I realize that, and I take back my “fuck off” to Road Rash as I’ve explained in my previous post. I’m sorry.
However, my “fuck off” to people like Hastur who feel they can make inflammatory comments without expecting a reaction, stays.
I hope I don’t get flamed for this, but this sort of thing annoys the heck out of me, too. My parents live down a dirt road. It gets kind of bumpy after a heavy rain, but usually it’s maintained very well and isn’t much worse than some of the less cared for paved roads. I can drive down the thing in my little Dodge Stratus doing 35 without major bumpage, so why, oh why, do I see people with spanky new pickups, KIAs and Explorers, driving down my road at 10 mph, slowing down to 5 mph before every tiny little pothole, and swerving around them, practically driving their cars onto people’s lawns to avoid a inch-deep rut in the road? My dad drove his old, beat up (got in a car accident back when we lived in NY) '89 Blazer doing 50 mph down that road for three years before trading it in for something that ate less gas, and never had a problem.
Why doesn’t anyone think of the SUV’s feelings? The poor, poor, SUV. It has so much potential, and instead of letting it shine, and do what it does best, you supress its rugged nature! Would you cage a lion? Clip the wings of an eagle? Ask Sylvester Stallone to star in your production of “Swan Lake?” Let your motor vehicle express itself, damnit! 
Hi Road Rash. Do you think trucks can magically teleport to places where there are no roads? Oddly enough, people who go to those kind of areas often have to drive on surface streets. And on the other side of the coin, people who haul large objects in their large trucks sometimes slow down when going through narrow passages much like construction areas. Incidentally, construction areas I’ve seen always have reduced speed limits.
In short, your OP is not only misguided in intent, but in scope. Although, I am pleased for you that your life is going well enough that you have nothing to rant about other than someone else’s vehicle.
But it is well known for being crushed like a can of coke in an auto accident. 
Marc
Anyway, reading this again, I guess what I’m saying is, Hastur, what if I had made an ignorant, inflammatory comment in your “fucknugget” thread? I’m sure I would get a lot of reactions, most of them angry. But I refrain from doing so, because not only is that stupid (making a comment like that and not expecting people to get mad), but it’s just not my style. There aren’t a lot of topics on here that will get me pissed off, but this is one of them.
I guess I take back the “fuck off” from that too.
Anyway, this “uber shmuck” is going to go to her mom’s house to work on her mom’s older, crappy, emissions-spewing car, and then I’m going fishing (off-road).
I guess I have to go buy an SUV myself now so that I don’t end up instantly killed one day by the SUV driving assholes that tailgate my Tercel in the damn slow lane on the way to work every day.
Let’s just all drive bloody tanks, shall we?
Well, it’s your choice what you want to drive. I just don’t want to be caught in one of those if and when the time comes.
I love listening to people defend their right to not have to defend driving SUVs. It is truly a glorious thing.
“I don’t have to justify driving a monter fucking vehicle that I sometimes consider taking off the road but still never manage to do anything other than drive on trails!”
“I haul wood in it. Wood! So fuck off!”
“I need the space! And minivans suck! But I don’t have to tell you anything!”
Some day I hope I have seven children and tons of excess wood that needs moving across wet, bumpy trails so I can not justify owning an SUV, too.
I walk or take public transit everywhere I go. I have never owned or rented a car, nor have I applied for a driver’s license even though I’ve been eligible to do so for four years. I run a website on the metro, attended the National Youth Summit on Sustainable Transit, and ran for Parliament on a platform of public transit and sustainable development.
May I criticize SUVs now?
Because an innate sexual orientation whose members have suffered discrimination, assault, and murder for centuries is directly comparable to one’s choice of vehicle.
On a semi-related note, I heard on the news last night that out here in California, some county’s going to require that new parking lots be prohibited from marking parking spots as “compact only” and will also require that all the parking spots be large enough to fit the SUV.
The reasoning behind this is apparently because so many SUV drivers go ahead and park in the compact spots anyway.
I drive a Honda insight a ULEV
No can do, I really can’t get worked up over other people making choices I may or may not approve of.
Osip
Go ahead. At least you’re not being a hypocrite.
I agree, not exactly comparable. I’m just talking about making blanket statements about groups of people and then not expecting someone to get offended. I find it irritating and ignorant, don’t you?
I don’t.
If it means I have to park far away (which is the case in quite a few parking lots I can think of), then so be it. So what’s several more yards to the front door of the store? Doesn’t bother me.
Too bad more people don’t think like you.
I hope you do, too. When you find a compact vehicle that will fit your 7 children and excess wood, let me know what you got. I’d love a recommendation.
Matt, I love you.
I realize that this doesn’t mean much coming from a flaky, shop-a-holic woman in Calgary about 3000 odd KM away, but I felt compelled to say it anyway.
Please, carry on folks. Nothing more to see here.
You’re cute, kid, but I don’t swing that way.
Thanks, sweetie. I appreciate it.
I just want to jump in here for a moment.
-I drive an SUV. It’s not a conventional SUV, but it’s in that “not a car, not a truck” category. I built it.
-It weighs 5,000 pounds, powered by a 350-cube V-8 (that’s a five-point-eight-liter to you metric folk) and is full-time 3/4-ton four-wheel drive.
-It’s so tall, I have to “hop” a bit to get up into the seat, and I’m a six-footer.
-It gets roughly 11mpg in town, and I don’t drive it long distances so I have no idea what it gets on the “highway”.
-In this town, there are no “emissions”. If I want to tune it so it’s dumping raw fuel down the intake through a garden hose, I can. (Though I don’t. It’s actually fairly carefully tuned, for a carbureted engine.)
-I have driving lights on the huge bumper which are roughly the height of a normal car’s rearview mirror.
Now, the reasoning:
-This is Alaska. It snows here. It snows and stays snowy for six months of the year. After a heavy snow, some back roads- like that which I live on- can go unplowed for two days or more.
-This is Alaska. My gasoline comes from a local refinery, which converts oil from either our own North Slope or the nearby inlet Platforms. No support for terrorism here.
-This is Alaska. We have no smooth roads. Asphalt lasts one, maybe two seasons, before frost heaves and meltwater turn it into a pothole petri dish.
-This is Alaska. We have less than one mile of paved road for every ten people. Maybe twenty. Most of the places one would want to go, involve long drives on dirt roads, often poorly maintained.
-This is Alaska. Every year, some nuthatch thinks they can drive a Metro with no studs just as fast on ice as they can in the summer. I have a chain and a woven towstrap in the trunk specifically for people like that, and it sees use anywhere from five to ten times a winter.
-This is Alaska. Those driving lights can mean the difference in whether or not you torpedo a 1,000-pound moose during the 17-hour-long night. That’s the same reason I have massive bumpers that can, and have, wadded up small economy cars into piles of misshapen tinfoil we call “boat anchors”. My ‘crumple zone’ is attached to your car.
I actually don’t have an opinion on SUVs or those who ‘bash’ them. I just wanted to brag.
No, just some SUV drivers.
I drive a diesel 3/4 ton pickup equipped to haul boat trailors up to 18,000 lbs. I need a pickup for my business, but it comes in handy for camping/boating and helping friends move. Fortunately, my wife has a very fuel efficient car, Dodge colt that is the vehicle of choice for our family when the choice exists. I would own one more small fuel efficient vehicle for myself if I wouldn’t have to double up on my insurance. Why I have to pay extra for insurance when I can only drive one vehicle at a time is beyond my understanding, particularly when our environment stands to benefit.
I once lived (1974) and worked in Hamilton, Ont. The public transit was so good, buses every 10 minutes, and no more than a 2 minute walk to the stops. I parked my car and never used it for all the 4 months that I was there. It was wonderful. But lets face it, unless you live in the big city and you are part of the paper pushing industry, public transit is just not feasible for the vast majority, and I do not think it is fair when every so often I hear people suggest mass transit subsidies (subventions) to be paid for with fuel taxes from SUV (or other vehicles) owners or general revenue.
:makes notes of whom to tell to go fuck themselves next time they need to move:
I too am pleased for you that your life is going well enough that you have nothing to do but post 4287 messages on the SDMB in about 26 months. That comes to about 165 messages a month, or 5.4 messages a day, every day for the last 26 months. Pretty good for someone who comes from nowhere.
If I see large objects in the back of a large truck, I am aware that it is being used as a commercial vehicle. In that case, I would understand driving slowly. I would do it as well, as I have. Although I don’t need to do it much amymore, I am a licenced commercial driver. When carrying a load, I can see doing what it takes to protect the load. The major concern with this is taking turns slowly, for that is when the load is in most danger of shifting. I can even see your point about narrow passages, although I have traversed much bigger vehicles through those narrow passagess.
Putting all those aside. In a situation where the road is just a little bumpy, and the uber-vehicle is primarily a vanity vehicle not carrying any substantial load, there is no reason it should be driving slower than a Kia, a Metro, or being trailed by dozens of vehiclesss.
I too am pleased for you that your life is going well enough that you have nothing to do but post 4287 messages on the SDMB in about 26 months. That comes to about 165 messages a month, or 5.4 messages a day, every day for the last 26 months. Pretty good for someone who comes from nowhere.
If I see large objects in the back of a large truck, I am aware that it is being used as a commercial vehicle. In that case, I would understand driving slowly. I would do it as well, as I have. Although I don’t need to do it much amymore, I am a licenced commercial driver. When carrying a load, I can see doing what it takes to protect the load. The major concern with this is taking turns slowly, for that is when the load is in most danger of shifting. I can even see your point about narrow passages, although I have traversed much bigger vehicles through those narrow passagess.
Putting all those aside. In a situation where the road is just a little bumpy, and the uber-vehicle is primarily a vanity vehicle not carrying any substantial load, there is no reason it should be driving slower than a Kia, a Metro, or being trailed by dozens of vehiclesss.