Do you own a SUV?

[tjkadar]

I'm going to come right out and say it. I don't like SUVs. Honestly, I really don't like them at all. So, I don't own one. Pretty simple - eh?

Instead, I own a Miata and F250 Superduty Turbo Diesel. The Miata is a fun little car to run around with and the truck hauls my tractor, horses, and fetches things like hay, grain, and other supplies. My vehicles fit me. I own them, so that is the way it should be.

I don't believe a small car is less safe then a large one. Matter of fact, I believe just the opposite... as long as I'm in a single car accident. I know I'm certain to lose an argument with a bigger vehicle. But at the same time I wont start flipping over if I drop a tire off the pavement. Its a trade-off.

Hey, I used to race and ride motorcycles. To me a Miata is a big vehicle. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif The truck is a truck... they are supposed to be big.

If a person wants to buy an SUV, that is their choice. Last time I looked, owning a SUV was not a criminal offense. I still don't like them, but in my mind that just means I don't have to buy one.

I will also never buy a minivan. However, if I could afford it I would buy a gas guzzling sports car in a heartbeat. If there is only a limited amount of gas left... I want to have my fun while I still can. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

PS I work in the environmental field too... <--- damned tree hugging hippie that loves the smell of race gas!

 

[HGM]

Well, I can certainly respect that /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[To20Chris]

For a good portion of my life, I was the consummate gear head. From Matchboxes and Hot Wheels and model cars when I was a kid (I could tell you the model of any car from tail lights) - to rebuilding carbs and everything else on the kitchen table. From Mustangs to Fiats to Austin Healeys to Mazdas and Jeeps and tractors, if it burned fuel I was into it. And probably took it apart. My wife raced SCCA and I was building a Formula Vee - until a bad road accident changed my plans. I decided if I had had a faster car I wouldn't have been in that wreck, so I bought a Mustang GT.

BUT.....as I am older, and my priorities changed to my family and my children's future, it is not lost on me the price that automobiles have extracted, both from me personally, and from the society and environment. I wonder about all that time and thought that went into learning about this or that esoteric thing about some car or another – was it really worth filling my brain with so much minutia? Could there have been other things I might have put that effort into that would have been more worthwhile?

When I look around at the landscapes and towns I visit, I see so many places designed only for cars – no place at all for people. And who would want to be there anyway with so much concrete and asphalt? Is this a better way to live?

And now it seems we have used up so much of the petroleum – and apparently we’re determined to keep doing it until it’s impossible to keep going, either because it’s too expensive or not available. Do you ever wonder when that will be, and what we’ll do then? Will we wonder why we didn’t save some of it for other things, like growing food? And why it was that no one noticed we were running out? I still appreciate a nice machine, be it car or truck or SUV or tractor, it’s just that I have to put it in context with other things that are so much more important.

But keep in mind that we use over 8.5 million barrels of oil as gasoline a day just in the US. The world uses 80 million barrels of oil per day, and the US uses 20. In comparison to numbers that large, if you or I drive our gas pigs, it won’t really matter. The problem is beyond the capability of individuals to affect it, it would take programs on a national and international scale, and enormous amounts of time and money to change the infrastructure. There appears to be no sign of that happening, and it would have needed to start a decade ago. Blaming it on any one type of vehicle is like getting mad at someone for eating the last chip in the bag. We’ve all been using the oil for all of our lives – I’ve certainly used my share. Now I’m trying to figure out how to survive with a h3ll of a lot less of it.

 

[riptides]

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

In fun now, ready....

Here we go...

I cannot stand small cars, especially those so called hybrids. Small cars annoy me zipping in and around my SUV. They zoom up and disappear under my rear bumper only to reappear at a high rate of speed in front of me. If I was not courteous they would be under me, thank goodnes I have tires that, if I were to leave the pavement, would allow me to cross the median under control. I don't like those small cars clogging up our high-occupancy vehicle lanes either. HOV means more than one person in a car, driving more than 65mph. If you cannot keep up, get out of the way.
Plus, the whole darn downtown infrastructure seems to be built for small car parking, GAG. Give me my SUV and three people in it over four small cars clogging roads and parking anyday. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Like I said, in fun. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Now your welcome to hug my trees!
/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[tjkadar]

We're just trying to help raise the overall gas mileage of SUVs by drafting off of them. Because our gas mileage goes up, in effect, so does yours! That whole passing thing is just the slingshot momentum deal when ya'll start to slow down. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[JohnBoy45]

New News about SUV and trucks,

Truck and SUV sales plunge as gas prices rise.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9584404/

Terry