Sharon Silke Carty

Backfires

hideously restyles its iconic grilles to suit China’s market, Chevrolet badly clones the Acura NSX, and Porsche slaps the Turbo name on a car with no engine at all. Apocalypse, if not now, then very, very soon! —M. Winter Toronto, ON As a longtime subscriber of Car and Driver, I have noticed that as the years have passed, especially in this century, more and more articles in the magazine have concerned not cars as historically defined, but trucks and various categories of SUVs. And now, as noted in your October issue, we’re faced with an unprecedented list of discontinued cars. —Tyler Thompson Little Rock, AR We’re still upset about the death of the Grand Marquis and our inability to joke about the availability of the de Sade package—Ed.

Anybody else think the new Volkswagen Passat’s nose looks like the one on a mid1970s AMC Matador sedan? —Michael Melton Hobbs, NM Pedro Romero killed some 5600 bulls in his 28-year career as a matador—Ed.

Well, well, well! What have we here? Seems the comprehensive “New Cars for 2020” article has an echo chamber, what with the Silverado HD’s description repeated word for word with that of the Sierra HD, save for the substitution of the truck names. Sure, we know the trucks are carbon copies; badge engineering, I think it’s called. Still, a wee bit of verbal creativity would have been welcome. Some of us oldsters still do read, after all. Oh, did I mention one tiny

And then there were (actually) 10

need to start this letter by admitting that I’m not a superstar when it comes to arithmetic. But it didn’t take me too long in the

Inew job to determine that our 10Best contest was a bit of a lie. With one 10Best list for cars and another for trucks, SUVs, and vans, we actually have been coming up with 20 10Best vehicles. This is not one of those internet math tricks. It’s true. Pull out your trusty TI-86 calculators and check my math, if you must.

Separating cars and trucks made our lives easier, but we couldn’t live with the lie any longer. So this year, we decided that we’d combine all vehicles and choose only 10. We invited back last fRN_μ` dV[[R_` N[Q NYY aUR [Rd \_ `VT[V¼PN[aYf b]QNaRQ cRUVPYR`a\ arrive at 93 contestants competing for 10 spots. As in years past, we shook down all of them from our base camp at a Boy Scouts facility in rural Michigan. It wasn’t easy to pare down our list of favorites. There were plenty of comments, impassioned arguments, and desperate pleas for votes: “If the Kia Telluride isn’t on your list, consider a new career. ” “I swear I’ll quit if the Jeep Gladiator is a 10Best winner. ” “These doughnuts are stale!” After driving our 10Best loop in Michigan for two weeks and giving each car the same level of scrutiny we always do, we arrived at a list that feels like a nice cross section of all the things we love to drive and would buy. Listen, I can already hear your complaints. There’s no need to go buy

N `aNZ] S_\Z aUR ]_V`\[ P\ZZV``N_f a\ ¼_R \ß N[ N[T_f UN[Qd_VaaR[ YRater. I know. We are Car and Driver, not SUV and Truck and Driver. But guess what? Most Americans are really, really into SUVs and trucks.

We’d be ignoring a huge chunk of our audience if we pretended traditional cars were the only choice and unequivocally superior to their topheavy brethren for every task. And I get it. Change is hard. Take a couple deep breaths, squeeze your stress ball, and then turn to page 25 to take a look at what we believe to be the best of what’s for sale right now.

S H A R O N S I L K E C A R T Y

E D I T O R - I N - C H I E F

difference? It’s “trippy” for the Silverado and “déjà vu” for the Sierra. Good job, that. —Albert L. Papp Jr. Maplewood, NJ

CHILDREN OF ELON

Why do you continue to shit on Tesla [“New Cars for 2020, ” October 2019]? —Daryl Ashby Brisbane, CA Hey, hey. We just bought one. So where’s the cult meeting?—Ed.

SAMUEL CLEMENS

“There’s none of the hoof clopping you might expect from the 21-inch wheels” [“Hide and Sleek, ” October 2019]. I like that. You guys could teach Mark Twain a thing or two, if he were still alive. —Richard Szacki Brooklyn, NY Yeah, he’d probably have no idea how to pair his phone to a car. Or how to drive—Ed.

TAKEN OUTBACK

I was somewhat surprised by your “[-]” comment about the Subaru Outback’s “slow design evolution” [“Gradual Evolution, ” October 2019]. That’s a positive in my book when it’s based on a sound, customer-pleasing design. Also, there’s the matter of design integrity for any particular brand. When compared with Toyota’s design, where the changes don’t seem to maintain any consistency from one generation to the next, Subaru’s gradual evolution seems both superior and respectful to its customers. No one wants to shell out $40K or more for a vehicle that’ll look like a branding anachronism in just a few years’ time. So I respectfully suggest you rethink that design consideration. —Lon Baugh Fernandina Beach, FL Glad you liked the “novel programming improvement” of the CVT in the new Outback. Going from six fake gears to eight is indeed quite a breakthrough. You’ll probably love upcoming fake-gear improvements like 10, 12, and 25. —Bob Southard Lancaster, PA

LET IT AYN

Apparently, your journalists were English majors! Congratulations to Daniel Pund (perhaps he should drop the last letter of his family name) for the very clever title of his review [“Atlas Shrunked, ” October 2019]; that is, unless he chose the title more or less Rand-omly. —Mike Vet Dallas, TX

Editor-in-Chief Sharon Silke Carty

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Kudos to Pund. As Simon and Garfunkel sang, “I been Ayn Rand’d. ” —Mike Sheahan Clermont, FL

EDITORIAL FIAT

You guys need to lighten up on Fiat [“What to Fix: Fiat Edition, ” October 2019]. —Richard Warrick Lawrence, KS There is no fix for Fiat. Having said that, I would start by making the Fiat badge on the grille smaller or change it to the Toyota emblem and make it in Kentucky. —Jack G. Lewis Manhattan Beach, CA Regarding the piece on how to fix FIAT (yes, all caps as it’s an acronym. Yes, still). “Who doesn’t want the romance of an Italian vacation in their garage?” Um, anyone who read your long-term Alfa Romeo Giulia test. —Greg Popp Albany, NY

FLOORED

I have always wondered: How often can you floor your car and not harm your motor? —Bob Dietrick Oakdale, NY How did you get this magazine?—Ed.