I still dont understand the fascination with SUVs. Almost all of them give pathetic gas mileage (the boxy shape is too resistant to wind) and have long braking distances and not to mention very high center of gravity and hence rollover effects. Cant people buy cars with 4WD like an audi Quattro or a subaru outback AWD. why the fascination with SUV? I think its because of the high seating and visibility. Any comments???
The Jeep Cherokees that I owned, 6 in all, handled well, operated at 16mpg in town and 23 mpg on the highway with minimum attention for more miles than most vehicles are able to accumulate. They most certainly handled better than any station wagons, including Volvos. But somehow they led to the demonization of SUVs. It seems that the SUV was no more than a station wagon built to Pickup standards to avoid the CAFE standards and in doing so was branded as anti environmental when it became fashionable for the suburbanites who flooded the highways with Suburbans and Navigators with 7 empty seats.
I like SUV’s because they have a lot of space in them but yeah the gas mileage on them suck! And I live in Northern Nevada and we get high winds frequently and driving a huge SUV when its that windy isn’t the most fun experiance. I own a small, compact car and it seems to handle better in wind than an SUV. SUV’s are great if you’re outdoorsy and like to go camping and they’re great for hauling a bunch of stuff around.
We have a 2003 Toyota 4Runner and a 2011 Toyota Sienna. I grew up in the country and from the time I got my driver’s license, I preferred driving a pickup truck to a car. I liked the visibility and the seating position. I’ve had my share of economy cars–Ramblers and a Maverick. I know that the 4Runner and the Sienna take a little bit more gasoline than many cars, but I think as a 70 year old geezer I have earned the privilege to be comfortable when I drive. Some years back, we had a 1990 Ford Aerostar, Eddie Bauer edition and a 1993 Oldsmobile 88 with all the bells and whistles. For us, the Aerostar was so much more comfortable than the Oldsmobile, that the Oldsmobile was replaced with the 4Runner. We always used the Aerostar for road trips. We recently took a trip from the midwest to California. We flew to Bakersfield and my wife reserved a rental vehicle. She specified an SUV. She said that we were going to be comfortable, so she reserved an SUV. We were assigned to a Chevrolet Traverse.
If the day comes when minivans and SUVs are no longer manufactured, we’ll buy a pickup truck.
As a sidenote, back in 1992, Consumer Reports tested mid priced cars–an Oldsmobile 88, a Mercury Grand Marquis and a couple other cars in this price range. They also rounded up a 1952 Buick Roadmaster for comparison. Consumer Reports found one place where the 1952 Buick was better than the cars 40 years newer–the seats and seating position were more comfortable.
I’ve driven my Mom’s Nissan Armada before and when I compare driving the Armada to my Nissan Versa it’s like going from driving Fred Flinstone’s Car to a Limo lol…Not to say my Versa is a bad car. It gets me from point A to point B, gets great gas mileage, and its very reliable but once you get more than two people in my little car…it gets a bit cramped in there…
Cant people buy cars with 4WD like an audi Quattro or a subaru outback AWD. why the fascination with SUV?
Show me the awd/4wd vehicle that can tow my 3000lb camper trailer…or travel off-road in 3" of mud during the summer for camping and I’ll buy it.
Once again I’ll reitterate from George Carlin…
“A place for your stuff.”
3 kids + 3 friends + munchies & games + wife & I + monthly trip to Costco, Macys, Target…
don’t fit in no stinkin’ Camry !
Will they tow my boat and offer 5k lb towing capacity? Given I am at the 10k miles per year 23 hwy ie 03 6cyl blazer, and it seems an average of 27mpg hwy for most midsized I’d have to give up too much to gain a little. Every car I have driven was different, I find the OP condescending and ill informed given the idiots in any make and any vehicle I see and choose not to run into on the road every day. (The people who do not stop at a stop sign, think red after yellow means go faster etc.)
try plowing snow on a long driveway in winter with an Audi or Subaru.
While my car is considered to be an SUV, I think of it as a tall hatchback.
While my car is considered to be an SUV, I think of it as a tall hatchback.
I’ve always considered SUV’s as high Station Wagons.
Just as I thought most of you are voicing the high seating, visibility, and space as reasons for SUV. What I liked best was the characterizations of SUV as a car with pickup features or a tall hatchback. True. But I feel unsafe every time I have taken a bend at car speeds in a Landrover as if it was going to tip. BTW not everyone of us is lugging a 4000Lb pound something behind our vehicle. This whole belief that we are rough and tough folks by driving a gas guzzling SUV does not work when most of the vehicles are being driven by white collar folks in their city commutes and by soccer moms in cities. This bunch perhaps has never been on any off road trips. Just a comment that this subset exists as well.
@ramikumi - But I feel unsafe every time I have taken a bend at car speeds in a Landrover as if it was going to tip.
I have a solution for that…DON’T take a bend at car speeds in your landrover. Is this a joke??? And I wouldn’t take a bend at speeds in my wifes Lexus that I can do in a Corvette.
BTW not everyone of us is lugging a 4000Lb pound something behind our vehicle.
So then DON’T buy an SUV then.
This bunch perhaps has never been on any off road trips. Just a comment that this subset exists as well.
I’m sure they do…so what??? What does it matter to you?? Jealous???
People can buy whatever vehicle they want for whatever reason they want. So what???
CAFE standards made it more profitable to market SUVs in place of station wagons. SUVs became popular status symbols and demand rose. The situation is somewhat similar to hybrids. There is more demand due to status and image than utility for most owners of each type vehicle.
My main reason for buying an SUV was how easy it is to get in and out of. With a small car I had to fall into the seat and climb out of it when I was getting out; opposite was true when I test drove a full sized truck.
The only thing that sucks about getting in and out of a fullsized truck is if you have an injury. I sprained my ankle one time and my mom wanted to go to the store so she drove and at the time she owned a ford f-150 and it had a little lift on it but she didn’t have any running boards on that truck and getting in and out with sore ankle wasn’t fun! I insisted we take my car because it was easier for me to get in and out of but nooo…My mom doesn’t like my driving. Anytime she rides with me she’s all tense like I’m going to wreck or something and she tells me what to do while I’m driving. Needless to say, I don’t go on many trips with her. Thank goodness my father was the one who taught me to drive lol…
@katidid79 - The only thing that sucks about getting in and out of a fullsized truck is if you have an injury.
That depends on how short you are. The seat on my 4runner is a little below the height of my butt. When I blew out my knee 15 years ago getting in and out of my Pathfinder was EASY…it was a real pain getting in and out of wifes Accord.
I’m 5’9…I’m kind of tall. My mom’s truck had a lift in it and that was the issue I was having. Now several years ago, I injured my tailbone and at the time I had a 1992 Plymouth laser and getting in and out of that car was agony! So my Dad’s friend let me borrow his truck for a few days. It was GMC Sonoma and it was just the right height for me to get in and out of.
SUV /Pickup has nothing to do with the overall problem.
Which is ?
People just flat out don’t know how to operate the vehicle they’re in ! Period.
They don’t know how wide it is.
They don’t know how long it is.
They don’t know how to navigate in reverse.
They don’t know how to coordinate their actions with other vehicles sharing the road.
( like when they pull out into 40mph traffic…GO 40 mph ! )
And the list just goes on and on.
Yesterday I’m following a Civic on a residential street with cars legaly parked along the curb.
For some odd strange reason the Civic swings waaay out accross the center lane to pass by the parked cars…as if !
Dude ! I’m in an Expedition and have NO need to swing out…do NOT need to cross the center line…and STILL retain more than a normal foot of free clearence from the parked cars.
( duh, that’s how they measured and built these streets, ya dumbo . )
– I’ve even had stupid small cars following me…in my EXPEDITION mind you…who can clearly see the free space 'tween me and the parked cars.
YET the wierdos swing waaaay out and accross into the opposing lane , to pass by !
I think it makes great business sense for a company to build vehicles that the typical motorist can’t safely operate in its performance envelope.
For companies like Ferrari, building the Enzo in a limited production, and a massively high cost is a great business decision.
Once you tell the really stupid rich people that they might not be able to own something, they start fighting each other in order to get one. If they then try to drive the thing, they most likely crash it in short order. Hence, it needs to go back to Ferrari, and get fixed, or replaced with a whole new one. Great business sense.
Now, you take Ford, GMC, or Nissan, and they build these mega-sized SUV’s.
They then go and tell the public that these are the latest status symbols, and only a select group of upper echelon idiots should own them, and the brainless dweebs come out of the woodwork in order to buy one.
They then try to force their behemoths into compact car spaces, and bash up the fenders.
So now they have a damaged status symbol.
Well, that just won’t do, now will it?
So they have to either fix it or replace it with another one.
That means more sold parts or vehicles.
Great business sense.
The only problem is that we, the normal motorists, have to then deal with these idiots out on the road.
Personally, I LOVE them. They provide me so much entertainment while I’m driving.
When it snows, I love watching them slide off the road in front of or behind me.
When they try to take a corner too fast in the mountains, they either slide off the road, or flip on their side.
Yesterday, I saw the aftermath of someone who decided to tow their speedboat on a extremely high wind day here in Boulder, Colorado. By the looks of it, the wind caught the boat, whipped the trailer around, nailed the side of the Jeep Grand Cherokee, spun both out, and the boat then flipped off of its trailer into traffic.
You can’t get these kinds of events if everyone drove intelligently in nice cars.
BC.
When the Cherokee and the Plymouth Woody are compared it’s difficult to understand the derision for the Jeep.
http://plymouthwoodys.com/49plymouth.php
It is just a station wagon.