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It. Could. Work. Part II.

Peter, in regard to your statements on the Jeep Recon, your criticism may be somewhat misplaced. I see lots of Jeeps running around town; the vast majority of them will spend their lives in in suburbia and will never venture off-road. It's strictly an image thing with the vast majority of Jeep owners. Years ago - I forget how many - one of my neighbors bought a Jeep Wrangler. It was painted olive green with a big white star on the hood and equipped with an off-road suspension kit along with oversized off-road knobby tires. He and I were discussing it one day; I remarked that one could do some serious off roading with it. He replied "but then it would get dirty." To this day it has never been off road once.

ELW
Leavenworth, Kansas



Lemmings among us.

The current "Rants" checks all of the boxes. From out here in the Land of the Great Flyover, the continual output of SUVs and gold-plated trucks seems to go on and on. And people continue to buy these things. There was a time when I espoused the axiom of "Midwestern Common Sense", but no more. I guess people will keep up their lemming-like purchases of these overpriced machines until their credit scores explode. If there is ever even just a mild recession, there'll be a ton of used vehicles for sale in bank auctions.

Jim Jones
Cole County, Missouri



Giving credit.

As you noted, "The Auto Biz as we know it is a rollicking, rolling, seething cauldron; an up-at-down pride swallowing siege; a swirling maelstrom marked by waves of seismic shifts between good, bad and incomprehensible." Meanwhile, Toyota quietly goes about producing hybrids by the thousands, trading on the goodwill it established in the USA with the first Prius back in 2000. No big speeches. No flood of press releases. Just rolling out RAV4s, Camrys, Corollas, and Tacomas to loyal repeat buyers. The reliability and high resale value allow Toyota to enjoy one of the lowest percentages of leasing versus buying. I'm a Chevy guy, but I have to give credit where credit is due.

CAE
Palm Springs, California