God d*mned SUVs

I agree wholeheartedly. Curiously, If it's "Peoples Republic of Cambridge,Ma." you refer to, That's exactly where I acquired my "Roadster fetish" as a young man. Triumphs everywhere, TR3's, Spifires, TR6's. They're were plenty of other roadsters also, some gorgeous long-hooded Austin Healey's I remember to this day. But I was partial to Triumphs. What goes around, comes around, I guess.

How about "Because we got it free via a 100% business tax writeoff"?

Oops, that's stupid government, not people. ;)

miker

I will make a guess on the reason. It is called fashion. Their neighbors and friends had one, gas was very cheap, and it let everyone see their trend-mobile in the driveway, because it probably didn't fit in the garage. I'll bet that it seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, they are lucky to get anything near the "value" of the vehicle back on a trade-in, and SUV's are not exactly commanding top dollars with private buyers either. Compare that to the long waiting list for electric hybrid cars. People thought that gas was going to stay at just over a buck a gallon forever. I do see a difference between the huge monstrosities and the "large, high-riding station wagons", as I call them, but I would still just rather have a station wagon if I needed to carry kids and cargo.

Pat

It's not, I'm in the original one in the Queen's Realm. Though I think the two are probably equally flat, aren't they.

On account of the high student population perhaps?

Eric

That might apply to you left-pondians, but not to us over here on the island. All the less reason for people to have one over here.

Erm... And the difference is??? ;-)

Eric

Gas (or petrol as we call it over here) has never been cheap so that one doesn't wash. The fashion part can be the only reason.

Too right, especially not the tiny garages you get over here.

From what I could see it was pretty new. Actually, come to think of it, he must have caught the SUV bug in the US: he said that he flies to the US regularly on business, so that was probably where he got the idea. Hopefully this accident will jack up his insurance premiums even more (they must be astronomical as it is - insurance for any decent-sized car in the UK is very expensive) and encourage him to get rid of the thing. Mind you, that doesn't completely remove it from the road, but at least it might be some form of discouragement.

Eric

I forgot that you live across the pond.

The effect of the gas price increase over here has been funny in a way. I don't like paying more myself, but it has not greatly impacted my lifestyle. With literally half of the vehicles in my area being pickup trucks and SUV's, the bitching about gas costs is constant and people are driving much slower in general when driving these behemoths, doing anything they can to delay the next $80.00 fillup.

It sounds like this guy has money, which lets him roll in a Hummer if he wants to. At least you are likely to get your car repair paid for. When I was hit from behind, it was much lesser but it did do damage and the driver had no insurance and a vehicle that barely ran.

Pat

Replied inline..

Cambridge, Ma. is quite "flat"

No doubt. We're talking Harvard, MIT, and a slew of other schools.

Can't tell you how many times I've gone out into a parking lot and haven't been able to find my car...walking around...looking...I know I parked right by here!...oh there it is...hidden between a Suburban and and Expedition.

My boss drives one of those monsters. I tell her we could save a lot of money if she'd just get a removable ramp and let me park my car in the back of her SUV for carpooling.

Oh!Oh! My other "Why I Hate SUV" problems? HEY! You! In the tank! Yeah, YOU. The one going 50mph on a 30mph residential street? Yeah, YOU. Did you really HAVE to drive through the water standing by the curb without slowing down so I feel like I'm going through a car wash when you heave that wave over the top of my car? ASSHOLE???

Truly though I think the worst thing about them is what that kind of mass and power does to the psychology of the driver. When you get behind the wheel of one of those things you feel invincable. Seriously. SUV drivers are the most aggresive drivers I've ever seen. I think they don't worry about getting in an accident because they're going to win that crash almost every time. And red lights? P'shaw.

Just think, Eric only has to deal with a small percentage of the SUV's that we do, especially in Texas.

If gas prices had been this high in the U.S when the silly things were introduced, the fad would have never taken off and Ford would not have been able to sell MILLIONS of those high-profit, unsafe, piece of crap Exploders to the masses of gullible buyers.

We talk about the large numbers of miatas that have been sold, Ford was selling over 400,000 Explorers a year for a long time. It is one of the most common vehicles of any type that I see on the road. The Chevy Suburban is not far behind.

Now these monster SUV's are a dying animal except to the people who make decent money, and it is worth the extra price at the pump for me to see it happen.

Pat

Hah, I like it :-)

Speaking of which - in my annoyance yesterday I spent some time Googling SUVs just to see what came up, and one interesting thing is that SUVs are, at least in California, actually illegal to drive in most residential areas

). Most residential roads apparently forbid trucks of 6,000 pounds or over to drive on them, and most SUVs are just larger than that in order to be eligible for the tax breaks. However, the law doesn't seem to be enforced for SUVs - which is a shame. Wouldn't it be nice if a lobby got together to force the law to be enforced? That would get rid of a few more.

Part of the Wikipedia entry

) made me snort: "SUVs also allow drivers to connect on an aesthetic level with the physical environment - by allowing owners to go off road, SUVs promote a greater value being applied to wilderness areas, an attachment difficult to gain through reading or simply seeing things on television."

Allow drivers to connect with the physical environment my heini. As you point out, people in SUVs are so ensconced by metal they have no idea of their surroundings whatsoever. If you want to go out in the wilderness in order to appreciate it then cycle or walk there, don't drive around in it in a tank.

Eric

Right, he must do, especially since the thing seemed to have all the extras and gadgets in the front as well.

I'm astounded by hearing all these stories of people driving in the US without insurance. In the UK I'm sure it happens but it's fairly challenging to do. In order for a car to be allowed on the road, it has to display a road tax sticker which has to be renewed every year. In order to get that sticker you have to provide evidence of insurance and MOT (the test that proves that the car is roadworthy). It *is* possible for there to be pockets of time in which one or the other has run out (e.g. the insurance might be up for renewal in August and you don't renew it and it doesn't come to light until you try to renew your road tax in October, or whatever) but in general I get the impression it's quite rare for a car/driver to be uninsured. Aren't there such mechanisms in the US to ensure drivers are insured?

Eric

No, it would get the law changed to 7,000 pounds (or whatever). SUVs are expensive, and their owners have clout. If SUVs were cheap, there'd be little attraction in driving one.

Odd thing is that in some places in the USA they **ALREADY HAVE BEEN BANNED!**, just these laws are routinely ignored by everyone. Most of California & Minneapolis restrict trucks of over 3 ton on residential streets. (An H1 hummer has a GVWR of over 5 ton, and hardly looks or operates like a car.)

It varies somewhat from state to state, but in Texas you need to show proof of insurance to have the car inspected, (your MOT), and to pay for the registration sticker each year, which I assume is similar to your road tax sticker. The car only has to be insured at that exact time for the stickers, however, so it is possible to get it insured for a short period of time, take care of the two annual requirements on the same day, and then drop the insurance for the rest of the year.

You can also simply let the insurance lapse or directly cancel anytime and you won't have a problem other than at sticker renewal time again unless you either get pulled over or get into an accident.

The insurance paper that you show the officer is a joke too. It can be a fax from the insurance company. This won't help in an accident, but any decent fake is not likely to be noticed by a cop unless something else is going on to make them suspicious. Scan your old one, change the date, print it out and away you go.

I heard that they will be changing this to a verifiable insurance system soon where they can tell if the car is truly insured as easily as they can tell if it is inspected. I hope so, even though the costs will be passed on to us as usual.

Doing this does carry a fairly large penalty if enforced, with probably an additional charge or two as well if you try deception with a fake document.

Pat

I have to disagree with that statement. $10,000 can get me into a 2001 Expedition, and I could even just barely handle the gas costs.

I am very far removed from anything resembling "clout". There are a LOT of very ordinary, middle-class Americans driving these monstrosities, they just did not buy them new for the most part.

Pat

You miss my point, Pat. Sure, folks buy used Cadillacs (Mercedes, BWMs, etc.), too, for much less than MSRP. For the same money, they could get a newer Chevy with many fewer miles on it, yet there's always a market for old Caddies. The only reason: perceived status. Even the poor can pretend they're rich, as long as they don't look too hard at the rust.

There is usually more to the "truck" definition for legal purposes other than GVWR. How many axles, how many tires, commercial use or not? The residential truck restrictions I've seen only applied to commercial trucks, though the signs only show the weight restriction.

I find it concerning that when only people's sensibilities are offended offer the solution of banning as an appropriate action in a democratic and capitalistic society and that such banning should apply to everyone whether they are perceived to need the item or not . Or that there is a test or criteria to determine if they need the item and should be allowed to have it. Not American-like thinking in my opinion.

Let's see: Married with no kids, regardless of age: banned from owning medium sized SUVs are larger. Married with two kids, 30-35 years of age. The state gives you permission to own an SUV no larger than medium.

Such thought offends my sensibilities, let me see what I can ban to control such thought.....

Heh, I think I gotcha that time around. You are correct as well, that monster SUV was very expensive when new, though here in Austin, I see so many $40,000 and $50,000+ vehicles that nothing except the most exotic cars really stand out. Austin is very much a have or have not place, like most of the country, but we do have a lot of wealthy people living here.

Pat