"SUV" does not automatically equal "bad"

The BBQ Pit
1

I’m sick to death of all SUV drivers being tarred with the same brush. Now granted, there are a lot of people who drive SUVs who don’t really need them. Nevertheless, there are a number of people who really do need what SUVs offer, and that passenger cars do not.

BTW, this rant is primarily directed at my (adult) step-daughter, who never seems to miss an opportunity to criticize my and my wife’s choice of vehicles. That being the case, I’m already gun-shy on the issue, so when I get a response like the following in this thread, after I’ve already mentioned that I frequently go off-road, it really sets me off. (BTW, thanks for the defense, Philster.)

Yes, it is OK to drive an SUV, and for me, here’s why:

[ul][li]As an environmental engineer, I frequently drive around landfills, construction sites, demolition sites, undeveloped sites, abandoned sites, etc. Much of this travel is off-road. I’ve just spent the entire summer at a landfill that includes much of the above, along with frequent travel up and down 3H:1V slopes. The landfill alone encompasses over 60 acres, so walking is not really an option.[/li]
[li]Some of my work involves bringing equipment to sites, including surveying equipment, monitoring well equipment, sample coolers, pipe/cable locators, etc. I can drop the back seats down in my SUV and fit all of this gear in easily.[/li]
[li]On the weekends, my family likes to go camping, and we bring our canoe. For the former, I need cargo space and passenger space, and for the latter, I need a roof rack. All are provided by an SUV.[/li]
[li]As a homeowner, I can haul a lot of do-it-yourself things home in an SUV, including 8-foot long baseboards/molding, 12-foot long ladders, 20 gallons of paint/primer, etc.[/li]
[li]I live in a very rural area. I’m lucky to see a snow plow before noon after one of our typical snow storms. A 4-wheel drive vehicle is the only way for me to get to work. I would have missed at least 10 days of work last winter without it.[/li][/ul]
I do understand that, IMHO, some of the SUVs out there are pretty ridiculous, size-wise, including the Chevy Suburban, Ford Expedition/Excursion, Toyota Sequoia, Nissan Pathfinder Armada, and the like. If the drivers of these vehicles never leave the pavement, never see snow, and/or transport nothing more than groceries, it’s even more silly. But for crying out loud, I drive an ordinary Nissan Pathfinder, and my wife (who out of the list above, mainly has to deal only with the snow) drives a Subaru Outback. We actually made a conscious effort not to get larger vehicles than we thought we needed.

And while I’m at it, why is it that large 4-wheel drive pickup trucks don’t have the same bad reputation as SUVs? (Actually, it’s probably because fewer soccer moms are driving them.) Personally, I don’t want a pickup, as I then lose much of the passenger space.

Anyway, I guess the point of this rant is that “SUV” does not automatically equal “bad.”

2

Hmm… I think we can issue you an “Exception” from the ELF and other left-wing idiots. :smiley:

3

The beauty of driving a big ol’ honkin’ SUV is I can drive over the weenies in their Toyota Priuseseses when they start whining.

4

For what it’s worth, robby, you don’t sound like the stereotypical SUV-driver that most people who generally dislike SUV’s have in mind. It seems like most people don’t put the thought into buying an SUV that you do - even my mom just bought one (on the smaller end, a Honda CRV) but she could do with a smaller car or station wagon. She likes ‘being higher up’ and ‘feeling safer’. Which is great for the SUV driver, but if I hit one of the giganto-SUV’s with my Passat, well, so long Passat.
I think that’s what irks people the most about the stereotypical SUV driver (again, I’m generalizing): the (perceived) sense of entitlement. They are allowed to have bad gas mileage. They are allowed to have higher bumpers. They are allowed to be so large they can impede the vision of those around them. They are allowed to not fit in a parking space. And in some areas (around Chicago for example) it seems like you never see an SUV with more than two people in it.
If you actually need the towing capacity/size of an SUV - I can accept that…but it seems most people really don’t.

aurelian

5

If you can park it between the lines, don’t repeatedly back into the trash barrel outside my store, and don’t leave it idling while you double park and run into Starbucks for lattes then you’re okay by me.

My parents drove a Blazer for years. . .they had horses (and a horse trailer)

My father-in-law has some big GMC thing which he uses to haul his boat around.

All of your uses to me seem reasonable. But just for good measure stay off the GD phone while you’re driving.

6

I drive an SUV and a 1/2 ton Chevy Pickup truck. I don’t do construction. I don’t live in a rural area. I don’t spend time in landfills. I don’t have 20 teenagers to drive around. I don’t give a fuck, either.

When I need to strap a canoe, a bed, or a small piece of furniture on my Jeep, I can. When I need to take a load of garbage to the dump, I can. When I need to put lumber in my truck for a project I can. When I have to take my dogs, my brother and our luggage somewhere, I can.

All this without renting a truck or SUV, without whining to my relative who undoubtedly owns an SUV that I’ve criticized in the past, and without borrowing someone else’s vehicle. That, to me, makes it worthwhile, and I ignore all of those who hold contrary opinions just to have opinions(a large majority of them).

Feh.

Sam

7

I have a CR-V. Miles-per-galon-wise they are similar to large cars, if not less. It has the same width and lenght as a regular sedan and it isn’t too high. It’s mostly a taller car with a simple 4WD system. For someone who lives in a country where the government, well, takes their time to fix roads and streets and who happen to go light off-roading sometimes it is the perfect vehicle.

As for the OP, he has the needs SUVs were originally thought for,but most SUV owners around here are only braggadocious inconsiderate, careless idiots. Notice I said “most” and “around here” YMMV (pun intended).

8

I live in Chicago. About 20% of the vehicles I see are SUVs or similar vehicles. I accept that there some people (like the OP)who have a legitimate need for an SUV, even here. But most of the time, there is no point.

(And can someone explain why many SUV drivers find it necessary to slow to a crawl and creep over the slightest road imperfection? You’re in a fucking SUV! Trust me, the 2-inch drop in road level as you enter the construction zone isn’t going to hurt anything.)

9

I have a 1993 Ford Explorer. It’s a 3rd car…and most days it sits parked and doesn’t bother anyone. Its fully depreciated…and fully paid for and it still gets 20 MPG gas-wise when it does run. The most it gets used is for monthly trips to COSTCO, where we buy household supplies in bulk. Or to take 2 weeks of clothes and supplies for my wife, my two kids, and myself to Wildwood for a vacation. Or on those days where there’s too much snow and not enough snow-plows and my boss has told me ‘all snow days are cancelled…getchyer ass in here’.

I’m not going to apologize for COSTCO trips; if you made what I made with 2 kids, you’d make every penny count too. I’m not going to apologize for my annual vacation to Wildwood either when the gas I use both ways is significantly less that the jet fuel the DC-10 pissed away flying you to The Bahamas or Bermuda or The Canaries or The Seychelles or wherever you went on your holiday this year. And my job pays my bills.

10

I just don’t understand why people harp on and on about “need”. There’s a lot of things you don’t “need”. Designer clothes, for example. Or food that’s much more extravagent than bread and rainwater. Just think of all the poor starving children that die whenever you buy a Big Mac! Murderers! Or the poor starving children in sweatshops that sewed your Calvin Klein underpants!

Need. I spit on “need”. The day we do things based solely on “need”, that’s the day I plunge a knife through my head.

11

Yes it does.

I know you are, but what am I?

You are rubber…

Anyway, so long as your SUV meets the same CAFE standards my car does, no problemeo.

If it doesn’t you are an enviro-destroying-small-penised individual and your taunting shall begin forthwith. :smiley:

12

My wife drives an SUV, and we have never left pavement, hauled anything besides furniture (from Pottery Barn and Pier One, no less), or pulled anything behind it, and we don’t have kids or regularly have more people than just her in it.

My wife likes it because she can sit up really high. I like it because my wafe is probably safer in an accident than she was in her old small car.

I don’t give a shit whether anyone thinks that we don’t “need” or “deserve” an SUV because we don’t do any of the things mentioned in the first paragraph. We had the money to buy it so we did.

I don’t get it. Of course my wife is allowed to do those things. What’s your point?

13

I agree about people harping on “need.” If it was all about need, we’d be all be driving identical econoboxes for most of our driving. Air conditioning would be outlawed as an extravagant waste of gas. You want a V6 in your car? Sorry, you might hurt someone with all that power, and you’d certainly be wasting gas. You get the three-banger because that’s all you need. There’s no such thing as a sports car. No need. Ski boat? Don’t see the need. Driving anywhere for pleasure? Not unless you want to incur the wrath of the Need Police. In fact, if any of your hobbies involve the otherwise unnecessary use of fossil fuels, you’re clearly a bad person.

Wait, I have a better system. Let’s all consider our own needs and desires and weigh them against our own means and personal values, then buy whatever fucking car we decide is appropriate. How lucky for us that this is already how it works.

There’s a Great Debates Hotline now? What will they think of next?

14

Well, I NEED to see around the cars on either side of me when I try to get out of a parking spot. I also NEED to have a bit of room to maneuver my car out of said spot. And I NEED to be able to get into my car in the first place. All of which I likely won’t get if an SUV parks on one or both sides of me. People can talk all they want about an SUV having about the same “footprint” as a regular car, but I still can’t see around them. Or around those hugeass trucks, either.

I would quit complaining about SUVs (well, MOSTLY I’d quit) if they were taxed and regulated appropriately. Since they’re mostly used as cars, I think that they should be taxed and regulated as cars. Right now, they’re classified as light trucks, and fall under relaxed gas mileage and emission rules.

I do not understand the allure of the pickup truck as a status symbol, either…but that might just be my age and where I grew up. Back when I was a kid, driving a pickup meant that you (or more likely your parents) were blue collar working poor.

15

I push a reel lawnmower and only drive about 8,000 miles a year. My gas karma is very good. If, OTOH, you drive an Excavation or Exhumation 50 miles to work and back, you are BAD, very BAD. It’s really that simple. Me good. You bad.

Any questions?

The part about mileage and a reel lawnmower was true, no gas or electricity. Meanwhile, my neighbor is clipping the apex of every corner on his riding mower: when it starts, if he has gas, loudly and stinkily.

“That moron with his reel mower. I guess he eats dirt also. Join the 21st Century, knave.”

OK, maybe I’m a bit sick of the funny looks. The grass gets short, doesn’t it assholes?

[sub]I’m not sportin’ 20 extra pounds cuz it would kill me.[/sub]

16

If you buy something that is wasteful and dangerous to others around you when you don’t need it, you’re going to be called selfish. Why is that such a shock to you? If I did something that was wasteful and dangerous to YOU just 'cause I felt like it, wouldn’t you be a bit put off?

SUVs remind me of the old gas guzzling boats of the 70s. For a large segment of the owners, they are either status symbols, or tanks to intimidate other drivers.

Lynn could have the same complaint about minivans, but she knows that pretty much everyone buys them because they really need the space. Not so with SUVs. You can cut someone a little slack when they’re just trying to meet their real needs. They (minivans) might be just as irritating, but at least it’s there for a decent reason.

17

Well, sounds like you should take some action to fulfill those needs of yours. I hear BMW is coming out with an X3 next year, should be nice.

Less snarkily, do you really think that SUVs should be prohibited because once in a while you find your car parked between them and it’s a little hard to get out? This sounds a bit ridiculous to me.

I understand the “regulated” part, but can you explain to me how SUVs are taxed differently than cars?

18

And yet decades went by with families driving large pickup trucks and big econoline vans instead of SUV’s, and we all got by without all this teeth-gnashing and ranting.

As an aside, I don’t drive an SUV, but my car’s gas mileage is pretty shitty. And yet nobody hates me for it.

19

IMHO, “need” is significant for the following reason: In evaluating whether an act is jerkish or not, you need to balance the actor’s needs and wants against the needs and wants of others.

The reality is that SUV’s are a tremendous inconvenience to other drivers. Folks who needlessly inconvenience others are jerks.

It’s that simple.

Just MHO of course.

This issue is real and troubling.

20

Of course I’m selfish. It’s not an insult to call me selfish.