Screw It, Just Buy A Hybrid

If an electric car makes sense in your life, then you should probably buy one. Or, even better, you should ttake advantage of an extremely good lease deal while you can. If you are not practically or emotionally ready for an EV, but require a relatively normal new vehicle, it’s hard to argue that you should buy anything that isn’t a hybrid.

Don’t just trust me, your hybrid-loving Morning Dump author. The fine folks at Consumer Reports are out with their list of the cars they recommend in each category and most of them are either hybrids or offer a hybrid. CR is somewhat apolitical and so, reasonably, also recommends the Tesla Model Y as the best all-around EV.

What’s Tesla CEO Elon Musk up to? A lot, as he tries to both serve the new President and also keep China happy.

Aston Martin will report financial results tomorrow, and it’ll be interesting to see how well the company’s 13th attempt at revitalization will go. Is Warren Buffett going to invest in Aston Martin? Probably not. Instead, he’s investing in Japan.

Consumer Reports Suggests You Buy A Bunch Of Hybrids

I don’t always agree with the methodology employed by Consumer Reports, but I don’t know a group of people who work harder or do more to independently verify the capabilities of new vehicles. I’ve been to their test facility and have witnessed firsthand all they do to assure manufacturers live up to their promises.

The main issue is that the CR audience is, mostly, people who subscribe to CR, which means there’s an inherent bias towards a specific kind of upper-middle-class, college-educated car buyer. That’s fine. The Autopian has a bias towards enthusiasts and people who own more than one Saturn.

CR is out with their list of 10 best cars to buy in 2025 and, notably, there are a lot of hybrids. In fact, it’s great to compare it to their list from 2021, which had its own category for hybrids. Now, you basically have a category for non-hybrids (the electric car), since almost every car either:

• Is a hybrid
• Has a hybrid option
• Will come with a hybrid soon

You want a nice luxury SUV? Get the Lexus RX450h, which has Toyota’s hybrid system. You want a new sub-compact crossover? Get the Crosstrek… which will soon be available with a hybrid from Toyota. You want a crossover? Get the Forester, which has Toyota’s hybrid system as an option. Do you want a “fuel-efficient” SUV? Get the RAV-4… also with Toyota’s hybrid system. Toyota’s hybrid system appears (or will appear) in six out of the 10 recommended cars by the end of next year.

The cars that don’t have Toyota’s system? The Nissan Sentra, which has no hybrid option in the United States, and the Ford Maverick (great choice), which has a hybrid system that’s quite similar to Toyota’s because the two companies initially developed the technology together. The BMW X5 PHEV doesn’t have Toyota’s system, but I liked it when I drove it and totally understand why it makes the list.

The “why” here is important. Getting past the obvious fuel economy benefits, most non-hybrid vehicles these days feature a small turbocharged three- or four-cylinder engine mated to a CVT. This is a terrible combination, usually, and makes these cars somewhat miserable to drive if you regularly drive anything else.

Take the Toyota Corolla Cross. This is a small, cheap crossover that in its non-hybrid form is a chore to drive. Yet, with the CVT ditched for an “eCVT” that’s not really a CVT at all, the car is suddenly transformed into something that, if not exciting to drive, at least feels right.

That’s the way it is with most of these cars (although the non-hybrid Maverick is pretty good).

An obvious flaw in my argument is that hybrids do cost more than the non-hybrid options, and it can take a while to make up the difference. Not everyone buying a new car can afford, say, the $1,500 price difference between a base Corolla LE and a Hybrid LE. That’s fair. If you can make it work, the lower cost of ownership should make up the difference over time, but that’s a big “if” for some people.

Other than the Sentra, the only totally non-hybrid is the Tesla Model Y. It’s hard to argue against the Model Y on paper. It’s well-priced, has a great charging network, comes with a lot of safety features, and is the most popular electric car in the world (and probably most popular car period) for a reason.

Elon Musk’s Problems In China Are Real

I cannot write every day about everything Elon Musk does, otherwise, my daily activity report to Jason would contain nothing but me trying to explain all the things Elon Musk did or is alleged to have done. Am I going to spend all my time trying to explain why the State Department did or did not try to buy a bunch of Tesla Cybertrucks? The conflict of interest that is Musk’s DOGE agency choosing who to fire at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration?

Nope. No thank you. Maybe another day. Not today.

As I said yesterday, it’s possible that all of the above is encouraging some people to not buy Teslas. Sales seem like they’re down in every market, though we won’t know for sure until we get Tesla’s Q1 sales report (or, a few weeks later, all the regional registration reports).

One market where Tesla needs to do well, though, is China, and I don’t see any indication that the average Chinese consumer cares much about the CEO of the company making major government job-cuts (including to National Park services). What they care about is having an ADAS suite and navigation to help them maneuver through China’s complex cities.

Unfortunately for Musk and Tesla customers, the government hasn’t yet allowed Tesla to push out all of its capabilities as Reuters reports:

Musk wants to bring full Autopilot and FSD systems to China but has said that the effort was proving to be tricky due to technology restrictions imposed by both the U.S. and Chinese governments. The company has postponed an initial goal of end-2024 to this year.

Several Chinese social media users said the update was a disappointment as it did not achieve the capabilities Tesla has advertised for years and said rival Chinese automakers were offering similar driver-assistance features at a lower price or for free.

Lu Panpan, a Tesla car owner in China’s eastern Zhejiang province, said he paid 56,000 yuan ($7,720) for FSD software when he bought his Long-Range Model 3 in 2019 but has been frustrated by the lack of updates to its features.

“We can tell Tesla has no choice but to deliver a knowingly restricted system …,” said Lu. “It is hard for Tesla to catch up with the smart-driving capabilities in Chinese cars, which even makes less sense given its high pricing.”

It is weird that a billionaire electric car mogul gets to decide how the agencies that oversee his company operate while, at the same time, very much needing help from the Chinese government to maintain his wealth.

At least I think it’s strange, but, as far as Musk stuff goes, it’s not even the 19th strangest thing that’s happened in the last 24 hours.

Is Aston Martin Going To Make It Work?

We are so, so close to finding out from Aston Martin if its plans to turn itself around are starting to work. In particular, tomorrow’s financial report will be our best indication of whether or not new CEO Adrian Hallmark was able to work the same magic on Aston that he formerly did on Bentley.

Here, for you, is a little preview of what’s going on via Bloomberg:

Hallmark wants to trim production to avoid wasting money making cars that sit unsold, people with knowledge of the company’s plans said. The CEO has already said he wants to reduce Aston Martin’s delivery target to around 8,000 vehicles per year, from Stroll’s stated ambition of 10,000. This is all about boosting margins, as Hallmark flagged to analysts in October: “The bottom line — cash and profit — are what we’re going to be obsessively focused on, not volume first.”

The company will also try to fix perennial problems in its supply chain, the people said, explaining that Aston Martin has often picked cheap suppliers for parts who then fail to deliver on time, leaving the company paying more than expected to fix issues.

Aston Martin isn’t planning to launch any new models in the near future — to save money on development costs — and will instead try to launch more derivatives of its existing models, something that Lamborghini, Porsche and Bentley have successfully done, the people said. At Bentley, Hallmark oversaw a strategy of offering customers the opportunity to customize their vehicles. In 2023, the last full year he was in charge, more than 70% of Bentley’s cars were fitted out with add-ons like special trim.

That’s a tall order, though the car world is more interesting when Aston is successful.

Warren Buffett Seems To Think Japan Is Undervalued

Warren Buffett, via his company Berkshire Hathaway, was one of the first people to understand the huge value proposition of Chinese carmaker BYD. It’s not that Buffett is always right, it’s that he’s rarely wrong to a degree that matters in the long run. He also seems to acknowledge errors in thinking in a way few others seem to these days.

Buffett, it seems, is looking to Japan and the country’s big trading houses. You can read the full letter here, but here’s the relevant part:

It’s been almost six years since Berkshire began purchasing shares in five Japanese companies that very successfully operate in a manner somewhat similar to Berkshire itself. The five are (alphabetically) ITOCHU, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Sumitomo. Each of these large enterprises, in turn, owns interests in a vast array of businesses, many based in Japan but others that operate throughout the world.

Berkshire made its first purchases involving the five in July 2019. We simply looked at their financial records and were amazed at the low prices of their stocks. As the years have passed, our admiration for these companies has consistently grown. Greg has met many times with them, and I regularly follow their progress. Both of us like their capital deployment, their management and their attitude in respect to their investors.

What’s interesting here is that the vibes from Japan haven’t been all that great lately. Perhaps that’s about to change.

What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD

This suggestion came from Gossin’s post over the weekend and, yeah, Joni Mitchell singing “Big Yellow Taxi” does seem appropriate.

The Big Question

What’s your top ten list of cars to buy for 2025?