Very usefull information that makes so much sense especially when applied.We purchased a big vehicle only for hauling a boat.We use a normal vehicle for shopping.

oztech:

When did you graduate from leftist pinko school? Who are you to lecture why anybody in a free society buys or uses anything? If I want to buy a barrel of oil and set it on fire to roast a single marshmallow, that’s my business. I don’t drive an SUV, but if I want to I will, without the condescending attitude of your blog.

People make their own choices in this country for WHATEVER reason they want.

By the way, the one SUV-driving woman I know doesn’t have kids, doesn’t haul a boat, doesn’t carry big items, or need it to ‘prove anything’. She likes to drive it because it makes her feel safe. She doesn’t want to drive a roller skate with a Briggs & Stratton engine and tinfoil side walls. Is she wrong? It’s certainly not up to you to decide.

Frankly, I think someone who feels the need to make big speeches to others about changing their lawful behavior are the ones who need to compensate for smaller things.

Fellow enviro-whacko Paul McCartney had his socially acceptable hybrid flown 7000 miles by jet last month. Al Gore and John Edwards continue to lecture to all of us about global warming yet continue to create ‘carbon footprints’ hundreds of times larger than other Americans. Oh, that’s right - they just buy ‘carbon offsets’ and get a couple of trees planted so it’s okay, right?

Why don’t you expend your writing ‘talent’ on hypocites like them instead?

‘Jim in Virginia’ is absolutely right. When will the left realize suv’s are LEGAL, and if I, or anyone else, wants to own one, it’s none of your %#@*& business! Actually, I don’t own one, because I don’t want or need one, but I respect the rights of others to drive whatever they want to, for whatever reason.

Amen Jim.

This is the United States of America Oztech, as long as i’m paying for the gas i can drive whatever i damn well please.

You’ve obviously been brainwashed into considering anything that is not “green” is immoral. I feel sad for you.

As you can see, the klunkheads are always with us!

The above comments are a good example of why this country is on the brink of an energy crisis.

Jim is correct. I can’t wait to read the next article about those who have an extra bedroom or two story house.

Ditto on the above. The nanny state apologists out there simply won’t tolerate anyone who doesn’t think the way they do. And of course, those who don’t obediently fall into line with their way of thinking are suffering from penis envy or some other personal shortcoming.

The “everybody knows” mindset of these prissy busybodies is absolutely amazing, and all the more hilarious when most would probably describe themselves as well educated and broad minded.

Wow. It’s amazing how defensive some people get when they’re being criticized about their SUVs. Almost reminds me of the gun control debate.

Of course it’s lawful and legal to drive a big car, burn tons of gas and pollute the environment, nobody says so otherwise. But that doesn’t make it right. The immorality here is being unnecessarily wasteful to the environment and leaving the mess for future generations to clean up. It’s not about just doing what you can or are allowed to do rather than about caring for the consequences your actions may have on others. And that has nothing to do with a leftist agenda and everything with showing some responsibility and common sense.

I use my SUV to pull little sh*tcan cars out of the snow and mud that’s rather common up here in Minnesota. It’s also a lot more solid and safer to drive up here where deer and moose (I’ve hit both) find their way on to the roads.

I drive a minivan with only two kids do I get a pass?

“Jim is correct. I can’t wait to read the next article about those who have an extra bedroom or two story house.”

I’ve kind of touched on that topic in my post My Rich Neighbors are Broke. Many people in this country bought big houses and big SUV’s and are now broke because of it.

Jim in Virginia, Martin Kruse, Chuck, Rick: What You Said ! … as for oztech and his amen chorus: Go get a Cage-Free, Organic, Fair-Trade, Al Gore Life– But don’t try to tell us “klunkheads” that we are Enviro-Sinners for making our own choices.

I disagree with SUV owners excuses for owning polluting gas hogs, but stand behind their freedom to express their status by burning as much fuel as possible while complaining about it costing a hundred bucks every time they fill up. Showing off by lighting your cigar with a hundred dollar bill is fun to watch and if you have money to burn, I fully support your burning it while you’ve got it. Just keep in mind that I’ll be bidding 50 grand for your 650 grand house in a few months though when it goes into foreclosure.

Taint no pinko commie sentiment, it’s pure capitalism. You waste the capital, I buy the remains for a dime on the dollar, wait a few years and enjoy the fruits of your investments. It did wonders for the bank account during the Dot Com bust, is doing wonders during the Real Estate bust, and will continue to do so as I haul off abandoned Suburbans, F250’s and all the rest of the high iron content gas guzzlers to be crushed and sent to China for recycle.

Sean nails it.

Why stop at criticizing someone’s choice of vehicle? Would we also poke at their choice of shoes or underwear?

Whether it’s a SUV, a pair of crocs, or a thong … it’s a personal decision.

What if the person that needed to drive the large vehicle had the opportunity to drive a pure electric?

The market has not given us those choices. Yet.

While I agree that people should have the right to drive whatever they want, I also think that before they do buy an SUV or anything similar they be given a pamphlet as to what their purchase is going to do to the a) environment b) soaring gas prices.

SUV’s were essentially manufactured to be able to get one into places where only 4×4’s could go. I yet have to see a shiny SUV bushwhacking on a rocky mountain road.

Sanctimonious. It can be had on both sides. Truth is on both sides, arguments can be made for both. So that alone should tyell anyone that it’s (a) not as simple as it looks or (b) both viewpoints are valid within their context. There are ways to educate that don’t invole name-calling or finger-pointing. The minute I see anyone dragging their soapbox out to make a speech I know it’s really about them - not the issue they are trying so hard to appear concerned about.
In the case of the energy crisis - it’s a much bigger story than how much automobiles suck down and I can promise you that if you added up every SUV in the country the 10% difference in gasoline consumption is merely a drop in the bucket of other more wasteful energy consumers. Hey - why don’t you get yourself worked up about stuff that *really* matters such as mountain topping for coal? That coal will be used in firing electrical power plants (so clean enerrgy starts out dirty) - puts a boatload more crap in teh air than autos…

Well, Joan, you’ve never seen mine. Oztech, while I understand that my choice to own an SUV offends some, I do need mine. I volunteer by transporting greyhounds for adoption, haul a travel trailer for my vacation, take smaller vacations “bushwhacking” locally. I could clearly go on but you get my point. If I could tell by looking who did and who did not “need” their SUV I might be more willing to criticize (while they criticize me) but I can’t. No one can. If we could afford a second car my spouse and I would buy a smaller car to save gas, but we aren’t in a position to spend tens of thousands of dollars to save a few dollars in gas. I hope if you see us on the road you will grant that maybe we made our automobile choice with care and with our needs in mind. Live and let live.

hmm, all the flaming on this, the article was on people’s excuses for owning suv’s, sounds like most commenters fit in #4, and the article does say, for people who have a real reason, they are ok.
Yes you can still use an SUV if you want to, but don’t claim you need it to haul around 2 kids, or move furniture all the time or something. A friend of mine was in a family with 6 kids, so they had a suburban to haul everyone around, and that made sense.
Many people driving SUVs up to hummers are driving with no passengers 90% of the time, never go off the pavement etc.

Consider what you would do if gas rationing of some type eventually went into effect, say 25 gallons per adult driver per week.
This would be plenty for a solo commuter driving 60 miles each way getting 25 miles per gallon.
This would NOT be enough for an SUV owner.

Considering 4 passenger cars are available at 35 mpg, gas rationing would likely be set lower, people can carpool, people would with suvs end would up buying gas rations at even higher rates from high mpg carpoolers.
On SUVs being “Safer” try looking at the statistics. Maybe a 80s metro isn’t tops in safety, but neither is the SUV, SUVs have more momentum, and are harder to turn and stop.

Whole point is, go ahead and drive your suv, but don’t complain if your given reason for needing it is poked full of holes, and start calling the person exposing your “mine is bigger” mentality a communist.

China and India have far more people than the United States and Europe, and they all want to drive cars like us, they are coming into an economic level where they can, and there’s only so much oil to go around.

$4.00-$4.50 per gallon now…next year it will be 5, by 2013 will likely be breaking $10. After that who knows, maybe there will be enough conversion to solar, wind, nuclear, and renewable fuels to slow things down, if not, they will likely race up at a rate that will have us all riding bicycles to work every day.

I guess I’m just a klunkhead, but everyone is really missing the point here. It’s one thing for oztech to tell us why he thinks downsizing a car is a good idea, and certainly fine if he wants to drive a solar powered skateboard to work if he wants while he’s sipping herbal tea and writing checks to Al Gore for ficticious carbon credits - but you or anyone else has NO RIGHT to tell others what to do as long as it is lawful.

Poor Spence and Carol talk like they need to apologize for their vehicles! And by the way Carol - your ‘need’ isn;t any more ‘right’ or ‘moral’ or ‘justified’ than anyone else’s.

Good luck to you both - you’ll probably both feel a lot better when you can just pay some carbon-based taxes to ease your guilt (special shout-out to Bern, too).

My vehicle is a four cylinder, with an engine HP which is slightly smaller than a Toyota Camry ( you did say you liked that one, didn’t you?) I get 37 miles /gal. (slightly better than the mentioned Toyota. Mine has selectable 4-wheel-drive, but I don’t need to use it since I don’t operate off-road.

Oh yes…mine is an SUV! IT is a Nissan X-Trail and is very much an SUV, in spite of your very narrow definition.

I have to pay $6.50 a gallon for my gas, while I’ll bet you are paying, if you drive, less than $4,00 a gal. Why! Because my country choses to export oil to your country (we are the second largest supplier of your imported oil component…we are your Northern neighbor, Canada)

I guess you can imagine how happy I would be if you would just stop driving your big SUVs (at least get smaller SUVs like me) so that we could keep more of our oil and thereby lower the price of gas that I have to pay while you pay $2 or 3 dollars a gallon less.

Well, that’s NAFTA for ya’. “You get the engine…and we get the shaft!”. Sure hope Barrack gets in as President so that we can look forward to re-negotiating or scrapping NAFTA.

Oh yeah, we’d have to stop sending you WATER as well.

(Some people just can’t see past the end of their nose.) This is not meant to be a flame of anyone…just a comment on how it would be better to look globally sometime. Due to our collective governments, we no longer have the opportunity to be “protectionists” or “isolationists”. Welcome to the real world!