SUVs.

Why do so many people get so bent out of shape about SUVs?  I mean, I know several otherwise rational people who will go off into a fit of apoplectic rage that would make Louis Black proud whenever they encounter an SUV on the road.  What gives?

 

So yes, I believe global warming is both real and man-made; yes, I believe our dependence on foreign oil has lead us into a quagmire in the middle east; and yes, I believe that someday in the not-as-distant-as-we-would-like future we will start to run dry.  Thus, I can understand why some people might be irked by the sight of someone sitting alone in an empty Expedition in parking-lot interstate traffic. 

 

But I suspect that more often than not people buy the bigger SUVs because they intend to haul around a bunch of stuff or a bunch of people (or both), not just to burn gas with reckless abandon.  I mean, come on – it’s expensive to keep those monsters running, and they can’t be all that fun to drive (let alone park).

 

OK, so maybe I’m a little sensitive because I drive a baby SUV (a Jeep Cherokee) and it doesn’t get particularly good mileage.  But you don’t see people throwing eggs at eighteen wheelers, right?  I don’t see how telling someone “You can’t drive a car like that, ever,” is a rational response.  Clearly an Expedition is not the right vehicle for a single person with a sixty-mile daily commute.  By the same token, a Mini-Cooper is not the right car for a family of five, a farmer who needs to transport feed, or a gigging musician with a drum kit and a PA. 

 

So dial back the sanctimony, folks.  Truce, okay?  Or else I’ll run you down with my gas-guzzling Jeep.


screeds & diatribes

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