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The SUV Is Dethroned
Wired's Autopia blog documents what we all knew was coming: rising gas prices have killed off the SUV. Auto industry watchers had predicted that the gas guzzlers in the "light truck" category would lose the ascendancy by 2010; no one expected their reign to end in a month, in the spring of 2008. Toyota, GM, Ford, and now Nissan have announced they will scale back truck and SUV production and ramp up that of smaller passenger cars. Of course there will always be a market for this class of vehicle, but its days on the top of the sales charts are done. "'All of our previous assumptions on the full-size pickup truck segment are off the table,' Bob Carter, Toyota division sales chief said last week during a conference call with reporters. Translation — we have no idea how low they'll go."
Still, I have to see it to believe it. The current generation of SUVs will inevitable end up in the hands of young drivers. Those will be even less aware of the extra dangers a SUV presents while being in traffic. The SUV craze will have a significant impact for the years to come.
I urge anyone who owns an SUV and/or considers buying one to read "Big And Bad" by Malcolm Gladwel.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
Not via regulation or per-category taxes that artificially manipulate, but by consumers adjusting their buying habits as costs change. If SUVs are too expensive to own, people will stop buying them and trade to more fuel-efficient vehicles. Is that really too crazy to ask?
Also interesting to see whether the trend of people sensing safety while in those large vehicles will continue... Not so easy to go back to sedans while there are so many dangerous SUVs (tanks) out there on the roads, eh?
--
Hey code monkey... learn electronics!
you can keep your prius and save enough gas so i can continue to run over baby seals with my H2.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
In having 2 Texas oil men (Bush & Cheney) running this country.
...good riddance.
>> Standing on head makes smile of frown, but rest of face also upside down.
I use my Ranger mostly as a commuter vehicle, but we need a truck for weekend projects like landscaping and hauling stuff. I'd never even consider commuting with a gas guzzler like an F-150.
I hope they figure this out before they close their last Ranger lines down.
John
Trucks and SUVs should have been the first vehicles to realize the slow gains of hybrid technologies. Who wouldn't want the extra torque in a vehicle sold on it's ability to tow? Would wouldn't want the ability to produce electricty on demand with optional factory inverter in a machine sold on it's ability work anywhere, play anywhere? And who wouldn't want to pay less at the pump thanks to a smart engine which turns off cylinders it doesn't need given the task at hand. The car companies, particularly American ones, didn't understand what wealth is, and didn't try to return it to their customers. At least the Japanese companies have the excuse of not understanding the peculiarities of the American lifestyle, and had to chase down a once booming economic segment of their market.
That the car manufactures executives don't owe shareholders money, much less recieve compensation at all, is an afront to anyone who's ever put in 15 minutes of honest work in their life.
I can't seem to remember where I found them, but I remember seeing a "trike" with two wheels in front and one behind. It was basically a motorcycle with a personal cabin that was AC cooled. Not bad looking.
I wouldn't mind driving one of those for my daily commute.
Life is not for the lazy.
The end of the SUV...being used as a soccer-mom's vehicle of choice, yes. And about time too. Of course, they won't go away anytime soon - lots of people actually do need a rigid-frame, 4WD vehicle (e.g. several hundred thousand Australian and NZ farmers). The right tool for the right job, as always!
http://www.teslamotors.com/
Over the last ten years cars have gotten so big, normal people can't ride their bikes on the same roads. A $5/gallon diet seems to be curing the problem.
The SUV is the end result of American car maker plans from the late 1960s. In order to keep their growth they had to sell larger, ever more expensive cars. The gas crisis of the mid 70s and air polution studies only partly derailed those plans. Regulation helped a lot. 20 years of cheap gas followed by corrupt government and import restrictions gave us the SUV craze. Further corruption gave us really expensive gas, which is going to solve the problem.
Further regulation is needed to avoid the inevitable resurgence of these monsters. We all deserve better road safety and air quality.
I am a name troll of Westlake. Visit my homepage to learn why.
All these companies have to do is change them over to a serial hybrid esp for trucks. The reason is that the serial hybrid is perfect for working as a generator. A construction worker can drive to the job site and then use their batteries/hybrid as power for the job sites.
My guess is that one of these companies will get smart and soon deliver just this. It should have enough batteries to last at least 10-20 miles and 2 small generator-motors. The reason for 2 is that the likelihood of 2 motors dying are slim. And only one would be needed to cruise a truck with load. From a business POV, it would make sense to buy these if they could reduce their delivery costs or have dual use on them. From the automakers POV, the 2 small generators-motors may be the exact type that is going in their cars. IOW, fewer number of unique parts. Heck, the truck could use 2 motors identical from 1 taken from a car hybrid.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Destruction derbies are going to be so awesome in a couple months time, once value of the bigger SUVs drops to scrap value. They still have those things, don't they? I always saw them advertised on TV when I lived in Alabama in the 80's.
Ryan Fenton
Okay, twitter, let me see if I can follow your logic:
The problem was caused by government, government, and then government. Demonstrating the common affliction of irrational faith in government, your solution is now more government!
I never realized that I was psychic, but how could Detroit not have seen this coming?
Up here in the Great White North it's been a constant barrage of news stories: truck plants closing unexpectedly in Ontario, tens of thousands out of work. Apparently neither GM nor Ford actually anticipated a) fuel prices rising this high and b) consumers actually (gasp!) shopping for fuel economy as a result. Almost as if the 1970s never happened.
The other interesting thing is that hybrids are just about sold out entirely in western Canada. Months long waiting lists. Not so surprising, as I'm sure the auto industry never produced *that* many compared to regular cars. What is surprising is that Honda Civics are also sold out all over the place.
All of this followed by nightly news stories of these poor SUV drivers who are scrambling to replace their vehicles - only to discover the resale is next to nothing (I heard a report claiming used SUV prices are down 30% in the past month or two alone), and smaller vehicles are getting hard to find. Again, DUH. Economists, the oil industry - damn near everyone has been predicting this for YEARS. Everyone except the auto industry. I hope Ford and GM go bankrupt for their shortsightedness.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
I'm not surprised. For the month of May '08, the Honda Civic dethroned the Ford F-150 as the best selling U.S. vehicle. The F-150 was the best selling vehicle in the U.S. for the past 17 years.
Ford saw it's SUV and truck sales drop a whopping 44% last month. That's huge.
Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
What's the point of an SUV to drive through the city? That's like buying a sports car to drive a few blocks in a crowded city. The machine (SUV) was built for the purpose of being a sports utility vehicle. If you need large passenger seating, there are minivans. If you need to haul load, there are trucks. If your commuting, there are sedans and compacts.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
Larger government only makes more holes for corruption to hide in. Laws in this way are a lot like computer code, the more complex they become the more places bugs can hide.
If you want to cut down on corruption, simplify the laws and reduce the role of government.
Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
Here's a list of government problems, mostly anti-trust issues and corporate welfare:
Regulation that makes sense:
The contnued availability of cheap cars from Japan show that the technology to do all of the above has been around for more than 30 years and it's not terribly expansive. Instead of promoting such things, government has been busy supporting companies that rip us all off. That's a crime.
I am a name troll of Westlake. Visit my homepage to learn why.
...which is why they spent so much money in the 1990's developing the hybrid, when all the other car manufacturers thought they were nuts. There's a lot to be said for long-term thinking, which is partially why they are mopping the floor with the detroit automakers in so many areas.
US petrol prices are not all that high compared to other western countries. Its just that US made cars are not effecient.
"Go into the hall of mirrors and have a bloody hard look at yourself" - HG Nelson
-- $_='ab-bc ratvarre';tr"'a-z'"'n-za-m'";print
In the long run gas prices can do nothing but rise; that is unless and until we find a better replacement. Eventually we will reach peak oil and prices will increase and increase because demand will still be going up but all of a sudden supply starts going down. We will reach peak oil probably in my lifetime and there are people who predict that we have reached it already (no one really knows how much oil is in the ground.)
I guess I am worried that the current high price may in part be due to people speculating that we have reached peak oil (or that at least supply can no longer match demand.) If people buy oil futures in speculation of an oil shock that may not be as big as expected then prices will fall again.
If prices fall then people might go back to old habits and then when they rise again people might just expect prices to drop again like it did in 2008.
I guess I am hoping for a nice steady rise so we can switch to renewable sources as quickly as and painlessly as possible. Of course if we were to pass regulation to encourage a switch to a better energy source before we reach peak oil then we would make the transition a lot less painfully than we would if we just wait for peak oil and then let the market force the change. Yes the free market will make sure that eventually we will all be using renewable resources. The only question is what will the economy be like by then? Will we have a middle class at all at that point? The sooner we get to work ending the oil age and going on to something better then the better off we will all be in the long run.
I'm not sure if you are trolling or not...
But, you didnt say "why" you need an SUV, "gf and her two kids", so i assume that makes 4 people... whats wrong with a car or a mini-van? you can fit more crap in a mini-van than an XTerra or Escalade, and you arent wasting your gas driving two useless wheels and the extra drivetrain, plus you can usually fit longer things in them, like plywood, and ladders and still have 4 seats usable.
Has Netcraft confirmed this yet?
Irony: Using a sock-puppet account to complain about other people's dishonesty.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Where does the environment fit in? All that burned gas produces a lot of CO2. CO2 is bad, but not immediately so. Your free market won't save you or your kids from cancer.
In a perfect world, the free market is a pretty good idea. In a world where most of the inhabitants are irresponsible, arrogant and self-centered assholes, it just doesn't work that well.
An anarchist who supports big government... Next up, a vegan espouses the virtues of pork chops.
Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
No regulation is needed. The market responded. They very well could come back as oil companies develop the Bakken Valley. Even with increased demand, we have new technology to get to oil that we couldn't get to before.
Besides, who are you to say who drives what? I really hate someone telling me what to do with my money on completely legal activities.
But cmon, they are still the safest for the people inside
Really? I've driven a few. They almost universally have a large placard, big and obvious, on the driver side sun screen panel: "This vehicle has a high risk of roll over, resulting in serious injury or death." I've seen an SUV flip on the highway right in front of me when the driver attempted to pass another car at high speed. The resulting wreck was most likely not survivable.
"But it's better if somebody crashes into you." I've got a better idea. How about we stop driving like a bunch of fucking morons? Is it really that hard to NOT CRASH INTO SHIT? Maybe somebody should take your license.
Well, I live in Highlands ranch, CO but need to transport at times 7 ppl, or 4 ppl and 3 dogs. In addition, need to be able to drive nicely in the snow and up in mountains. And I do need to haul large loads around as well as doing a bit of trailering. And we do not want to have several cars as it will mean more in costs than 1 car and rental is out of the question. Exactly what do you recommend?
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
A crossover is not, in fact, an SUV, hence the name change. It's not just marketing.
A crossover is build on a sedan chassis and is based on a passenger car. It is lighter, and by virtue of the car engines, more fuel efficient. SUVs are built on a light truck frame, frequently using ridiculous engines far beyond what would be necessary for that weekly grocery run.
Crossovers are the answer to people who like the style or configuration, or who might need to carry large loads from Home Depot or the local garden center, but who want better ride, handling, and fuel efficiency.
Those little Honda deals and compact SUVs were never really SUVs to begin with--that was marketing. If the market has moved on to crossovers rather than SUVs, then yes, they are dead, and a crossover is not nearly as obnoxious. It's the trendy replacement for the minivan.
I find the economics of this sudden SUV abandonment to be completely absurd. First of all, no one wants them. Second, everyone who has one suddenly wants out of it. So the economic answer is of course that the bottom falls out and they sell for pennies on the dollar.
Very few people are actually doing the math.
One thing that is important to understand: GM, Ford, and Chrysler have been selling these things with 0% financing and allowing 0% down for some time now. As a buyer, taking this offer is a good idea, even if you can afford to pay cash. Most people can't though, and the financing is the only thing that allows them to afford the vehicle.
As we all know, any new car depreciates the moment you drive it off the lot. So everyone taking these 0%/0-down deals is upside-down on their vehicle on day one. (Whereas someone with a "traditional" car loan where 20% of the money or so was used as a down payment would still be right-side-up on day one).
Now you have the current energy crisis on top of it, and a sudden spike of 30% in gas prices has eroded another 30% of equity for a guy who wasn't right-side-up to begin with.
Small cars are hot now, and they're in shorter supply. So manufacturers don't need to offer 0% loans on them.
So here's what the idiots do: sell the SUV at any price, get a smaller car. Eat the negative equity. Go from a 0% loan into a 6% loan.
Example:
You have a 2007 Chevy Tahoe. It gets 17mpg city/highway combined according to the new 2008 EPA numbers. 1 year old, 0% loan on $40,000 for 5 years. You've paid back $8,000, owe $32,000. It's worth $20,000 on the market if you're lucky. $12,000 in negative equity there.
Buy a 2008 Honda Accord, 4 cylinder. EPA combined mileage = 24mpg.
According to the fueleconomy.gov site, the Tahoe will cost $3475/year @ 15k miles per year. The Accord will be $2464/year. So it will take roughly TWELVE YEARS or 180,000 miles to overcome the negative equity alone. Heaven forbid we include sales tax and depreciation on the new vehicle into the equation.
Even if you bought a Prius (46mpg, $1282/yr) it'd take 65k miles, or 5.5 years, to make up the difference.
Moral of the story: keep the gas guzzler.
What has *science* done?!? -- Dr. Weird (ATHF)
The vehicles themselves be mothballed, stored someplace in the Mojave or Sahara and gradually be released to market over many decades.
Many items on a car deteriate with time, not miles driven. The paint weathers and peels, the rubber dries and cracks, the batteries sulfate, the flexible fuel system parts varnish, harden, crack, leak, etc.
The truth shall set you free!
You're confusing simplicity with brevity. While there is overlap, they are not equivalent.
Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
I haven't read all the posts, so even if it's been posted or not, the following deserves note -- we waste more fuel via poor technique versus whether there are or are not too many SUVs out there on the roads.
I can drive most peoples car for a week and get 25-35% better mileage by technique. If I told you you could get 25-35% better mileage with a doo-dad that cost 100$, I'd be rich.
But people don't like to be told how to drive. Oh, sure, they'll pay 75$ for a half-hour with the club pro in order to drop one or two strokes a round, but if you could save them $500 a year on fuel (or a half-hour or more in their time, per day), few want to listen.
Crazy, indeed.
Just remember -- Anyone going slower than you is an idiot; anyone going faster is a maniac.
----
I drive a 5.7L V8 SUV and get "book" mileage - or better - out if it, reliably. This on a 210K mile motor. And I only need brakes every 60K miles or so (this is with a 2 1/2 ton truck). Technique works.
-- Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
Agreed -- I'm looking forward to being able to buy one now. I couldn't convince myself it was worth paying out 20K even for a decent used one, but now that I could get one for 10-15 hell yes I'll buy one.
It's an interesting observation of human behavior that back the Bush Administration was first starting to do these big government / cronyism / erosion of civil rights / foreign occupation things⦠which are truly not in our best interest, these small government conservatives were virtually silent. Now that the administration is unpopular and it's looking like there will be a historic republican failure in the 2008 elections theyâ(TM)ve come out of the woodworks with their complaints.
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
> If you want to cut down on corruption, simplify the laws and reduce the role of government.
...) than the USA, that still score lower on corruption? (hint: scandinavia, central europe, ...)
Huh? Have a look at this map linked from this page. See the many countries with a "larger government" (= real social welfare, good public schools,
Apparently, you haven't heard of the concept of "Rapture".
There is more to it for a handful of us. I commute in a 1996 2WD Ford F150 inline-6 300. It is a nice compromise for me as a daily driver because the inline-six gets pretty good mileage yet retains MASSIVE torque for towing and hauling. As a helpful person, I almost always stop for stranded people for problems ranging from flat tires to mud or snow entrapment. I keep rope, straps and chains as well as a jack and a set of tools in my truck. My in-laws laugh at me because I have a rotating orange strobe light mounted on it, but I would rather be laughed at then ironed out on the highway. Also, people automatically assume that you are important and/or belong when you have a flashing light on your truck. Cops wave you through and people pull over to let you by.
Friends and family that own gas-sipping little munchkin cars are constantly enlisting my services as a man who owns a functional truck. Whether they are moving, cleaning out a basement or hauling a load of firewood, they all know who to call... the man with the truck.
I also own a 1979 Ford Bronco with a 351m bored over 20 with a 850CFM Holley Truck Avenger carburetor, snorkel and smokestack sitting on DANA-60's, 36" SuperSwampers and air-auto-lockers, lifted etc., rigged for both plow and tow. It gets about six miles to the gallon. The floorboards are above the average knee, and if I am careful, I can drive it pretty much anywhere (got to watch out for little efficient cars). It is mainly a toy, A MONSTER TRUCK!1!11!!, but once again, it has special abilities that are needed:
We have had A LOT of HORRIBLE FLOODING here in Indiana, surpassing our record from 1913. DHS, National Guard, Marines, Coast Guard and every available resource have been chucked into the disaster maelstrom that is flooded Indiana. The nearest competition for my Bronco is a fire truck or a Caterpillar when it comes to submerged mobility. That big fat bastard gleefully contributed to global warming all the way down to Franklin, to Martinsville, and to rural points south as we teamed up to get people out of the water. Nobody can see your carbon footprint under five feet of water, septic runoff and synthetic flotsam. None of the people in the little bed of the bronco seemed to mind the CO2 streaming from my exhaust stack.
Everybody hates a truck owner, until:
(a) it snows a lot
(b) it floods
(c) they are moving
(d) they drive into a ditch
(e) they need a truck but only have a little munchkin car
My father also uses his powers and torques for good in his 2004 Chevrolet Tahoe. He was down there with me, in the muck, but his new-fangled electronics cannot withstand submergence. His next purchase will he the Tahoe Hybrid, which outperforms its predecessor in torque and horsepower. These new trucks cannot replace their predecessors, though, because they are too complex and fragile.
That said, any 4WD owner that does not use his extraordinary capability as part of the solution--is part of the problem. Soccer moms must die.
Some of the rudest drivers I have ever encountered were in munchkin hybrids. The rest of them were women driving SUVs.
FairTax baby!
"Those of us who own and *use* SUVs can generally afford the gas anyway."
Lookup "supply and demand", and then tell me what happens when someone consumes too much of a limited resource. Hint: The price of said reasource begins to skyrocket, impacting everyone.
Translation: You're driving up prices for those who CAN'T afford it.
"Too many hot rod kids out there driving like assholes."
They're not the only ones, apparently.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
I think there's a nice futurama episode that sums up my opinion on suv's: Farnsworth, upon creating a variant of Bender for Mom's corp, complained that it's not fuel efficient, that it damages the environment and that it won't pass current regulations for robots. The big corporate overlord/lady promptly replied: "We'll market it as a sport utility robot." Go Bender, buy a suv.
OK, if you have a huge trailer to haul around on a regular basis, you might need a big engine. But, for the daily commute, I would make the case that 100-120 HP is enough to power a standard-sized sedan. This means an engine displacement of 1.6-2.0 liters, not the huge 3 liter engine that you often see in American sedans. My moderately-sized French-made station wagon has a 1.6 liter engine, giving me a fuel consumption of 0.07 l/km (it's a 2000 model, a newer one would probably be 0.06 or even 0.05 l/km) - this is 47 mpg in US terms. No need for hybrids, just moderately sized standard diesel or gasoline engines.
These are automotive hard times. Rising costs of fuel, not being able to drive the heavy but "save" tanks. Where will it end?
So I had to come up with a cunning plan for my next car. Nowadays it has to be light. Much lighter than SUVs. Say around 1'250 lbs.
And it must suit a geek well. And be fast when required by rising testosterone levels.
So I went for one of these. As a kit of course with 210 bhp and a mere 1'250 lbs.
Soon I will be much greener than most of you. Well much faster anyway.
Not shitting you guys I had the money to burn and the geek will to build.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
The problem with simply allowing the free market to decide the prices of things that are critical to the infrastructure of living (since gasoline/diesel is used in the transportation of ALL goods and services) is that those that "have", have the result of inflating ALL prices because they deplete supply through excess and inflate prices for everyone. There should have been some sort of additional tax on gas guzzlers beside just the incremental additional fuel costs. Those taxes could have been used to subsidize the cost of fuel used by more fuel efficient vehicles. THEN, the "free market" would have decided years ago that a 4 person family didn't need a gas guzzling SUV to haul the kids around town. Years of gas gluzzers has left the United States with an inventory of vehicles that will remain on the roads and will continue to make not just gas but all goods and services that much more expensive for the rest of us even though most SUV owners can afford $4 or $5/gallon gas. It's just that there's a lot of the other folks out there that can't afford the higher prices of that other "staple" called food.
The thing that makes SUVs so dangerous is that all that torque and traction is totally out of proportion with the rest of the handling (ie. there isn't any). You swerve it, you flip. You brake ... and ... wait .... those 6000lbs take an awful long time to stop.
This is why so many SUVs go off the roads every time it snows. 4WD means you can accelerate well so you scoot along the freeway pretty much as normal. First sign of trouble, you've got nothing. No brakes, no steering, so guess what happens next...?
No sig today...
I would like to suggest a scenario where large SUV'S could be really beneficial to the single males out there. Lets assume that we have a Ford dealer in town that is overstocked with, say V10 Excursions that get about 7 MPG. Let's also assume that this dealer has an attractive female sales person. Thirdly, let us assume that you are a single male, that being a Slashdot geek does not do so well in meeting females of fun and games at the local bar scene.
...... in the VIP area of a strip club.
Customer: WOW! I am interested in one of those big powerful giant size SUV's that you have lined up, out there.
Cute lady salesperson: Oh, really? Are you really interested in buying one?
Customer: Well, maybe, can we go for a test drive?
Cute lady salesperson: Sure!
{ while on the test drive }
Customer: Gee, I like this, but with gas the way it is, how can you convince me to buy this rolling tribute to oil companies?
I will leave the rest to your imagination, however from a strict probability assessment, I think the customer has a better chance of some adult fun in this encounter, than say
So, like I said, SUV's have their uses.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
>And where I grew up, thinking solely of your own needs with no regard
>whatsoever for how it might impact others was considered to be a 'might selfish.
Firstly, I don't own a SUV.
When I buy a car, the sole consideration is _me_.
It's _my_ money to buy it, it's going to be _my_ money to make it go. Thus when I buy a car it's going to do exactly what I want it to do, within the limits of my pocketbook and the law.
If I want to buy a car because it looks cool, that's my prerogative. If I want to buy a car because it's bigger and more likely to protect me in a crash, that's my prerogative. If I want to buy a car because it can go off-road even though I will never drive it there, that is my prerogative.
When other people start helping me pay my car bills, I'll start considering their opinions about what to buy.
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
My kids have more disposable income than I do to pay for the gas :-(
Dropping 2nd hand value doesn't really bother me because I have no intention of selling it before it dies. I can't afford the $35K to replace my tow vehicle with something acceptable to you and its replacement won't get that much better mileage. We've done the math and it doesn't make any sense to replace it with a smaller more fuel efficient vehicle when you take into account the payments and extra insurance. Add to that the environmental cost of a new vehicle and you have almost no justification to replace. I'll keep my gas sucking pig thank you very much. Yeah, it is the last car to leave the driveway but everyone likes driving it and the thing is pretty handy.
It was just over eight years ago that Slashdotters and LinuxPPC users came out in massive support for me when a drunk driver in a Chevy Tahoe tried to kill me. I still have the folder full of cards you sent -- it's half a foot thick! Thanks. :-)
- Jason.
-- haaz.
That's odd... When I look at the ncap ratings, SUVs (particularly and especially older ones) do not get the highest ratings. While they are commonly perceived to be safer, that does not seem to be the case.
Those who own SUVs are welcome to them - they will finally be paying something closer to the true economic cost of owning and operating them. I do not think it is necessarily true that SUVs are safer for the occupants, or for the people on the other end of the collision...
*** Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?
There are 2 type of people posting on this thread. One type is who are against people buying Fuel guzzlers when they don't need them. The other type are those who just have an agenda against any vehicle thats not a sedan/hatch/minivan. You belong to second category. for example CRV. It gives 23mpg as compared to honda accord which gives 24mpg. In all respects its a very good handling safe vehicle with crumple zones and ample safety. But still you label the owner as trying to prove something. By your logic anybody who buys a good looking/butch looking/non VW beetle looking vehicle is trying to compensate for something/trying to tackle midlife crisis guy. Thats not the case. The problem is that America still buys a lot of "I am a truck but I will call myself a SUV" vehicles. There are lot of monoque chasis construction all time AWD crossovers which are good looking, offer a higher seating position, handle well, and give good gas mileage(Atleast better than minivans)
My Aurora : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91ZsGwJYyg
FB : https://www.facebook.com/TanveersPhotography
The problem with bikes is, they are too fast for the sidewalks, and too slow for the streets.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
Personally, I expect the price for gas to hover in the $2.50 to $3.25 range for the next decade. Of course that was the price when I purchased my hybrid, so I don't expect the light truck category to have the popularity it did have, but sales will pick up again (unfortunately).
The grass is only greener, if you don't take care of your own lawn.
...consumption isn't all that low - I own an 800CC sport-bike, not a fuel efficient low CC commuter and have never got lower than 42mpg in the city.
... don't look forward to arriving all drenched at work - I drive in a climate that rains an average of 150 days a year. I wear full protective water proof gear like the 6 other guys I work with who ride every day and stay very dry and warm.
...feel safe surrounded by steel cage - Exactly the kind of responses made by the guzzling SUV drivers or big a$$ american cars that they feel safer with all that extra unnecessary metal and weight
...not practical to strap 2 kids, a wife - that's what the family car is for. Driving the family and extra passengers, not for commuting. I'm saving as much in gas over driving the family car to more than cover the payments (if I had them) and insurance on the motorcycle.That's odd... When I look at the ncap ratings, SUVs (particularly and especially older ones) do not get the highest ratings. While they are commonly perceived to be safer, that does not seem to be the case.
Well that's because a lot of the tests assume a direct head-on collision, obviously the kind the GP was thinking about. But most impacts are somewhat oblique, where the impact vector is not directly aligned with the SUV's center of mass. And then their high center of mass works against them, the forward momentum becomes lateral momentum and the bastards flip over like nobody's business.
Once more of the auto testing started to incorporate this kind of test (Europe has been doing this for a long time I understand), and once actual accident reports started being accounted for, the alleged safety of SUVs vanishes. But the memory of how safe they are, and the overly simplistic big=safe equation, continue to exist as common beliefs.
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And by leg room and cabin space, they are all still drastically inferior to my 20-year-old Volkswagen Vanagon.
But that doesn't really have anything to do with the argument you're making, it's just me being bitter because manufacturers chasing higher profit margins flooded the market with space-inefficient front-engine, front-wheel-drive designs based on sedan chassis. Anybody wanting something with a stronger chassis had no choice but an even more space-inefficient SUV, which also only came into existence because it leveraged truck production capacity, not because it was a sane design for a utility vehicle.