Gas mileage and ignorance

[optoman]

I am just waiting for the government to apply the same emission laws that are on cars now, to SUVs. It will kill the gas mileage and run up the costs of SUVs. The major car manufacturers have been using their political will to stop the laws. This is why SUVs suck. They can't play fair in the game because they are the cash cows for the car manufacturers.

Why does the gas guzzler law apply to cars but not SUVs?

 

[optoman]

Originally posted by: wje
Look! I don't consider to have any sort of "ignorance" when it comes to SUVs. I rarely bash them - hey, it's a free country and people can do as they choose. However, I'm sick of seeing single commuters driving Excursions - with 7 empty seats.

I totally agree.

The next time you are stuck in traffic take a look around. You will notice that most SUVs have only the driver. Most regular and compact size cars will tend to have multiple people in the cars. There was a study done and this has proven to be true in major cities. It is a mind set of the people driving them.

 

[davestar]

1) There's no "utilitarian" reason for the vast majority of SUV owners to own SUV's
2) SUV's are top heavy so they roll easily as compared to cars
3) SUV's bumpers are higher than that of cars, so they can easily inflict great damage on a car (and the car's owner) during an accident
4) Sure, as compared to the price of the vehicle, gas to fill an SUV for a year is relatively negligable. However, multiply the extra money spent on gas due to driving an SUV rather than a car by 5-10 years, and you have a hefty hunk of change.
5) Multiply the extra gas used by an SUV vs. a car per year by drivers who do not need the torque/size/power of an SUV and you get a huge sum of money and a huge volume of gasoline. The non-replenishable resource of gas is being wasted, it's causing pollution, and people's wallets are getting thinner while oil tycoons are reaping the benefits. The money wasted on gas should go towards finding alternate sources of power so that we aren't so dependent upon gasoline.

There's much more to think about than if a single person is losing a couple hundred dollars per year on gas.

 

[crypticlogin]

Honestly, I don't really care how much Joe Neighbor is paying for gas annually for his SUV since frankly, I'm not directly paying for his gas. 😛 So yeah, it might end up that he's paying some $400 more per year than me and my sedan but I look at it in terms of gallons: 185 gallons. I think a barrel of petroleum's somewhere around 40 gallons/barrel and after processing, a little bit less of that is made into gasoline. So that's about 4.5 barrels more of petroleum that Shell has to process per year just for me alone. Now account for the number of total SUV drivers and imagine that even half of them drove sedans. That difference in the volume of petroleum per year is my motivation for getting a more fuel efficient vehicle.

 

[erub]

Hah, well I wanna lay claim to the worse gas mileage of all of you. I live in a small town of about 60,000 people, 95 of my trips are under 3 miles (mostly 1 or 2 miles), lots of stop and go driving, signal lights, low speed limits and I give it lots of gas..my Oldsmobile Cutlass gets about 11 miles per gallon around here, and I hardly ever take it out on the highway. I'd hate to drive an SUV around here (although 50% of the populace does) - the gas mileage would be horrendous.

 

[Syringer]

Originally posted by: erub
Hah, well I wanna lay claim to the worse gas mileage of all of you. I live in a small town of about 60,000 people, 95 of my trips are under 3 miles (mostly 1 or 2 miles), lots of stop and go driving, signal lights, low speed limits and I give it lots of gas..my Oldsmobile Cutlass gets about 11 miles per gallon around here, and I hardly ever take it out on the highway. I'd hate to drive an SUV around here (although 50% of the populace does) - the gas mileage would be horrendous.

What? An SUV..and people speak as if they are all the same..will not get you any worse mileage than you currently do..

 

[SP33Demon]

$400 a year is a lot, for instance, would you like to pay $400 more per year on insurance? I better be driving the MR2 Spyder to be hit up like that...

 

[StageLeft]

that .gov site is nice - a lamborghini murcielago gets 9/13. Whoo hoo!

 

[BooneRebel]

Originally posted by: Roger

Yah, but I'd like to see your Hyundai haul 1000#'s in the back or tow a 5000# trailer.

I can do that in my truck and still get 10+ mpg.

You haul all that wieght and a trailer everyday to and from work, to and from the grocery store Ect ?




Read this interesting bit of info

Roger, must be nice to have a specialized vehicle for every task in your day. Me, I shoot for the lowest common denominator: The one vehicle that can handle everything I need it to do. For the past ten years or so that's been an SUV.

 

[Mill]

My Explorer and my Mustang get crappy gas mileage. They cost more for gas period.

 

[BooneRebel]

Originally posted by: davestar
1) There's no "utilitarian" reason for the vast majority of SUV owners to own SUV's
2) SUV's are top heavy so they roll easily as compared to cars
3) SUV's bumpers are higher than that of cars, so they can easily inflict great damage on a car (and the car's owner) during an accident
4) Sure, as compared to the price of the vehicle, gas to fill an SUV for a year is relatively negligable. However, multiply the extra money spent on gas due to driving an SUV rather than a car by 5-10 years, and you have a hefty hunk of change.
5) Multiply the extra gas used by an SUV vs. a car per year by drivers who do not need the torque/size/power of an SUV and you get a huge sum of money and a huge volume of gasoline. The non-replenishable resource of gas is being wasted, it's causing pollution, and people's wallets are getting thinner while oil tycoons are reaping the benefits. The money wasted on gas should go towards finding alternate sources of power so that we aren't so dependent upon gasoline.

There's much more to think about than if a single person is losing a couple hundred dollars per year on gas.

I'm tired of seeing this 'you're using valuable resources' rant. Unless your vehicles run on fairy dust, you're using non-replenishable resources and polluting the environment, too. Which is worse, someone who gets 30mpg that drives 30 miles to work each day, or someone who drives 10 miles in a vehicle that gets 10mpg? You could say that one should get a more fuel-efficient vehicle, but you could just as easily say that the other should move closer to work. Is your house the most efficient size, or do you have wasted space? Is your computer energy-friendly and running the bare minimum you need, or is it excessive as well? This can go on and on.

Let he who wastes no energy cast the first molotov cocktail at the SUV driver...

 

[rh71]

I have an Accord and I have a Rodeo SUV parked out front. The Accord is more efficient and practical to drive around because I drive on suburban roads with work being 5 minutes away and stores/markets being right down the block. But it sucks to drive it. It's plain boring. There is no intangible "fun" factor as compared to when I drive my Rodeo. People turn their heads and I feel special in the Rodeo. It's my "Vette".

You choose a car for looks and an enjoyable driving experience, and not solely for its practicality and efficiency factor. I don't want people thinking I drive the SUV because I want to own the road or feel bigger or safer. All that is generalized BS.

 

[AgentDib]

Originally posted by: BooneRebel

Originally posted by: davestar
1) There's no "utilitarian" reason for the vast majority of SUV owners to own SUV's
2) SUV's are top heavy so they roll easily as compared to cars
3) SUV's bumpers are higher than that of cars, so they can easily inflict great damage on a car (and the car's owner) during an accident
4) Sure, as compared to the price of the vehicle, gas to fill an SUV for a year is relatively negligable. However, multiply the extra money spent on gas due to driving an SUV rather than a car by 5-10 years, and you have a hefty hunk of change.
5) Multiply the extra gas used by an SUV vs. a car per year by drivers who do not need the torque/size/power of an SUV and you get a huge sum of money and a huge volume of gasoline. The non-replenishable resource of gas is being wasted, it's causing pollution, and people's wallets are getting thinner while oil tycoons are reaping the benefits. The money wasted on gas should go towards finding alternate sources of power so that we aren't so dependent upon gasoline.

There's much more to think about than if a single person is losing a couple hundred dollars per year on gas.

I'm tired of seeing this 'you're using valuable resources' rant. Unless your vehicles run on fairy dust, you're using non-replenishable resources and polluting the environment, too. Which is worse, someone who gets 30mpg that drives 30 miles to work each day, or someone who drives 10 miles in a vehicle that gets 10mpg? You could say that one should get a more fuel-efficient vehicle, but you could just as easily say that the other should move closer to work. Is your house the most efficient size, or do you have wasted space? Is your computer energy-friendly and running the bare minimum you need, or is it excessive as well? This can go on and on.

Let he who wastes no energy cast the first molotov cocktail at the SUV driver...

Right on... I wonder how many people adding another case fan think about the energy crisis? When you are pondering a Geforce FX versus a TNT2 do you stop to consider how much more juice the GeforceFX needs?

 

[radioouman]

You know, I don't have a problem with the mid-sized SUVs. I like the small ones, if that fits a person's needs. The big ones are the problems. The Ford Excursion, Ford Expedition, Chevrolet Suburban, Yukon XL, Toyota Landcruiser, Toyota Sequoia are problems, but so are a lot of the trucks that people buy and don't need. The problem is the average gas mileage that we are getting. I quickly realized that driving my Saturn and getting 30-35 miles per gallon really doesn't matter since the rest of the public is driving bigger cars using more gasoline. We need to convince consumers and auto-manufacturers to increase the fuel economy across the board. It's time that we stop having huge SUVs on the road that are super cheap to manufacture because they are based on older technology. It's time that we have better technology used in our biggest cars to raise the average fuel economy.

Increasing the economy of a small car isn't a huge help. Let's get the economy of the most popular and the largest cars up just to reduce our use of the natural resources.

 

[vi edit]

We need to convince consumers and auto-manufacturers to increase the fuel economy across the board. It's time that we stop having huge SUVs on the road that are super cheap to manufacture because they are based on older technology. It's time that we have better technology used in our biggest cars to raise the average fuel economy.

We already have something like that - it's called CAFE. It's a federal regulation placed on automobile manufactures that says that their entire fleet of vehciles must average a certain gas milage averaged out over all vehicle sales.

I don't remember the exact numbers, but it's something like 25 or 26 MPG that the company must average. Anything over that and they get fined.