Why Do People Drive SUV's?

[kidcolin]

FWIW,

5 or more years ago minivans were all over the road. They were the soccer mom vehicle, which is less common now. I rode in many en route to soccer games.

Hell, even a lot of my friends drove them because it got handed down to them from their parents.

Also, my dad works construction in Boston. He's been using a minivan with the back seats removed to carry his tools for the past 9 years.

[JohnFR]

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They are safer, I was in a wreck that some stupid bitch caused and me and my GF would have been dead if we had been in a car(cop says we would have had like a 5% chance of surviving the accident), me and my GF walked away from the scene, I had a bit of a back problem afterwards, and she still has lingering knee problems, at least we aren't dead.
They are roomier for passengers.
They fit more luggage.
They can haul a trailer.
They have more amenities if you want them(DVD players etc.)
They look much better.

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-i'm happy that you got out of your accident safely but have you ever considered what might have happened had the roles been reversed? for instance, i drive a Toyota Echo and i'm constantly concerned that some moron in an SUV with a gigantic blind spot will run right over me and not even notice it happened.

-how many "passengers" do you typically have? because almost every time i see some soccer mom in an SUV she's alone. the average family has 2-3 kids, plenty of room in the average sedan for mom, dad and the kids.

-the luggage point your bring up is probably valid. however, if you're just going to the airport you can call a limo that will fit all the luggage you and your family could possibly need and you'd be riding in style. you'd also save money on ordering a limo vs. paying your ridiculous gas costs to drive your Canyonero.

-a pick up truck hauls a trailer just fine and will cut down your fuel consumption a bit. well over %90 of the time i see SUV's on the road they aren't hauling trailers.

-the DVD thing is just dumb. any vehicle can be decked out with all that crap if you want it.

-they "look better" just simply your opinion. honestly, i think the Lincoln Navigator is one of the ugliest monstrosities i've ever seen on the road.

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Yes, if a car and a SUV get in a wreck, the car will suffer more than SUV, that sucks for the car owner, good for SUV owner typically(unless the person in the SUV does something stupid and flips his SUV)

Typically I only have a few passengers(3-4), but the nights that I have 6,7 in a night(drunken night, only 1 person stays sober), is often enough, ~1 time a week on average(some weeks 0, some weeks 3,4 nights, etc.)

I travel back and forth from college back to hometown drive around 3.5 hours, used to go every 2 weeks, now closer to once a month, and I typically have anywhere from 2 passengers up to 5 passengers. With 2 passengers I could easily use a car, but with 3 and 4 passengers, there is no way to fit all the passengers AND all the luggage we need to take, along with random items that I take down or bring back(recent examples: wedding presents, chairs, tables, desks, etc.), and there is no way I will rent a limo for a 3.5 hour drive, or rent an SUV or something everytime I want to go home.

Depending on the engine, and other things SUV's and trucks can each haul stuff, some better than others, one of my buddies is staying with me right now, and he drives a Ford F150(smallish truck) and has a similar engine to my Jeep GC, and he gets 17 miles/gallon and I get a little over 16, so I don't know what you are talking about trucks and SUV's get very very very similar gas mileage(my uncle drives a huge F350, and gets less gas mileage than me)

[DCJ311]

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Haul a big ass boat in a car, I dare you.
Try to haul 8 people with all their luggage in a car, I dare you.

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Well this is what I mean by 'special needs', because things like this happen from time to time. If you need the vehicle solely for towing, then that would be acceptable, but as an everyday, single passenger vehicle it really should be illegal.

If you have an SUV that carries 8 people, then that should be acceptable to drive it as long as you drive it only when it is filled to 3/4-max capacity.

As for people who say it is 'safer', it's kind of an absurd argument. Yes of course it's safer to be in an SUV than a sedan when another SUV hits you. But if no one drove SUVs to begin with, we wouldn't need to be protected.

I hear people say, "Well I need an SUV for safety." What they don't realize is that by driving the thing they're way more likely to be involved in an accident, because the vehicles are really top heavy and are bigger and way harder to drive. I drive a little stickshift sedan and have never had any accidents, and I can honestly say every time I have driven a friend's SUV I really feel like I have to concentrate to avoid getting into accidents, just because they're such sh*tty cars.

The American world has really become a lazy place. Instead of learning how to use a stickshift, learning good driving habits and spending a few more dozen hours learning on the road with smaller, more nimble, safer, efficient vehicles, we sacrifice that for luxurious, dangerous, inefficient vehicles that pollute the environment at a faster rate.

[Dids]

I thought SUVs were horrible until I rented one to help me moved.

I really enjoyed being able to see everything* and being bigger than other people. It felt nice (my last two cars were dropped imports).

Not sure I'd own one, but I'd be FOS if I didn't understand why people like 'em.


*- yeah, I know, lol.

[absoludicrous]

No one should ever own a Hummer. Completely unecessary. Living in California I see tons of urban, hip, soccer moms driving them. Not to mention, they're all outfitted with 27" rims. Never once have I seen a soccer mom pull a trailer, or go off roading in their H3.

[Sponger.]

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Why Do People Drive SUV's?

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They look much better.

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-they "look better" just simply your opinion.

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lol what a [censored] response geniustoad.

[man]

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They are safer, I was in a wreck that some stupid bitch caused and me and my GF would have been dead if we had been in a car(cop says we would have had like a 5% chance of surviving the accident), me and my GF walked away from the scene, I had a bit of a back problem afterwards, and she still has lingering knee problems, at least we aren't dead.
They are roomier for passengers.
They fit more luggage.
They can haul a trailer.
They have more amenities if you want them(DVD players etc.)
They look much better.

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yes, they are much safer.

good anecdotal evidence, though.

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That link leads me to believe that most SUVs are, in fact, safer than they are made out to be. Seems like there might be a little bit of hysteria attached to the anti-SUV movement.

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I don't know if they're safer to the driver/passengers or not--I've heard reports either way--but you'd be pretty crazy to say they don't have a negative impact on safety across the nation. but hey, who cares about that, it's my [censored] life man, right??!?!!?

[kidcolin]

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If you need the vehicle solely for towing, then that would be acceptable, but as an everyday, single passenger vehicle it really should be illegal.


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Despite my dislike for SUVs, this is stupid.

JohnFR,

Sounds like you made an informed decision. Nice work.

[Mrs. Utah]

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The back windows have to go down, this does not happen with a mini van-again, for Harry.

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This seems like a pretty tenuous arguement, but in any case, the back windows roll down on my minivan.

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Perhaps-but I take him almost everywhere with me, and its rather distracting when 160lb drooling animal is hanging over your shoulder waiting for the window to be rolled down.

I have also decided to drive my truck until it dies, it has 140,000 miles [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

What kind of minivan? Is the middle seat a bench seat or bucket seats?(A bench seat would also be a requirement)

[onthebutton]

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The American world has really become a lazy place. Instead of learning how to use a stickshift, learning good driving habits and spending a few more dozen hours learning on the road with smaller, more nimble, safer, efficient vehicles, we sacrifice that for luxurious, dangerous, inefficient vehicles that pollute the environment at a faster rate.

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I don't think it has anything to do with "laziness". It's about what people want, it isn't that they don't want to put the time in learing how to drive a smaller car. I have no idea where you would get argument like that.

As for the pollution issues, what do you think pollutes more-a SUV less than 3 years old or an older car built in the 1980s or 1990s with 100k+ miles on it? Do you want to ban those too?