Write Your Congressman: Defend the Knowable Car

To the Honorable Member of Congress:

We write on behalf of the plain car a person could once simply buy and understand.

There was a time when a citizen walked into a showroom, looked at the vehicle, and knew what it was. It burned fuel, or it did not. It had gears, or it did not. The knowledge required to own it fit inside one honest afternoon. That car, the knowable car, is not being banned. It is being complicated out of existence, one option box at a time, until comprehension itself is a feature the buyer cannot afford.

This week BMW premiered a new X5 and confirmed it will be the first vehicle offered with five drivetrain technologies on a single line: combustion, battery electric, plug-in hybrid, diesel, and, soon, hydrogen fuel cell. The company calls this "technology-open." We do not doubt the engineering. We note only what "open" quietly asks of you. When a company will not choose, the choosing does not vanish. It is handed to the buyer, along with the seminar and the subscription required to survive it.

We ask one thing. When the next screen replaces the next knob, and the next manual runs longer than the founding documents, remember that a free citizen has a right to understand the machine he is asked to sign for. Not to be flattered by choice. To comprehend the thing itself.

Defend the knowable car. Write back to us when you have.

Respectfully, The Editors