The SUV
People in America used to save their knee-jerk reactions primarily for politics. These days, there are few topics left that people won’t go off on rants about. One great example is the SUV. Pick-up trucks and SUVs now account for half the autos on the road…at least in Colorado anyway. I don’t know what started the fad or why people would spend so much of their monthly income for a vehicle they don’t really need, but it is what it is. In my opinion, if you’re going to spend $40K on a vehicle, it ought not to be made in Detroit. BMW and Audi make far superior products and have cars that handle in snow and are much more fun to drive. Most of the SUV rants come from the left, and while I don’t completely disagree with some of their assertions, I think they’re going about it the wrong way. It’s perfectly legal to drive a car that gets 3MPG and in my opinion, people should be free to spend their money on any vehicle they want, unless it adversely affects others in a serious way...and there is where the lefties miss the boat.
Anyone who had a driver’s license before 1990 can remember this scenario: You’re driving on a busy freeway and somebody eight cars in front of you jams on their brakes. You instinctively hit your brakes to avoid hitting the car in front of you. Why is this possible? Because you can see the eight cars in front of you through the front and rear windows. Flash forward to today: You’re boned and so is your car. You can try leaving 6-8 car lengths between you and the nearest car, but that means 2 cars will quickly jump in and odds are that one of them is a SUV. Parking lots are worse. Try leaving your spot when a Chevy Tahoe and an F-350 have parked next to you. With $5 a gallon gas on the horizon, SUVs will soon rapidly decrease in number. It’ll take a lot of stress out of the daily commute and fewer people will die over a stupid fad (and great marketing coup). If the left had simply played the safety card instead of the environment card, it could have happened much sooner.
Perhaps Detroit would then introduce a diamond plated sub-compact that runs on the tears of sweatshop babies. Conservatives would be delighted because liberals would be furious. Red A could be ahead of the curve on importing sweatshop baby tears, and could finally hit it big. He’d probably return home, buy a vintage Lincoln Navigator and modify it to run on the tears.
Anyone who had a driver’s license before 1990 can remember this scenario: You’re driving on a busy freeway and somebody eight cars in front of you jams on their brakes. You instinctively hit your brakes to avoid hitting the car in front of you. Why is this possible? Because you can see the eight cars in front of you through the front and rear windows. Flash forward to today: You’re boned and so is your car. You can try leaving 6-8 car lengths between you and the nearest car, but that means 2 cars will quickly jump in and odds are that one of them is a SUV. Parking lots are worse. Try leaving your spot when a Chevy Tahoe and an F-350 have parked next to you. With $5 a gallon gas on the horizon, SUVs will soon rapidly decrease in number. It’ll take a lot of stress out of the daily commute and fewer people will die over a stupid fad (and great marketing coup). If the left had simply played the safety card instead of the environment card, it could have happened much sooner.
Perhaps Detroit would then introduce a diamond plated sub-compact that runs on the tears of sweatshop babies. Conservatives would be delighted because liberals would be furious. Red A could be ahead of the curve on importing sweatshop baby tears, and could finally hit it big. He’d probably return home, buy a vintage Lincoln Navigator and modify it to run on the tears.
4 comments:
Wow, that is a long stretch of open road if you can see the car in front of you through the rear window.
Also, don't disparage Red A's business acumen. Liberals would be a more constant supply of tears and most of them can clean up their own poop.
The reason people buy SUVs is so they can see over the other SUV's. Its a cold-war escalation of vehicle height.
Best to place an order for a container port crane...nobody gonna block your view then, plus you can pick up people cars with one and laugh when you drop them past their exit.
Or drive a Mini and see UNDER them.
Red A brought real beer to Taiwan. His business acumen rates A+ in my book.
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