That Shiny New SUV
Simple Justice: I think very highly of Mark Draughn. I’ve said it before and I will no doubt say it again; He is a very smart guy. But there is one thing he’s done, and has made flagrantly public, that confounds me. Last February, Mark bought a RAV4. What was he thinking?
The RAV4 what they’re calling a “crossover” vehicle—part SUV, part something else. Toyota likes to say it can’t be categorized, but I’d call it a fast and nimble car-like SUV. It’s like my old Camry, but jacked up off the ground just a bit.
This vehicle has been around for at least a decade, long before anybody called anything on wheels a “crossover”. That’s just the latest marketing term to get people to buy things that used to be called SUVs now that SUVs are going have gone out of fashion.
I looked at the RAV4 years ago when it first came out as a car for my wife. It was more a tin can on wheels than a trustworthy vehicle at the time. It was then marketed as a small SUV. I felt like I could crush it with my hands. There was something that made me feel that it wasn’t ready to go off road. Or on road, for that matter. We got a Jeep instead. My wife hated that Jeep.
But the sorry truth that I was a slave to SUV fashion came at the beginning of the trend. There was something alluring about having a rough, tough SUV that could handle anything. I had a strange romantic illusion that I would be touring Africa in an old, beat up Land Rover Defender. I blew it. That was out first and only SUV. As soon as the lease was over, we got a Saab.
Now I realize that Mark is…