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I have been away from the United States for a number of years and when
I returned I found many more utility type vehicles on the road. This
includes SUV, station wagons and minivans. Sport Utility Vehicles as
the most popular of these utility vehicles. It looks to me that the
SUV has become the family car of choice these days in the US. By sales
numbers and the general view on the streets. I want to get some
opinions on why people are choosing these as a family car, especially
SUV. I am vary curious about the vastly increased market share of
SUVs, in the US so please tell me something if you bought one. I am a
34 year old male and I would not be caught dead in one and would never
buy one. Long ago when I was in the US and in high school during the
late 1980's most of us drove older used cars. However when someone
got to buy something new they often got Mustangs, Camaros, Firebirds
etc,..or imports like the Honda CRX , Nissan 240, or small pickup
trucks. . No one would get an SUV if they had a choice in the matter.
Now it seems that SUVs are fashionable even in the eyes of younger
people. Considering that most families are 2 children or less in the
developed world, all that is needed is a 4 door sedan. In places like
Asia and Europe, a small 4 door sedan like Honda Civic is what is used
for a family of 4. A soccer mom would have to pop out many more babies
to need a bigger car. Even a 2 door car would work well if it has 4
seats. It is strange to see people with only 2 children driving a
minivan or SUV with seating for a dozen people. My Honda civic 4 door
can comfortably transport 4 full size adults and their scuba diving
gear vary well. Also an SUV would not work for the farm. Lots of
things and equipment need to be hauled that would damage the interior
of an SUV. Farmers and ranchers need full size trucks, not SUVs. The
average car can turn faster on a twisty road and can avoid accidents
when compared to an SUV. You don't need a Corvette for good
handling, as even my Honda Civic can handle quite well on roads that
make SUVs wobble around or tip over. About efficiency, the 300+ hp v8
in a Ford Mustang can actually be put to use for acceleration instead
of pulling the big jacked-up station wagon body of an SUV. This
concept also applies to gas mileage. I noticed that SUVs I have driven
always got low gas mileage even on the highway. Cars like Corvette
will get close to 28 miles per gallon on the highway, and these have 6
liter engines with lighter overall car weight. So big engine size is
not the most important factor in miles per gallon. If you want to
haul cargo then you can always rent a truck or van for a few days and
this would be cheaper than driving an SUV all the time. About space, a
mobile DJ said to me that his cargo van holds over double the amount of
equipment than the SUV he drove earlier. And finally about driving.
SUVs to me are work to park in the city and no fun to drive on paved
roads. They are not a pleasure to drive as I have noticed. So why do
people buy them?
<oceansixtyone@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1137470282.044836.137600@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>
> I have been away from the United States for a number of years and when
> I returned I found many more utility type vehicles on the road. This
> includes SUV, station wagons and minivans. Sport Utility Vehicles as
> the most popular of these utility vehicles. It looks to me that the
> SUV has become the family car of choice these days in the US. By sales
> numbers and the general view on the streets. I want to get some
> opinions on why people are choosing these as a family car, especially
> SUV. I am vary curious about the vastly increased market share of
> SUVs, in the US so please tell me something if you bought one. I am a
> 34 year old male and I would not be caught dead in one and would never
> buy one. Long ago when I was in the US and in high school during the
> late 1980's most of us drove older used cars. However when someone
> got to buy something new they often got Mustangs, Camaros, Firebirds
> etc,..or imports like the Honda CRX , Nissan 240, or small pickup
> trucks. . No one would get an SUV if they had a choice in the matter.
> Now it seems that SUVs are fashionable even in the eyes of younger
> people. Considering that most families are 2 children or less in the
> developed world, all that is needed is a 4 door sedan. In places like
> Asia and Europe, a small 4 door sedan like Honda Civic is what is used
> for a family of 4. A soccer mom would have to pop out many more babies
> to need a bigger car. Even a 2 door car would work well if it has 4
> seats. It is strange to see people with only 2 children driving a
> minivan or SUV with seating for a dozen people. My Honda civic 4 door
> can comfortably transport 4 full size adults and their scuba diving
> gear vary well. Also an SUV would not work for the farm. Lots of
> things and equipment need to be hauled that would damage the interior
> of an SUV. Farmers and ranchers need full size trucks, not SUVs. The
> average car can turn faster on a twisty road and can avoid accidents
> when compared to an SUV. You don't need a Corvette for good
> handling, as even my Honda Civic can handle quite well on roads that
> make SUVs wobble around or tip over. About efficiency, the 300+ hp v8
> in a Ford Mustang can actually be put to use for acceleration instead
> of pulling the big jacked-up station wagon body of an SUV. This
> concept also applies to gas mileage. I noticed that SUVs I have driven
> always got low gas mileage even on the highway. Cars like Corvette
> will get close to 28 miles per gallon on the highway, and these have 6
> liter engines with lighter overall car weight. So big engine size is
> not the most important factor in miles per gallon. If you want to
> haul cargo then you can always rent a truck or van for a few days and
> this would be cheaper than driving an SUV all the time. About space, a
> mobile DJ said to me that his cargo van holds over double the amount of
> equipment than the SUV he drove earlier. And finally about driving.
> SUVs to me are work to park in the city and no fun to drive on paved
> roads. They are not a pleasure to drive as I have noticed. So why do
> people buy them?
>
I am not dissing anyone or putting down anyone that drives an SUV I was
just wanting to see the opinions and responses to this if any. I just
said what i think honestly. without censorship....anyway blogging is a
waste of time. and i don't have time to blog. so my articles will be
too infrequent for a blog unless someone pays me for it. that would be
geat and ill blog all day and night for that..
<oceansixtyone@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1137470282.044836.137600@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>
much dribble deleted
> So why do people buy them?
We like SUVs, we can afford them, we buy them.
You probably will get better gas mileage in your Civic, we are sorry that
a cheap import is is all you can afford to drive. Our pity to you .
don't pitty me because, i choose vehicles that make sense. like my mid
1970's single engine airplane. PA-28. burns more fuel than an SUV but i
have no speed limits to deal with. i can choose to fly as fast as the
max cruise of this aircraft. also flying long distances on autopilot is
less stressful than driving. so i may use more fuel but i get something
for what i pay. a full open throttle. in contrast an SUV gives me no
advantage for the amount of fuel burned. And the offroad capability is
not used for 99% of people in the US. Mabye in Namibia, but not the
USA for cruising the mall parking lot.. My point is that people here
don't choose things like SUVs based on LOGIC. Unless you can prove
otherwise i rest my case. anyway I don't need a big car and here in
the US even $3 per gallon is dirt cheap compared to most of the world i
have lived.. that is why i am used to driving a small car. i would
rather invest the money or burn it in an airplane engine. even avgas
(aviation fuel for piston powered aircraft) is dirt cheap here. so i am
enjoying it.
Don't pitty me because, i choose vehicles that make sense. like a mid
1970's single engine airplane. PA-28. burns more fuel than an SUV but i
have no speed limits to deal with. i can choose to fly as fast as the
max cruise of this aircraft. also flying long distances on autopilot is
less stressful than driving. so i may use more fuel but i get something
for what i pay. a full open throttle. in contrast an SUV gives me no
advantage for the amount of fuel burned. And the offroad capability is
not used for 99% of people in the US. Mabye in Namibia, but not the
USA for cruising the mall parking lot.. My point is that people here
don't choose things like SUVs based on LOGIC. Unless you can prove
otherwise i rest my case. anyway I don't need a big car and here in
the US even $3 per gallon is dirt cheap compared to most of the world i
have lived.. that is why i am used to driving a small car. i would
rather invest the money or burn it in an airplane engine. even avgas
(aviation fuel for piston powered aircraft) is dirt cheap here. so i am
FWIW... Having owned a truck based vehicle for nearly 30 years, it has
become my preferred "format". I can't speak for others but I will mention
more a bit later in this treatise.....
Our current ride is a 2002 F SuperCrew.... In retrospect, I would have
preferred a CC SuperDuty but that would have me buying a diesel (by choice)
and then abusing it by not driving it hard enough, often enough. The SC does
pretty good at my very few, very short trips with the holiday trailer (no
need to go too far when there's a wonderful lake on my doorstep). I had a 92
Explorer and loved it but missed the utility of the pick up truck. The crew
cab part was for my son, large (tall, not rotund) at an early age.
My wife loves sitting higher than most (at home, we see many more trucks
than cars) when she ventures to Edmonton... many miles to the south. She
also likes (and sometimes needs) the pick up bed.
My son is now 18 (Gawd, don't time fly) and has a 95 F140 4X4.... never a
nice thing to say about the gas mileage, but it's hard to haul his quad in
the trunk of a car.
For my family, 4 wheel drive (ever experienced a gung ho Alberta winter?)
makes sense...
Now... where we do see many concerns.... those that suddenly "want" a large
platform vehicle. The transistion from car to truck, for many, is umpleasant
and, on occasion, deadly. There are those that will have an abject disregard
for the laws of physics... who needs to understand physics, anyway? After
all, we have Sam Bernstein and Jim "the hammer" Shapiro on our side.....
I like the comment by Joe Schmoe. I was doing some research about that
subject and found that when a car and SUV collide, the people in the
SUV often walk away and the people in the car die. This is a valid
point that I agree with and did not think about before. If you buy a
quarter million dollar Ferrari it is still just a car. In a car and
SUV collision I would bet on the SUV driver as survivor. OK you win on
this one.
Also I think there is too much negative bias against SUVs. I think it
is the fact that in the people in the US have cheap gas. I mean that
as under $3 per gallon and many people in the world pay much more in
taxes on each gallon.
I am sure that environmentalists would go nuts if they knew that I like
to keep my home at above 80 degrees F heating all winter. My heating
bills here in the Midwest are really high. at this rate I am not
conserving natural resources, but as long as I pay my natural gas bill
that is my business. so I have no right to point at hummer drivers.
And anyone out there if you are going to get an SUV, please get the
truck based ones, not the car based "crossover". Lets not support
this crap. they are starting to cross SUVs with cars. If you are going
to get an SUV at least get the real thing, not some ugly ass 4X4
station wagon.
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