Once again if someone wants to communte and get groceries in a Hummer that is their choice. Why should they buy a Civic or any other small car? A person can buy whatever they WANT and can drive it whenever they want.
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Hummers why?
- Thread starter Fearless Leader
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Once again if someone wants to communte and get groceries in a Hummer that is their choice. Why should they buy a Civic or any other small car? A person can buy whatever they WANT and can drive it whenever they want.
That doesn't look very safe. No matter what it gets hit by.
My dad for a little over a year drove his Discovery 75 miles to work and 75 miles back home.
That's fine as long as we are talking about cars, but switch the topic to adult novelties and my backdoor and I'd have a serious problem with that statement.
Now that ultra-low sulphur diesel is becoming standard in the US, I would really like to see more diesels...the Japanese and European car manufacturers could bring them straight over here with little or no modification. The fuel economy is great and their torquiness makes them perfect for trucks and SUVs. There's no excuse not to use them IMHO.
Fuel cost? We get some of the cheapest fuel on the planet. Damage to the road? SUVs can hardly damage most roads, since roads where I come from are designed to be used by semi-trucks that weigh 20 times as much as any SUV, as well as heavy snow plows.
you have a lot to learn about road design. Everything is converted to an 18,000 load by different factors so there is a standard to use for the design. from there it is based on the daily number of these 18kip loads going on the road and the road life time. SUV weight more than cars so SUV will do more damage to the road when they drive over it. PLAN AND SIMPLE and there is no argue around that point.
Also fuel cost is controlled by supply and demand. SUV increase the demand for fuel which in turn increase the cost per gallon for everyone.
Both the things I stated are simple facts.
So I think SUV should be held to the same standard as cars for gas mileage and if they can not meet it they get the gas guzzler tax. There is not anything wrong with it that way. Just all vehicle that can be driving by some one with a class C licenses are held to the same standard. If you want the larger vehicle you just have to pay the tax on it.
Alas you do not understand the English (or Welsh) work ethos here.
It snows, you stay home
Its too hot, you stay home
It rains, you stay home
leaves on the rail track...you stay home
One of the advantages of living in a temperate clime
Anyhow have you ever tried parking a US size SUV in a British parking space. You may brave the snow, but you get your head kicked in for scratching someones prized Fiat Panda in the next parking space
Alas you do not understand the English (or Welsh) work ethos here.
It snows, you stay home
Its too hot, you stay home
It rains, you stay home
leaves on the rail track...you stay home
Anyhow have you ever tried parking a US size SUV in a British parking space. You may brave the snow, but you get your head kicked in for scratching someones prized Fiat Panda in the next parking space
So, if I follow your logic...to get rid of SUVs, we'd need to import Fiat driving football hooligans and the problem will solve itself.
When I first saw this I was like, hummers are great because:
a) theres no chance of pregnancy, and b) vibrations rule!
But now I see I again am out of place in a thread so, I best be hittin the ol' dusty trail...
a) theres no chance of pregnancy, and b) vibrations rule!
But now I see I again am out of place in a thread so, I best be hittin the ol' dusty trail...
So, if I follow your logic...to get rid of SUVs, we'd need to import Fiat driving football hooligans and the problem will solve itself.
Works in Europe... thats why they won't let us carry firearms
Sorry I'm being facetious....just make your parking spaces smaller that will stump em
Yep, I thought in that direction also ... and the thread would likely be more peaceful with that oral spin on Hummers.
They are. They are called crossover SUV's. There SUV's based on a unibody platform unlike SUV's using the traditional Body on Frame design The Highlander, all of Honda's "trucks", the Equinox, Acadia, RAV4, etc are crossovers. They get better fuel economy too. The GMC Acadia for instance. It is the size of the Tahoe roughly. The Tahoe gets 16/22 with 2WD and 15/21 4WD. The Acadia FWD gets 18/26 and AWD 17/24. GM though is adding there 2 mode hybrid system to the Tahoe, Suburban, etc which was co-developed with DaimlerChrysler and BMW. The Two-Mode system makes the Tahoe more fuel efficient, BUT it retains its capabilities. So it can tow 7700 lb still.
Personally, at this point in my life, I don't have a need for an SUV. We currently own a VW Passat (back from the shop- yay!) and a Pontiac Sunfire. So naturally when my inlaws came into town on a two-week stay we needed something with more than just 3 seats (me, wife & baby) I had to borrow my mom's Tahoe just to get everything home from the airport. I hated driving it... felt like I was leaning over the front end and didn't feel "connected" to the road. But it was a necessity at that point.
I'm also really surprised at how much my passat is really able to hold, though. My sister-in-law came in last friday and we had to drive from the apt. to the house (86 miles). In addition to the 4 of us, we had her luggage for a week's stay, the baby's stuff (portable crib included) the dog and our own luggage, including pillows and blankets. Surprisingly, we had plenty of room left over.
Now if we had more than 1 kid at this point, we'd need something bigger, which is why we're looking at an SUV... but not one of those huge monstrosities. I'm trying to talk my wife into something a little smaller, like an Escape. It has more storage space than either of the cars (we'd sell the pontiac ) but still gets decent gas mileage 23/26 est.
I'm also really surprised at how much my passat is really able to hold, though. My sister-in-law came in last friday and we had to drive from the apt. to the house (86 miles). In addition to the 4 of us, we had her luggage for a week's stay, the baby's stuff (portable crib included) the dog and our own luggage, including pillows and blankets. Surprisingly, we had plenty of room left over.
Now if we had more than 1 kid at this point, we'd need something bigger, which is why we're looking at an SUV... but not one of those huge monstrosities. I'm trying to talk my wife into something a little smaller, like an Escape. It has more storage space than either of the cars (we'd sell the pontiac
) but still gets decent gas mileage 23/26 est.
I'm a collections officer so I get to talk to a LOT of people that drive SUVs. In my work experience I have enountered many SUV purchases driven by conspicuous consumption. I talked to one fellow that financed an H2 and was having troble making the payments due to the high cost of gas. I asked him what kind of commute he had. His response-100 mile round trip every day, five days a week. After my mind finished reeling, I asked why he would finance such a vehicle for that sort of daily driving. His response was, "The salesman told me how cool I would look." No thought was given to the financial impact this vehicle would have on him, just how much attention he would get. There are many other people that got themselves into deep trouble because they bit off way more than they could chew.
In my personal experience I have been in numerous near accidents involving SUV drivers. In each case it was the other drivers fault. In some case the SUV driver was able to brake or turn just in time. In most cases it was only my own reaction that prevented disaster. One example-I was driving home from work in a snow storm. I had the right of way driving thru and intersection when I was nearly Tboned by the driver of a Navigator. Luckily there were no other cars on the road. I was able to swerve out of the way and keep my car from sliding off the road. The other driver just kept plowing ahead, without even a wave out the window. There was another time when I was almost hit head on by an SUV driver. I avoided her, her reaction to the near accident was to throw up her hands defensively.
I have no beef with people that can afford them, nor with those who drive them responsibly. My problem is with the people that feel they have the right to run me off the road because their vehicle is bigger than mine. I understand that this behavior is not limited to SUV drivers. However, I admit to being much more frightened by a 7000 pound SUV than a coupe/hatchback .
In my personal experience I have been in numerous near accidents involving SUV drivers. In each case it was the other drivers fault. In some case the SUV driver was able to brake or turn just in time. In most cases it was only my own reaction that prevented disaster. One example-I was driving home from work in a snow storm. I had the right of way driving thru and intersection when I was nearly Tboned by the driver of a Navigator. Luckily there were no other cars on the road. I was able to swerve out of the way and keep my car from sliding off the road. The other driver just kept plowing ahead, without even a wave out the window. There was another time when I was almost hit head on by an SUV driver. I avoided her, her reaction to the near accident was to throw up her hands defensively.
I have no beef with people that can afford them, nor with those who drive them responsibly. My problem is with the people that feel they have the right to run me off the road because their vehicle is bigger than mine. I understand that this behavior is not limited to SUV drivers. However, I admit to being much more frightened by a 7000 pound SUV than a coupe/hatchback .
Most of those smaller "crossovers" are considered "wussy" by a lot of SUV buyers. Also, the Acadia/Enclave/Outlook is not the size of a Tahoe, but rather the smaller Trailblazer and Trailblazer-based trucks. The Tahoe and Suburban are much larger (especially wider), and ride on Silverado frames.
Also, the Tahoes have the ability to go into 4x4 mode which the Acadias do not. That is significant for a lot of buyers as well. GM also has said that the new Acadia platform is unsuitable for any sort of 8 cylinder, which means there is always going to be a market for Tahoe/Suburban sized trucks from GM.
Just goes to show that there is a reason and place for everything. Acadias and the crossovers are not intended as replacements for the traditional large American SUV, but rather to give the (majority of) people who do not need full-size SUV features a more appropriate-to-their-task SUV option.
Rodimus Prime said:
Fair enough, although I plead ignorance on the "converted to 18,000 load by different factors" bit
Rodimus Prime said:
It's also a fact that there are a heck of a lot of cars on the road that get similar gas mileage to SUVs. Where are you going to draw the line? Anyway we still pay much less for fuel than just about everyone else, I think it's selfish to demand cheaper fuel when we alread pay so little. I think the problem lies more with how much we drive and how many cars we own, not the efficiency of the cars per se.
Rodimus Prime said:
I basically agree...many people use pickup trucks and vans commercially but SUVs should be considered a passenger vehicle rather than a truck, even the ones that weigh over 6,000lbs. They would then be forced to comply with the more stringent regulations that pertain to cars.
The Acadia is somewhere in between the TB EXT and Tahoe size in length at least. That is why I said roughly the size of the Tahoe. I don't think many SUV buyers really care about the ability to go into 4WD or not. Plus, AWD is better for the snow then 4WD. Where did you hear that the Lambda platform was incapable of holding a V8? I have been hearing differently from a person at a GM site saying the new Ultra V8( replacement for the Northstar) that the Acadia Denali and Enclave at least would get the FWD version of the Ultra V8. His sources have been very accurate so far.
Of course not, but I see nothing wrong in levying a 10% wasteful consumption tax on SUVs and those who insist on living far away from civilization. In part, I think, solely to justify their owning a SUV and to fulfill their john waynesque fantasy of living off the land.
The world simply can't survive the wastefulness of your actions. You'll pay in the future by having vehicles that have no value and a home for which there is no market. Pretend otherwise, but your "lifestyle" is doomed.
Weird... I have a Tahoe and I've been in a few Outlooks and I swear the Tahoe is significantly larger feeling. Again, just because a significant amount don't care about 4x4 doesn't mean that nobody cares - there will always be a market.
I'm pretty sure I heard Bob Lutz say no V8 in one of the Fastlane podcasts, though I could be wrong.
EDIT: Yes, that's exactly what he said in the January 1, 2006 podcast, but I forgot the "at this point" part of the "cannot accept any of our V8 engines" statement that he made.
Why the hell would you buy something you want, and not need? That doesn't make sense. My views as an enviormentalist are different then most, but I'm pretty sure most of us can agree (ideally)there is no point in having somthing you don't need. There are a few exceptions, but this is one place where one cannot be afforded.
Oil ain't gonna last forever, not to mention the pollution put out by burning it. So are you gonna leave a mess for your grandkids to clean up, or are you going to do something about it yourself?
Uh... I stopped using a car seat when I was three, and I've always ridden in the front seat.
True, sometimes one person in a big SUV is acceptable... as long as it's not like that all the time. If you find you are the only one in an 8 seater car more often then not, you need to downgrade, or at least have your own personal car, and leave the SUV to the big family outings.
Yeah, that's pretty pointless. Like someone else pointed out, you may feel safer with a big SUV, but what about the other people on the road? You being safer means they are less safe.
You're gonna have to comprimise somewhere.
Yes, there will always be a market for it. But, the majority of SUV drivers don't really care if it is AWD or 4WD. The Tahoe I believe is longer then the Acadia and wider. Looked up the dimensions. The Tahoe is 202" long, a 116" wheelbase, and 79" wide. The Acadia is 200.7" long, 118.9" wheelbase, and 78.2" wide. So they're pretty similar in size.
Did you eat paint chips as a kid?
J/KI would venture to guess that when you were 3, they didn't have passenger side air bags. When I was 3 they didn't even have seat belts in most cars.
I've seen parents pulled over and fined heavily for improper installation of the car seat. They really take it seriously here.