R.I.P. to the SUV?

Washington Times ^ | 8/07/02

[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?

[newcats]

ABSOLUTE BULLBLEEP! The roads are engineered for multi-ton 18-wheelers

Your statement is more ABSOLUTE BULLBLEEP.....

Interstate highways are the only ones engineered to handle the weights of 18 wheelers. Regualr streets are not designed to handle the weight of them or monster trucks.
Are you telling me that you only drive your "tank" on interstates?

[Twodees]

You've wandered into a conservative forum. Please click the Back button on your browser until you're safely back home at DU.

[agentbinky]

The United States has the highest ratio of automobiles to population in the world. Most of your vaunted S.U.V's are guzzling barrels of Saudi oil in order to drive mom to the supermarket. Practically none of them are actually used for off-roading. (That fantasy only exists in television commercials.) This can be confirmed by going to any office park and noting the bozos driving around in the hugest cars. We finance terrorism for these status symbols.

If we can rid ourselves of posse comitatus and search and seizure laws to combat a harmless psychoactive substance, we should be able to modestly curtail the use of S.U.V.'s as genitalia displays. Seems responsible to me, but it's nice to know we have reactionaries like you who consider it an Affront to the Essence of Liberty. Would you have whined about the same thing during WW2? "WAH! I can't exorbitantly waste natural resources like a self-indulgent punk with a sense of entitlement!"

[Twodees]

I wonder when the DU posters are going to start choosing names that reflect who they are?

They don't need to. Their initial comments always reveal what they are if not who they are. Since there's no sport in dismantling their substitute for logic, the only sport in having them show up is in seeing who recognizes them for what they are and who doesn't. Don't give them any ideas on how to spoil what little fun we get out of them. ;-)

[mel]

I think you hit the nail on the head, the first time I saw one i thought gee whiz this looks like an 18 wheeler.

[eno_]

There is no question that SUVs because of their greater weight do greater damage to our already shabbily constructed roads. This is an unnecessary cost to the rest of us.

Not true! Unless you exceed the designed weight limit for the road, an SUV will not wear out the road measurably sooner. Passenger vehicles, including the heaviest SUVs are well within these limits. Overwieght commercial vehicles are the road-abusers.

[6ppc]

Ford Valdez...LOL!

I'd love to own one, but it really is too big for my needs.

[usastandsunited]

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.

Please list everything that you own so I can decide for you what is "excessive" and therefore you should do away with. Remember, each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

[Richard Kimball]

The war against SUV's is only the latest example of watermelons forcing their idiocy on everyone else and claiming it as "being responsible."

First of all, protesting against a body style is ridiculous. My Chevy Astro Mini-van is built on the same drive train and frame as the Chevy Blazer, an SUV. However, no one is protesting mini-vans. Second, a smaller car is fine if you don't have kids, never take more than one or two people with you, and do most of your driving in town. If you frequently have to transport 5 people, it doesn't make much sense to take two vehicles that get 28 miles to the gallon instead of one that gets 20.

Of course, most people that own SUV's are families with children, and we all know that to a liberal, raising children is the least responsible thing you can do. Far more humane to kill them in the womb.

[HIDEK6]

Why do you feel free to waste oil

First of all, it's MY OIL when I buy it.

Secondly, who are you to tell me how to live my life?

Who made you Pope?

[banjo joe]

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...;-)

...exactly so. I've been away a while and it's still not long enough.

[tcostell]

OK, let's make sure I understand:

1. I'm an idiot. (admittedly I am making this assumption from your statements about how I have no interest in "vocabulary or logic" but it doesn't seem to big a stretch.)

2. My arguments are blather, while yours are gospel. (excuse me, you are probably against a pseudo-religious reference here so instead we'll just say that your arguments are supported by a secular humanist intellectual like "Professor Handcock" from the " Yale Law Journal, 1947." because who would no more about the socio-economic impact of SUV usage than a man who was published when Keynesian economics and socialism were accepted as de-rigueur.)

3. SUV drivers are morally corrupt. (again this is a paraphrase, but it seems close to the mark.)

I have a little something I think you should read, it a book by Thomas Sowell. (you would probably know him as the uncle Tom of American Economics) It's called "The Vision of the Anointed: Self congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy."

It describes why those who disagree with the leftist vision are bad, and why all 3 points I mentioned are central to the bulk of leftist arguments.

In the meantime, I'll go repent my lack of intellect, and my inability to quote arcane law review articles. (Maybe there is something in the writing of Camus that can help me come to grips with my shortcomings? After all, where would our economic policy be without the work of great philosophers?)

[peteram]

Has mileage dropped or is someone trying to make the situation look worse than it really is?

I think a big part of the problem is that the vehicle bodies are too heavy for the little engine under the hood to propel (the Miata getting less MPG than the Pontiac). bTW, I had a Firebird with a V-6 that got better mileage than that Miata. However, I always felt that the engine was too small for that type of body.

[HIDEK6]

This is an unnecessary cost to the rest of us.

Actually, the cost is to the state, who owns the roads. Once the state takes your money, it is no longer your money, it is their money.

[peteram]

Thanks for the link. I'll bookmark it. BTW, I'm waiting until I move into my next house (probably sometime next year).

[gridlock]

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

I feel free because I am free.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Interstate highways are the only ones engineered to handle the weights of 18 wheelers. Regualr streets are not designed to handle the weight of them or monster trucks. Are you telling me that you only drive your "tank" on interstates?"

You show yourself as a fool. Multi-ton trucks traverse every hard-surfaced road in the US. Regular streets are indeed engineered to handle the weight of 18-wheelers--they just don't see many of them. The "weight-per-axle" of an SUV is not even remotely close to even a two-axle freight delivery truck. Look closely at the "weight-limited" bridges and roads, and you will see thngs like "Load Limit 40,000 pounds". A GMC Suburban weighs ~5300 pounds. Now, tell me again how SUV's damage a road engineered for ten times its weight.

Oh, BTW--I "DON'T" drive an SUV, and actually prefer smaller cars. Current vehicles are an Acura Integra and a Ford Ranger pickup.

[marron]

Most of your vaunted S.U.V's are guzzling barrels of Saudi oil in order to drive mom to the supermarket.

People, by and large, aren't buying Suburbans to go off road. They buy them primarily because they are the only full sized cars available.

When full sized cars were available, people didn't buy trucks to haul their families.