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Sporty, active people driving SUV's?
I'm surrounded here by the cream of the crop of the compact sport utility segment. Now, these are vehicles aimed at people with a youthful, active lifestyle. Well, you know, I was driving through some of the most beautiful cottage country in Southern Ontario a few weeks ago, and I saw people with bicycles strapped to the back of their vehicles and canoes on the roof. Obviously, people who had a youthful, sporty, active lifestyle. And you know what kind of vehicles they were? Mostly, Honda Civic sedans. So, I'm not too sure what this is all about.
You often see in SUV ads these things towing horse trailers. Well, my daughter owns a horse. Now, these are creatures designed to turn cash into manure. And when I go to her barn, I don't see SUV's. I don't even see pickup trucks. I see rusted out clapped out hatchbacks. Because that's all these people can afford. Who can afford a forty thousand dollar truck with chrome alloy wheels to tow a horse trailer through a muddy field? It's not going to happen.
The purpose of this particular exercise is to show of the new Jeep Liberty. Now, the Jeep Liberty is the first Jeep ever with independent front suspension. And the new Land Rover Freelander is the first Land Rover with independent front suspension. But wait a minute, Britney, haven't we been told all these years that you need a live axle at the front to get the articulation that you need for off-roading and that youthful, sporty, active lifestyle? Well, the fact is, that most Jeep owners - and Land Rover owners, for that matter - never go off-road, at least not on purpose. So these things are designed to be driven on-road.
I was driving up here today. I saw a vehicle with a fabulous Sundance canoe. You know those ones that are cedar strip? Polished, gorgeous thing. Now, this is obviously a person with a sporty, active lifestyle. The vehicle? It was a Windstar. So the moral of the story: if you really have a sporty, active lifestyle, you're probably going to be driving a mini-van.
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