“The Big Picture: Reality Bites” by Angus MacKenzie
A reader writes: “After subscribing to your magazine for more years than I can remember, I was amazed that you actually tested a (gasp!) Buick. With all your cheerleading for BMW, Mercedes, and Porsche, you actually came down to testing an affordable, dependable vehicle driven by more people than you care to admit. In case you haven’t noticed, in most of the country there are laws that work against a 224-mph road bomb, so what’s the use of having one. Let’s have more articles on affordable cars more suitable for daily use…”
Another writes: “In a time when one in 10 of us is unemployed, I found myself forced to sell my highly modified 600-horsepower Trailblazer SS for something more ‘sensible and affordable.’ I just finished reading the August issue, and I have to thank you for the fantastic, albeit brief, escape from reality…the ultimate boyhood fantasy: jets and Vettes ["Blue Devil versus Blue Angel"]. For just a few minutes, I felt like I was driving the ultimate American sports car, [then] barrel rolling into the sunset while Kenny Loggins wailed about the “Danger Zone” in the background. That article was the most fun I’ve had reading your magazine after many years as a subscriber.”
See our dilemma?
The automobile started out as a rich man’s plaything in the early part of the 20th century. Within 20 years, however, Henry Ford’s simple, functional Model T had put America on wheels, precipitating massive social change. Passenger miles traveled by automobile were only 25 percent of rail passenger miles in 1922, but were four times as great as rail passenger miles by 1929. Fast-food joints, shopping malls, drive-in theaters-business ideas that hadn’t even existed a decade earlier-were made possible in the 1920s and ’30s by mass automobility.
By the time Bob Petersen began working on the first issue of Motor Trend in 1949, however, the automobile in America had become a plaything again. Only this time it wasn’t just for the rich. As early as 1941 GM boss Alfred P. Sloan had proclaimed that “today, the appearance of a motorcar is a most important factor in the selling end of the business — perhaps the most important single factor because everybody knows that all cars will run.” Driven by the rocket-fueled dreams of Harley Earl — and later Virgil Exner and Bill Mitchell — the car biz became show biz: The finned and chromed and tri-toned Chevys and Fords and Dodges that powered middle-class America’s surge into suburbia during the ’50s, each model year more outlandish than the last, were as much about driveway theatre as mere transportation.
The fins and the chrome and the pastels have gone, but the car biz is still show biz. It’s why we have Camaros and Mustangs, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, Mini Coopers and Fiat 500s, the Toyota Prius and the Chevy Volt, and a thousand and one other cars, trucks, and SUVs we love and admire and buy and drive for reasons that are frequently rationalized, but rarely rational.
And that’s just the way it should be.
There’s no question a 200-mph two-seat supercar makes no sense in a world of speed limits and dwindling resources. It’s a pointlessly excessive vehicle in every way (though no more pointless, perhaps, than a Hummer H1 Alpha). But we’ll drive and test and write about every single one we can get our hands on because it’s our job to put you in the driver’s seat, to share with you the experience of piloting a 200-mph two-seat supercar. Why? Because we figure that if you’re the least bit interested in cars, you’ll want to know exactly what it’s like.
But we’ll put you in the driver’s seats of Camry and Accords and Malibus too, because these — and all the other regular automobiles most of us can afford to own — are an integral part of the automotive landscape. Like you, we want to know what they’re like to drive and which of them offers that little something special in terms of its performance, handling, styling, functionality, efficiency, or value. And that you’ll want to be able to tell your friends and aquaintances which is the best for them.
We track test about 160 cars, trucks, and SUVs a year and drive dozens more. Figuring out which ones get splashed on the cover, or featured in high-profile multipage articles inside, is something we spend hours agonizing over. Our best-selling issue last year — and one of the best-selling in a decade — featured a Camaro on the cover. A couple months later, as gas prices peaked, we put Ford’s Fiesta on the cover, figuring the time was right to make a noise about a cool-looking, real-world, 40-mpg car. That issue sold one third as many copies as the Camaro, making it the worst seller in a decade.
Reality bites.
Column courtesy of Motor Trend.
1 Comment
I wish Angus in particular would realize man caused global warming is a myth. and our “dwindling” resources are exagerated. I hate to see a “car guy” assist in the destruction of cars AND freedom.