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When Aston Martin revealed the manual Vantage AMR back in 2019, the company promised it would be the last manufacturer to sell manual sports cars. That commitment to the purist market has gone out the window, however, courtesy of newly appointed CEO Tobias Moers.

Moers confirmed to Road & Track during a recent interview that Aston Martin plans to abandon the manual transmission altogether. The CEO, who previously headed Mercedes-AMG, also told Australian media the gearbox will be phased out of the Vantage lineup for the model’s 2022 refresh. This contradicts the manufacturer’s previous plans, which called for the manual to be a stand-alone option for the Vantage going forward. “We did a few assessments about [the manual car]—you don’t need it anymore,” Moers said to Australian press during a roundtable event, as reported by Motoring.com.au. “And you have to maintain it with the new regulations, year by year with the emissions because it’s a bespoke powertrain. It makes no sense.”While we were overjoyed to see Aston Martin offering a manual in the new Vantage, Road & Track reported they weren’t especially enamored with the AMR’s price during a review. They recommended buyers wait until the standard manual Vantage reached U.S. shores to get the most bang for their buck. Aston Martin confirmed the 2021 Vantage will still have the manual option, thankfully. While we’re sad to see yet another manual die, we aren’t exactly surprised. Moers says that Aston buyers “overwhelmingly” prefer automatics, so spending the money to keep the manual around isn’t exactly logical, especially considering the company’s current financial situation.It’s a sad day for the manual transmission. Chris Perkins contributed to this report.

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A study conducted in the last week of April found that most car shoppers have heard about the semiconductor chip shortage and are aware that it is affecting vehicle production, supply, and thus prices.Forty percent say they’re willing to pay 12 percent over MSRP for a new car. Given average new-car prices, that means $5000.Over a third of shoppers looking now say they’d wait to buy, given the high prices, and a quarter of those people say they’ll buy used instead.You already know this, but we’ll say it again: car prices are climbing. A report in April showed prices were around 4 percent higher than a year before, and we’ve beat that news drum repeatedly in the past month. It turns out that people seem to understand that there’s no way around it if you want to buy a new car today.Cox Automotive released a study this week showing just how receptive buyers are to higher prices. Forty percent, Cox found, would not shy away from being charged a 12 percent premium. Given that the average new-car MSRP in the U.S. is almost $42,000, that means four in 10 people would accept a price that’s $5000 more than what the sticker says.Despite the higher expected prices, only 37 percent said they’d wait to buy a vehicle, with 70 percent of those saying they’ll wait at least three months to purchase and 23 percent saying they’ll look at used vehicles, instead.

Cox Automotive spokesman Mark Schirmer told Car and Driver: “The current auto market, with low inventory and high demand, is anything but normal. And we know it’s driving people away.”Cox’s research shows that 87 percent of consumers recognize the issue is impacting both domestic and import nameplates. As the issue is industry-wide, 73 percent of consumers are expecting to face higher prices at the dealerships, and nearly 60 percent believe they will find lower incentives. One main reason for this non-sticker shock is the limited supply times that we’re all living in. Cox’s survey was conducts in the last week of April, and found that 75 percent of car shoppers knew about the global semiconductor chip shortage and that it was wrecking havoc on new car production. Almost as many, 73 percent, said they expected to see higher prices at the dealership, and almost 60 percent said they expected that any incentives they might find would be lower than before.Cox’s Schirmer also says, however, that “Our recent research shows nearly 40 percent of buyers who were considered ‘in market’ for a vehicle are now dropping out or deciding to delay their purchase. High prices and limited selection are likely the cause.” And does this sound like anyone you know? “For the most part, car buying in America continues to be driven by the deal,” he said, noting that even under current conditions, “Older shoppers—and specifically older male shoppers—[are] less willing to pay over sticker. These older buyers are a cohort we call ‘Straight Shooters,’ and they are experienced vehicle buyers, with plenty of good deals in their past. Paying above sticker is an unnatural act for this group.”

2021 Jeep Wrangler 4xe.
Stellantis

Just over a million and a half vehicles were sold in the U.S. in April. According to iSeeCars, the fastest-selling cars in the U.S. last month were the Chevrolet Corvette (average price $87,390), the Jeep Wrangler 4xe ($57,161), and the Kia Telluride ($44,723). Fastest-selling means these vehicles spent the shortest time waiting on dealer lots for someone to take them home. In total, 16 models were sold in an average of under 20 days, while the overall average for the entire market was 48.3 days.At the end of April, there were less than 2 million new vehicles on dealership lots in the U.S., which was 42 percent lower than April 2020. Cox said it believes supply will continue to be low until at least the end of the year.
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The Golden Ray, the ill-fated cargo ship that capsized in September 2019 with 4200 vehicles on board, caught fire on Friday afternoon, May 14.The ship’s remains are in the water of Saint Simons Sound, off the coast of Georgia, and it has been the subject of a complex salvage effort for more than 18 months.Only about 1000 of the thousands of ruined cars, trucks, and SUVs on board have been removed from the wreck to date.Thick black smoke billowed out from the Golden Ray shipwreck on Friday afternoon as it sat half-salvaged off the coast of St. Simons Island, Georgia. The Golden Ray is the ship that capsized in September 2019 with more than 4000 new vehicles inside.Coast Guard Petty Officer Michael Himes, a spokesperson for the St. Simons Incident Command, says the fire started as crews were testing fire suppression systems while preparing to cut into the third of the ship’s eight sections; four sections have already been removed. This is the first time that a major fire has broken out since the salvage operation began, and it dwarfs the fires that broke out during the ship’s capsizing.

The exact source of the fire is unknown, though Section 3 does comprise the ship’s engine room. What’s more, unified command officials reckoned during an April 26 briefing that there could be as much as 44,000 gallons of fuel while gaming out worst-case scenarios; more than 320,000 gallons had been siphoned out before cutting operations began. Also: only 1000 cars aboard the Golden Ray have been removed from the wreck site in total.
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All nonessential responders have been safely evacuated from the VB-10000 “crane-saw” catamaran, which is just upwind from the heaviest smoke and the most essential instrument in the salvage operation—as it lifts and cuts the ship. No injuries have been observed. Crews continue to fight the fire with seawater from a flotilla of tugboats against winds that had been forecasted at 20 mph.

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Friend and former C/D contributor Jason Cammisa returns to Window Shop this week to help us look for sleepers that cost less than $20,000. Not to be confused with the 1973 Woody Allen movie, in the car world, a sleeper (a.k.a. a Q-ship or Q-car) is a vehicle that doesn’t look fast but is. Think, wolf in sheep’s clothing. First up is Santa Barbara’s favorite son and Road & Track’s newest staffer, John Pearley Huffman. Now that Huffman no longer has to worry about his freelance career, he has even more time to devote to Toyota Tundras. So it should surprise no one that his pick is a 2007 Tundra with the 381-hp 5.7-liter V-8. While some might not suspect a pickup can produce a sub-six-second time to 60, Cammisa points out that many modern trucks with the right engines can be very quick.No one denies deputy testing director K.C. Colwell’s Q-ship. Following in the footsteps of Jason Statham in Transporter 2, Colwell selects a 2005 Audi A8L W-12. We bring up the potential headaches of the 450-hp engine and wonder why and how and why the seller got verified on a car-listing site. Cammisa tells us the real problem isn’t the 6.0-liter W-12 under the hood, it’s the car’s air suspension. We take his word for it. Contributor Jonathon Ramsey finds a very similar car to Colwell’s: an Audi S8. Known for its 5.2-liter version of the Lamborghini V-10, this car brings back memories of several accidents and expensive fixes we had with an S8 long-termer. By the end of Ramsey’s presentation, we wonder if it’s in fact the very same car. (It’s not.)Cammisa shows off three interesting sleepers but asks us to judge his 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8. A mean-looking SUV, we debate how a monochromatic Jeep with 20-inch wheels can be a sleeper. As usual, we don’t settle anything and just bicker a lot. Last to go is deputy editor Tony Quiroga, who created the challenge after watching Cammisa’s video on the Mercedes 500E/E500. Quiroga blows the budget by nearly $5000 but finds what might be the ultimate Q-ship. Tune in to see if his choice can pull off the win despite breaking the rules.

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A new generation of the Kia Sportage will arrive for the 2023 model year.These spy photos show that it will have a new design with an interesting headlight treatment.The U.S. market will likely get a long-wheelbase model, while these photos show the smaller Europe-market version.A new version of the Kia Sportage is in the works, and according to these spy photos it may feature a polarizing front-end design. The headlights are mounted low, the grille features an interesting texture, and the hood has an unusual cutline. We suspect Kia is going for a split-headlight look similar to older Jeep Cherokee and Nissan Juke models, and we’re curious to see how it turns out when the production Sportage is revealed, likely later this year.

KGP Photography

The car pictured here is a Europe-market version of the Sportage, which means it is smaller than the longer-wheelbase version we’ll likely get in the U.S. This is similar to the related 2022 Hyundai Tucson, with which the Sportage should share a platform. The Kia is also likely to get the same engines as the Tucson, which include a base 2.5-liter inline-four, a hybrid with a turbo 1.6-liter inline-four, and a plug-in hybrid with a larger battery pack. Front-wheel drive will be standard with all-wheel drive optional.In keeping with the current Sportage lineup, Kia may offer a more powerful turbocharged engine as an optional upgrade. The turbo 2.5-liter inline-four found in the K5 and Sorento seems like a likely choice, and it could produce somewhere between 280 and 300 horsepower for a possible Sportage SX or GT model.

KGP Photography

We should find out more about the Sportage later this year as it is revealed for global markets. The U.S. version likely won’t arrive until 2022 for the 2023 model year, as Kia has already released information about the carryover 2022 Sportage for our market.
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