I bought a truck. No, not a pick up. Not a mid-sized, econo-truck. And I didn’t even LOOK at station wagons or hatch backs.
I bought an SUV. A big, honkin’ Ford Explorer. For my dog. Luckily, the truck is black, so it matches the dog.
I tried to be conservative. As a matter of fact, my initial thought when I realized I needed a real car was “Volkswagon Beetle.” But the dog weighs about 70 pounds at 10 months. And he could aquire a “friend” at the end of the summer.
So my vehicle choices kept getting bigger and bigger, until the next thing I know, I’m driving a roving land mass. It has its own zip code. I can’t park it yet. It barely fits in my garage.
And do you want to know how bad I really am? I LOVE IT! It’s huge and comfy and everything fits in it and it’s MINE! The dog LOVES it. He must have inherited a “truck gene” because he knew exactly what to do. He hopped in the back and sat there sniffing the breeze. He was happy and quiet.
He did not jump all over me. He did not throw the vehicle into reverse in his excitement. He did not break or rip anything or hurt anyone. It was amazing!
Plus, I went to get a big bag of dog food. I put the dog food in the back seat. I put a case of diet soda behind the seat. I put the dog in the back. Everyone was still comfy and happy! What a luxury!
The gas mileage? Really not that bad. I’m so happy with my guilty pleasure!
I’m going to be mean and share an observation I made yesterday. My biggest complaint with SUVs is that when I’m behind one, I can’t see around them. I can’t see upcoming lights. I can’t see brake lights several cars ahead. So my observation is this: SUVs make your butt look big
I can relate - I bought a Jeep Cherokee Sport back in 94 shortly after I got my dog, and mainly because of my dog. I know, it’s stupid. I’m still driving it today. The back seat is absolutely covered in dog fur. I may get a Jeep Liberty next.
I can relate, too. We just bought a farm in Vermont (we’re moving in June) and decided that we needed a truck. So we bought a Ford F350. It’s used, came with a plow, and boy-o-boy is it big. I have to use the step to get into the cab.
I was a little nervous about driving it at first (visions of taking out hapless pedestrians and a serious fear of trying to fit it in a parking spot) but I have to admit it was a whole lot of fun. I helped a friend move some furniture last weekend and got to take it out on the highway. Let’s just say it’s got a bit more oomph than my Previa!
I honestly believe the anti-SUV fad has gained popularity mostly because they’re hard to see around and people get pissy about that sort of thing. IMHO, it boils down to selfishness - “I don’t like that kind of vehicle, so I don’t want you to have one”.
My mother drives a honkin-big GMC Suburban. It’s pretty handy when a major portion of the family needs to go somewhere, and probably uses less gas then the three cars it would take otherwise. It’s also pretty damned useful for moving, grocery shopping, and having leg room on road trips.
I don’t care if your vehicle is big enough to create it’s own gravity, just so long as you keep up with the rest of the traffic, dammit!
I miss my Cherokee.
Okay…everyone who has gripes is totally justified. I’ve always had VERY small cars. First a Geo Metro (three cylinders!) and most recently, little bitty sports cars. It IS difficult to see around SUVs of certain types. And I guess that’s creating a situation in which I have to buy a bigger vehicle so that I can see around YOU. Know what I mean?
Be assured, I’m a safe, polite driver. I keep up with traffic, and so far, there’s only one small pedestrian lodged in my grill. I’m aware that it’s more difficult to see aound me so I try to create enough space to make it easier.
I admit to being selfish in a sense. I DO consider it a luxury and a splurge to have all this comfy space and ease of travel. I feel spoiled!
It also boils down a bit to my upbringing. My farm life taught me that you must always have a truck around for hauling purposes, which are becoming more and more numerous in my case.
I don’t have much patience for self-righteous people who decide that nobody should own a particular kind of automobile simply because they don’t like it. That, to me, is the pinnacle of selfishness and arrogance. How, exactly, is it selfish for a person to buy a vehicle for its massive amount of storage space and ability to transport several people (or a large dog and groceries) at the same time?
Can anyone tell me exactly what they think is so very EEEEEEVIL about SUV’s? How are SUV’s evil but pickup trucks are ok? Their gas mileage is improving, and is already better than most full-sized cars from ten years ago, they’re safer to be in in a collision (is it selfish to want to survive a crash?), and many people who buy them actually need some feature they offer, such as the before-mentioned storage space and seating. Plus, they pollute a lot less than a diesel-powered Mercedes, but I don’t see any great oproar over German luxury cars. So, please, tell me what’s so bad about them besides the fact that some vocal people simply don’t like them on principle.
I’m one of those crazy folk who would prefer seeing gas around $5 a gallon.
If you want an SUV - fine. But just admit that it is a personal choice, rather than a need. My 70# dog and groceries for a family of 5 fit just fine in my Matrix. And my personal experience is that a minivan has much more effective and flexible people and cargo hauling space than an SUV.
And I think the crashworthiness is somewhat - uh - antisocial. Should everyone keep buying biger and heavier vehicles? What kind of crashes are we talking about in which non-trucks are unsafe? And should people avoid buying small fuel-efficient cars because they might get hit by someone in a SUV?
Oh yeah - you need it for off-roading. And all that snow. That’s right!
This is one of the reasons I have a cat, who can be comfortably transported by metro.
I wouldn’t mind SUV’s so much if they didn’t stink, noise, and congest up our urban space; render the streets unwalkable; pollute the air and water; drain massive amounts of invisible subsidies from public transit; promote a culture of aggressivity; tear the urban fabric with construction works; exhibit supreme arrogance and flagrant overspending for a solipsistic convenience pod in the majority of their drivers’ cases; get driven much too often by just one person; use filthy energy sources; and constantly attempt to run me the fuck over.
But then again, that’s why I hate all cars, so the SUVs shouldn’t feel too put-upon.
It wasn’t a misquote, Kilt, it was a deliberate misinterpretation of your quote. What’s so evil with SUV’s? Poor fuel economy (and well, it’s better than cars from 10 years ago doesn’t really help your argument), more pollution (and, again, saying there are worse options out there doesn’t really help either.), more safety for the drivers of SUV’s is great, they also are less safe for everyone else on the road are a good start on why I dislike SUV’s. Here’s some links you can read up on:
I live in Chicago. I drive A LOT in Chicago. A vast majority of the SUV’s I see being driven around in Chicago are NEVER full of so much stuff that couldn’t be held in a smaller car. SUV’s and pickups have their place, and uses, but, in my experience, they are rarely if ever actually used that way.
I don’t dislike SexyWriter because of what she drives. I don’t dislike you because of what you drive. I just think, and she admitted to feeling as much, that it is a tad bit selfish.
I myself don’t like SUV’s allot. But im not going to bitch and moan over someone who decides to buy one. If you say they get bad gas mileage, its pretty much BS. Most get better MPG then cars from the late 80’s. In the safety area, yes they are allot more safe in most accidents. But when they decide to tip over and flip a few times, watch out. Most full size cars are just as safe as a big SUV. If not more so in allot of ways.
Now minivans are something I truly hate. They are built very cheap. In accidents they fold up like tin cans and have the same tip over prob that SUVs have. If I had a family I would buy any SUV over a minivan.
…wouldn’t mind SUV’s so much if they didn’t stink, noise, and congest up our urban space; render the streets unwalkable…
You do lots of walking in the streets? As for stinking and noisy, this is a new suv. Not an old oil burning rusted out ford bronco with no mufflers.
Ditto to Dinsdale’s remarks about crashes - remember that it’s at the expense of those in smaller cars, as they’re more likely to die.
I get peeved at people in SUVs who do stupid things like swerve to avoid a pothole of all things and nearly hit me in the process, who pull way up next to me when trying to exit a parking lot and thus block my view of traffic, so that I’m forced to wait for them to make their left-hand turn (and piss off the people behind me who are waiting to turn right) rather than risk pulling past them for my right turn and getting hit by the cars I don’t see, who think that owning a SUV means they can drive like a maniac in winter and that they won’t spin out - but yet they do and endanger others.
Mind you, I get peeved at people in trucks who do this too, but I don’t see that nearly as often. This is probably because the area I live in has fewer trucks, and because from what little experience I have, most truck owners I know have bought them before, maybe even grew up in a family that owned them. The ones I know realize the limitations of trucks, know better than to pull so far forward and block the view of cars, and so on. But maybe I just know nice truck owners and run into a lot of people who don’t pay attention when driving their SUVs. (Caveat: This is not to say that people who drive regular cars don’t sometimes drive without paying much attention, either.)
I don’t mind SUVs. I think that a lot of people - not all - who buy them have no real use for them. However, I think the same is true of sports cars, too.
