Whats the deal with "SUVs" (1 Viewer)

[Paul Jenkins]

that eventually our backward progress of using more and more oil reserves is gonna come back and haunt us sooner or later

No it isn't. The US is where it is today *because* of oil, not in spite of oil. There are huge, untapped oil reserves in this world, in fact, the Soviet Union is on top of oil reserves larger than the Middle East, it just isn't tapped yet. Yell and scream about the sky falling all you want, but we aren't running out of oil anytime soon.

And on the SUV/oil consumption thing: The SUV I drive gets better mileage and burns cleaner than my old 1991 Mercedes E Class. Just because some SUVs get less than steller mileage is not a reason to 'ban' them, you might as well get rid of the Corvette and other sports cars too, but you rarely hear people b**** about them now do you?

People, IMHO, just don't like the size of SUVs on the road and come up with any other excuse they can think of to ban them. Do you think that if Ford made the Expedition get 35mpg that the complaining would stop? Riiggghhht...

 

[kevin_tomb]

THE EXPEDITION GET 35 MPG....

Well thats never gonna happen sadly. The other reason people hate them isnt just pure size. A full size van is as big about, and noone hates them....

I think it has to do with the bumper height being too high relative to most other vehicles. Hell it would override my explorers bumpers in a heartbeat...THATS TOO HIGH. When a vehicle causes damage to another just by being designed unnecessarily high you cause other drivers to dislike it. Dodge RAM pickups are great until one hits you. ANd yes even in most SUVs the RAM or expedition will over-ride their bumpers and cause unnecessary damage.

AND before anyone goes off and says "I can drive what I want" again, consider this: What if I put 2 large pipes sticking out of my explorer at windshield height so that whoever I hit it would penetrate into their passenger compartment...would that be within my rights or I can do whatever I want and drive whatever I want??.

 

[Bhagi Katbamna]

What if I put 2 large pipes sticking out of my explorer at windshield height so that whoever I hit it would penetrate into their passenger compartment...would that be within my rights or I can do whatever I want and drive whatever I want??.

Hey, that gives me an idea.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Since its introduction, the Ford Excursion was designed with a blocker beam to address some concerns about offset crashes. It prevents smaller vehicles from riding underneath in a collision. I believe GM and DaimlerChrysler both lowered the bumper height of their recently redesigned SUVs. The Suburban weight was also reduced by about 250 lbs. The differences in mass and momentum in these collisions are still subject to the laws of physics, though.

Regards,

 

[AjayM]

My biggest beef with SUV drivers is the lack of respect that some of them show towards others on the road. And it's no different than for any other kind of car out there. However the big difference is when something goes wrong, if you are driving your SUV to fast and in an unsafe manner the chances of injury to other people are greater. I live in an area that is populated with these things, and just the other morning I saw some totally oblivious moron driving about 15mph faster than traffic (on a 2-lane divided road) in his super-sized Lexus SUV (Lexus version of the Toyota Land Cruiser), weaving in and out of cars trying to get to the front of the line, and to top it off he's yapping away on his cell phone.

Of course on the way home tonight I'll probably see some idiotic person doing the same thing in an economy car as well. The difference here is that the driven like that the SUV won't stop as fast, can't turn as well, can't accelerate as fast, etc.

I own a Mustang GT and my girlfriend owns a new Pathfinder SE, the way I drive each car is totally different, with the SUV I leave more space to the car in front of me, I slow down for corners a little more, etc. The few SUV drivers that don't change their driving style are the ones that give the whole genre of SUV's a bad name.

Andrew

 

[Trace Downing]

The Soviet Union still exists?

According to the predictions in the news in the 1970's, we should have run out of oil about 5 years ago.

And we probably would have, had the political climate not changed. Their predictions were, for the most part, taking under the assumption that the OPEC embargo would never have been lifted. The US territories would've depleted the reserves by then, and back then, there was still a Soviet Union, so fat chance to buy oil from them.

 

[Bhagi Katbamna]

And we probably would have, had the political climate not changed. Their predictions were, for the most part, taking under the assumption that the OPEC embargo would never have been lifted. The US territories would've depleted the reserves by then, and back then, there was still a Soviet Union, so fat chance to buy oil from them.

And yet we use more oil than ever before and the supply is still going strong. Someone having something and not giving us any is completely different than it running out and not existing any more. There are ways to obtain oil in the former case.

 

[Todd Hochard]

you might as well get rid of the Corvette and other sports cars too

Except that the Corvette gets 30mpg on the highway, using a 350hp 5.7l motor. Heck, even my '92 Vette got 28mpg on the highway (at 75mph avg.) Show me any even 4-cyl non-MicroSUV that can say the same.

I'm glad the crossover vehicles are coming around. At least, the aerodynamic and weight reduction will improve efficiency compared to truck-based SUVs.

Todd