Reply #53: It isn't just the gas mileage, though that is an important component [View All]

[MadHound]

If you take the average of SUV mileages across the board, they are indeed much lower than that of normal passenger vehicles. Sure, there are individual makes and models that are better than some, but overall, SUV mileages are horrible. Furthermore, with more material, it takes more energy to put an SUV together.

However that isn't the only problem with SUVs. The next worse problem IMO is the fact that all SUVs are exempt from the environmental and exhaust regulations that apply to normal passenger cars, since they are not classified as cars, but as light trucks. Thus all SUVs pollute more than normal passenger cars.

Then there is the safety issue. Not only is an SUV more prone to roll over than a normal car, but their handling, especially emergency handling, is utter crap. In addition, SUVs are more of a threat on the road than normal passenger cars. An SUV is much more likely to kill somebody in an accident than a normal passenger car.

Then there is one of my personal beefs, the inability to see around the damn things, especially if you're in a normal passenger vehicle. This again presents some serious safety issues and leads to increased accidents and death.

Then we come to the matter of the drivers themselves. Granted, this is anecdotal evidence, but it seems as though SUV drivers seem to hit the road with a much more heightened sense of entitlement, aggression, and rudeness, while simultaneously being less safe on the road. They seem to think that being surrounded by a fiberglass and steel behemoth entitles them to drive recklessly, pull asinine stunts, be a traffic hazard, and not pay attention to what's going on around them. It is these sorts of attitudes that really turn off people to SUVs and their drivers. In addition, this ostentatious display of wealth(or credit) is really downright tacky, especially in this day and age. Do you really need that Caddy Gigantico to schlup yourself back and forth to work? Is that Hummer actually going to go offroad, or is it simply your penile compensation?

SUVs were originally designed with one job in mind, getting construction crews and materials back and forth to the job site. Now they are looked on as gaudy status symbols. Frankly, I find the rise of SUVs disgusting, especially in an age of decreasing oil. Hopefully these beasts will die a quiet death and go away.