No, I didn’t expect us to be publishing a review of the Jeep Wrangler either. But if you want someone to blame, look no further than our US correspondent, Sam Smith (although given that he lives in ‘stinking warm and steamy’ Tennessee, you may be looking for some time).
Back in July Sam described with feeling about the Wrangler in his Road America column. ‘In one sense,’ he wrote, ‘no one buys a body-on-frame Jeep for how it rides and drives. In another sense, that’s exactly why people show up. There’s enough grunt and grip to keep up with traffic, but the limits are low and the sensations are high. For some people, the excess of feedback – wind and tyre howl, steering kickback, vibration, a relentless sense of the machine and travel – that stuff makes every mile per hour feel like a foolish achievement. Others fall so in love that they seek out highway trips, ignore how a strong crosswind can fart you to the next county, and drive nothing else for life.’
Hold on – sensations and feedback? I know them! They’re the only reasons we bother to drive for fun. Clearly there is a time and a place for refinement, for isolation from the whole business of driving – maybe even most places most of the time – but whenever we drive not just to get somewhere but to enjoy the process, sensations and feedback are what matter most. Maybe stuff like power, grip, response and control, those agents of speed, aren’t quite as terribly important after all.
