Wow. On behalf of all (legitimate) SUV drivers, I would like to say that we really appreciate that stereotype. Thanks.
"And by the way, everybody’s at the same exact risk of dying. "
Actually, somebody had a link the other day that showed something to the effect of how the occupants of a car in a collision with an Explorer were 16 times more likely to die in the impact.
Sorry, I don’t have it anymore.
And by the way, my beef is not with anyone here for buying one, it’s with the auto industry for creating such irresponsible and poorly designed products.
I am the best whooshee on the board.
Can we get a Priest in here for an exorcism for FatherJohn’s ghost?
One of these days I’m gonna buy one ofthese.
I want SUV owners to realize HOW obnoxious their cars are to the rest of us.
Then, of course, I will park across 10 parking spaces.
I don’t think anyone is drawing conclusions about you based on the car you drive. The conclusions they’re drawing come from your bizarre hyper-sensitivity about what car you own. Observe:
The thread begins with my rant about a jerk who A) takes up more than one parking space in a crowded lot, B) has a tacky looking hand-painted Jesus-fish and, the big one, C) has locked his dogs in the car on a hot day. I mention that it’s an SUV because I was amused by the dichotomy of buying an (supposed) off-road vehicle and then being so scared of scratching it that you park it across three spaces. The only negative thing I said about SUVs in general is that they are ugly.
Following the OP, we have one (1) comment on the OP that mentions a personal dislike of SUVs but in the same sentence says that it’s none of their business if that’s what people want to spend their money on. And then you show up, with enough attitude to make PETA look like a bunch of churchmice. You start off by saying, “However, here is a reminder that not everyone lives in Urban areas and drives an SUV for the looks.” Which is a brilliant fucking insight, except that it’s already been made by the only two other posters in the thread who had mentioned SUVs. Then, after a fascinating if useless list of all the activities you need an SUV for, you say, “Some of us actually use our vehicle, but even if we didn’t, I can never figure out what the fuck it is to you that don’t like SUVs. Get over yourselves.” In hindsight, that wasn’t actually a question, merely a rhetorical attack on people who weren’t even engaged in the thread yet, but rjung answered you anyway, and in a pretty civil tone. Your response? “Bite me. When you become someone that means something to me, I’ll justify how much and why I use my vehicle.” You certainly are a charmer, aren’t you?
You wrap up your first post with a half-assed nod to the actual meaning of the OP, but the damage has already been done. Because you just had to set yourself up as the SDMB SUV martyr, the thread is hijacked into pointless fight about SUVs. Which is great; if there’s one thing this forum needed, is yet another thread about how SUVs suck. Because, speaking personally, the other five hundred threads on this exact fucking topic just hadn’t satiated my desire to beat this subject into the ground, over and over and over.
Here’s a little advice, Jazzmine. Why don’t YOU get over it? Some people don’t like your car. Who cares? It’s your car, not your child. Try and seperate your sense of self from the merchandise you buy.
Ok, once more for the record:
Everyone is at the same risk of dying.
It wasn’t specified ‘dying in an accident featuring SUV and small car’ it was said that SUV owners put non SUV people at ‘greater risk of dying’ PERIOD.
And since someone has to be the pedantic one, I’m reminding us all that we are ALL at the same risk of death: it is going to happen to every damn one of us.
And the OP raised the issue of ‘legitimate’ SUVs by specifically making fun of the way that vehicle was parked because it was an SUV. Raised the issue that an SUV owner should expect to get their doors dinged, nicked, dented, paint chipped, etc because it’s a utility vehicle, or a sports vehicle.
If he’d just called the driver an asshole for parking like a shithead and doing the various other things, I doubt this woulda turned into an SUV fight. But instead he attacked the idea that someone parked that way because ‘hey fuck, it’s an SUV, it should be banged up.’
SUV or not, (and I’m not saying I’d park like the idiot in the OP), I paid for my car, and I don’t think I’m being an asshole if I don’t want it to be damaged and look like shit.
Just as you have the right to buy an SUV, others have the right to call you a resource-waster. If you have a legitimate NEED for an SUV, nobody is going to call you an RW. If you buy it cuz it’s cool and stylish and other drivers get out of your way, lest they be run over, you’re an RW.
A frightfully small percentage of SUVs ever make it off road (except when they’re in a ditch during winter), and the vast majority don’t carry anything more than groceries and soccerballs. Our gov’t treats them the same way as true utility vehicles (i.e. small trucks), when they are usually nothing more than stylish minivans.
All the people in the 60’s and 70’s who bought those giant 15mpg V8 land yachts were also wasteful. The SUV is just today’s land yacht.
SUVs Emit More Air Pollution Than Cars
air pollution linked to cancer
but it’s ok for SUVs to pollute at 4X the rate of cars (per rjung), because I am going to die anyway?
Well, that’s kinda like forcing you to drink polluted water, because, eh, you’re going to die anyway, isn’t it?
I genuinely am not following your line of thinking, catsix.
Could you expand on your post?
My ‘line of thinking’ has been turned completely on its ass because it wasn’t a snipe about air pollution or crash statistics.
Somebody posted that because of SUVs, the risk of death is increased. As in the risk that a human being is going to die some day increases.
My ‘line of thinking’ was to point out that the risk that we’re going to die someday can’t be increased, because we all are going to die some day.
Clear?
As for the ‘pollution’ statistics, well, I’m sure an SUV that burns more gas puts out more emissions than a smaller car built the same year that burns less gas.
But c’mon, labeling SUVs as the only evil on the road? What about the older cars that travel down the highways belching out white or blue smoke from their ass ends?
SUVs have basically be demonized by the enviornmental crowd - to the point of ignoring every other source of pollution on the highway. Such as older cars, tractor trailers, buses…
So it makes me wonder if pollution isn’t the actual issue.
There’s a thin line between “pedantic” and “intentionally dense”.
lieu’s original quote was:
You might have missed it, but he was talking about car/SUV collisions (note the comparison of the size of an SUV to the size of a car). Not some other safety risk. I think it’s pretty clear, but I will grant that one could have missed it.
Clearly, when one talks of risks, one does not mean “the chance that a person will eventually die”. And one talks of death rates, one does not mean “the number of people out of 100,000 who will eventually die”. It’s completely meaningless to compare those rates.
Yeah, it’s funny to say “we’re all at the same risk of dying”, sort of like when I say “I’ve got a 50-50 chance to win the lotto”. But to actually insist on it beyond the point of a joke betrays an ignorance of statistics. Deat rates are given as number of people in a population (usually normalized to 100,000) who died over some period of time (usually a year).
kg m²/s²
Thats because they arent neccesarily made just to be taken off road. People think SUV means off road vehicle, and it doesnt. SUV’s are meant to be something between a pickup and a minivan. If it is being used to haul people, groceries, and the ocasional trips to get garden supplies of home improvement stuff, it is being used as intended. If you wanna go camping on the weekend, or pull a boat, all the better. It is made to handle limited off-road stuff too, but thats really not the main purpose.
I have had a few(I don’t now, unfortunatly, unless you count my wifes jeep wrangler), and I found them very usefull. Both of mine were 4x4, which I really miss in bad weather(contrary to what some people say, 4x4 is better in icy weather…Those people in the ditch are people who have no idea how to drive a 4x4 on ice). I rarley used them off road.
Someone of my size has a difficult time finding vehicles with enough leg room to fit into. My only choices are SUV’s and Pickups. I currently drive a pickup(because I was out of work for surgery, I had to give up my yukon), but its a little cramped with more than two people(even though its an extended cab). It also doesnt ride as nice as my Yukon.
I want one of these Kenworth Pilgrimage SUVs I saw a few posts back. In BLACK.
Then I want to eat red meat in it, smoke cigarettes, and get a little fatter, and kick some dogs (when appropriate), and have a few of them little “I’m a Christian and I Eat Fish” symbols on it. They’re cool, and they show I care.
I want to drive it 2 miles to work everyday, and drive it to get my mail.
What’s more, I want to shit on all the experts, know-it-alls, and do-gooders who constantly want to tell me how to live my life, what my priorities should be, what my beliefs should be, how I should spend my money and time, and why they’re smarter, more informed, and more insightful than me or anyone else who has come before us since the dawn of time.
Even more, I want to laugh at whiners.
Now, I wanna drink some good beer and watch an evil hockey game with my girlfriend.
So, is this too much to ask, or am I missing something?
The sad thing is, I have no idea whose side booka is on.
pan
Yeah the problem is people didn’t get the damn joke.
Having lived in a snow area my entire life, I’ve found that the people in SUVs who end up in a ditch are those who think that 4x4 somehow means they can defy the laws of physics and raise the coefficient of friction of solid sheets of ice.
Those Dateline specials I’ve seen demonstrating how the evil SUVs roll over made me either laugh or roll my eyes because the situations they set up had more to do with driver stupidity than the size of the vehicle. Yes, if you make parking lot turns ath highway speeds, you’re going to have a problem.
All the demonizing seems to boil down to a group of people who don’t like the lifestyle of another group of people and want to use force of law to stop companies from providing those people with a product they’re willing and able to buy. Their two main criteria for hatred, pollution and accidents, are pushed constantly while other vehicles are completely ignored (tractor trailers, older cars, buses), so it seems to be less about pollution and accidents than it is about disapproving of someone else’s lifestyle. That eventually caused me to adopt the attitude that ‘if you want to spend my money, do my job.’
shrug
Glad to see that you approve, maybe I should check with you next time I go automobile shopping.
Maybe we should buy two or three vehicles, so that we can use the SUV (Jeep Grand Cherokee) only for hauling hay and building materials, and such.
But no, it actually gets pretty good gas mileage, and if the snow is 4 feet deep in our driveway and road, which is the last one in the county to be plowed, we can still make it to work, on time, safely.
ANd it’s not that different in size, and we actually know how to drive it. So, I really don’t think people ought to hold it against us that we own an SUV, do you?
But, OMG, our other car is a 1992 FOrd F150! We’re assholes!