I find it quite interesting the level of animosity that liberals have towards SUVs. The bile spewed about “Gas hogging SUVs” is so rarely even applied to other cars that get low gas mileage (certain sports cars, cars old or in poor repair, etc) that one has to wonder why they’re so bitter?
It’s simple. In today’s society, SUVs are status symbols and stamps of wealth or affluence. Especially the larger ones. Liberals, by and large, hate people who have been financially successful (unless they’re liberal, of course) and the jihad against SUVs amounts to little more than veiled class warfare.
Take, for example, this logically void post from Richard Bradley at The Huffington Post. In order to “prove” his point, he offers this:
We’ve all seen this a hundred times: the cell-phone wielding driver at the helm of a Ford Explorer or GMC Yukon barrelling[SIC] down the fast lane at 80 miles an hour, riding other people’s rear bumper until they’re forced to switch lanes in a hurry. But if the driver of that SUV had to stop quickly, or take a sharp curve, he’d be much more likely to crash than, say, me in my Volkswagen.
You’ll want to keep matches and lit cigarettes away from that paragraph. Strawmen burn at an alarming rate. In order to draw a fair comparison with his sneeringly-described SUV driver, he would have to be driving his VW at 80, cell phone in hand, tailgating cars in the fast lane. Now… which one is safer? The appropriate answer to that question is “Safer for whom?” Because clearly the VW is safer for everyone else, but the SUV is far safer for the driver.
The VW is not safer because of a shorter stopping distance — – in fact, stopping distances tend not to increase dramatically with vehicle weight. As an example, a quick google showed a road test of a ‘03 VW Passat with a 60-0 braking distance of 124 feet. A Hummer H2 sits at about 141 feet. Now stopping distance is longer than that, but still… 16′ gives Bradley the right to get all self-righteous? And when you think about driving 80 MPH, you’re zipping along at about 120′/second… stopping distance in favorable conditions for 80MPH tends to run something on the order of 300-350 feet. If you toss in a one second reaction time, you’re talking well upwards of 400′ total stopping distance… now, how many situations are you going to be tailgating someone and have 450′ to stop? Does the number of situations go up drastically when you drop it down to 430′? Not really. Besides, that person’s stopping distance is probably close to the same as yours, so really the biggest factor, here, is whether or not you’re far enough away from the car in front of you to account for your own reaction speed.
The bottom line, here, is that Bradley is associating “SUV” with “rich, careless, suburbanite” and then erecting weak arguments to try to make his Jetta sound safer at speed than the gas-guzzling, eco-terror, neocon SUV. Being careless is dangerous in any vehicle, at any speed.
Maybe we ought to rate people’s reaction time in simulators and then give individual speed limits… so those with quick reactions are permitted to travel faster than the people who are going to take a few seconds to think about stopping before they step on the brakes.
Either that or we could do away with the speed limits on major highways and start giving people tickets for actually driving dangerously (which, might I add, someone can do just as well at 60MPH as they can at 80MPH).
Hmmm… I wonder what all those speeds are in km/hr or meters/second etc. It’s been a while since I’ve done the conversions.
i drove my brother in law’s escalade this past weekend. it was pretty hot.
Tell that cheap-ass to get some AC. I’d have thought that came standard.
Why spend money on Escalade when you can buy a better quality and fuel efficient Japanese made SUVs?
Maybe he drives a VW Touareg. Whopping 18 mpg.
You sound like a car commercial CK… I’m not entirely sure how you’re judging “quality”, either.
Further, I think you’d have to buy two japanese SUVs to get the same size SUV as an escalade.
I say we do away with speed limits all together. It would make everyone’s life much better.
Alot of hybrid SUVs get in excess of 30 MPG, which is better than my decently fuel-efficient, gas-only Toyota Solara “sports car”.
Now, I personally would not buy an SUV without having a good reason for the extra upkeep, like a family to carry around or knowing in advance I’d have to do alot of hauling stuff around (which I could do with a truck anyway). My car does just fine for everyday stuff.
suv’s are great… everybody has to move shit sometimes, or carry people around - and even if you didn’t have to do that stuff before, now you can and find you will more often. And, in my opinion, SUV’s are way more comfy than pick-ups, and much more car-y - so when you’re not hauling crap around, it’s basically just like having a giant car. Go SUV power. It would be nice if they were more fuel efficient, but in time, they probably will be. The only real downside is that its pretty tough to have one in a crowded city… parking, squeezing by, etc.
I’m carless at the moment, but when I came out to Indiana, my father gave me a lift in his Expedition - I was able to bring almost all of my crap. Compare: recently I’ve been buying some new stuff for my house I just moved into. My friend Cameron’s been helping me a lot - he has a Camaro… ever try to get a 27″ TV into a Camaro? Ever try to get anything into one?
Maybe I do Pete, that’s because I love talking about cars. And I seriously don’t see what’s so good about Escalade.
Well, CK, then this should be right up your alley… picking two SUVs at random…
Honda Pilot vs. GMC Yukon
Horsepower: 255 vs. 285
Torque: 250 vs. 295
Max Cargo: 90 vs. 104
Fuel Eff.: 17/22 vs. 16/20
Fuel Cap.: 20 vs. 26
Towing Cap.: 4500 vs. 5500
Advantage: Yukon
…and I believe the Escalade has better numbers than the Yukon, but I’m not sure about that.
Just because Yukon have more HP, more Torque, and more Towing Cap., doesn’t make Pilot the disadvantage one. The heavier your car is, the more fuel you will use. So I don’t see why Yukon has more advantage?
And according to “Consumer Guide”, Honda Pilot show as “CG Best Buy” vs. GMC Yukon as “CG Recommended. And you should never compare a mid-size car and a full-size car with each other, also one of the engine being V6 and one being V8.
If you want to compare something, you should also use the items on the same level. Like maybe Honda Pilot vs. Toyota 4Runner or Toyota Highlander.
Sounds like you might be starting to get my point CK.
The reason someone might want a Yukon, Escalade, etc… is because they’re bigger.
And having a heavier vehichle doesn’t necessarily mean worse fuel efficiency. To wit, the Yukon above is pretty much bigger in every dimension but is only one or two MPG less.
The Japanese need to stick to something they’re good at. Like cars.
haha… you’re pretty funny pete. we have a/c.. it must have been the seat heaters that made it so cozy.
So is it safe for me to say that all American people like everything big?
I don’t think it’s safe to say that “all American people” do anything.
The only thing you can really say is all americans like it their own way. That is why you find such a major variety of things such as vehicles. We have everything from compact cars to 4 door diesel pickup trucks. You go to other parts of the world and its as if all the cars seem to be made from the same base model.