backwards or circular design

i love jeep. i love jeep. dang, i love jeep. really, i want to own a jeep wrangler unlimited. but, i'm also semi-sensible. 16mpg (on a good day) just doesn't cut it for me. and, as i've discussed with some of you, it blows my mind that a company that does work to encourage environmental sensiblilty amongst its consumers doesn't have a solid product that fits their mindset. really, they encourage people to tread lightly in the wilderness. they want you to be able to get into the back country, have a good time, see nature. shoot, they've had a 4cyl jeep forever. but it only gets slightly better mileage. last year, at the auto shows, they showed off the concept jeep hurricane. and, they trotted it back out at this year's auto show.



really, this is an amazing vehicle. it has independant front and rear stearing. you could drive sideways (crab) or as it shows in the pic, spin in a circle. that's pretty forward thinking. i know, this is a concept. yet, that would be a great tool for the serious 4x4 enthusiast. the drawback is that the hurricane comes with not one, but two v12 engines. are you kidding me? 2, gas guzzling, inefficient v12's? that's not to say you couldn't have efficient v12's. these are high horsepower, heavy duty, butt kickin engines. again, i know this is just a concept car, but did jeep not notice that over the last few years gas prices have soared, suv sales dropped tremendously, and that the big sellers were fuel efficient? maybe you didn't see it last year, but you still don't have anything?

last year, after some thought, i sent jeep an email asking why they didn't have any fuel efficient stuff out, especially a hybrid. several of the companies have credible mileage, hybrid suv's on the market. i don't know about the 4x4 capability, but still. of course, they sent me back a form type email, telling me how they don't discuss upcoming projects, but thanks and keep an eye on jeep for innovative products on the horizon. after that, all they released was a diesel version of the jeep liberty.

andy rooney whined about american companies lagging behind because they keep changing the car names and there's too much name diversity. his argument was ridiculously stupid. american car companies lag behind because they're responding to the dog's tail wagging instead of making it wag.