DAkilles

Sounds great, but again this is not a whine or a plea for sympathy. We have a chance to talk about fuel choices and the current gas price hike and some people can only see one problem, i.e. the SUV. You can see similar sentiment in the car-free culture. It would be swell to live someplace that supports that. But we would still have a problem. Fuel costs change most of our daily life, whether you drive a car or not. Short anecdote:

When gas prices first started climbing I got email carpet bombed by concerned people trying to come up with coping mechanisms. Wasn't long before a "more concerned" woman chimed in that she hoped the gas prices would continue to increase so all those SUV driving suckers would get hit hard. In her narrow-sighted bigotry she failed to see that the increasing prices affect more than just our sticker shock at the pump. What about the poor family who sees a more important choice at the grocery?

Bigger picture please.

ItoDoeblin

For purposes of full disclosure: I drive a 2-door accord. Quite practical for me - a single male. I also drive very rarely. Commute to work on my bike, run errands on my bike, visit family (about 45 miles) using a combo of bike/train that drives them nuts , and will NEVER EVER give up my car - its too much fun to drive the thing.

DAkilles

Very true. I guess the research question is why some people develop such a hatred for the SUV. I mean, most cars on the American market are ****e. Another example of limiting criticism and concern. As if ridding the roads of SUVs would drop the price of gas - lol

corripio

More important than what you drive is how much you drive.

(20 miles / 20 mpg) < (200 miles / 50 mpg)

CommuterRun

It's because some people are complainers by nature. When they don't have anything else to kvetch about, they kvetch about other people's vehicle choice.

We share much the same family/vehicle situation except for the dawg. We too are a one car family of four. I bike. I think people should choose a vehicle that will fulfill 100% of their regular motor vehicle needs. For me that would be a 4x4, crew cab pick/up. Pretty much anything I can do with an econo-box I can do with a bicycle. Right now I'm getting by with a Toyota Highlander and a utility trailer. I let the wife make this decision since she does, by far, the majority of the driving. DOT and Toyota call this car an SUV, but that's a joke. It's plainly only called that for marketing purposes. It's nothing more than a station wagon.

The people that get me are the ones that have legitimate use for a large SUV or P/U and also have an econo-box as a daily driver. That is a real waste of resources.

JeffS

Not sure what you're laughing about. Doubling the gas mileage of every car in this country WOULD drop the price of gas.

ItoDoeblin

I'm not entirely convinced. If fuel prices truly are a fuel-demand (or even crude oil-demand) issue in a vacuum, then I would agree - clearly in this case reducing total fuel consumption would reduce end-user fuel prices. Moving this system out of a vacuum, I think that overall demand reduction would reduce fuel costs by some amount, but certainly not to prices consistent with previous related demand levels. Once a price of an extremely fungible commodity (such as fuel) is established, reducing demand to a previous level rarely reduces price to a similar level. Additionally, it seems pretty clear that demand is only a small contributor in the overall cost of fuel increase, so reducing demand would reduce price even less.

Finally, unless you are increasing from 15 mpg or less to ~50 mpg (and driving 20K miles/year) do the fuel savings (at $4/gallon) with a hybrid offset a $250/month car payment, making this option not as economically viable as it appears.

77midget

Our minivan fits us, the 2 dogs, and (the soon to be) child. We had an SUV before, a Touareg, that was horrible in long term quality and MPG. The Toyota is better on both.

Every type of vehicle serves a purpose.

Duppie-you couldn't pay me to vacation w/ 4 other people in a beetle. Sorry. And I grew up w/ 8 siblings and parents in a 4bd house w/ 1 bathroom. I know cramped!!

The problem with SUVs is the ones owned by the individual commuter w/ no offroad aspirations, cargo or towing requirements, and no family. Wasteful.

lapher22

Seriously, Do you have children? They would complain about space if they were in a Bus. Also I don't think anyone here is complaining about their choice in cars, but the fact that others do. Finaly I highly respect you for your choice and dedication in living car free. I wish I could take the leap. Mabye one day.

huhenio

I am from another country

Ford Sierra Station Wagon hauled 5 of us without any troubles.

No pets

And I was a 6f 180 pound 13 year old

Mooo

You had a pampered life: we once stuffed eight (8) people into a 1971 Datsun station wagon for a week's trip down the Andes.

dewaday

I think because it is symbolic of a large section of our lifestyles. It's the McMansion, the Development, the Cul de Sac, the Gate, the Sprawl, and the NIMBY all rolling along as one giant inefficiency. People who live urban probably can't conceive of any practical use for an SUV so it becomes the target for their general disdain.

Oh, and they're ugly.

aMull

SUV owners make me laugh.

mandovoodoo

It is rather funny.

One can usually buy an SUV with a check. They're very cheap used. Most people want them for the "new" aspect. Get them at 80,000 miles, drive to 180,000 and dump. Cheap!

Get the 6 cylinder versions and the mileage isn't totally horrible.

And the 4 wd is usually unused.

That's what we've done. Need the 4wd several times a year for roads and always to get things towing, pulling stuck things out.

We also use it as a shop vehicle carrying large numbers of boxes and supplies.

So it really fits well. Which I find unusual. I hardly ever see one loaded to the gills like ours gets!

In spite of that utility, we're moving towards getting my old 4 cylinder "reserve" car turned into our primary, with its 1.8 L engine and 5 speed. We've already (and have for years) consolidated cargo trips. So we'll just shift cargo trips to my little 4 cylinder truck (bought with a check new) and have the 4 cylinder little car. And no SUV. Will be interesting.

As it stands, we often end up using a car only to drop the kids off and pick them up. And this year things have changed, so the kids can get the bus home. One 6 mile trip per day on that, in the little car.

This summer we've been commuting by tandem (me and kid) and commuter bikes.

Will be interesting to see how all this works out. I'm thinking of getting rid of some other stuff and picking up a small motorbike. Have to get a trailer for that. Then groceries and box dropoff could be even lighter! Problem is the boxes. They're really too big - ever haul 4 guitar boxes behind a bike? I haven't!

huhenio

small beater sedan for as a guitar rig

bikes are not ideal for hauling, more expensive in the long run

crhilton

Yes, the "SUV" has replaced the utility vehicle. Some of them are far worse than others. I'm sure you're not driving some monstrosity.

At one point these vehicles were slightly larger off road trucks meant to haul your equipment, wherever. Then soccer moms wanted them and they turned into minivans on truck frames with big engines.

Some of the original models aren't even made anymore.

In the end, they're fun to pick on because so many of them are so ugly.

crhilton

I think his situation is probably different. His 5th member is a large dog, and they don't deal well with being buckled into the middle seat. But they might all be able to cram into a 4 seater hatchback (the dog in back, the stuff in a trunk on the roof).

SU100

For fun, when stuck in traffic, I like to count SUV passengers.

From the high position of a Freightliner you can see everything (which has other advantages...but I digress) and usually it's

one.

Having room for the whole family, plus a big pooch, is what they were made for, but that's not what they are used for in the majority of cases, at least from where I sit.

Their main function in this society is as a status symbol; every well-heeled yuppie needs one or two in the garage.

ATAC49er

OP --
yours is the exception; the overwhelming majority of SUV's I see on the road are driven by young males, about 60% of them black, hats every which way, 22-24" rims, stereos thumping -- sorry, but when you see an early 20's male with no fashion sense (or sense of propriety) in a ride that runs about $70,000 as equipped, I don't think they're riding Mom & Dad's car, or enjoying the fruits of oil speculation on Wall Street.

Most of the SUV owners are using their huge vehicles as phallic extensions. You won't convince me otherwise.

Industrial

SUVs are like family wagons cept they sit up higher(with tinted back windows kekeke!) to obscure the view of mere cars behind them. Oh they also have large flat frontal areas to crush everything in their path(kills pedestrians dead!) and look tough. Oh and they must at least weigh 4000lbs to also help crush everything in their path (especially small cars) because 4000+lb cars are safe.

recumelectric

Carpooling is good, and you're basically choosing to carpool or take your bike. Seems reasonable to me.

I may poke fun at the SUV from time to time. (It's so easy right now, since gas prices have been high.) I'm also amused by the recent "mini-SUV". My parents had one of those, but they called it a station wagon. I'm thinking that type of marketing (re-naming something with the letters SUV in order to sell it) is one of the things that make it seem like a big status symbol.

On the other hand, there are some situations that realistically call for a larger vehicle, and yours sounds like one. I drove cross-country with another adult and 2 kids a few years ago. We did it in an economy car, and boy, were things tight! I thought we were going to all kill each other by the end of that trip.

Not to mention the fact that I sometimes use a city bus, which is a huge vehicle. I often see them running around town nearly empty.

mondaycurse

My sister had a Chrystler Pacifica (before trading it in for a Honda Accord to save gas and before trading the Accord in for a Lincoln Navigator because she has one baby) and the blind spots on that were horrendous. You could miss a semi truck in that thing.

Sammyboy

I have two kids, a wife, and a greyhound. I used to own a Minivan, which I could justify to myself on the basis that I picked up lots of bikes (trading on eBay), helped people move house, took the whole family plus my wifes little sister on holiday a couple of times a year, and didn't do much mileage besides that. My wife had a little Ford Fiesta hatchback, and when work required me to drive long distances, I drove that, even though it was decrepit. In the end, however, I realised I was only justifying the big Toyota on the basis of very occasional use, and it was still costing us a fortune when my wife needed to tool round the local town, so I got rid of it. It should be mentioned that an SUV of equivalent size would've consumed more fuel (stupid brick like shape, gigantic silly tyres, unneccesary 4WD), and been LESS practical (high loading bay height, interior space lost because of macho looks constraining design), and been more dangerous (big flat front and bull-bars equals death for pedestrians).

Now, we have three vehicles. My wife and I share a big diesel Citroen (XM is the model). This will get me over 50 mpg at highway speeds, carries 5 people in comfort, and has plenty of space in the rear for the greyhound. I won't pretend to be an expert on bull mastiffs, but I'm pretty sure one could fit. The only time it feels cramped is when you've got 5 people and their camping gear in there, and a roof box or a tow hitch and trailer would solve that. Even at > 50 mpg, it's not economical enough to make me happy for the big mileages I have to drive for work, so I also have a Citroen AX diesel. This is a tiny hatchback - I, as a 6'3 man, have my head in the sunroof aperture. However, it gets close to 60 mpg at highway speeds, takes up less space, and is easy to park. Recently, I experimented with driving it at 60 mph instead of 70, and hey presto, 72 mpg! When I'm travelling alone, that's what I use, without fail.

Finally, my wife has a van. Not a mini-van, but a proper, big, panel van. She uses it for her business (she's a market trader), it does approx 6 miles per week, and that's it. If we need to help someone move house, or transport 12 bikes at once, or something extreme, we wheel it out, but we don't have to drive it for anything else. The van cost £600, the big car cost £500, and the little car cost £200. There are always choices......

ThreLittleBirds

Oh yes that makes sense, I could totally see the following situation occur:
Mr Oil company: look at this cars all around just doubled their gas mileage
Mrs Oil comapny: I guess that means they will be using less oil
Mr Oil company: hmm looks like we wont be going on that vacation
Mrs Oil company: hey Ive got a great Idea, lets drop the price so we make even less then half of what we used to.
Mr Oil company: sounds great lets do it

But in the real world this is what happens,
Mr Oil company: Screw that why should I suffer for this? lets double the price so we can still take that vacation.

if demand decreases then the price increases. go look up some economics.

hxzero

My family has a 2003 Honda Odyssey. It doesn't get the greatest mileage, but when buying it my dad really wanted to get a large SUV; the GMC Yukon XL Denali was his first choice. He felt big and powerful test-driving this inefficient brick-yacht on wheels. However, we found that it was impossible to fit a golf bag horizontally in the trunk (we are avid golfers) and the load height was pretty much chest-high. Eventually he 'settled' for the minivan and it has served us well. With all the seats out, you can shove four or five bikes back there, even.