Why are people selling their SUVs?

The BBQ Pit
141

[QUOTE=Rick]
As far as this be a retarded argument, I agree Show me the road map where I can drive a Prius to London, and I will do so.
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Or, you could choose not to go to London, y’know? No one NEEDS to vacation abroad. Right? I think we should start sneering at anyone who flies a long distance for a vacation, because they are wrecking the planet with their greedy desires. And it’s not necessary. Stay home and volunteer at a recycling center, for God’s sake. You would if you cared about the planet.

142

[QUOTE=brazil84]
But anyway, if somebody drove an 18-wheeler not to haul goods but simply to project a macho image, I would definitely say that person deserves some contempt.
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Even if I need it to haul around my massive penis?

:smiley:

143

[QUOTE=brazil84]
Sure, and if lots of people were driving construction vehicles in order to project a macho image, I would have the same complaint.
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You do realize that SUV drivers are just as likely to be women as they are men. Just exactly what kind of macho image do you think the women are trying to project?

That said, your argument was that SUVs block sight lines, take up more parking spaces and are more deadly in an accident.

Correct me if I am wrong, but what I really hear you saying is that you just don’t like SUVs and their stereotyped drivers, therefore, they should all be eliminated in favor of whatever it is that YOU deem acceptable.

144

[QUOTE=brazil84]
Sure, and any time somebody inconveniences me just so they can project a macho image, it merits a complaint.
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Which was why I picked motorcycles as my example. It’s no more fair to say that everyone who is riding a motorcycle is doing so to project a macho image than it is to say that everyone who is driving an SUV is doing so to project a macho image.

145

[QUOTE=essell]
How’s that “Patriot Act” working out for you?
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How are all those CCTVs doing for you?

146

[QUOTE=yellowval]
Which was why I picked motorcycles as my example. It’s no more fair to say that everyone who is riding a motorcycle is doing so to project a macho image than it is to say that everyone who is driving an SUV is doing so to project a macho image.
[/QUOTE]
I bought a nice looking cruiser. I am also wearing a huge jacket and helmet, carrying a messenger bag, in Arizona summer. There’s like 20 other people in Phoenix actually using helmets. I know I don’t look cool. :smiley:

Needed a new vehicle, motorcycles are light on gas usage, and they’re fun to ride. Screw macho.

147

[QUOTE=Chimera]
Even if I need it to haul around my massive penis?

:smiley:
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This is what you need, baby!

[QUOTE=Sunspace]
Ontario just passed a law making clothesline bans illegal.
[/QUOTE]

One of these days … I’m moving up there with y’all.

148

[QUOTE=Sam Stone]
Or, you could choose not to go to London, y’know? No one NEEDS to vacation abroad. Right? I think we should start sneering at anyone who flies a long distance for a vacation, because they are wrecking the planet with their greedy desires. And it’s not necessary. Stay home and volunteer at a recycling center, for God’s sake. You would if you cared about the planet.
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I flown through London about 10 times in the last 16 years. Each of those times it was for business, not a vacation. I didn’t have much choice in the matter, my job required it. So like I said show me a road map where I could have driven to Sweden from LA, and I will be happy to do so.

149

[QUOTE=Charlie Tan]
I know Europe and the U.S. don’t compare, but I filled my small European sedan (1.6 litre engine) and it cost almost $100. Gas around here is now close to $9 per U.S. gallon.

(…snipped by ILMVI…)

When I go the gas station it hurts me more than it hurts (generic) you.
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It may *cost *you more but it certainly doesn’t hurt you more. Europeans seem to be able to pay 3 or 4 times what Americans pay for gas (while of course bitching and moaning to some degree) and yet have some understanding of *why *the price is so high; of why huge fuel taxes can be and are beneficial; of why it is in their country’s/planet’s best interest to use less gasoline.

Americans, OTOH, are deeply shocked at their high gas prices. Many Americans feel that oil should be provided to the USA at a discounted rate or even free-of-charge because we are the Shining Beacon of Democracy, or God’s Favorite Nation, or because USA #1!!!, (or whatever).

Some wonder, “why the Hell do we pay all those taxes for a first-rate military if we won’t even invade and occupy all the Gulf States so we can have cheap gas?”

So while your gasoline costs $9/gallon and ours is only $4/gallon, it doesn’t actually hurt you nearly as much as it does us. Because you guys enjoy widespread acceptance–even admiration–of intelligence and critical thinking (we do too, but only when it can be proven to have direct and immediate economic or military benefit for us, and even then it is derided and mistrusted) and that helps you understand the “dark mysteries” of global economics; that helps you folks understand that the same rules that apply to everyone else in the world apply to you as well.

With knowledge comes power. In this case, the palliative power of rationality.

150

[QUOTE=elfkin477]
So, since I don’t fly (I never have flown, even), and do most of my travelling in a compact car, am I still allowed to hate SUVs? :wink:
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Yes. I hate them because my car is small (though the mileage still sucks) and I can’t see around them on the highway. When they get behind me if have headlights filling my back window. That’s why I hate them.

151

[QUOTE=Chimera]
Even if I need it to haul around my massive penis?

:smiley:
[/QUOTE]

So, you drive facing backwards, or do you just wrap it around your torso so you can feed it into the gloryhole you’ve cut between the cab and cargo box? 'Cause, really, that bending it probably isn’t good for you :wink:

152

[QUOTE=Sam Stone]
While the airplane actually gets decent mileage, you are going a LONG way. 17,000 km is farther than I drive in a year.

So, the comparison is:

Person A has a luxury which burns 240L of gas in a year.
Person B has a luxury which burns 240L of gas in a year.

Which one is worse? Obviously, they’re the same. But there are a lot of Person A’s running around who drive a Prius or a little Honda Fit or something, but jet around the globe for fun, and a lot of person B’s who own an SUV because they find it makes their life better. the Person A’s tend to do a lot of criticizing of the Person B’s. They should not throw stones.

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As I said, a truly retarded argument unless you’re arguing that the SUV driver gives up all his other gas-consuming luxuries in favor of the SUV. Me, I’d be guessing the kind of person who can afford a 10 or 15 mpg SUV and be damned-to-expenses is gonna be taking a whole lot of more foreign trips than I am.

But let’s examine your retarded argument:

a. Going to London. But one which is taken using the most efficient form of transport available. A form of transport which, because it’s carrying cargo and business passengers, is going to be going there anyway. (The more passengers, the lower the fuel cost/passenger.)

b. Driving an SUV. A luxury. But one which, for many people, there are many, many reasonably alternatives, many of which are cheaper, better for the environment, and more considerate of those sharing the road with the driver.

So, I dunno. I’m leaning towards (b) being a rationalizing, inconsiderate, selfish dickhead. But that’s just me.

153

I Love Me, Vol. I

Perhaps instead of just bitching about other peoples lifestyles. And commenting on what they need or not, you could do a little research and post a thread about a possible solution. Ehhh? Or do you just want to bitch.

I drive an SUV and I’ve started three threads about alternative engine tech in the last three months. I haven’t seen you in any of them.

154

[QUOTE=Bosstone]
I bought a nice looking cruiser. I am also wearing a huge jacket and helmet, carrying a messenger bag, in Arizona summer. There’s like 20 other people in Phoenix actually using helmets. I know I don’t look cool. :smiley:

Needed a new vehicle, motorcycles are light on gas usage, and they’re fun to ride. Screw macho.
[/QUOTE]

I’ll take looking smart over looking cool any day. Good for you. Now just don’t rev your engine in front of my house and we’ll get along just fine. :slight_smile:

155

[QUOTE=abbeytxs]
You do realize that SUV drivers are just as likely to be women as they are men. Just exactly what kind of macho image do you think the women are trying to project?
[/QUOTE]

“I"m a closeted dyke with major penis envy”?

156

[QUOTE=enipla]
I Love Me, Vol. I

Perhaps instead of just bitching about other peoples lifestyles. And commenting on what they need or not, you could do a little research and post a thread about a possible solution. Ehhh? Or do you just want to bitch.

I drive an SUV and I’ve started three threads about alternative engine tech in the last three months. I haven’t seen you in any of them.
[/QUOTE]
Well, as you know this is a Pit thread. It’s purpose to call out some owners of SUVs. Specifically the ones who are completely clueless and don’t understand how their chosen lifestyle could have any effect on anyone else. That’s who I’m bitching about. If you are one of those people then I understand why you would be pissed–it hurts to be called a selfish tool especially if you are one.

If you are not one of those people then this Pitting wasn’t directed at you.

As for those threads you’ve started, I’m actually quite interested in alternative engine tech. It’s fascinating to imagine what resources besides oil the selfish knuckle-draggers will heedlessly waste next!!

157

[QUOTE=brazil84]
I don’t know if anyone here is calling for a ban on SUV’s. But anyway, if somebody drove an 18-wheeler not to haul goods but simply to project a macho image, I would definitely say that person deserves some contempt.
[/QUOTE]

Why do people persist in this notion that driving an SUV is an example of projecting machismo or an aura of wealth? Until just very recently, SUV’s were very popular because they were affordable (let’s leave the Escalade and Hummer out, as they ARE the aforementioned outliers of wealth projection/mere shiny toys) and so was gasoline. People have families, some live in inclement weather areas where SUV’s can negotiate the snow and rain better than your average car.

I have a minivan…am I next now? It is the size and weight of a large-ish SUV. It doesn’t have a V8, but the 227hp V6 in a 4200lb vehicle only nets me about 22mpg at best on the interstates. There’s five of us, we need a utility vehicle for camping, long trips, dropping the kids off wherever…there isn’t all that much difference between my Caravan and a typical SUV.

I don’t get the outrage, seriously. Hummers I can see, Escalades, too. But even my neighbor, whom has five kids, has a Suburban. Those things are HUGE and guzzle gas…but it’s for seven people!

Jeebus.

158

[QUOTE=ArizonaTeach]
crosses fingers
Please let the cost of cell-phone minutes skyrocket
Please let the cost of cell-phone minutes skyrocket
Please let the cost of cell-phone minutes skyrocket
Please let the cost of cell-phone minutes skyrocket
[/QUOTE]

No fucking way! I love my cellular-based wireless broadband access, and I’m on it right now. I’d sooner give up my land DSL line.

159

[QUOTE=treis]
The difference is that you can operate the other automobiles without any of these inconveniences. You can drive a motorcycle safely, you can drive a sports car the speed limit, and you can pay attention in a car. However, there’s no way to drive an SUV and not block sight lines, take up more parking space, and be more deadly in an accident.
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See this bothers me, and I don’t even own an SUV.

I even agree with the general feeling of SUV’s being the poster child for overconsumption.

However, this “parking space” argument is nonsense, I drive a minivan and I take up just as much space as an SUV parking, and parking spaces everywhere I’ve been across this country accomodate MG’s and SUV’s equally well. Perhaps drivers of these things are to blame for not knowing how to park.

The sight line thing bothers me too, because there are far, FAR more 18 wheelers out there than there will ever be SUV’s, and people have to deal with them because they are necessary to our economy. Some people really do need their SUV’s, because they were purchased a couple years ago, gas was relatively cheap, they have kids and a lot of stuff and it wasn’t an issue. Not to mention that many are tied into loans on their SUV’s and they “need” them because they are still “paying for them”.

As for the “I drive a Civic and I have a problem with SUV’s because if one hits me I am going to die” argument, well..I also drive a Scion Xa, one of the tiniest cars out there and I worry about this too, while I fill up my 10 gallon tank for $40 and go almost 400 miles on it. In fact, I worry all the way to the bank.

It doesn’t really matter what you drive, accidents happen and you may die. Be a better, more aware driver.

160

[QUOTE=FoieGrasIsEvil]
I have a minivan…am I next now? It is the size and weight of a large-ish SUV. It doesn’t have a V8, but the 227hp V6 in a 4200lb vehicle only nets me about 22mpg at best on the interstates. There’s five of us, we need a utility vehicle for camping, long trips, dropping the kids off wherever…there isn’t all that much difference between my Caravan and a typical SUV.

I don’t get the outrage, seriously. Hummers I can see, Escalades, too. But even my neighbor, whom has five kids, has a Suburban. Those things are HUGE and guzzle gas…but it’s for seven people!

Jeebus.
[/QUOTE]

I have no problems with large families having large vehicles. I have a friend with four small kids. Try finding a car in which you can put six people, three of whom legally require car seats, with any degree of comfort. But they also have a smaller, older car for him to drive to work.

The worst example of the OP sort of thing, beyond my mother, who I posted about on page 1 of this thread, was a former friend’s wife who drove 42 miles each way to work. When she needed a new vehicle, they didn’t go out and buy a car that got good milage, they bought this big honking older SUV in which she said she got 12 mpg. Because it made her feel safer. Seven gallons a day driving to and from work, ALONE. I hope she’s enjoying the costs these days!