“Even some auto executives and engineers complain that media comparisons of off-road driving capabilities have put pressure on them to design ever taller vehicles with ever more expensive four-wheel-drive systems that almost nobody needs. In an interview with Automotive News in 1999, Tom Schramski, a supervisor in Ford’s SUV driveline engineering group, publicly acknowledged the influence of auto reviewers and the few other people who fully use four-wheel-drive systems. ‘Their rating of a vehicle under extreme conditions will influence the opinion of a person who never intends to go off road,’ he said. ‘We’re going to continue to err on the side of satisfying the extreme user.'”
— Keith Bradsher, High and Mighty (2002, p. 275)
RE:SOURCES
- Bradsher, Keith; 2002. High and Mighty: SUVs — The World’s Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got that Way. Public Affairs, New York, NY.
Also see ‘2019 auto design: One step closer to machine guns?’
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