waiting for that shoe to drop but it never did. Granted MSRP wasn’t a deal before the pandemic but we were fine paying that if the process was seamless and it was. Just takes a little homework calling and emailing around to get your name out there and being patient for the right dealer to come through. We also found a couple dealers that strictly sold at MSRP but the stock sells out fast. I’m just glad we didn’t have to deal with the used market. The markups there are insane! So we are at an impasse. I’d suggest we get an older 6 speed and sell it in 4-5 years, but I just can’t swallow prices on the used car market. (Especially since the 6 speeds I like tend to have a markup due to demand for fun manuals.) I also want to show that my manual shifting can match or exceed auto tragic transmissions when I want to do so. I’ve felt the EPA ratings are biased against manuals. But enough about my problems. “Why would I pay more for this than the new cars you have on the lot?” “It’s a really rare color. Also we actually have a $5k market adjustment in effect on new cars so it’s not as bad by comparison ” “So, when you told me earlier today that your advertised price was the price, that was not true?” “Well, you know supply chain issues. I’m personally in the market for a BMW and they’ve got market adjustments, too. I think you’ll find those are pretty common in this market” “Sorry, I’m not interested at that price” “So when are you coming in for a test drive?” “I won’t be” -Later that day- “hi, I’m the manager at [dealer name], when do you want to come in for a test drive this weekend?” -the next day- “let me know what time youre available on Saturday to test drive this car” Looks like I’ll be holding off on replacing my road trip car. I’m really digging the a Hyundai Ioniq 5 and 6, but I am not paying way over MSRP for one. Classic cars are a great choice if you don’t mind ignoring safety, comfort, and the future of the planet. Maybe in ’24 or ’25 I’ll be able to convince myself that there’ll be something out there that isn’t a complete ripoff.
