Woody time for your Wagoneer, NHRA unleashes the Demon, and the lightest Cobra body ever

[Hagerty]

Intake: Almost as soon as Stellantis yanked the silk off the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer siblings last Spring, questions began bubbling up like a bad case of heartburn. "No woody option?" "Where's the woody option?" Wagonmaster, a shop in Texas, was hot on the trail.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-manifold/2022-03-03/

[RallyeRalph]

Woodie kits for Wagoneers? So do you get your SUV Ziebarted or Terminixed? Or both? Some splinter group will say this goes against the grain. Final vinyl joke: It will help with those Trex to the store.

[MATTMERICA]

That is funny, good on you RallyeRalph!

[Gary_Bechtold]

But wood you really want to do that? I'm outta here!

[Markymark]

from a former Jeep "woodie" fan/owner - very nice looking after market craftmanship but lipstick on a pig was my first thought

[TheModelCitizen]

In yesterdaty;s Manifold, it was observed that the split of Ford into two business units was to "remaining agile enough to compete against smaller startups that don’t suffer the large-scale product planning, production, or other aspects that established legacy automakers manage." Today's article about Rivian shows the upstarts face challenges of their own. The auto business is a tough nut to crack. Years ago I told friends that I thought if Tesla took off, mainstream automakers would follow with thier own electric models, using their own experience, including the ability to engineer, mass produce, and change models. Now I wish Tesla (for example) no ill-will, but from what I read, their models have been around for some time (I can''t even tell them apart by looks) and have not achieved the quality of mainstream automakers. Meanwhile, established automakers are coming out with vehicles of their own, and in (to my eye) greater variety.

Look at the prices of these upstarts. Now, think of the Chrysler Airflow....a high price model that represented a radical shift in design at a time of recession. Kind of like what hyper priced EVs from upsarts are facing now. Yes, the upstarts have their order books full, but that demand needs to bs substained.

Everyone I have talked to on my ski lift rides who is thinking of buying some hybrid are thinking Tesla or mainstream brands. No one mentioned Lucid, Fisker, Rivian, Polestar, etc.

It will be interesting to see how this shake out. But I would not be surprised to see failures and mergers.

[Reinhold_Weege]

This is how you solve the woodgrain controversy. $1495 "Heritage" option that includes a body side molding and a few interior spiffs. 

I'll accept payment in the form of one for myself. If you can sell 53 of them, it's all profit from then on. You're welcome. 

[MATTMERICA]

A few takes that nobody asked for:
1- That $1,750 woody package doesn't look like it is worth $17.50 and the main issue is the rig is SO big - too much "stuff" not covered by the faux wood
2 - If you regularly travel at or in excess of 150 mph and you do NOT have a roll cage or other pertinent safety equipment, it will not be long before you are just a blood stain on the pavement
3 - Rivian got caught being greedy and taking a cash grab. How does it cost thousands more to simply wait on producing a vehicle? It doesn't. If you don't have a chip that you need, you wait, or if you are Ford, you just delete that option on the vehicle that it is needed for. But for a former exec to say they would lose money at $67,500 that is simply not true. There is no such thing as a loss leader in business, it is BS. If the vehicle is losing money at $67,500 it is the manufacturer that is to blame, not covid.

[Maestro1]

I think the trim on the Wagoneers is a very good idea but not in White. I wonder when we're going to stop painting cars in unimaginitive White? The cars look like refrigerators going down the road. And Black is smart but shows dirt quickly. Come on, everybody.

[Zephyr]

The vinyl woodgrain on the Feep (Fiat Jeep) needs to be extended downward about 4 inches. And I'm not sure what's going to happen when the woodgrain on one of the panels needs to be replaced because of accident damage. Will you have to buy the entire $1,750 kit to replace one door panel decal?

[TG]

modern cars just don't have the lines for the woody look
But as they say, there's one for every seat

[jrb23321]

Sold my pristine '89 Grand Wagoneer last year. Miss it some, but not really. If I needed the new one the first thing I would do is get the wood trim.

[GianniB]

So F1 didn’t screw Michael over enough in 1993 that they have to do it again in 2022? Bet if the potential team was Chinese the FIA would be falling all over themselves to welcome them.