SUV Owners Shouldn't Read This

newspaper syndication ^ | March 22, 2003 | Donald "Lefty" Kaul

[newgeezer]

There are few things more misleadingly named than the Sports Utility Vehicle, which is neither sporty nor particularly utilitarian.

Oh, it's advertised as useful, I'll grant you that. And maybe it is, if you live in a remote mountain village where you occasionally have to drive over a rock-strewn field in bad weather to get where you're going. But most of the people who do things like that wouldn't be caught sober in one of the modern, fancy-schmansy SUVs, with the soft ride and the leather seats and cup-holders. (Real mountain people drive pickup trucks with a gun-rack in back of their heads.)

No, SUVs are bought, for the most part, by city folk, many of them suburban mothers who use them to cart kids around, with side trips to the supermarket. They claim that they buy them because they are:

1. Roomy (for the kids, you know)
2. Safe (don't want to be out there in a tin can)
3. Able to travel in inclement weather (because of the four-wheel drive so many of them have)

Which would be fine, except that none of those things is true. By the numbers:

1. Even the biggest SUVs (and there are some monsters) don't have any more passenger room than, say, a full-sized minivan, which costs thousands of dollars less and is easier to park.
2. SUVs have the distinction of being both more dangerous to themselves and more dangerous to other cars than other vehicles. Because of their high center of gravity, they have a distressing tendency to roll over and their fatality rates are higher than traditional vehicles (6 percent higher on the average; 8 percent in the bigger models). However, because of their huge size, in a collision with a normal-sized car, they are more apt to kill the occupants of the other vehicle. A Chevy Tahoe, for example, kills 122 people for every 1 million models on the road, while a Honda Accord kills only 21. This what's known as a lose/lose situation.
3. Inclement weather? Don't make me laugh. People with SUVs think inclement weather is when you can't play golf. For the occasional snowy day in most areas there are better ways to get around. SUVs are not the only four-wheel drive vehicles around anymore, after all. There are cars with all- and four-wheel drive that are superior in every way to your average SUV.

Every way except one. You can't bully other vehicles with a car the way you can with an SUV. And that's what the extraordinary popularity of the SUV is about---bullying.

Keith Bradsher, a New York Times reporter who been waging a crusade against SUVs for years now, has just published a book, High and Mighty, which documents the case against the vehicle. In it he quotes market researchers who have found that the SUV craze is "about not letting anything get in your way and at the extreme, about intimidating others to get out of your way."

SUV buyers, the researchers say, tend to be "insecure and vain, often lack confidence in their driving skills [and] are apt to be self-centered and self-absorbed, with little interest in neighbors and communities."

Does that sound familiar or what? Picture the typical SUV driver---the beady, close-set eyes of a serial killer set above a snarl that could curdle a latte. And that's just the women. The men are worse. Think of Hitler's Panzer divisions invading Poland.

On top of every else, these behemoths handle badly, get lousy gas mileage, are exempt from the safety standards that regular cars have to meet and don't have to pay the luxury tax that similarly priced cars have to pay. (It's called campaign contributions.)

Let's face it, they are an unmitigated disaster; assault rifles with power steering. If a terrorist country was trying to do to us what the SUV is doing, we'd be bombing it by now.

Yet the SUV has become the backbone of the American auto industry, and, as such, is with us forever or until the gasoline runs out, whichever comes first.

[irish_links]

Correct spelling poseur. Definition: roughly, one who strikes a pose, typically implying an affectation. As in, "Madonna redefines the term "poseur" in her new video."

[anncoulteriscool]

****Every way except one. You can't bully other vehicles with a car the way you can with an SUV. And that's what the extraordinary popularity of the SUV is about---bullying.***

To my experience this is very true....i used to say SUV drivers wanna drive like dale earnhardt but they wanna do it in the right hand lane...come tough guys....if ya wanna drive like a NASCAR man why dont ya step out into the left lane with the BIG BOYS....I think we know why they don't!

[anncoulteriscool]

***Does that sound familiar or what? Picture the typical SUV driver---the beady, close-set eyes of a serial killer set above a snarl that could curdle a latte. ****

Uh...there i disagree....after all...didn't ted Bundy drive a Volkswagan!

[NeilSmith]

Those hard working, honest oil execs deserve my money.

[anncoulteriscool]

***The reason I hate SUV's is that they're too big..You can't see around them, can't see over them, can't even see through them because they have darkened windows. Driving behind one in a standard size car or beside one is like driving in a tunnel. ****

The thing i hate about these SUV DRIVERS is when they drive in front of you they drive 40 mph and hit their break-lights every 5 seconds for no real apparent reason but when they drive behind you no speed that you are driving is ever fast enough they flash their brights repeatedly...I think thats a clear indication of someone that needs an extra dose of viagara. LOL!

[irish_links]

"..I bet there are more 16 wheelers on the road than SUVs and I can assure you if they run over you, you are dead meat...."

18-wheelers are indeed dangerous. They serve, however, a very important purpose: transporting vital goods and otherwise promoting efficient commerce. Moreover, they are generally driven by trained professionals who assume a very high civil and criminal liability with respect to the way they control their vehicles.

I would venture to guess that 80% of SUV owners in my neck of the woods (Central Ohio) have no compelling reason to own a two ton sledge of an SUV. And, I can assure you that a meaningful percentage of those owners are not on their best days as safe behind the wheel as the average truck driver after a couple of six packs.

I have never said that people should be prohibited from buying SUVs. I would suggest, however, that they are inherently more dangerous than serviceable alternatives and that most people who buy them (at least in my 'hood where we have two moderately annoying snow storms per winter) have no compelling reason to do so.

[ExSoldier]

"have no compelling reason to do so."

You used this phrase twice. People like you scare me. People like you are chipping away at the civil liberties those boys are bleeding in the sand to protect....and for which many of my buddies have already given their lives. People like you will be the willing population for the rise of the New World Order in it's final form.

I live in Miami, Florida....where we get no snow except that which "blows" at times from Columbia. But when those tropical rains flood our streets...the SUV's are the only thing that gets through...which is why HUMMER H2 is fast becoming the KING of south Florida roads once ruled by Suburban.

My old Ford Explorer 4x4 (before I fell victim to the minivan for large dog transport--trust me as soon as I can afford it I'll be in H2!) used to take us to a North Carolina vacation every Christmas. In all those years I only used 4x4 twice...and each time it could have been life or death without it.

People like you ask me why I need so many handguns or an assault rifle...when there is "no compelling reason to own more than one. Or ZERO in the case of an AR-15" People like you make the Founding Fathers cringe in their graves.

People like you elected Bill Clinton and then kept him in power. Tell me....did you graduate from a public high school? It shows. You are a perfect example of the brainwashing AGENDA of the liberals at work. I know...I've been a public school teacher here in Miami for 15 years and have fought the "agenda" and it's revisionist thinking for all of that period.

[irish_links]

"...People like you elected Bill Clinton and then kept him in power...."

No. People like me voted against Bill Clinton twice and George W. Bush once. People like you scare me.

[irish_links]

"...No. People like me voted against Bill Clinton twice and George W. Bush once. People like you scare me...."

That should have read: "...No. People like me voted against Bill Clinton twice and FOR George W. Bush once. People like you scare me...."

[MileHi]

I absolutly didn't make that comment to you, geezer. {:0)

X, no sarcasm at all.

[Xenalyte]

Just hadda check . . . thanks for the reassurance!

[Roughneck]

"9 out 10 Alaskans are for drilling"

This I dont understand: If California can choose not to drill, why cant Alaska choose TO drill?

California is withholding millions of bbls/oil from the rest of the union because they dont want THEIR titmice to loose property, yet Alaska is willing to contribute to the energy needs of this country but can not FREELY CHOOSE to do so! Whats the deal? Does not Alaska have "States Rights?"

And since when can any part of the federal government tell ANY state what not to do?

Crazy world.

[Sergio]

Under cover narc car...hehehe...why didn't I think of that.

Thanks for the idea.

Best Regards

Sergio

[two23]

SUV buyers, the researchers say, tend to be "insecure and vain, often lack confidence in their driving skills [and] are apt to be self-centered and self-absorbed, with little interest in neighbors and communities." Does that sound familiar or what? Picture the typical SUV driver---the beady, close-set eyes of a serial killer set above a snarl that could curdle a latte. And that's just the women. The men are worse. Think of Hitler's Panzer divisions invading Poland.

1989 Ford Bronco XLT--11 MPG--Any Questions?

[ExSoldier]

"No. People like me voted against Bill Clinton twice and George W. Bush once. People like you scare me."

Good.

You voted against Clinton and Bush? That means you don't stand for anything. You wait for the majority to make up it's mind and you toddle along after. Either that or you voted for Gore...same as Clinton or you voted for a whacko enviormentalist which is the most communist of the bunch. So..who DID you vote for in 2000?