The Scarlet SUV: Who's against sport-utility vehicles? A bunch of geeks

Opinion Journal ^ | 01/21/03 | David Brooks

[Pokey78]

I don't own an SUV, but now that they've been identified as the locus of evil, I'm thinking of getting one. And if I do, I figure I might as well let the inner wolf out for a rampage and get the most obnoxious SUV I can find.

[vbmoneyspender]

454 chevy pickup bump

[Rightone]

That's nuts. The reason we buy SUVs is because they are comfortable, safe, have lots of room an can haul things. This guy is off the deep end.

[AF68]

Princeton's Peter Singer, the most mysteriously prestigious thinker in America, wrote an essay in which he helpfully pointed out that SUV drivers kill far more people than the Sept. 11 hijackers.

Isn't Peter Singer that whackjob that thinks it's OK to screw the pooch (literally)?

[Bogey78O]

I like that way of thinking. It's things like that what motivated me to get a new Taurus .45

[Betty Jane]

I was at the Wendy's drive thru today and counted all the vehicles in the parking lot. Well at 2:00 in Littleton, Colorado, there were 14 motor vehicles. 2 of them were cars. The rest were SUV's and minivans. I'd like to see the Geek brigade come here and mess with people's SUVs.

[Michael Barnes]

I'll tell ya this, my Dodge (Essentiually Chrysler) helped avoid a bad accident a few weeks back. And that wasn't the first time either. I love my '02 4-door 1500 Ram. Not to start a Dodge, Chevy, Ford ordeal, but the engineering now on these large trucks is simply awe inspiring. The truck reacted to my lack of attention in this particular situation, in sleet and road on a rail and avoided an accident. So, bottom line? Thank God for the engineer's. They saved my butt and the butt's of the folks ahead of me. The handling of 5 ton's of steel was simply beautiful.

And I dare say that about all three major "SUV/TRUCK" producers. If I was in my "mid-priced" Chevy sedan type vehicle, instead of my full sized truck/SUV; let's just say my insurance prices would be much higher today..

[Michael Barnes]

Whoops...re-reading my own post...I looked up, saw tail lights for days. I reacted and the truck followed..The truck did not do anything on it's own...But you all knew that already, right?

[SoCalConservative]

No offense, but 4 door pickups, even with 4 wheel drive in sleet, are not the greatest handling vehicles on the road. By the way, your truck most likely weighs HALF of the 5 tons you think it does.

[METARZAN]

..."They make money, become popular, play golf and have homes that are too large. And they're happy!"...

Hey, I resemble that remark!

I own a business, am thinking about looking into that tax write-off in purchasing a new SUV... I can see the Lib's now...Me driving down the road with a big ol' fat bumper sticker bragging about my Tax write-off!

Metarzan

[driftless]

The supremely ironic (and hilarious) thing about the anti-SUV campaign is that millions of loyal conservative-hating Democrats, like my three liberal sisters, drive SUVs. I had to tell one sister that it was alright to own one after she professed shame at possessing such an "evil" vehicle. I don't want one, but I certainly don't care if others have them. The tree-huggers want everyone to live like Ted Kaczynski.

[dogbrain]

"Keith Bradsher in his book
"High and Mighty:
SUVs--
The World's Most Dangerous Vehicles
and How They Got That Way."

I'm exhausted from reading that title.
Reading his book has got to be about as much fun as bobbing for
porcupines in gasoline....

[Smokin' Joe]

The tree-huggers want everyone to live like Ted Kaczynski.

No,the tree-huggers want everyone else to live like Ted Kaczynski.

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

Seriously. The liberal weenies want us (not themselves, of course) to play in the streets in little tin-foil boxes then they have their emotional fits when the tiny little boxes get mushed. I wonder how many of them send their children out into the freeway to play? They can have the chance to REALLY get emotional when little tyke gets clobbered. Liberals are purley on group-think, emotional rampages, types of non-thinkers.

When my 4-Runner (SUV), with 215,000 miles on it, finally dies (probably at 400,000 miles... It's not American) I might have to go for the Hummer H2. Although I need more room in the back. Maybe a Ford Excursion instead.

[maxwell]

LMAO! There are just too many good lines in this one...

This anti-SUV fervor strikes me as a classic geek assault on jock culture.

Well this I have to take a swipe at-- I'm a grade-A geek and I don't like SUVs because they invariably try to kill me when I'm out on the bike, BUT I fully support anybody's right to go out and buy one, from the soccer moms to the Hollywood bimbo set (who, with two or three parked in the driveway, are now denouncing SUVs for the great unwashed)...

This whole anti-SUV fad is retarded, not in the least because it's so hypocritical. Who GIVES a flying rat's a$$??! (The same folks who want the Stones to quit smoking during Madison Square concerts, that's who...)

My next vehicle purchase, btw, is gonna be a half-ton pickup. And yes, there will be scuffs and dents in the bed. Big uns.