Just heard that someone in the state legislature has suggested that SUVs should be licenced at a higher rate than normal because they are gas guzzlers.
I am amazed how many of them are sitting in driveways of suburbia. You know that most of them will never leave the pavement and mom stays home if it gets nasty outside.
Perhaps she feels more secure in the big vehicle??More room?
Boy, I sure hope they won’t leave the pavement! (I hate low-flying SUVs!) 
10 percent of SUV owners have them because they genuinely need the space and the off-road capabilities.
90 percent have them because “everyone else does.”
No I would say that most families have a genuine use for the space - kids need a place to sit and kids have a lot of stuff.
The reason that everyone has SUV’s is because no one wants to be seen driving a minivan or a station wagon, even though those vehicles cost less and use less gas.
I drive a RAV4 which at one time was the smallest SUV available. I’m not sure if that is true now or now. I love it. I drive a total of 58 miles round trip a day to work. I feel safer in this vehicle than I ever felt in a car. I don’t know why unless it’s because it sits up higher. I know that I have no desire to own a car again. I like the room. And I like being able to just open the back door to get the stuff out of the back. It doesn’t use any more gas than cars I’ve owned and not as much as some of them.
They are generally safer (for the occupants, at least) than other vehicles, since they’re heavy and often have a solid, full frame body. That’s the main reason I’d buy one, regardless of image, or whether it can go off-road (which I would never do). Of course, I wouldn’t pick one with a tendancy to roll over
Arjuna34
The final straw came when I had to take 3 girls up to the Hollywood Sign for a photo shoot. Four of us in my Porsche 911. After that trip I decided I needed more room (my movie camera wouldn’t fit in the 911, and it had been bugging me for a while).
The Cherokee isn’t as fast as my old car, and it doesn’t handle as well. But it’s great for carrying stuff, and it served me well last summer when I went camping in Canada.
Would you own one if they they made the samething in a 2wheel drive? Just taking the 4wd off would increase the fuel economy a lot.
{quote]Just heard that someone in the state legislature has suggested that SUVs should be licenced at a higher rate than normal because they are gas guzzlers.
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If they are such gas guzzlers, then they are already pay a proportionally greater share of the gasoline taxes. That is one of the most ridiculous ideas I’ve ever heard.
Here’s mud in yer eye!
Yer pal, UncleBeer.
SUVs are not bound by the same emissions standards as cars because they’ve always been considered working vehicles that didn’t spend a lot of time on the highway and on city streets. As they become more popular they contribute more than their fair share of pollutants. Auto companies are sure to fight any laws to make SUVs conform to normal emissions standards, because modifying the engine would decrease the “power” that all the suburban moms seems to need so badly to drive junior to soccer practise and the mall.
My wife has an Explorer - it’s nice to have the extra room, plus we need something capable of pulling our boat. She also likes sitting up higher, and she hates minivans. I tease her with my observation that the Explorer is just a minivan with bigger tires.
justwannano wrote:
I don’t have cites, but my observation is that the vast majority of SUV’s are 2WD. When we were shopping for an Explorer, we didn’t want a 4WD, but we didn’t come across that many.
Hey Unk The comment was in responce to —how can we reduce the amount of gas used.Guess he has seen them trucks sitting there not being used.
Actually I believe all the models of a company are averaged together to form a specific number that the company has to stay below as a whole. Search the web for an explanation of CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy)
This might be the first year that more trucks (a SUV is considered to be a truck) nay outsell cars. Last year trucks comprised 49% of new vehicle sales.
Bigger is always better, it takes a real man to understand that.
SUVs are popular because they are the ultimate vehicular representation of our self absorbed culture. They have uses, true, but the vast majority of owners have them becuase they’re bigger, and give the owner more convenience at the expense of everyone else on the road.
I hate SUVs, and I hate Pickups. At least pickups had a point… some people need to haul stuff. But they were supposed to be utility trucks. You hauled stuff, you were done. How often do you see people hauling stuff any more? You don’t, because they bought the truck as a stupid ass status symbol. They would haul stuff for fear of scratching their shiny new toy. SUVs are worse. They’re just yuppie tanks. Now they’ve got models with rhino bumpers. What, just in case there’s a zoo-break? People that drive them drive just as stupidly as anyone else, only now they’re in a vehicle several times bigger than the rest of the cars on the road, and when they tailgate their lights are right at eye level with the poor car in front of them. And forget tapping the brakes to scare em off… the damn things wont rear end you, they’ll just go right over the top. The new crop of vehicles are a menace, and must be stopped.
http://www.madpoet.com
Clerks - Just because they serve you doesn’t mean they like you.
Hmmph. There’s already an active GQ thread on whether SUV’s perform better than cars in rain, and a hijack is taking that one to SUV’s vs. cars in collisions and SUV’s and police officers. So this one, more of a “Why the heck does a soccer mom need one?” kind of thing, is headed over to Great Debates.
Hey David! Gaudere! Got the trailer attachment for that new Ford Exxon Valdez yet? Well, haul this baby in.