I don’t understand this bunch at all. I guess their trying to save the world, but all they do is piss me off and I never knew such fruitcakes were out there until I came to this board.
What the hell is the problem with these people that they have to stick their facers in everybody’s business?
Who set them up as the judge of what is appropriate?
Well you have the right to have an SUV even if you don’t need one, and I have the right to look down on you for being inconsiderate
Yeah. Yeah. And not only do I have the right, I have a lot of evidence to conclude that you’re a total moron.
You’ve concluded that SUVs are bad, and that people that drive them without a “need” are somehow inconsiderate.
However you are a total idiot for thinking so.l
Just about any SUV out there is more environmentally friendly and gets better gas mileage than that station wagon that pulled your sad little ass around when you just a snot-nosed tike still puking on the fetid milk of your mother’s saggy dugs, and you’ve done precious little to improve your mind since.
They burn less gas. They don’t burn it leaded, and they burn it cleaner. The SUV is the station wagon of today. My wife’s Dodge Durango gets about the same mileage and shares the same catalytic converter as your basic minivan.
She drives it because she likes it. she could drive a Town & Country if she wanted to. A Town & Country though is significantly larger and has a higher curb weight. It’s also not built on a truck base, and nowhere near as durable as the Durango. Ultimately the Durango should outlast the Town & Country as it has a bigger engine which runs with less strain and a much stronger tranny. The suspension is better, and it has four wheel drive for those rare occasions when there’s snow on the road.
It is a better use of resources than a minivan, because it will last longer than a minivan. When that minivan is sitting on a scrap heap, that Durango will still be running and providing good service.
Take a look at the Toyota 4runner. There’s a damn nice SUV that gets better gas mileage than most cars on the road. Look at the Honda CRV, the Rav 4, a Jeep Wrangler, or Liberty.
These are good strong durable versatile vehicles. They compare favorably with most vehicles on the road, and they are certainly less the guzzler than a Lincoln Town Car, or a big ole Caddy.
But I’m talking about those big SUVS, the ones that use all the gas and are so dangerous, because they’re so huge
Ahh yes. The Lincoln Navigators and Suburbans and Excursions and Hummers.
Again, you’re missing the point. Because these vehicles are built like tanks they will be around for a long time. Yes they consume a lot of gas. However, their construction is a far more efficient use of resources than today’s economy cars.
How many K cars do you see on the road today? How many Yugos? How many Dodge Omnis?
Those little fuel efficient boxes of the 1980s are gone. They are rusting on heaps in junkyards all across the United States. However, you have only to look in any used car section to see that the Buick Roadmasters the Lincoln towncars, the Caddys and the other land barges are still out on the road doing their thing. All the old pickup trucks are still running and it looks like every Bronco and Blazer that was ever made is still out there giving service.
Those vehicles have served many times the useful lives of their economy car brethren, and the hundreds of thousands of miles that their low rpm big displacement engines have reliably run and continue to run pay final insult to the shitty little econo boxes. Look at all the resources and energy expended in their design and construction. Look at all the steel and plastic and all the other materials taken from this earth that are just wasted.
I grew up with the first SUV. An International Travelall that my father drove, and that bad boy will give pause to anyone driving down the road in their Lincoln navigator.
My father had that car from 1965-1982, and he still regrets having sold it. The Toyota Celica he replaced it with lasted only ten years. My father knows who he sold that Travelall to, and you know what? It’s still running.
But the new technology is so much better. Look at the Honda Insight. It gets 50 miles to the gallon
It’s a bigger waste than any SUV ever made. Same with the Toyota Prius. Yes, you have that nice little efficient engine humming away, but my God! Look at the RPMs.
I have news for you. There’s no getting around the fact that the overengineered little engines in your economy cars are not going to last. All that heat and torque is going to wear them fast. They have to work far harder to produce the same results as a bigger engine, and it comes with a cost. That cost is wear on smaller more fragile parts incurring higher stresses. Once your little four banger starts to lose compression, all your efforts at fuel efficiency and environmental friendliness are for naught. When it starts to degrade it’s going to only partially combust it’s fuels and the resultant waste vapor is going right out your tailpipe.
That great big v6 or v8 is gonna run in tune and last much longer. They also just measure emmisions by what comes out of the tailpipe. Go stand by the oil breather valve of a Honda Civic and watch what comes out after the first 30,000 miles. The lower temperatures of your bigger engines aren’t putting out all that crap.
Then look at your hybrid eco-friendly vehicles. Those are some great big batteries in those things to store all that juice, aren’t they? How long do you think those batteries last before they have to be replaced? You got about three years. There’s a lot more toxic sludge an pollution gone into making and disposing of those batteries than all the emmisions in any SUV out there. How long do you think that little engine will last? Look at the sacrifices made in those cars for gas economy. They’re tin foil, and every working part has been shaved of every excess ounce possible to give it that little extra bit of efficiency.
The difference is simple. I shave with a straight razor. I’ve had it for ten years. It is a large ostentatious instrument, representing a huge investment in resources compared to say, a bic razor.
Chances are I’ll be shaving with that straight razor when I’m 85 years old. How many bic razors will you have thrown away in that same time?
Likewise the Travelall. I’ll put that car against any efficiency vehicle ever made for its use of resources versus service given.
If you really cared, and you were smart enough to think about it, you’d like SUVs if you’re an environmentalist.
Yes, shithead commuting with his new SUV to the office isn’t helping anything in the short run with his choice, but those cars will be around, and get sold and work their way through the economy. The catalytic converter only last a year or two (and if you were smart, you SUV hating idiots would lobby for madatory catalytic converter replacement every 30-40 thousand miles instead of against SUVs)
8 years or so from now when that SUV is sold for $2,000 to some nonadvantaged person, they are going to have good solid reliable transportation for years to come. That low rpm easily tuned engine is going continue to burn fuel within its original tolerances and maintain compression and it’s original efficiency for years to come.
We’ve all seen the VW bugs going down the road in a cloud of fumes. We’ve all seen the old Honda Civics with the visible vapor trails. What you don’t know is that for years before the car gets to that point the little 4 bangers in those economy cars are losing compression and tune an pumping tons of shit into the air, and their catalytic converters are beyond useless and actually work as an impediment. Meanwhile, the larger cooler and slower running engines of the SUVs are still running at spec.
Any idiot ought to understand about underengineering and wider tolerances. Any idiot ought to understand that a well-built and lasting piece of equiptment is worth ten cheapo pieces of shit. Any idiot ought to understand, that a larger cooler slower turning engine is gonna make up over it’s more efficient brethren over it’s service lifetime, because of its durability and wider tolerances. Any idiot ought to understand that it’s not what car you drive, it’s how you drive and maintain it.
Finally, any idiot ought to understand that the car I choose to drive is absolutely none of your goddamned business, and no, you are not entitled to your own opinion. You’re not. When you choose to judge somebody else’s decision of preference that is a judgement founded in ignorance.