"Latest Saab 9-3 retains distinctive personality, performance"

Not just drag, although that helps (hurts?), but also the hugemungous engines they come with. OTOH, what else are you going to use to pull that 25' fishing boat with the twin 250hp outboard engines and 300 gallon fuel tank?

You have to ask?

Its the same reason that you want a hatchback, only much, much bigger cargo.

ahem... US citizen here. I don't have a pickup truck. My father had one when we lived in Maine. It was a 3/4 ton 4x4 Harvester International and had an 8' snow plow on it and an 8' bed in the back. We used to load it up with the wood cabinets that he manufactured in his shop and make deliveries to his customers in Mass. We also plowed his "driveway" which was really a 1/8 mile long gravel road.

I have a Ford Explorer, which is an SUV built on a small 1/4 ton truck chassis. The only reason I bought that beast was to pull my boat (to the water) because any kind of waterfront property (including the little boat slips) here is ultra expensive.

But having an SUV that will fit full sheets of plywood or drywall, move my kids back and forth to college, has a penned in area for our 2 Labradors in the back when they've just been for a swim, has AWD to get us to the skiing in bad weather, etc. etc. is kind of handy. It's sort of utilitarian. In a sporty way. And there's no doubt it is a vehicle.

The MAIN downside to the whole equation is that it gobbles gas like there's no tomorrow (an appropriate phrase). However, neither I nor my wife "commute" and therefore the horrible gas mileage is of little concern to *us*.

I don't say that I am the average US citizen. Not in the least. The average guy here buys one vehicle and uses that to do everything including some ridiculously long commute (by himself) every day. I, OTOH burn more of my hydrocarbons in pusuit of happiness, than in pusuit of employment. And that's the way I like it, yeah that's the way I like it...

yes I do know how to spell pursuit. I have no idea why I missed the "r" twice in the prior post.

What the hell is "pusuit" anyway?

I'll bet there are vastly more trucks than 25 foot boats with twin outboards..

Graham

He had a good reason to have one.

and you have a good reason too.

Fred, you (and maybe me) the exceptions. All the cowboys here in the USA in their baseball hats used to buy trucks. Now most of them buy SUV's. Few of them ever haul anything. Many SUV's are driven by women who would never put anything bigger than their pocketbooks inside. I know a number of guys who actually make use of their truck or SUV enough to justify it (like you cited above). But, most of them are a bunch of ding-dongs and hee-haws without a clue. They don't know enough about handling and performance to even understand what a POS their poorly conceived and poorly engineered SUV is.

Yeah, I hear you. I am amazed at the number of goof-balls that drive their 3/4 ton V8 engined pickup back and forth to work, empty and alone. I laugh when I see them with the tailgate down, or the net in place of the tailgate, because they believe that will save them a bunch of gas.

My Dad had a phrase he used to categorize this type of person. "More money than brains," he'd say. And they don't have all that much money...

And like the SUV drivers, they drive them right off your rear end... because big vehicles apparently surpass the laws of physics and stop on a dime.

I've noticed this more often with women than men.

On a completely different matter, I've heard that most women have difficulty with Physics class in high school.

Ouch to a sweeping commnet - take cover Fred :)

BLT :-) Bread Lettuce and Tomato ?, is'n it named BLS ? and manufactured in Trollhättan ( troll + hätta ). troll is a troll & hätta is old name for womens hat or cap. /Jorgen

hm. hätta would probably be translated to fire nowadays, not hat. /Jorgen

so trollhättan would be, "the trollheat" :-) /Jorgen

Well, I like it - but when was Trollhatten founded vs. when the language changed?

Bacon lettuce and tomato actually. Maybe they should have called it that.

As for dodgy naming, I wonder how popular Jeep's Patriot is over here.

Graham

I must correct you there. It is: Bacon, lettuce and tomato. You forgot the comma!

Jorgen Moquist ( snipped-for-privacy@n.o.s.p.a.m.mailbox.swipnet.se) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Mmmm. Spicy troll.

I apologise profusely, O Wise One. ;~)

Graham

Johannes Andersen ( snipped-for-privacy@sizefitter.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I always pick the commas out of BLT sarnies - they get stuck in my teeth.