The Proof Is In The Numbers

The Entire Dodge Car Lineup Is Old As Hell

This figure came to us from a Jalopnik reader by the name of Tom, which I appreciate, as I hadn’t really thought about the lineup of Dodge cars myself for quite a while. I think the last time that I thought about a Dodge car was when my coworker Mike Ballaban pointed out that literally tens of thousands of Americans bought a Dodge Journey last year. Why remains a mystery. Anyway, here’s Tom’s very good email to Jalopnik:

Hey guys:

I don’t if it has escaped your attention, but while we’ve been nice pricing and crack piping, the Dodge lineup of vehicles has slowly aging into what has to be the oldest lineup of vehicles of any full line maker in modern times. Every vehicle in their lineup is at least seven years old, with some starting their second decade.

Challenger – 2008

Grand Caravan - 2008

Journey – 2009

Charger – 2011 (or 2006, if you don’t consider the 2011 update to be all new, which many people don’t)

Durango – 2011

This is an average age of 8.6 years (and that is using the more generous 2011 date for the Charger).

Get this: The no longer available Dart(introduced in 2013) was actually the newest vehicle in the Dodge lineup!

As near as I can tell, there FCA has no plans to update any of these vehicles any time soon, and the sole reason Dodge continues to exist appears to be for subprime buyers.

To try to put that in some context, I checked how it compared to its competitors. Toyota has a bunch of old vehicles, for instance. (If you’re curious, the Sequoia and the 4Runner are both from 2008 and the lovely 86 is from 2012, as examples.) But even Toyota only has an average age of 5 years across its linup of cars, SUVs and crossovers.

(Jalopnik.com)

This Is Absolutely True

(Bits&Pieces.us)

Happily & Most Importantly, A Sponsor Was Acquired

Laguna Seca getting another awkward name with WeatherTech sponsorship 

But here's why floormat alliance is a good thing for the track 

According to the Monterey Herald, and also reported by Autoweek, Laguna Seca is getting a new title sponsor and as a result, a new name. The track is currently known by the official name of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, a less-than-elegant name that goes away soon because Mazda is ending its sponsorship on March 31. The newspaper reports that the new sponsor is WeatherTech, and the new name, arriving on April 1, adds a word: WeatherTech Raceway at Laguna Seca.

It seems that those in charge of the track are happy with the deal, though. The Monterey Herald reports the deal is for five years of sponsorship at a cost of $5 million and that it's about two-thirds of what Mazda was paying. But the newspaper also reports that the track won't be providing the same track access that Mazda needed, and it may attract other automakers to the track when the track's name isn't partly that of a competitor.

(AutoBlog.com)

Did You Know - Ikea Edition

18 Weirdly Interesting Things You Didn't Know About Ikea 

Did you know "Ikea" is an acronym? 

2. Ikea is an acronym! It stands for Ingvar Kamprad (the name of the founder), Elmtaryd (the name of the farm where he grew up), and Agunnaryd (the name of his hometown). 

13. There's an Ikea hotel in Älmhult. You can even stay in a room with bunk beds. 

18. There's a reason why there are no written instructions on the manuals – it's because it's cheaper to produce thin booklets. 

Complete list (BuzzFeed.com)

 

 

I Want A Pair Or Two Or Three

(SpeedHunters.com)

There's One Very Good Reason

Toyota Should Never Turbocharge The GT86, And Here’s Why 

We're not just talking about the cliched 'balance' argument; there are sensible, logical reasons why Toyota should never give the GT86 a turbo 

Toyota has staunchly refused to oblige, partly because of balance concerns, and partly because it stands by the product it designed in the first place. That product is an old-school, lightweight(ish), flickable and talented sports car in the vein of a hard-top MX-5.

No one can argue the formula is a bad one. Take something that drives a lot like the one-million-plus-selling Mazda, stick a hard top on it for extra rigidity and then add more power. It’s pure genius… in theory.

Look again at the MX-5. It’s celebrated for breathing without a turbo; many of us still prefer it to the turbo’d Abarth 124 Spider, despite that car’s relative tonne of extra torque. That doesn’t stop us hankering after a well-executed snail conversion for the ND car, but the fact that there’s the choice at all is the best thing. The GT86 gives you choice.

(CarThrottle.com)

So Wrong, So Good, So Appropriate

(Bits&Pieces.us)