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Scrapple, Your Guide To The “meh”-Worthy News! This Week: Can Kia Give You Goosebumps?


Scrapple, Your Guide To The “meh”-Worthy News! This Week: Can Kia Give You Goosebumps?

Rain, rain, go away. I’m not singing a song at all…the ground at BangShift Mid-West is so waterlogged that mole tunnels are filling up with liquified earth and are bursting at the slightest provocation. With Lohnes in Phoenix for the Arizona Nationals and Chad relaxing and enjoying a few days off, I’m overtly jealous of both. I’m probably another day away from looking like Wile E. Coyote, floating in an umbrella. Could be worse, could be snow on the ground in heavy amounts…which Lohnes can find easily enough if he just makes the drive north to Prescott! Another week, another round of strange news stories that we take a second look at, roast a bit, and serve up on a silver platter just for you. Here’s Scrapple!

1. Sorting out the issue with dune buggies in Texas once and for all?

Texans have had problems with dune buggies a couple of years now, especially since Texas Administrative Rule 217.3 (6) was implemented. The short and sweet explanation: dune buggies and kit cars were no longer considered road legal and would not be permitted to be registered for road use, and those that had titles were revoked. A bill, H.B. 1755, has been introduced that would redefine what composes an “assembled vehicle” so that dune buggies, kit cars, and sand rails can be included as valid vehicles that, if they meet the criteria for street-worthiness, including state inspections, can be titled. We will wait to see if it actually goes through before celebrating, though.

2. Goosebumps? It’s giving me something, alright…

I quote Kia’s European design Vice President, Gregory Guillaume: “Automotive design is about capturing the heart and making it beat that bit faster for that bit longer – and we believe that there’s absolutely no reason why that should change simply because the car is electric. We imagined designing an all-electric car that not only answered consumer concerns around range, performance, recharging networks and driving dynamism, but one that also gave you goosebumps when you looked at it, and made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up when you drove it.”

The EV part we will deal with once this vehicle is out of the shadows. But is a rip on the shape of a 1971 Plymouth Road Runner’s hoop bumper supposed to make me want an electric Kia all of a sudden? Because right now, that’s all I’m seeing.

3. That’s just a sick joke.Rivan, the electric truck/SUV company that many techno-geeks are hoping is the NEXT BIG THING, seems deadly set on bringing their R1T pickup to market as soon as possible. Naturally, when dealing with the idea of an EV pickup truck, range anxiety has to be brought up because unlike a Tesla, which usually carries one or two eco-snobs inside, the Rivan is actually expected to work like a truck. (ha…right.) But Rivan themselves are working on that problem with a solution: a battery insert that fits into the bed like a toolbox or aux fuel tank would on a fueled pickup. Doesn’t that remove from the usefulness of the truck? Oh, wait, what am I saying…nobody is gonna use this like a truck unless Amazon buys scores of these things for work vehicle duty.

4. But what do you do about the muddy underside?Speaking of pretty “trucks”, let’s take a look at the Honda Ridgeline for a moment. Sorry, I still have a bit of a time choking down the term “truck” for this thing…”ute” is more appropriate. Either way, what’s the best way to see one of these? Clean. What’s the problem with cleaning your Honda Ridgeline? If yours was built before January 17th, 2019, the rinse water from a good driveway bath can drain from the bed and get into the fuel pump’s feed port. The soap then attacks the structure of the port, and if it cracks, you will get a “pressurized fuel leak”. 2017-early 2019 Ridgelines are affected, so get your tail to your dealer and have your truck taken care of. It’s NHTSA Recall 19V-053.

5. No Autorama fun, thanks to the license plate.

The Autorama show will hit Cobo Center in Detroit on March 1-3. 800 cars will be on display, including a swath of lowriders, but what won’t be seen is the recreation of the Mulberry Bridge jump from “Smokey and the Bandit”, which had been planned as a tribute to Burt Reynolds. Why not? Because the Detroit City Council voted 7-1 to prohibit the stunt due to the license plate that depicts the 1956-2001 version of the Georgia state flag that the car wears. You can see it plain as day in the clip from the movie, you can see it plain as day in any scene of the film, and because the stunt car is a “movie correct” 1977 Trans Am, the flag plate will have a section that is the Confederate flag.

During a meeting of the council, Councilman Scott Benson shed some light on the issue: “Autorama, which has a history in the city of Detroit, also has a history of supporting imagery and symbols of racism, oppression and white supremacy as well as American, home-bred terrorism right here in the United States.”


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4 thoughts on “Scrapple, Your Guide To The “meh”-Worthy News! This Week: Can Kia Give You Goosebumps?

  1. Gary Smrtic

    So City Hall gets to micro manage any events it feels so inclined to these days, huh? America, where are you now?

    1. 75Duster

      Since Detroit has been run by Democrats this doesn’t surprise me at all Gary. The Democratic party doesn’t want to know its own history of racism, oppression, and white supremacy.

  2. Matt Cramer

    My wife has family up in Michigan, and I live in Georgia. Last time she had relatives visiting, they commented that there’s a lot more conspicuous Confederate flag displays up in Michigan than there is in rural Georgia. But it’s a lot easier to get approval for a stunt involving jumping a General Lee clone down here.

    And yes, the Ridgeline is based on the same platform as the Odyssey minivan.

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