Holy shit, I knew SUVs were unsafe, but this is horrifying.

[elbales]

Look at those statistics. Just look at them. This article is a few years old, too; wonder how the stats look now?

Also:

...Internal industry market research concluded that S.U.V.s tend to be bought by people who are insecure, vain, self-centered, and self-absorbed, who are frequently nervous about their marriages, and who lack confidence in their driving skills.

Ha. HA! VINDICATION! I knew there was a reason to despise SUV drivers.
*is self-righteous and smug. such a bitch.*


Thanks to psybelle for the link.
 

Comments

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

Whoa. I knew that SUVs weren't the safest vehicles out there, but I didn't know they were that bad.

*notes that the only people she feels are really justified in buying SUVs are farmers & other rural people who transport large numbers of people regularly*

[elbales]

Seriously. I mean, if you drive up to the snow country on a regular basis, and by that I mean several times a season, it kind of makes sense. Or if you live at the end of a dirt or gravel road that sometimes washes out in the winter, and you have a family or a dog that shouldn't be out in the cold, unsafe bed of a pickup. The day I learned there was a Lexus SUV, I just wanted to *headdesk* repeatedly. People buy the things to commute in. Just kills me.

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

Yeah. My boss does not need an SUV - she lives in a subdivision, she drives on the highway to work etc... last time she went off-road, I'm guessing, was the Christmas party at the house of one of the book club members, and if my little Cavalier can make it with no trouble, it's obviously not that tough a trip.

The manager at Branch, though, does - she has a large family, she lives a mile down a dirt road, and she hauls stuff regularly. She's the original target customer for SUVs because it makes sense.

[marilynsgirl.livejournal.com]

The internal market research is right on...it fits most people I know that have or want SUV's, including my husband and his father and older brother.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

I drive a Honda CRV. Baby SUV, won all the safety awards in its class, is pretty damn fuel-efficient considering it's an SUV and has excellent road-holding on snow and ice, which is a climate I'm new to. Maybe I lack confidence in my driving skills, but wouldn't anyone who moves somewhere where you get snow and ice four months out of twelve when you've barely ever seen a snowflake before?

I knew there was a reason to despise SUV drivers.

Thank you so much :)

[elbales]

...

Got a crowbar? I need to pry my foot out of my mouth. *sigh*

Let me rephrase: I despise people who drive SUVs when it's not necessary. Like, say, to commute. You probably noticed the exchange with Triv above. People who legitimately need SUVs should drive them. It's patently unsafe to drive a car with crap road-holding qualities when it's icy out. So I apologize for using too broad a brush to spread the tar.

Here's where this rant came from: Here in the Bay Area, where it has snowed maybe four times in my whole life, nobody has any business driving a hulking enormous SUV back and forth to work--but an appalling number of people do. In fact, unless someone lives on the aforementioned dirt road or drives to the Sierra Nevada several times a year during the winter, they don't need an SUV at all. If they need to haul the soccer team or their three dogs around town, they'd be doing their families, and everyone else on the road, a favor to buy a minivan instead. They're apparently safer for the passengers, and the minivan isn't as likely to kill ME if someone hits me with it.

Yeah, the entitlement thing of "I drive a huge SUV so I get to go first" just... pisses me off royally. I see way too many people like the lady who said she drives an SUV so she can drive over the curb and onto the lawn to park at parties.

I'm sorry you caught the flack. It was badly done of me.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

Well, it was badly done of me to post that when it was an initial reaction and, in retrospect, if I'd moved on to the next post on my flist I'd probably have forgotten all about it. It was a gross over-reaction, and I apologise for that, too.

I do actually agree with your general point. I've driven in California, and what I notice most are all the pick-up trucks. Gleaming, brand, spanking new pick-up trucks, with two rows of seats, and usually with axles raised several feet off the ground. And do these pick-ups ever have anything in the truck bed? Not that I have ever seen. So... why??

And you're right: drivers of those things often take that entitlement attitude, because they know no-one will argue with them. What, assert your right to go first at a four-way stop when you've got a sub-compact and the other person's driving a Hummer? (Now, that's an SUV I believe should not exist. Who on earth needs to drive an adapted armoured military vehicle?)

And then there's the bull-bars - there purely for 'decoration', but greatly increase a child's chance of being killed if hit by a vehicle with them, even if that vehicle is going as little as 10mph. What vehicles have bull-bars? SUVs and trucks. They banned them in the UK. Still don't understand why they're not banned in north America, given the research evidence.

Anyway, yeah, will rant with you on the general subject any time just as long as I can still drive my CR-V ;)

[elbales]

Still don't understand why they're not banned in north America, given the research evidence.

Because the oil and gas lobbies have way too much influence with the government. Welcome to corporate rule. Please deposit $1 for your next ten minutes of air.