Chris Tonn’s (2020) review of the 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe really stands out from the crowd. Rather than merely walking us through the redesigned SUV’s new features, The Truth About Cars contributing writer also got up on his soap box and passionately defended the virtue of the Tahoe, SUVs and the American way. The only thing missing was an Old Glory photo.
With great indignation Tonn howled about unnamed fellow reviewers who claimed that the Tahoe was among those SUVs and trucks that had grown too big and too dangerous to pedestrians.
Newsflash: Some journalists pine for an EV Trabant!
Much like colleague Matt Posky, Tonn (2020) played the “socialism” card. Apparently he thinks that if you criticize big SUVs, you wish for a “planned economy where everyone will need to enter a lottery to buy bread and — maybe someday after waiting for years — an electric-powered Trabant.”
It’s unclear who specifically Tonn was wagging a finger at, but this sounds like a strawman argument (Wikipedia, 2020). I have yet to come across an American automotive journalist who has advocated anything like Soviet Bloc-style control of the auto industry.
Instead, what is often criticized is Detroit’s penchant for design fads that eventually become excessive. Today’s SUVs and trucks are the modern incarnation of the tail-finned monsters of the late-50s. Or the chariots of brougham in the 1970s.
TTAC commentator Whatnext (2020) summed up the meta problem: “These outsized vehicles are exactly why North American companies are fading in world relevance as vehicle makers. They’ve never been able to do anything well except big body on frame barges.”
Oh, and journalists also don’t care about public safety!
Tonn (2020) went on to play the culture war card. He argued that journalistic critics of trucks aren’t really concerned about public safety. Nope, they just “don’t like people who do like trucks.”
What evidence validates Tonn’s harsh and sweeping ad hominem attack on his professional colleagues? He didn’t say. In the olden days, that would be the kiss of death for a journalist who wrote opinion pieces. Perhaps this is merely another example of the Internet dumbing down automotive journalism and history. Or perhaps Tonn got a waiver from his TTAC editors because he hit all of the right ideological buttons.
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One thing Tonn (2020) did acknowledge was his fatigue with “the tribalism in this country.” Thank goodness. Otherwise his manifesto might have been written in all caps.
Would Tonn have declared Brock Yates a socialist?
If Tonn were around in the post-war period he presumably would have offered an equally spirited defense of Detroit’s excesses. That would have placed him on the opposite side of the fence from automotive journalists such as Brock Yates. Would Tonn have labeled Yates a socialist for having written the following?
“For as long as I have been writing about automobiles, I have belonged to a small coterie of writers who have been convinced that Detroit was building the wrong cars. Too often we were dismissed as obsessive ‘buffs’ who seemed to have a fixation with tiny, overpowered European sports cars. While it was true that many imported automobiles seemed to represent a shift toward efficiency and high technology and away from the chromed land arks of Detroit, we were far from the prejudiced ingrates that industry leaders described us to be. We simply believed that most American cars were too large, too heavy, too clumsy and too inefficient to meet the needs of the modern driver.” (1983, preface)
Of course, Tonn could point to the later stage of Yates’ career, when he made a blood sport out of attacking those who argued that gas-guzzling SUVs contributed to climate change (2003). Perhaps Tonn has learned that beating up on the auto industry’s critics has typically been a good career move in the buff media.
The Tahoe’s butt isn’t so bad (no, really)
That said, Tonn might enjoy the fruits of capitalism a lot more if he switched to automotive marketing. He has a real flair for it. For example, even when he offered a mild criticism of the Tahoe’s styling he wrapped it in an upbeat conclusion: “The tailgate trim immediately below the rear hatch glass is a bit unusual, but I’m sure we will grow to accept it with time. It’s not the most egregious styling affectation ever applied to a passenger vehicle by a long shot” (Tonn, 2020).
Nice save! This guy could clearly be making much bigger bucks writing promotional materials rather than toiling away in the boiler room of automotive blogs. Meanwhile, Tonn’s replacement would hopefully show greater care in backing up his or her political opinions with facts and logic. That would be a “win-win.”
NOTES:
“Socialism” was placed in quotes on first reference because Tonn used the term rather loosely.
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RE:SOURCES
- Tonn, Chris; 2020. “2021 Chevrolet Tahoe 4WD RST Review – Nobody* Needs* This Big of a Truck.” The Truth About Cars. Posted October 30; accessed November 1.
- Whatnext; 2020. Commentator in “2021 Chevrolet Tahoe 4WD RST Review – Nobody* Needs* This Big of a Truck.” The Truth About Cars. Posted 4:17 p.m., October 30; accessed November 1.
- Wikipedia; 2020. “Straw man.” Page last edited October 25; accessed November 1.
- Yates, Brock; 1983. The Decline and Fall of the American Automobile Industry. Empire Books, New York, NY.
- ——; 2003. “Save the Earth! Drive an SUV!” Car and Driver. Posted May 1; accessed November 1, 2020.
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