Posted on 07/17/2005 1:25:15 PM PDT by grey_whiskers
Let me be the first to predict the imminent death of the SUV's as a preferred form of transportation. This is not because the drivers are Starbucks-sipping yuppie scum, nor because they are chain-smoking over-the-hill-trophy wives, nor because they are preoccupied with their cell phones (though these are all true).
It is because the SUV's, despite their name, are not SPORT utility vehicles, but specialty UTILITY vehicles, good for ferrying half of a boy scout troop, or hauling home several months' salary worth of goods from Best Buy or from Home Depot in a single trip. In other words, they are large, lumbering, and specialized. Just like the dinosaurs. And like the dinosaurs, when the environment to which they have laboriously adapted changes--when their ecosystem changes—they will go extinct.
Just what is it that will spell the end of these suburban monsters? I used to think it was a spike in gas prices: surely no one can continue driving an 8- or 12- mpg beast in the face of $2.00+ per gallon charges at the pump. But I was wrong. These vehicles are status symbols. They are not Babe Mobiles, like a BMW roadster; these are what you buy after you have landed the babe and she has domesticated you, when you want to impress other couples. I have heard a yuppie explain this very point, when asked why he didn't abandon his new Durango, even though he was burning two gallons of gas a day, just commuting to work. "That's not the statement I'm trying to make." The automakers (even with 0% financing) must need supercomputers just to count their lease payments. And the “now all customers can have the employee discount” sales aren’t helping either.
Well, if it isn't gas, what will spell the end of the SUV? I think the answer is, when they outlive their natural utility (no pun intended). What are the SUV's used for, really? Certainly not (except maybe the Xterra or Hummer) for serious off-road work. They cost too much to buy, and you don't want to damage a leased vehicle! As noted earlier, SUV's excel at hauling around small people, buying stuff at Home Depot, and impressing the neighbors. When will these functions die off?
Let us remember that ever since the 60's, the vanguard of every cultural movement has been the baby boomers--from rock 'n roll, through Doonesbury, to career women, and SUV's. Boomers have delayed parenthood until late in their lives; now they have children at the same time as they have money. Boomers like a large house, they want a large vehicle to carry the furniture and hardware; they use the SUV for soccer practice, piano practice, singing lessons, birthdays, you name it.
But children grow older; they want their own cars. (How many people really let a 16-year old drive a $40,000 vehicle that they don't even own? And how much is the insurance?) Finally, the children move out. Now there is no need at all for ferrying the children; and the large house out in the 'burbs begins to feel 'empty'…”Honey, maybe we should look into a condominium, or a townhouse?” And as the large house is downsized, there too goes the need for a wheeled dinosaur to haul lumber, furniture, plumbing. The day of the dinosaurs is done. And (by the way) the automakers will have to turn to another guaranteed profit center. Caveat emptor.
(Full disclosure: SUV's are also good for mashing subcompacts under their tires like a dinosaur stomping a frightened rabbit. The author drives a Nissan Sentra. This fact has nothing whatsoever to do with the contents of this article.)
Bite me.
I drive an SUV, I also have a 16 year old Chevy 4x4 hunting truck.
I have never been to a Starbucks and I leave my cellphone on my dresser.
I dislike small cars because you can be easily killed or maimed in them.
Been there, done that.. 1988 Camaro and one reattached leg.
I prefer to maintain a bit of authority on the road, and I suppose
that your Cooper-mini, while getting phenominal mileage might also provide
outstanding traction surface beneath my tires.
Or, put another way...
Get drunk and hit someone in your Sentra, they walk away.
Get drunk and hit someone in your SUV, they are history.
The LE in my county recently nailed a "John Deere lawn tractor" driver for DUI while trying to evade them.
I wonder how he would have been labeled if he were to tangle with a Sentra or the like.
Big Caddies must use the same amount of gas as an SUV right? 8 Cyl burn it up, put the AC on and your MPG are gone.
Interesting demographic take on the phenomenon. I don't mind vanity posts - they can be interesting. I know others disagree.
If someone has the money for one (and for the gas), more power to them. I get a little tired of having to look over or around the massive SUVs while I'm driving, but to each his own. If they cause more than their share of damage to smaller cars in auto accidents I'm sure the insurance companies have figured that into the rates.
I used to love my little sports car, but got tired of never being able to purchase anything larger than three day's worth of groceries. I now have a four-door with a big trunk. :)
1. I've NEVER had even one ounce of "Starbucks" coffee, I am not a yuppie scum, I have never smoked and I am a first wife of 40 years, and I never drive while using the cell phone.
2. My SUV gets about 19 MPG, and was not bought to impress anyone. It was for creature comfort...driving the long distances we here in Texas have to go.
3. Don't you have better things to do with your time than write vanity posts that whine and complain about what someone else is driving? Unless you're paying for MY gasoline and other vehicle expenses, why should you care what I drive?
I'm not following you. An SUV is a UTILITY vehicle. "Utility" implies that it serves a useful function.
So nobody wants to haul around a boy scout troop because gas goes up 2 cents a mile? What are you supposed to do with the boy scouts? Line em up against the wall and shoot them?
If you are cramming 7 people into your SUV, and it gets 18 miles per gallon, you're getting 126 passenger miles per gallon of gas. Plus there's the added bonus that if some weenie dog hybrid death trap slams into you, yours won't be the vehicle described in the newspaper as being "squashed like a bug".
I am interested in the H3. I've done a bit of research, and it seems the average gas mileage of it with the special GM 5 cylinder engine is about 20 MPG.
Another freeper tells me the H3 is merely a trailblazer with a different body bolted on the frame.
Amen !
Sold my trailblazer today!
Well you could get one of those fancy 7 passenger vans but frankly I wouldn't be caught dead in one. Not cool at all.
To all the so called conservatives hating SUVs.
You have lost this battle like Kerry lost to GW last year, give it up.
Yesterday, on about a 6 mile round trip, my wife noticed and commented about SUVs made by Porsche, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Volvo, Mazada, Toyota, Nissan, Kia, Lexus, Acura, Integra, Honda, Suburu (the new real one), Volkswagen and of course basically every American made car line including Cadillac and Lincoln. There were a couple of models, we had no idea the brand of the SUV. She thought she saw a SAAB suv, but she wasn't sure. 40% were new models sold in the last year or so.
Give it up re your whining about SUVs. You sound just like the Kerryites and the last election.
The last bastard a$$hole on earth who told his people what to drive, killed himself at the end of WWII. His name was Adolph and the car for the masses was the Volkswagen. Now even Volkswagen has an SUV, and it ain't small nor cheap.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
According to the auto manufacturers own stats, the vast majority of SUV owners don't drive them for the reasons the vehicles were originally constructed. And as for shuttling around vast quantities of kids, said kids would be safer in certain types of crashes in a passenger sedan or a minivan than they would be in an SUV.
While this may be true, it was the CAFE standards that created the demand for SUV's and doomed the station wagon, since station wagons are essentially heavy cars. So manufacturers switched to SUV's and Mini-vans, since they are "trucks" and exempt from the CAFE standards. The Amazing thing is that the average gross vehicle weight in the country has remained virtually the same since the early seventies, as families switched to SUV's. CAFE standards have proved to be a joke, Bigger vehicles are safer, and how many families really want to take a trip to Costco let alone take a cross-country trip in a pinto, just to save a little gas?
Sure you can. I've done it.
Now let's see you take seven people to the airport in your pickup truck.
"Try hauling the family to the grocery, or department store for a normal shopping trip in a PC Genuine Imitation mini car."
It becomes even more complicated with the required infant seats and booster seats. Two infants, one double stroller leave no room and wouldn't fit in a medium size car.
If you think the 'Burban uses natural resources, you should see the kids!
The fact that it can crush a Nissan Sentra in an accident, leaving my family unharmed, is just icing on the cake.
So what?
When my grandfather retired, the first thing he did was buy an enormous recreational vehicle and drove around the country for a few years.
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