You could always buy a gun. That’s also really good for artificially inflating your low self-esteem.
Also try the following:
*Walk down the sidewalk with your chest puffed out. Be sure to block the entire sidewalk and force others to move out of your way.
*Talk on your cell phone in a public restaurant in an extremely loud voice, annoying as many people as possible. Make it clear that you have absolutely no regard for the comfort of others.
*Kick the back of the seat in front of you in the movie theater. If the person turns around, keep doing it anyway.
*Make ridiculous requests in restaurants to make things difficult for the staff. Use intimidating language like, “There better not be any oil in that omelette when I get it.”
*Walk past lines and right up to counters to ask questions in a demanding tone. Ignore the fact that everyone in the line was there before you.
*Use phrases such as, “You got a problem with that?” and “You gonna do something about it?” as often as possible.
Or perhaps they usually don’t pull a trailer, and they know they should but it’s too much trouble. (not that this makes it OK)
No, but such a truck is a work truck and should not be allowed where other work trucks are not permitted. If you can’t afford a passenger car then perhaps you should look for a more lucrative line of work.
The HID lights are IMHO dangerous as oncomming drivers are blinded by it. Also if they hit a bump or the road’s slope is changing in a certain way, it will appear like they have their brights on (or flashing their brights), they just throw so much dam light downward, but sometimes it slips up. Also it’s benefits to the driver is questionable, they make you think you are seeing more (you are seeing better up close but not any further), and you have to deal w/ blinded oncomming drivers.
For those aftermarket blue lights, those are the people who should be tarred and feathered except it is getting harder to find normal headlight replacement bulbs (I had to go to 2 auto stores to get a standard headlight).
Those light blue bright lights are worth every last cent you pay for them. Overdriving your headlights at night is very dangerous, and standard passenger-car or light-truck headlights are next to useless above 85 miles per hour. In addition, everyone is so isolated in their cars that they can’t hear a horn, so you need to be able to flash some brights at them to warn them.
On another discussion on this board a link provided went into how the HID lamps don’t help you see further, they just provide an illusion you do. You can search for it if you want, I don’t have the bandwidth. In general these factors hurt your long range vision w/ HID lamps:
1 Too much light is thrown in your short range vision - this gives the illusion that you are seeing further.
2 Blue light effects night vision more then other wave lengths, so your nightvision is effected.
3 Your pupils contract because the short range is so illuminated, so your eyes are actually getting less light.
And 4 you are blinding those driving towards you, this is not safe for them or you.
This doesn’t make any sense to me, you ARE blinding the oncomming traffic at 85 MPH, you call this safe?
Even if you have older non-halogen lights noone is going to miss someone flashign their brights.
Whenever I am in my dad’s car (a little, BMW Z3) I get blinded. It’s terrible.
To the OP, it isn’t only SUVs. I’ve noticed it is particularly bad with huge pick-ups like a Ford 250 or 350 (around here people drive these around like regular cars… I figure it’s because we live around a lot of farms).
I love pulling up to a light and having some person get RIGHT ON MY BUMPER, in their HUGE truck that could literally roll right over my little car, and then light up my entire car with their super-white lights. I always have to adjust the mirrors and stick my hands in front of them just so I don’t get blinded.
Yes, it is my opinion that SUVs should be outlawed. They should never have been allowed on the road in the first place:
their bumpers are too high and pose a real and serious danger to drivers in smaller vehicles
they use far more gas than a smaller vehicle that could be used for most of the uses that people put their SUVs to
they don’t have emissions controls because they are classed as trucks in spite of (in my opinion, based on what I see every day) most people who drive them using them as commuter vehicles
they are a danger to their drivers and passengers with their high roll-over rates and non-reinforced sides
they create visibility problems for the smaller vehicles around them
more intangibly, they give their drivers an over-inflated sense of self-importance and invincibility.
These are only my opinions, of course, but they are considered, informed opinions. If the information that I based my opinions on is out of date or incorrect, please feel free to update me.
You have stated that you already use two vehicles; what difference would it make if you used a heavy-duty truck for work purposes, and a much safer minivan rather than an SUV for social purposes?
I would love it if people would monitor themselves and not buy more vehicle than they need, but it has become obvious that people are not willing to do that; therefore I would take the decision for something as important as road safety and consumption of non-renewable resources out of their hands.
Part of the reason to have a SUV is for self defense. There are just so many of them out there (and many are very poor drivers to boot) that people don’t feel safe in a car anymore.
I would say that that qualifies as a personal need for a vechical.
I walk down the street with my chest puffed out because I’ve got a hell of a rack.
I frequently talk on my mobile phone using my outside voice. Even when I’m inside. Make that especially when I’m inside. If I’m in a restaurant, I really turn up the volume. I mean how will the other patrons know just how instrumental I am in closing a super-important two-hundred-million-dollar deal?
I don’t kick the backs of the chairs in front of me in the movie theatre. Why kick when you can cross your legs and rest your feet right on the head of the person occupying the seat? If they’re tall, I use their shoulders instead of their head.
Does requesting scampi with no garlic and just a bit of oil at a restaurant count? I also send it back until they get it right. Once, I even went back into the kitchen to inform the chef of his culinary and intellectual shortcomings. He didn’t say so at the time, but I could tell he was extremely appreciative. I’ve never seen someone so red with appreciation.
Those people are in line? I don’t think so. They were just congregating near the customer service counter, uh, socializing, I guess. Even if they were in line, their time is nowhere near as valuable as mine.
“You gotta a problem with that?” That’s gauche. Besides, I don’t really care if anyone has a “problem” with that. As long as that gets done quickly and to my satisfaction, the little people can have all the problems they want with that.
And, I just realized how badly we are hijacking this thread. If you wish to discuss the merits of SUVs further, InvisibleWombat, please start a thread about it. I’d prefer not to continue hijacking this one.
Way to fight ignorance there, featherlou. That comment is the mother of all overgeneralizations. As for your other points:
Yes, the bumpers are high. That’s to provide ground clearance. My driveway is 1000 feet long and I can’t always get it plowed every time we get a foot of snow. My truck and SUV can drive through it anyway. A low ground-clearance vehicle can’t.
Yes, they use more gas than smaller vehicles. That’s because they perform tasks the smaller vehicles can’t perform. I can’t speak to your emissions controls comment because I haven’t researched it. Have you?
I disagree with your “danger to their drivers and passengers” comment. I’d rather have my wife in the nice, safe, four-wheel-drive SUV on a snowy or muddy road than in a typical city car.
Yeah, they’re your opinions. In downtown Calgary, that’s fine. But out here on the ranch, I need a different kind of vehicle than you do. Apply your opinions to yourself, but don’t tell me I should have to buy a less-practical, less-useful, and less-safe vehicle just because you don’t like it.
Really mature. Someone else needs a bigger vehicle because of their job or the place they live, so let’s make fun of them. You know nothing about them, including their penis sizes. You’re just intolerant, ignorant, and you’re being an ass.
Guinastasia, I’ve followed your posts in some other threads, and you’ve never seemed to be so bigoted. Why are you suddenly stooping so low? We don’t live in the big city, so we’re not as good? We must have small sex organs because we drive big vehicles? That’s pathetic.
What? It’s called a joke. I didn’t say it, and most of the time, I don’t really CARE about SUVs, (although I think Hummers are over-priced, ugly and stupid).
Well, you got one part right. I am being an ass (thanks for noticing!), but I’m on your side. I drive an SUV. If I recall correctly, it gets the worst gas mileage in its class, too. So my initial post was mocking the people-who-drive-SUVs-must-be-compensating-for-their-tiny-penises crowd.
My second post was a lame attempt at a humorous response to blowero’s reply.
Oh, I would if I could. This car is a convertible and therefore has a small, plastic back window. Most of the light comes in through the side mirrors because their car extends a good 6 inches, per side, past my car.
WRT blinding oncoming traffic, I’m typically on lightly-traveled or divided roads when I’m traveling quickly at night. I dip the lights when a car is going towards me.
Well also consider on lightly traveled roads that people (oncomming traffic) have adjusted to the darkness, and blinding them with light will seriously effect their night vision for quite a while (minutes) after. People infront of you are frequently distracted by such lights appearing to flash your brights.
Also about not overtraveling your headlights, in that award winning longest link ever on the STMB, CR states that the longest range tested is halogen (ability to see an object x feet infront of the car). So perhaps 85 mph would be too fast with HID lights (again it gives the illusion of seeing further, by seeing more up close).
