The most overused automotive marketing term
 "This vehicle is aimed at people with active lifestyles."We can't count how many times we've heard that phrase. Active, as opposed to inactive, I guess. Perhaps it's a tough sell to convince a board of directors that you want to sell a car to agoraphobics. Don't you think that speechwriters could come up with a new line? I mean, does everybody own a kayak, mountain bike or snowboard? We've said at Consumer Reports maybe a thousand times that almost nobody takes four-wheel drive vehicles off road. Off-roading for most SUVs is driving over patches of broken asphalt at the big box superstore. So who do the automakers think they're kidding? Your suburban asphalt-biased reviews are a presumptuous disservice to everyone living in the rural US and mountain west and where unpaved roads, unmaintained roads, washboarded highways, and large expanses of forest service, BLM, and reservation land are a fact of life.
Your test scores are simply irrelevant and without merit for people living in these areas, who would never trust one of your recommnded cute utes or beige sedans with their safety over the pickups or off-road capable SUVs (Wrangler/4-Runner/Land Cruiser) you savage in your reviews. It's fine if your reviewers never escape the confines of your suburban sprawl, but please make some effort to consider the appropriateness of your reviews for those who do. Objective CR ratings are of value for most products, and your focus on safety features is applaudable, but your auto reviews appear increasingly out of touch with vast portions of the populations. Not everyone wants to drive an accord or cute ute, or can do so without risking being stranded. Careful reviews for this significant audience would be welcome over those in 4x4-specific magazines. I don't know where Mike Quincy gets his information, but here in Oklahoma, we use four wheel drives off road quite often in ranching, farming, and hunting activities. My four wheel drive Dodge is used off road about as much as it is on the road.
Mike Quincy submits, "This vehicle is aimed at people with active life styles," as the most overused automotive marketing cliche. Not bad, but I think I have it beaten with just three words, "The all new - - -" The funny part of it is that more often than not, it is applied to the latest version of a platform or drive train or both that hasn't chnged in ten years
I've actually been searching for the vehicle for "those with the fulfilling sedentary lifestyle." I'm looking for the car (or SUV or Truck) with plenty of room between my gut and the wheel; a cup holder big enough for my Fosters Lager (which I really only use at the drive-in movies); and a center console to hold 3 Jumbo Jacks & Fries. I know I'm being discriminated against. . .but what's a fella to do?
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