The Other 85 PercentQ: I know you've gotten this type of mail before, but I just wanted to voice my opinion. The first time I bought your magazine (Sept. 2000), I was impressed. It had four articles that were just backcountry trails that almost any 'wheeler could tackle, five technical articles (one of which was on a GPS system), and two reviews on off-roading vehicles, and only one was a Jeep. I decided to subscribe, but every issue I've gotten since then has been just like every other four-wheel magazine out there, which is fine if you drive a Jeep and have put 10,000-plus dollars into modifying your rig, but nothing that applies to 85 percent of 4WD vehicle owners. I own a Nissan Xterra and was pleased about the last two articles you've included, but it seems that every other article is about yet another lift kit for the CJ or another rockcrawler championship.
When will you start putting articles that apply to all four-wheel and sport utility owners and not just the few who can afford an expensive, specialized trail rig? If I wanted to read about how to modify a vehicle I don't own beyond being street-legal, I would have subscribed to another off-road magazine. Also, Labor Day week I'll be in Ouray, Colorado, attending the Gathering of Xterras 2 (GOX) in the beautiful San Juan Mountains. Even though I don't expect 4WDSU magazine or any other magazine to be at the event, it just goes to show that all of us who don't own CJs still do things just as interesting. Perhaps the reason 95 percent of the mail you get comes from Jeep owners is because of the fact that the rest of us don't want to read how to modify vehicles we don't own.Dustin BaughTaylorsville, Utah
A: Dustin, not gonna cut us the least bit of slack, huh? Granted, we don't devote every issue to vehicles other than Jeeps, but we do try to mix it up as much as possible. And believe it or not, a lot of our readers find articles about vehicles they can't afford to build pretty interesting. Just because it's not a reality on their own budget (or even our editors' salary for that matter) doesn't mean you should shelter yourself from reading about some pretty incredible fab work or admire the determination and hard work it took to build such a vehicle. As for the omission of interesting non-Jeep/non-$10,000-plus vehicle-modifying articles, we're not absolutely sure where you're looking. We counted an average of nearly four general interest articles per issue in every one of the 2001 issues. These included articles ranging from eliminating the friction between leaf spring leaves to coverage of mostly stock Jeep Grand Cherokees tackling Colorado trails. Regardless, however, we're continually striving to put out a better magazine, so we'll take your comments in stride and try our best to accommodate everyone. Thanks for reading, Dustin. We'll keep trying to hold your interest.