Site Presented By
Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Mark's are just particularly stupid and predicatable.
Hope you like it pretty warm. Also, if you were waiting for sea levels to rise so that you could buy some oceanfront property in Montana, this could be your lucky decade!
A self-proclaimed environmentalist admits that he *gasp* bought a new SUV. Dogpile time!
I'm starting to think Salon deliberately posts stories like this one to generate a bit of outrage and ratchet up the clicks on its pages to justify its advertising rates.
Anyhow, the author's new car/SUV/crossover/whatchamacallit isn't all that horrible in the grand scheme of things. There are plenty of vehicles he could have bought that are worse for the environment.
I am perpetually baffled by the profound minivan bigotry displayed by males of the species... "it's a girl car" "I can't drive a minivan!"
It's as if you'd asked them to parade naked down Rodeo Drive at noon on a sunny Saturday.
Totally stupid, is what it is. Minivans are better than SUVs for EVERY, SINGLE use to which SUVs are put, except one. Offroading.
And how many SUVs are taken off-road, or used regularly in snow or mud or on steep gravel inclines? Practically none, that's how many.
why a person would buy an SUV instead of a minivan is not far to seek: guys who drive minivans are simply worried about the size of their dicks. They want to feel like they're driving a macho car, and many SUVs (esp. GM products), are designed to be oversized-gas-guzzling monsters to assuage the neuroses of millions of men who worry about their dick-size.
Driving a minivan is impossible for these men. Even though a minivan makes more sense than an SUV at just about any point.
Minivans handle better. They hold LOTS more stuff, and more people. A good minivan handles as well as a quality japanese sedan and has plenty of power.
SUVs are useless compared to a minivan.
It's all about the dick-size. Or, in the case of women, it's all about their worries about their driving skills. Or vanity. Vanity infects both genders when it comes to the minivan/SUV divide.
Pathetic. Why anyone would drive an SUV when you could drive a minivan instead...if you REALLY have stuff or people to haul regularly, is beyond me.
Now, if you don't haul stuff, and you still buy an SUV, that's just pure neurosis at work.
It's not. Just stupid, or sad. Somehow our family got around in an old Toyota minivan (sort of like a VW Bus - narrow, high, but it had sleeping room.) It was a larger, underpowered car. And it worked well. The kids loved lying down in the back.
I hear young people (yes, my kids are grown) claiming they need SUVS because they have kids, and I just laugh. However, the joke is on all of us. Big cars, big houses, big ... whatever.
Small is beautiful.
It doesnt matter that it is an "SUV" - its carbon footprint is largely determined by its size/weight and its fuel efficiency.
So many of you people are screaming that he should have gotten a Wagon or a minivan - WHY????????????????????????????????
A Mitsubishi Outlander weighs less (3395 lbs) and gets better mileage (20/25mpg) than either a Volvo V70 wagon (3527lbs and 16/25mpg) or a Honda Odyssey minivan (4387lbs and 16/23mpg) and you will find similar results for most other vehicles in these classes (wagons and minivans) - except for those in the compact or sub-compact size (which are few)
So now don't you feel like dummies yelling at the (yes - hypocritical) author when you praise or ignore all those wagon and minivan drivers?
And I'll say it again - from a Carbon Footprint point of view - a used Ford Expedition is more "efficient" then virtually any new car that it built for you.
Sigh.
Years ago Detroit got rich selling land yachts that had only two doors because a large segment of the population thought 4 doors were "uncool". Nevermind that the 2 door land yachts were impractical -- the back seats were hard to access and the huge doors made it hard to get in/out in parking lots.
Today that same segment of the population forgos the minivan for the SUV.
Compared to the pseudo-SUVs the minivans win hands down on every point. More space inside? Check. On the cargo side, you win both with volume and with area -- with the Odessey and Sienna you can even fit 4x8 sheets of whatever in the back. On the passenger side your 3rd row is much more accessible and roomy. And the lower floor means you have enough floor-to-ceiling space to actually move around if need be in the back.
Gas mileage? The minivan style wins against the equivalent sized pseudo-SUV. Drivability? The minivan has a lower center of gravity which makes for much more stable driving, especially in icy/snowy conditions. If you absolutely, positively need AWD you can also get that in a minivan. Access? Young kids can get in more easily with the lower floor (and are less likely to injure themselves falling on the way out of the car). And the sliding doors are a boon in tight spaces like parking lots. Off-road? C'mon, the pseudo-SUVs are a joke off-road. The minimal extra ground clearance may help slightly in some situations, but generally is useless.
Compared to the "real" truck-based SUVs (i.e. Chevy Suburban, Ford Extinction, etc) the minivan wins on almost every single point. Gas mileage? Slam dunk for the minivan. Interior space? The most monster of the SUVs have more cubic yards of volume, but the higher floor means that it's less usable for most cargo. Plus, the higher floor makes it less friendly for passengers as it's harder to move around inside.
Drivability? Here's where the "real" SUV myth explodes. The Ford Extinction class of SUV is three times more likely than a mid-size sedan to be involved in a single car accident. That's because they are inherently unstable. When the snows hit where I live the first vehicles off the road are the Extinction class and the big Pickups. The higher center of gravity makes them far less stable in any driving condition, and the rear-wheel drive makes them susceptible to tailspins (even those with AWD still have most of the power in the rear wheels, so spin outs are common on ice).
The Extinction does have two advantages -- towing capacity and it does better on heavily rutted farm roads (which few people ever drive on). They aren't good for serious 4WD roads, of course, although I'm sure most owners don't know that. In terms of towing, even the Sienna can pull 3500 lbs in a pinch -- and honestly most towing jobs above that are due to lifestyle choice, not anything approaching necessity.
In the end, if you have to have a car with that much seating the minivan is the practical choice. We have an aging Chrysler which we intend to drive forever. We use it less than 5000 miles/year -- only when the hybrid is not an option. It's worth about $4k on the auto market. Something to consider.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
