<< I for one am sick of hearing everybody's excuse for hating SUV's and SUV drivers. A bad driver is a bad driver, whether that person drives a minivan, pickup, subcompact, or a shool bus. I drive an SUV and I find myself CONSTANTLY having to avoid being hit by Civics, Grand Marquis, F-150's, you name it, and do you know why, because the drivers are bad drivers, PERIOD. There was a person who stated that his neighbor was rear-ended by an SUV driver who was beating her kids, would it have made any difference if she was driving a Caprice station wagon, or a Chevy C-1500? Nope, it's an unfortunate tragedy that shouldn't have happened but blaming the SUV isn't the answer.
And to the people coming up with all of the reasons why owning an SUV is a waste, TOUGH SH!T, it's MY MONEY, I paid for it, not you. Last time I checked we were still "the land of the free". Unless you always drive your 4 seat car with 4 people in it, or your 8 seat minivan with 8 people in it, you are no better than the people who use their SUV to go to the grocery store. Sure I don't get the same mileage as a Corolla, but I pay additional gas tax to make up for it, so "zip it" because I'm keeping the oil company share holders happy and I'm contributing more to more to the local school system than you are. My SUV was the only vehicle which filled all of our requirements: 4 wheel drive, towing capacity, interior volume, good acceleration (read v8), and ultimately crash protection (yeah, I know someone will post a link to the blah blah blah consumer crash site, go for it, my family will still fare better in a Neon vs SUV crash).
My Explorer doesn't handle as well as a smaller car, I know that and I don't drive it that way. But I tell you what, I drive my "ill-handling" SUV better than half the other brain dead box jockies out there who are driving their "reasonable" cars and minivans. Meaning, I use turn signals, I maintain a constant speed (fast), I don't tailgate, and I PAY ATTENTION while driving.
The one thing that made me a better automobile driver .... I drive a motorcycle. Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, cuts motorcycles off. And then they act like they didn't see you, duh, maybe if they looked first or extracted the cell phone from their ear first.
PS My other car is an Audi 100S. >>
THANK YOU. Another sound mind in this discussion. It seems that people hate SUV's for all the wrong reason. When's the last time that you saw a Civic with 5 people in it, an Accord with 5 people in it, a minivan filled to capacity, or a pickup truck with three people sitting on the bench seat?? How dare you dis SUV drivers when I rarely see cars filled to capacity.
No one rags on big BMW's and big Mercedes' for poor gas mileage. Ohh, and let's not dis pickups for their bad gas mileage and bulk. Those big ass long-wheelbase pickups weight just as much as the largest SUV's.