Massive Transit? Massive Waste

Regarding “Massive Transit” (Behind the Wheel, Nov. 17):

With all due respect, I think Paul Dean has been taken in by Ford’s careful public relations campaign. It seems that every auto journalist proclaims that the Excursion is meant for oil fields, ski resorts and ranches.

Out in Kansas, where a lot of my family lives, you rarely see an Expedition or Suburban. Real ranchers will spend their hard-earned money on a pickup with a crew cab and save $10,000 for something else sensible.

Meanwhile, here in L.A. I have seen about 10 of these behemoths. With two exceptions, there was always only one occupant, seemingly swallowed by the vast expanse that is the Excursion. In all but two cases the truck was driven by a well-coiffed suburban mom, none of whom I could imagine banging along the Rubicon Trail.

The other times I have seen it, the driver was a twentysomething whose record contract must have just been signed.

There is nothing about the Excursion that warrants its massive use of resources. Society has somehow been able to get along without these dinosaurs. Where the Suburban speaks “utility,” the Excursion screams “massive waste.”

WALTER KATZ

Van Nuys