Your Say Readers respond to past issues

Your Say...

What’s an SUV, Anyway?

Regarding your SUV of the Year issue (December 2021), I’m having issues of my own, starting with, “What’s an SUV?” It was not defined. That, in and of itself, is the issue. Pitting the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo against the Jeep Wrangler is nuts. Secondly, what's the cutoff between an SUV and a crossover? Several contenders, such as the Lexus NX and the Mustang Mach-E, for example, seem to fit the crossover definition. The Bronco, Jeeps, and Land Rover are in a class by themselves and should not be evaluated against any of the others. I do appreciate the task of evaluating so many vehicles, let alone against each other, but your job would be easier and make more sense if you narrowed the field to vehicles fitting within better defined silos.

On another front, the article on the Lucid was terrific. I agree with the comment that seeing one in person is stunning; it’s simply the most beautiful car I’ve ever seen, bar none.

Tom Bromley

Elk Grove, California First, at SUVOTY, entrants compete against our criteria, not each other. Rather than try to regulate vehicle classification ourselves, we’ve opted to let manufacturers decide ( hence the Taycan Cross Turismo’s appearance at OTY events). If an automaker wants to submit a lifted hatchback masquerading as a crossover to our testing and criteria, that’s on them; our program is designed to identify vehicles that perform the way consumers expect an SUV to. As for SUV versus crossover, the former term is interchangeable with the latter as far as we’re concerned; after all, unibody and body-on-frame cars are just that: cars.—Ed.

“I Read It for the Articles.”

After reading your analysis of the SUV of the Year, I am perplexed at the choice of some of your contenders and some other SUVs that didn’t make your list. Reliability apparently wasn’t even considered. The Jeep, Volkswagen, and Mitsubishi brands have, in the last few years, appeared at the bottom of most comparison lists. Where are the Toyota and Honda SUVs? Should you be comparing $30,000 vehicles with $100,000 ones? They are in different classes. It’s a head-scratcher to me.

Steve Armstrong

Coto De Caza, California

Reader on Location

This month’s reader on location is longtime reader Andy Pollman of St. Louis. “My wife and I were vacationing in Key West,

Florida, celebrating our 10-year wedding anniversary. The grandparents watched our three young children while we were away, so I was excited to get some

MotorTrend reading in on our trip, which sometimes isn’t easy for me to do. My beautiful wife let me take a few moments from our vacation to get a picture with the U.S. Highway 1 mile marker 0.” Thanks for writing, Andy! If you’d like a chance to be our Reader on Location, email your photo and a brief description of your trip to MotorTrend@MotorTrend.com with the subject line “Reader On Location.” As we spell out every year: To be eligible for an Of The Year award, a vehicle must be all-new or significantly updated for the next model year, be on sale by January 1 of the following year, start at less than $150,000, and be available in all 50 states. If you’d like to see where the CR-V and others rank, we highly recommend checking out our full rankings at MotorTrend.com/cars.—Ed.

WRITE US AT: 831 S. Douglas St. El Segundo, CA 90245 Email us at MotorTrend @MotorTrend.com

Sticker Shock

I read your extensive article (cannot remember one so extensive about a new car) about the new Lucid Air, and the banner that Tesla should be worried. I see numerous Teslas around and was interested in the Lucid—until I saw the base price of $170,500!

I am not destitute and am not in an impoverished area, and I see some huge pickups that command prices I find insane. But I do not expect to see a car with a base price of $170,500! Teslas start at about $45,000, within the middle class’ grasp. I think for you to have devoted eight pages to the Lucid is the same as describing something made of unicorn horn.

Don Hagen

Felton, Delaware That Lucid was a loaded Air Dream Edition. More affordable Airs, starting at $77,400, will go on sale next year. For reference, the cheapest Tesla Model S (the Air’s direct competitor) starts at $96,120. Lucid says even cheaper cars will follow.—Ed.

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