R.I.P. to the SUV?

Washington Times ^ | 8/07/02

[Night Hides Not]

We just traded in our Jeep Grand Cherokee for a GMC Yukon. Why? Its important to me that my wife has a safe and roomy vehicle to transport our family around (3 kids).

For all of those holier-than-thou SUV haters out there, please answer me this: if SUVs and other large vehicles are so bad, why does Robert Kennedy Jr. drive one?

I believe his answer to Sean Hannity was: he has six children!

And how come you environmentalists don't give a hoot about your limousine liberal buddies that drive around in their 5 miles to the gallon limos?

Your silence is only surpassed by your Orwellian doublespeak!!!

[RandallFlagg]

Heh! I wonder if Red Davis is gonna try and get Arnold Schwarzenegger to give up his hummer...

[BlueLancer]

Try putting your wife's wheelchair lift in a Yugo. Try hauling 20 railroad ties or 40 12-foot 4x4's on a trailer behing a Honda Civic.

I have a Dodge RamVan and I am quite content with what I use it for. I am also a retiree with 22 years of active military service, 3rd Armored Cav vet from DESERT STORM, and hold you in contempt for your statement "I'm truly amazed how Americans who consider themselves patriots are unwilling to make even the slightest sacrifice while we have troops in the field."

Well, old son, I've been in the field ... and I thought that individual freedom of choice in property was one of the reasons that I was.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

You may be on to something. I've got a 2001 GMC extended cab pickup (Suburban chassis). Even I find it tough to park.

[banjo joe]

Keep large vehicles. Solution: seize Saudi oil fields (also eliminates terror funding). Develop ANWR and Russian sources. Easy.

[oyez]

Its tought to beat Suburbans and Yukons. GMC just has more experience with the larger vehicles.

[kapn kuek]

To my mind, SUV drivers are self-important, wasteful idiots of all classes, races, colors, creeds, ethnic origins, genders, sexual orientations, hairstyles or income brackets.

To respond in a logical manner to your illogical posting is not logical, but it is great fun to add to your obvious confusion. But I'm not here to ridicule and pick on the man whose synapse fire up less frequently than the Olympic torch.

[Labyrinthos]

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

Yes, simple physics will show that bigger cars will use more gas than smaller cars to travel the same distance over the same route at the same speed under the exact same conditions. But in the real world, all things are seldom equal. For example, I live only 3.1 miles from my office and drive my SUV approximately 110 miles per week (including leisure travel) at 18.1 miles per gallon(according to the current digital readout), which results in a total fuel consumption of 6.077 gallons per week. In contrast, my bleeding heart liberal, tree hugging, pro-baby killing neighbor, who winces and silently gives me the finger every time he sees me driving my SUV, claims that his itsy bitsy Honda gets approximately 38 miles per gallon of gas. All things being equal, his car is obviously more efficient. Except he commutes 118 miles round trip a day in heavy traffic for a minimum of 590 miles a week (and probably a lot more if you also count leisure driving), which means he uses at least 15.526 gallons of gas a week or more than 2.5 times the amount of fuel driving a Honda than I use driving a SUV. The real problem is not my SUV, but rather my socialist liberal neighbor's decision to build a 4800 square foot house in the far ruburbs and commute 118 miles a day to work.

And BTW, does anyone really need a 4800 square foot house(he has two teenage children who live at boarding school nine months of the year)? Think of the energy he has wasted building (the materials and exotic furnishings were manufactured using energy consuming machinery and delivered in gas guzzeling trucks)and heating and cooling a house that is much bigger than necessary.

Rather than laws that effectively eliminate SUV's from the road, what we really need are laws that prohibit people from living more than 5 miles from their place of work (unless they take public transportation)and from living in houses larger than 1200 square feet.

[banjo joe]

jacka$$ drivers is one reason I left ATL. To complete your image of the Excursion-driving soccer mom ya need the cell-phone stuck directly in front of the face, palming the wheel with one hand during a high-speed 90 degree turn.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Hard to believe this cam from the Washington Times. I thought they were a free market outfit? Anyway, the Excursion failed because it was a poor design and not appealing to many SUV drivers. Environmentalism didn't kill it. Poor design did.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

"Life is just one damn thing after another!"...Mark Twain

[Wyatt's Torch]

palming the wheel with one hand during a high-speed 90 degree turn.

As an Atlanta native you forgot to add - "without using their turnsignal and then flipping you off when you honk the horn." I'm sure a Starbucks cup of coffee is included somewhere...;-)

[laker_dad]

The Excursion is really a Superduty pickup TRUCK with a different body. Are you saying we should get rid of all pickup trucks too? Mine is a diesel that gets 23 mpg on the highway. Wouldn't trade it for anything.

[newcats]

BTW - I will be the first one to install solar panels on my home when I have the chance.

Why wait?

http://www.alfenterprises.com/BackupEnhancements.html

"Capable of producing up to *3,300 watt hours per day, this system will run various appliances such as lights, microwave, television, radio, communications equipment, coffee maker and all basic amenities"

[al_c]

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

If the industry would build affordable alternative fuel cars and not make them so darn ugly, people might just change their minds about them.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Yep. Traded my Durango (gasp! I must be one of those evil fossil fuel burning devils!) for a new Altima. Of course, my wife is trading her Lexus ES300 for the new Honda SUV but that's really a mini-van with 4 wheel drive...;-)

[RipSawyer]

By the way, what is happening to fuel economy? I read something that says a Mazda Miata only gets 29 miles to the gallon. I had a 1980 Pontiac Pheonix which was a much bigger car than a Miata and it averaged 34.2 miles per gallon carrying four large adults and a trunk full of luggage on an interstate highway trip averaging at least 70 miles per hour. Ford at one time had an F-150 full size pickup that was epa rated at 29 miles per gallon highway mileage and I spoke to at least three owners of this model who said they had no problem getting 27 miles per gallon and yet there is nothing available now in a full size pickup which claims anywhere near this high a mileage rating. There were vehicles on the road a quarter century ago that got better mileage than what I see posted for new models now. Has mileage dropped or is someone trying to make the situation look worse than it really is?