MORFORD: The end of the SUV

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 7/30/8 | Mark Morford

[SmithL]

Love 'em or hate 'em, the American land yacht is rumbling into the sunset. Rejoice?

Let us, first and foremost, be perfectly clear: it ain't over yet. Millions of dinosaurs still roam the Earth, the giant meteor of merciful annihilation has yet to strike, complete and total upheaval is still merely pending.

But it's coming fast. You can sense the shadow, the darkening, the imminent and oily doom. The dinosaurs are trembling, scribbling out their wills as fast as possible. They know the end is near, the signs are all in place, as that giant $63K Toyota Land Cruiser V8 you bought just a couple years ago violently depreciates down to less than half of what you paid for it. Ouch.

Yes, the imploding petroleum economy has spoken, and this is what it said: The era of the big, happy, dumb SUV is over.

Will you celebrate? Mourn? Mark this year on your calendar with the bright red Sharpie of petro-economic ignominy mixed with the cold tears of terrified Detroit CEOs, and dash off to buy a nice scooter? Well, why not?

Twenty years. That's about how long these great and ridiculous beasts stomped the Earth without peer or predator or even much coherent justification, how long the full-sized SUV has been at the center of warped American automotive identity, giving soccer moms and frat dudes alike a false and often dangerous sense of security and capability, when all the beasts really offered was horrible mileage and appalling handling and many thousands of fiery rollover deaths, mixed with aesthetics straight from the caveman-with-a-sledgehammer school of design. Ah, we loved them well.

Shall we enjoy a brief retrospective? Because I believe it was Ford MoCo who (arguably) fired the opening salvo,...

[Billthedrill]

LOL! It seems Miss Morford can celebrate capitalism when it suits him. But he hasn’t quite thought it through - hey, Markie, it’s time to pick up that 6.8 liter Suburban you’ve always wanted for cheap, buddy! Come on, you know you want it. It’s just so...butch...

[grey_whiskers]

What a latecomer.

I predicted this back in 2005.

I was just three years too early, that's all.

Cheers!

[wayne_b24]

LOL