I had just started calling myself a journalist when someone contacted the newspaper I worked for, Folha de S.Paulo. He wanted us to write a story about how his Jeep Grand Cherokee was humiliated while crossing a creek in Ilhabela because of a design flaw. He was also the first person to show me that a car is as good as the people who build it, which J.D. Power helped me remember with its 2025 U.S. Initial Quality Study (IQS).
Unfortunately, I do not remember the name of that reader. According to him, his Grand Cherokee had a hydrolock because the air intake in that vehicle was too low. That left him stranded on Castelhano's Beach while more humble cars, such as a Chevrolet Chevette, would cross the creek without effort. While he complained about the Jeep, he said he was disappointed with the quality of the unit made in Argentina. In his words, the cars made in Austria, by Magna Steyr, were much better.
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