How readers reacted to my story on cars I drive

I don’t usually rely on letters to help me compose a column but the reaction I got to the article in last Saturday’s Wheels — “Here’s what the Wheels editor drives” — made it hard to resist.

I wrote that over the course of a year, I usually borrow a bunch of media vehicles to drive around and that, last year, I took out six. I was so impressed with one of them, I said, that I actually went out and bought one.

Among the first letters I received was about the Range Rover Evoque Autobiography I drove to Indianapolis. The ride was so smooth, I said, it was like a magic carpet ride. A guy wrote me to disagree, saying a Consumer Reports magazine review of the same car suggested the ride, in fact, wasn’t all that great.

I wrote him back to say that all I can do is report about what I experienced and reminded him that media cars are meant to impress. I suggested that Consumer Reports is one of the few organizations able to afford to actually purchase cars to review and that they might have been stuck with a lemon. It happens. But I drove a 2015 model to Indy and then I took a 2016 out last fall and both were terrific. I mean, what can you do? I fully expected to get reaction over a paragraph I wrote about taking a Jaguar to Montreal and noticing that many of the admiring glances it was getting downtown in that city came from young women and I had to keep reminding myself that I was a grandfather. But no. Not one. The rest of the letters were the result of my admission that I’d purchased a ruby red, 2016 Supercab 4X4 Ford F-150 pickup truck.

Many people liked my choice. One or two didn’t.

One who did said this: “I love pickup trucks. Had a Mazda B4000 and miss it every day.”

Wrote another, about the F-150 he owns: “I’m an old man and drive it as such — most of the time. Last week, I pulled onto an empty divided highway and put it all the way down. It is beyond crazy powerful.” But then came this: “Why on earth would anyone who is not a farmer, contractor, plumber or some similar occupation want to drive a truck? You take up too much space in parking lots. Why do you need or want a truck? I challenge you to respond.” So I did. About 100 years ago, I said, I got my first job in the newspaper business at the Orillia Packet & Times. I was 19. I knew how to write a story, but I was very wet behind the ears.

One week after I started, on a Saturday, I had to go out on Hwy. 12 to cover a car accident. A fellow was driving a Beetle and the car had gone off the road somehow and crashed full-on into a tree. He was killed.

The very next day, on Hwy. 11 outside town (some portions were three-lanes in those days: one lane north, one south and a passing lane for both in the middle), there was a head-on crash between a Cadillac and a Buick. A dozen people were in those two cars. One woman was injured — she had a cut on her forehead. The others walked away.

Right then and there, I came to the conclusion that bigger is better because it’s safer. That might not be true any more but I still think that way and that’s why I bought a pickup.

I also told him I park out in the boonies so as not to interfere with other cars and drivers.

Finally, this is why being in the newspaper business is so great. A woman wrote and said this:

“I’ve always said ‘if’ I win the lottery, I’d buy a red F-150 double cab fully loaded — much to the chagrin of my young teenage daughters. “You’re living my dream!!!” And those of many other people too, I think. nmcdonald@thestar.ca