God d*mned SUVs

Eric Baber · 2006-09-19T07:59:13+00:00

WARNING: This post serves no purpose other than to rant and rave.Last night we went to our first antenatal class. Nice, small group (5 couples), all very friendly, how nice. As we all left I saw parked behind my MX5, back-to-back so to say along the curb, one of those ludicrously huge SUVs. I remember thinking to myself "Look at the size difference between our cars; I hope I never have a tangle with one of them". One of the other couples got into the monstrosity, started up the engine and - you guessed it - reversed right into the back of my car with a sickening crunch.They got out and were very apologetic. We had a look at the back and couldn't really see much damage to the bumper which seemed surprising because of the loud noise, but I said I'd look closer in the daylight and then let him know what the damage was. After we got home I thought about the scrape-marks on mybumper and thought they were odd: the main damage to the bumper was scrape marks on the top of my bumper. After thinking about it I thought that whatmight have happened was that due to the height difference of our two cars the underside of his bumper might have scraped against the top of my bumper,with his entire bumper then riding up mine and proceeding to smash against the actual back of my car into the license-plate panel, rather than the two bumpers colliding. I got out my flashlight and had a look, and sure enough, that's what had happened - there's a big crack in the license-plate panel, and only scrapes to the top of my bumper.I've always hated SUVs out of principle, because they're plain stupid vehicles, but now I have a personal grievance with them as well. They really should be banned; there's absolutely no reason why a mid-30s couple with no kids living in Cambridge which is as flat as a pancake should be driving such a monstrosity.Amen. Thank you for listening.Eric

Sep 19, 2006 45 Replies

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pws 19 years ago

Sorry to snip so much of your post. We agree on a lot there. I know that a miata, or any two-seater for that matter, is not good as an only car for a family. That said, my parents managed to raise 3 of us, all born within 5 years, without a SUV. I also remember a lot of home improvement projects.

They did get a custom van later, which I consider far superior to a SUV because it can actually hold something large. Try putting a full-sized washer and dryer in a SUV at the same time. It was great for partying in too. ;-)

Your Infinity FX is not a SUV by my definition. It has no real off-road capability and it shares far more similarities with a station wagon than it does with a truck. In other words, made for the street rather than for off-road, and it would handle better and get better gas mileage still if they had designed it to sit lower than it does. It has more curb clearance and under the body air gathering space than I need. I wouldn't mind having one, but I would call it my big station wagon.

No, you are more intelligent than that. It is also true that idiots will drive any vehicles, but I must admit, on a recent 50 mile journey home I kept track of truly bonehead manuevers by other drivers and every single one of the 25 or so that I saw was by a driver in a SUV or pickup truck.

Man, I don't even do that!

Very good to hear. :-)

Pat

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jg 21 years ago

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I quite agree, but OTOH bits like pedal rubbers, hoses... can be expensive and there is not the ready supply of recon radiators, motors etc when they finally do pack up. It can get to the point where you throw away a great body (I've seen many in yards) because it will cost much more to fix the motor than a more common younger piece of crap. And being relatively rare, most don't know that much about them. While they are a great buy as an old car, I wouldn't pay a lot for one.

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tooloud 19 years ago

You'd be surprised at how close you could get to that feeling with a Ferrari Enzo or McLaren F1 or the like. I'll bet that money would probably be the limiting factor in this before the law would.

No one blinks an eye at golf carts on city streets here.

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pws 19 years ago

Having never driven either, I can't commment on comparison, I think that the Formula One car is still going to have a massive advantage in power to weight ratio. Since I mentioned driving it on the street, that could cause some problems for the Formula car, it depends on the street. Of course, you don't want to take a McLaren or Enzo down pothole alley at 150mph either.

No question, I do not have the means to drive a Formula One car. If I did, however, the next limiting factor would be either loss of driver's license or loss of life.

The cops will blink their flashers at them here as they pull them over. That is assuming that they haven't been crushed by a monster SUV before that. ;-)

Pat

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