And now another article about those Evil Demon SUV's which hunt down little children

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 08.27.02 | Henry K. Lee

[blam]

"I'm telling you, it's the chips in the engines that make the SUVs do that."

All right, leave the chips out of this.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

Rosie does not have a SUV, I have that on good authority. She has a Ford Econoline Van, with extra heavy duty shocks and hydraulic liftgate. That fat a$$ could never get up and down into any SUV on the road now.

[chance33_98]

These scum go around putting bumper stickers on SUV's

Our Mission:

This campaign is designed to tell the world what we think of those mindless suburban drones that insist on getting 8 mpg while driving their kids to soccer practice. Join us as we direct our social activist energies toward the exciting new sport of Big Game SUV Hunting.

[chance33_98]

Slave Like Conditions Used to Make the Steel for Sports Utility Vehicles

SUVs are produced in part by people working under near slavery conditions. The charcoal people, who are illiterate and receive no pension or other benefits from the Brazilian government, produce charcoal from burned trees, which is combined with iron ore to produce iron. This Brazilian pig iron is used to produce the super strong frames of SUVs.

There are an estimated 60,000 charcoal people. They usually begin working at their trade at the age of 7 or 8, helping their parents, and remain in this trade until their death. Their pay is terrible, as are the conditions under which they work.

Here is an example of a very fine line between slavery and freedom in this, the 21st century - to produce your vehicle. SUV production greatly contributes to the destruction of the Brazilian rain forest. Two tractors with a chain stretched between them literally tear the trees from the ground. These trees then undergo a controlled burn process in a kiln by the charcoal people.

Who, with the exception of a very few drivers, can honestly justify the need to drive such a vehicle?

[chance33_98]

above article is From that same web site

[Paradox]

I think this points to something that I have noticed, and that is that many SUV drivers drive as if their vehicles were cars. THEY CLEARLY ARE NOT!

Anyone who drives one needs to be aware of some of the inherent limitations, like visibility of things that are low and close to the vehicle. They handle lousy, and their brakes are marginal at best. That, and they tend to roll over because of their high center of gravity.

I say more power to SUV buyers, they have single handedly brought back the American Auto industry, but I wish more of them would learn to drive their vehicles better. (Heck, I wish more drivers would learn to drive their cars too!)

[dennisw]

Best advice I heard was to back into your driveway with SUVs.....

When you pull out you will have real visibility and no guesswork. I park my own car that way. Been doing so for years.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

Which goes to my direct point....

SUV's don't kill people,

Liberals who drive SUV's kill people.

[goldstategop]

In all of the anti-SUV articles, there's no driver in the car when disaster strikes. Do SUV's have a mind all of their own? It looks that way --- to liberals, who want them banned of course - for the children!

[Nuke'm Glowing]

Of course there is never a driver. The libs can't offend the soccer moms who vote with their feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelings.

[tahiti]

I sent the followig e-mail to the author of the article:

Hello Mr. Lee,

You used the following phrase in your article titled, “SUVs, trucks and tots can be a fatal combination.”

“…boy who was struck by a sport utility vehicle backing out a driveway…”

A sport utility vehicle cannot back out of a driveway.

It was the driver of the sport utility vehicle that struck the boy.

So your phrase should have read, “…boy who was struck by the driver of a sport utility vehicle backing out a driveway…”

A common, yet predictable error, and yet deliberate error as well, by those who have a problem with a SUV being a vehicle of “choice” chosen by free citizens living in the U.S.

Let’s try to be more precise in our description of events.

[tahiti]

"Anyone who drives one needs to be aware of some of the inherent limitations, like visibility of things that are low and close to the vehicle. They handle lousy, and their brakes are marginal at best. That, and they tend to roll over because of their high center of gravity."

Since 1994, I have and still drive

1992 Isuzu Trooper

1996 Lexus 450

2000 Lincoln Navigator

As to visibility, all of these SUV's have better visibility because they all have big, wide mirrors on each side that make it much easier to view things in the rear, than the small usually oval shaped mirrors on standard cars.

The extra height makes it easier for me see oncoming traffic when merging into traffic as well as anticipate stopped traffic well ahead of me.

Large and many windows make it easy to scan for children and dogs before moving forward or backwards.

I have found my in-laws Buick LeSabre with many more blind spots then any of these SUV's.

All of these SUV's handle as well as a standard automobile. I have made emergency high speed swerves, never an inkling of tipping over. I have exceeded the posted speed limit on interstate exits, never an inkling of tipping over

When it comes to towing my pair of personal watercraft behind these SUV's it is tremendously more stable than behind a standard car.

As to braking, everyone of these vehicles can stop on dime. In addition, I went 130,000 miles on one set of brakes on Trooper. Why, because the brake pads, caliphers, and rotors on all four wheels are made larger and more durable for off road use.

Most standard cars do not have 4-wheel disc brakes.

So, I would conclude from your remarks about SUV's limitations that you have never owned one and your knowledge of their limitations comes from SF Chronicle.

[tahiti]

Mr. Lee repied:

"Thanks for your e-mail. Indeed, an updated version of the story includes the corrected phrase.

Regards,

Henry Lee SF Chronicle

Has anyone found the "updated version?"

[Paradox]

All of these SUV's handle as well as a standard automobile. I have made emergency high speed swerves, never an inkling of tipping over. I have exceeded the posted speed limit on interstate exits, never an inkling of tipping over

Of course, I am sure one could find anecdotal evidence to the contrary, however, the fact remains that in general, SUV's handle "worse" than cars, they tip over more often, and they take longer to stop than a car. Its just basic physics and engineering. This is even more evident when you compare vehicles of similar cost. Sure there are exceptions (I am sure the new Porshe Cayenne will handle better than 95% of the cars out there, or a cheapo Kia has worse brakes and handling than a Ford Escape), but this is generally the rule. Every serious SUV owner and writer will tell you this.

I'll have you know that I owned a Nissan Pathfinder, and I have driven, extensively, all sorts of cars, because I have a large extended family and we borrow/swap cars for various purposes. I recently went driving offroad with my brothers Jeep Liberty, that thing was a blast! It's no car though, nor should it be! I just wish more drivers would be aware of such things.

A previous reply to me put it best, its not SUV's that kill, its liberals driving SUV's that kill! "Conservative" types have been driving trucks far longer than your Joanie come lately types who thing the new Explorer is "cute"...