Massive Cars

[Qion]

Over Memorial Day weekend, I drove 700 miles to northern Michigan and back. It feels that 4/5 passenger vehicles I saw were some form of SUV, pickup truck, or crossover. Most of them seemed so... unnecessary. I'm not a heavy green advocate, but in this day and age, driving a vehicle like that is just rude, not to mention apathetic and irresponsible. You simply do not need two feet of ground clearance and 6,000 pounds of sheet metal to get you and your kids around town, or around the country for that matter. There are numerous car-based alternatives, as well as some very fuel efficient vans. The only way I have of explaining these repulsive vehicles is that the people driving them like the ego boost, the pomp, and the circumstance they create when sitting next to a mere mortal in a smaller, efficient, and unexaggerated car.

Besides the benefits of social recognition, I realize many have bought a large vehicle because they wanted something interesting that isn't a people carrier. But, honestly, if you'd take a bit of time to think about it, you'd realize that you could be much more unique and interesting driving something less obnoxious.


//On a related note, I've noticed that people who drive larger vehicles give drivers of smaller vehicles less respect than they do their lumbering brethren. Maybe it's a primitive "I'm bigger than you" mindset, which would explain having bought the thing in the first place.

 

[Rhisiart]

Below is a picture of my wife's car (mine is too crap to show). It's a 7 seater PeopleMover made by Opel (Vauxhall in the UK). It is £5000/$10,000 cheaper than any of it's rivals and it has economical fuel consumption.

It is comfortable to drive and although 7 people is a squeeze it manages as well as any other PeopleMover. It's not an SUV (says my wife).

Being the narrowest PeopleMover on the market, each passenger needs a bucket to puke into when going around corners and steep bends, but otherwise I highly recommend it.

When driving the Zafira I always find SUV drivers hog the roads, especially in my area which is rural and the lanes are narrow. When driving my crap car, they are usually a little more accommodating.

P.S. BTW, just in case anyone is wondering why I am posting more prolifically than usual, I got attacked by a thug three weeks ago and ended up in hospital with a fractured skull, so I am at home recuperating (I am fed of reading novels).

 

[reed]

Sorry to hear about the thugs Rhisiart. Did the Police catch the pr#cks? SUVs are for Iraq not in nice little towns in the Western World. Or any world for that matter. How about a cheap Logan or the like and stop eating up gasoline. Just a thought.
If you need to get some sleep turn on "Inspector Derrick" (German TV) or the like.
Also, forget the novels, try "Khartoum. The Ultimate Imperial Adventure." by Michael Asher. Penguin Press. A really good read.
Take care and good recuperation.

 

[Qion]

I'm sorry to hear that Rhisiart, and I hope the thug has caught retribution for his ill.

If I were you, I'd immerse myself in seasons 1-4 of Battlestar Galactica and focus on the finer points of life, like not being annihilated by a religiously confused race of mecha.

 

[Rhisiart]

... I hope the thug has caught retribution for his ill.

Thanks. He's one of God's prototypes. A mutant experiment gone badly wrong, certainly not meant for mass production. Unlucky for me I crossed his path (wrong place, wrong time).

I've never watched Battlestar Galacita. Fawlty Towers has cheered me up a little, as has old episodes of Top Gear (oh heck, massive cars again!).

(P.S. Reed, I'll try that book. That whole Imperial nonsense was the genesis of Islamic fundamentalism).

 

[fryke]

Hm. Thugs and SUVs. The two evils of this day and age. Thugs, SUVs and casting shows on TV. Oh, that's three. The three evils of this day and age...

 

[Rhisiart]

Hm. Thugs and SUVs. The two evils of this day and age. Thugs, SUVs and casting shows on TV. Oh, that's three. The three evils of this day and age...

Thugs, SUVs, casting shows on TV. Ah and of course corporate greed. The four evils of this day.

"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

With homage to Palin, Cleese et al.

 

[Satcomer]

In america (at least in my area travels) with the higher gas prices I am seeing SUVs by the hand full at those tiny used car only dealerships. Also one of my coworkers has been trying to sell his Escalade, even to these fly by nighters but none of then will take ANY more SUVs. The lots are full with only SUVs and I call that poetic justice.

 

[reed]

Well folks, with the last count you have "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." Right on the nail. Cheers.

 

[Qion]

In america (at least in my area travels) with the higher gas prices I am seeing SUVs by the hand full at those tiny used car only dealerships. Also one of my coworkers has been trying to sell his Escalade, even to these fly by nighters but none of then will take ANY more SUVs. The lots are full with only SUVs and I call that poetic justice.

Poetic justice indeed. It always warms my heart to hear another tragic "can't sell our SUVs" story.

 

[reed]

Rhisiart,
Trust me on the book. Well written. By the way, Gordon dies at the end and Hector MacDonald commits suicide in a nice hotel in Paris. As for the rest of the history that follows..... "I know naaaating" as Manuel would say in Fawlty Towers. Cheers.