Now, I can’t take credit for discovering this connection; The Mirror ran a story about this, and, even better, the explanation seems to have been in plain sight on the official Paddington website for who knows how long. It’s hardly been hidden, but I find it kind of surprising how little known it seems to be, especially in auto journalism-focused communities like the ones that surround me like the candy shell of a Skittle surrounds whatever the hell is inside a Skittle....

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. Akio Toyoda Throws Cold Water On EV Dreams Toyota President Akio Toyoda was in Las Vegas this week, but not to gamble or even catch Aerosmith’s residency (Toyoda is a known “Honkin’ on Bobo” fan)....

We have four bays and, for the most part, work on four brands. Our shop only has two advisors in the office, so there’s rarely a slow moment. Within our four brands, we see a wide range of cars; anything from brand-new high-performance sports cars to abused four-wheeled appliances that haven’t seen more than a quick lube joint in the last decade will show up in our parking lot. [Ed Note: This is Andrea’s first article!...

Museo dell’Automobile, otherwise known as the automotive museum of Turin, is a great destination throughout the entire year, thanks to its vast rooms being full of a well-curated collection of rare cars from all major periods of motoring. However, make it there by the 20th of November, and you shall be rewarded with the spectacle of six LMX Sirex models made between 1968 and 1974. That is a whopping 14 percent of the 42 units that were ever produced....

On Friday, we looked at a couple of ’50s sedans that were outside our normal price range. Let’s see what you thought of them: Well, that’s pretty decisive. Price was probably a factor: I’m not sure that Edsel was more than twice as nice as the DeSoto. And the DeSoto is just way cooler. Today, we’ve got another one of those odd-couple matchups, because there just aren’t comparable vehicles out there for either of these, at least for our hypothetical budget....

I’m a huge fan of tailgate designs overall, where the lower half of a car’s rear door drops down to open, forming an additional load platform in the process. My Nissan Pao has such a setup, which I’ve used to good effect, carrying things longer than the normal cargo area and using the tailgate as a very handy seat/table when parked. A lot of cars used this type of tailgate system, including the original Mini, which was a trunked setup instead of a hatchback (lacking even an opening rear window like on the Pao) and used its tailgate-style trunk lid as a way to extend the cargo-hauling ability of the car....

Return of the Mack, baby. The Mini is great, but the SL500 is just baller, so I’m not surprised it got the win. Anyway, let’s talk about cars for the end of the world. Dirt-cheap, indestructible machines that’ll keep going with virtually zero maintenance and shrug off having to ram debris. Let’s face it, if the end of the world does happen, it’ll more likely be climate-related than zombie-related, so reasonable ground clearance and a full frame to get through the aftermath of extreme weather events sounds nice....

And yet here we are. Morris should have brought back the 10-4 name in the ’70s, maybe with a special edition Marina, and really leaned into that CB culture. Maybe the 10-4 Marina could have been antenna-studded and full of kitchy Americana and have stars and stripes on the roof or something, like how American Minis can have Union Jacks slathered all over them. Oh, also this callout diagram of the Morris has all kinds of good mundane callouts like “large luggage container with external access” and “large external oil filter” and “well-less floor....

Just to clarify from the start: I am not anti-crossover. Crossovers are great. I will probably need to write a “defense of crossovers” post here because, like Coldplay or hotel breakfasts, they’re maligned far out of proportion to their usefulness or occasional unpleasantness. [Editor’s Note: Crossovers are like wagons, except top-heavier and less efficient. In my eyes, if they aren’t good off-road, they compromise too much for ground clearance/a high H-point that nobody needs....

I thought it would be fun to offer a few driving impressions using our volunteers’ comments. Due to COVID, this past Saturday was our first volunteer appreciation day in two years. Because I have a few new volunteers, I selected eight cars that were more mainstream — well, mainstream at Lane Motor Museum: a Mini, a Citroen 2CV, an air-cooled Mexican-built late Beetle, a modern JDM car, and a few others....

The story was relayed, with pictures, on Reddit’s r/interestingasfuck subreddit by a user named ShroomzTV, who explained that the van was found when his family was demolishing the old house. The Redditer gave some more details to explain the situation to delightedly confused readers: yes, I and my family are very small having a small ‘Schrebergarten’ in Germany isn’t a rich-people-thing (post-war history is interesting, the ‘right’ to have a spot to plant produce on a small green patch of land is still a thing) it’s not unheard of to have started a vacation plot/lot(?...

While it’s definitely possible to pony up a flat fee and have a lifetime heated seat subscription in your Korean-market BMW, the phrase “lifetime heated seat subscription” simply shouldn’t exist. Not only is paying to use an offline feature you already own completely insane, it’s also not the first time BMW has pulled something similar. Here’s what happened the last time BMW tried nickel and diming customers with subscription services....

Of all the brilliant suggestions we plucked from the comments of our introductory “Ask A Designer” story using a spectacularly non-scientific decision-making process that sadly didn’t involve bribery or blackmail, the one that we chose was a modern EV version of the traditional All-American Station Wagon. Yes, we decided that I’d try my hand at designing an actual EV wagon— not an SUV or ‘soft roader’ pretensions. Will we ever see the market return to this type of car?...

Since 2016, Deer & Co. has required that repairs to their equipment, which can be quite sophisticated and sensor-laden, only be undertaken by authorized John Deere technicians at dealerships or authorized repair centers. Software lockouts and special codes prevent independent or owner repairs from happening, with Deere usually claiming that these lockouts were necessary for security reasons and to protect their proprietary software, even though I bet there’s no way a farmer could extract any sort of usable source code out of the computers embedded in the equipment....

But the real party trick is the blingy Continental tire kit, with its extended chrome rear bumper and white tire cover. It’s funny, because Jeeps are among the more common cars to hang their spare tire on the back, but nobody ever calls a Jeep with a spare at the rear a “Continental style” setup; for that you need chrome and vinyl and at the very least aspirations of country club membership and maybe a few ideas that make people under 30 cringe when they hear you talk about them at Thanksgiving....

The Autopian rarely blogs on weekends in an attempt to keep our small team from burnout, but weekend content will begin here soon. We’ll start with articles that I personally struggle with: simple, short, non-deep-dive blogs like this one about a crash in Denver on Thursday night. Per the Denver Fire Department, this incident and the subsequent fire that broke out in one of the vehicles happened — rather conveniently — right in front of the fire station: The Denver Post alleges a witness account of hoonery, and states that Denver police arrested the men to investigate whether they were driving while under the influence, and also because they appeared to have been driving recklessly....

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. Pick Your Poison: Randomly Stalling Engine Or Detaching Sunroof? Recalls happen almost every day and we don’t cover all of them because the volume is fairly high and the issues are often quite minor (we could have a whole blog just for Ford)....

Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If you’re morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday. Gentlemen, Behold: Corn! With high gas prices weighing on everyone’s pocketbooks and summer road trips just around the corner, the federal government is turning to E15 gasoline in an attempt to lower fuel prices....

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. Jeep Will Announce More Electrification Plans On September 8th Sure, we’re going to maybe get an electric Dodge Charger and an electrified Dodge Hornet. Eventually, all of the Stellantis brands will offer something electric....

When I started this project I promised weekly updates. I do apologize for missing my own deadline. Between the holiday and a press trip I’ve rarely been home. But I am now, and that means we’re going to be turning some wrenches! More On Its History After I wrote my introduction to this project I reached out to Yamaha. Usually, the manufacturer of a vehicle will have something on hand, be it advertising materials, press materials, manuals, or perhaps even just images....