There is a discussion over on the Jag-Lovers.org E-type mailing lists about SUVs and how much damage they can do to small cars. I’ve always said that I’ll meet my death under a GMC Yukon being driven by a latte-sipping, cell-phone yakking soccer mom who runs a red light. SUV owners think that by driving some hulking monster of a vehicle that they are somehow “safe”… in reality they are just shoving the risk down everyone else’s throat. What would be minor fender-benders become dream-destroying disasters for those around them. You can not change the laws of physics. Your SUV can not stop as well as a car. Your SUV can not corner as well as a car. Your SUV can not handle as well as a car. Your SUV will do shocking damage to cars when you are an idiot and think that somehow the laws of physics do not apply to you.
I don’t relish >$3.00 a gallon gasoline but if it gets morons out of these road barges sooner rather than later then bring it on.
Ironically, in mid-discussion about this subject, a list-member posted that his freshly restored S2 OTS had recently been rear-ended at a light by an inattentive driver in a Hummer H2. The photo above is the result of that incident. 🙁
I agree with her!
I have visited USA summer 2007; SUV are a problem road safety.
what would she be happened to my small TRIUMPH Spitfire?
Best regards and marry christmas.
Giuseppe PALMISANO
Italy
http://www.triumphspitfire.eu/
Didn`t you buy a new Jeep a couple of years ago ? Not one of the biggest SUV`s on
the market, perhaps but certainly bigger than a regular family saloon. I understand
your need for space in the back, and I understand your need for 4wd, living on white
slippery surface most of the year myself, but what can I Jeep offer you that a VW
can`t ?
I just bought a “new” car for my wife to use on the school run. A 2001 VW passat TDI
with a 130 HP engine, soon to be 170 HP once I get the new engine managment system
hooked up. It`s the first diesel I own myself and filling it up is such a rare
occation that I keep forgetting what side the filler cap is on.
Anyway, Just really wanted to say merry christmas to you and your family and wish you
all the best for the new year. I hope you are having more snow than us this christmas.
My lawn are still green. I haven`t seen that before so close to christmas. I usually
drive autoslalom before christmas on the frozen lakes with my Miata, but this year`s
event was cancelled.
Anyway, merry christmas, and sorry for moving out of topic.
Hi again. Just read a little piece of information in our local paper.
Our local Toyota dealership sold 185 new cars this year. One gasoline, two Prius
and 182 Diesel-powered !!
I don`t know the statistics are on the Mercedes-Benz dealership where I work, but
I imagine they are about the same. I only remember that we sold one gasoline-powered MB
last year and that was an SLR.
Ove you touched on an intersection of two tangents. Yes, my wife drives a Jeep Liberty CRD.
Yes, I hate it (except the engine/fuel choice) and that is a long story.
My wife is an attorney and runs her own business. Our ’99 VW New Beetle was getting too small for the kids. She was looking for a new car a few years ago, and I was looking for an old (used) Mercedes turbo-Diesel for the job. Either an S-class (300sd, or 300sdl) or an E-class (300 2.5TD). I shopped many on eBay, and even had a couple inspected by friends in distant locations (New Jersey & California)… I passed on several good ones between $4000-$6000. All were one-owner, immaculate condition cars (though with over 100k miles on them… not a scare for an old Merc Oelmotor as you know!)
Then hurricane Katrina hit.
The price of fuel doubled in the space of a few months here in the US. Demand for Diesel cars went from nonexistent to very strong. If I had bought ALL of the old Merc Diesels before Katrina I could have sold them all for over 100% profit. Those same cars were now selling for over $10,000! Insane.
Then my wife talks to her tax advisor who tells her “NO, don’t buy a car. Get a small ‘truck’ as the IRS allows a business to write off some portion of a truck’s value on their taxes.” This is of course ludicrous. I can appreciate the need, but the application of this rule seems to have created a lot of problems for this country and our automobile manufacturers. I imagine that the preponderance of SUV’s and other ladder-on-frame trucks in North America is due to this, and the CAFE regulations. Basically the tail wagging the entire industry dog.
So when my wife said she had to buy a truck or SUV I insisted that it be a Diesel. At the time, our choices were the Liberty, or a gigantic pickup truck. We chose the former.
I would much prefer that she chose a car, but the tax savings on the Liberty make for a better financial option. Odd I know.
The shocking lack of choices for Diesel cars in America is amazing as well. It comes down to one Mercedes E-class model, and three VWs (Jetta, Golf, & New Beetle.) Period. End of options. Nothing else. You can buy Diesels in plenty of trucks, but no cars beyond those listed. California’s regulations have all but issued a death sentence for Diesel in America.
But back to my main point, DRIVING an SUV is nothing like driving a car, but most drivers it seems have no ability to recognize that fact. I actually also own an old pickup truck (used for dump runs, lumber hauling, etc… mostly stays parked in the barn) and I know that when I climb into it, or the Liberty, that:
* I can not go as fast as my car
* I can not stop as short as my car
* I can not corner as well as my car
* My survival in a single-vehicle accident is seriously in doubt
… so I drive accordingly. Usually well under the limits, and very conservatively. Yet looking around I don’t see too many SUV & truck drivers doing the same. They drive their large, heavy, high CoG machines just like a car. At the risk of everyone around them. =\
–chuck
Living in the Stupid Useless Vehicle capitol of the world, Colorado, I agree one HUNDRED per cent with chukkles!
There are about 2-4 weeks a year, in the winter, where the need for a 4WD SUV is called for; beyond that, they are just Yuppie’s taint upon not only the landscape but upon the environment. The majority of them are driven with a single occupant, a fact I confirm EVERY day I drive to work, a 104-mile round trip and on which I have *lots* of time to observe these leviathans of the lanes.
I, like Chuck, do *not* relish the cost of fuel (and is why I’ve a smart car on order, delivery this spring) but I *laugh* at those SUV drivers who whine and whinge like a b*tch when they fuel the buggers up.
Wah f’n wah.