R.I.P. to the SUV?

Washington Times ^ | 8/07/02

[kattracks]

The first of the truly mighty SUVs has fallen to the slings and arrows of political correctness. Ford Motor Co. let it slip July 31 that the Excursion

[sheik yerbouty]

Only the Excursion. It was rotundly redundant.

[WKB]

If Ford was making a profit from these do you really think they would stop making them?

[goldstategop]

It was safe. Liberals look down on people driving big cars and the thing would be funny if weren't so tragic, is they want to force people to drive small cars in which your chances of survival are less than in a big car. Liberals hate big cars but love big government. For them some bigness is more loathesome than others.

[mo]

I'm sure its possible to demonstrate that the greatest environmental hazard in California is the state and Federal government.....

[goldstategop]

No the greatest environmental threat in Kalifornistan is GrayDown and his enviro wacko cohorts.

[uncbob]

Excursion sales were down over 30% to years in a roll
It was a FLOP

[peteram]

but when one of these behemoths hits a smaller car, the damage is extraordinary.

Solution: Stop making smaller cars.

a fairly easy thing to do if we stopped driving SUVs and other penis-substitutes instead of a more normal size vehicle,

What is normal? A Honda Civic? A Geo Metro? Sorry, but safety is a BIG factor for my wife and I, and after driving small cars for the last 11 years, we are now feeling much safer in bigger vehicles.

If everyone were to shun the sub-compact for even a mid-sized car, we all would be a little safer. Subs are not safe under any circumstances.

[goldstategop]

Oh we Americans love being muscular. And soccer moms love a masculine car too for that reason, its reassuring and won't desert you when you need it. The SUV is dead; long live the SUV!!!

[Alouette]

Big cars also use much more fuel than smaller ones to go the same distance at the same speed.

The solution is not for everybody to drive a (barf) Yugo, but to build alternative fuel and more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Folks in Dearborn are working on that.

Natural Gas Vehicles

[doodad]

I honestly think the real reason that the excursion died is that while it pulled the boat great on the wekends, during the week the wife couldn't park the thing. There are lots of them here in Atlanta, and they are almost all driven by women who have a hard time seeing in the beast.

[T. Jefferson]

I work in the car business, trucks and SUV's currently account for 90 PERCENT of GM's business. They are going nowhere...the Excursion was an experiment( ours is ridiculously bigger) that failed, they didn't sell and lost
millions with it.

[Grit]

True, the people in a big car suffer less injury than people in a smaller car would

Are you proposing legislation that makes me less safe so that you can 'feel' safer?

[tcostell]

zhabotinsky signed up 2002-07-06.

I wonder when the DU posters are going to start choosing names that reflect who they are? I'd suggest, "Iknowbetterthanyoudo" or "conservativesareidiots". Or maybe the all time sought after FR name for a DU lurker, "youdbesmartifyouwouldjustagreewithme".

Power to the people. (not the government)

[Alouette]

But what can we do today?

These are production vehicles.

[peteram]

Why do you feel free to waste oil and make our nation increasingly dependent upon foreign sources of energy?

I don't like the idea of wasting oil. I am confident that there will be alternatives available in the not-too-distant future (hopefully in my lifetime). Actually, I believe the technology is already there, it just needs to be rolled out. BTW - I will be the first one to install solar panels on my home when I have the chance.

The bottom line is I am concerned for the safety of my wife and (future) kids. Certainly, a larger vehicle does not guarantee their total safety, but at lest they'd have a better chance of survival should something happen than if they were in a little sub-compact.