My kind of SUV: But as our lovely 'Strayan said, SUVs are just minivans in disguise, except for one difference; Minivans are infinitely more useful for everything 90% of people driving an SUV do, having more cargo space and getting more than 18MPG, and usually storing more people more comfortably.
Only crossovers are minivans in disguise, and not all SUVs are crossovers, but most of them are these days. Some have kept their dignity.
I'd still say that even the most dignity keeping SUVs are still just tall minivans, but yeah, crossovers are far closer. To be honest I don't even have a particular dislike of SUVs, but most are just driven by people that should probably have gotten a minivan.
I still think station wagons need to become as widespread as minivans/crossovers/SUVs. They have roughly as much space inside as a crossover, get better mileage, safer, look better, etc.
I would say that out of the SUVs I've experienced most of them have the same or less space inside as a respectably sized station wagon, they're like reverse TARDISes. Except for Tahoes/Suburbans, those have seating fit for a king.(dunno about storage though)
All of you guys are listing the SUVs that are big & bulky and pretty cool, but I mean Im sick of those SUVs that are more common than incest in Alabama. Like the Honda CRV, Hyundai Tucson, Mazda CX5, Mazda CX7, Mazda CX9, Kia Sportage, Toyota Rav4, Toyota Kluger/Highlander, GM Trax, GM Captiva, Nissan Dualis, Ford Kuga & I don't know if this is an SUV, Crossover, Hatchback or pile of shit but I'll list it anyways, Ford EcoSport. Why do we need so fucking many?
Well as A proud 'murican I only recognized about half of the names on that list, and most those were crossovers, but anyway most the people where I live drive the massive type, or more commonly ludicrously gargantuan crew cab V10 pickup trucks that for some reason only have a 3 foot bed
Driving school instructs us to fasten our lap belts and adjust the mirrors before departure when we drive. What handful of other rituals do you follow before heading out on route? Me I lace my shoes, grab my hat and jacket, water bottle, dust the spider webs, turn the key, click my belt, don't give a rip about the mirrors as I am the only driver, and really I am gone. Geez, turns out that is pretty boring. I need a more exotic vehicle or something. Secondary question, will gravel tires make me furious from road noise if I replace with them rather than snow tires, will their rubber suck in the winter?
I hate cheap import SUVs & Hatchbacks They are the reason for the fall of the mighty Australian made car. In my opinion anyone who doesn't buy locally manufactured is a wanker (Unless you live in a country that has no car manufacturers or they are unsafe tin cans). Especially Mazda 3 & Toyota Corolla awful things.
With the utmost respect to awesome Australian made cars, imports wouldn't be selling if they weren't doing something better than the equal local made cars, even if it solely in price. Same thing as America, American cars went to shit in the 70's and Japanese imports proved to better suit the needs of people, so that's simply what they bought.
People buy crew cabs because they intend to use their truck as a family hauler/general transportation rather than strictly a work vehicle. A regular cab doesn't have enough seating, and the back seat of an extended cab is only really useful as a pseudotrunk, so they get the MONSTER SEDAN instead. They're called Cowboy Cadillacs for a reason. As for the bed, crew cabs tend to have a special, super-short bed (I seem to remember 5.8 feet for Chevrolets at one point, as opposed to 6.5 ft or 8 ft for a normal short or long bed) so they can use the same frames as the extended cab/long bed variants, which are themselves long enough to be unwieldy. Re: SUVs. I agree here, and consider SUVs one of the main reasons we could never do freeways the German way here. America suffers from a national obsession with large, top-heavy vehicles. We like to sit up high, or feel safer in a bigger vehicle, or something. I think it started with the late 1960s and early 1970s - there was a revolution in the culture, including a loosening of... morals. When the traditional "large family headed by a monogamous, heterosexual pair" was culturally marginalized, the station wagon, being in many cases a dowdy family transport, was marginalized too. Today, I think, station wagons are still popularly stigmatized as the vehicle of choice for taking your wife and seven kids (both of which have become uncool concepts in today's screwed-up world) SUVs, meanwhile, despite having fulfilled the same function just as often or more often for many years now, still have some left-over coolness passed down from the truly tough, simple, go-anywhere adventure vehicles (Jeep CJ, Chevy Blazer, Ford Bronco, Toyota Land Cruiser, etc.) of the above-mentioned time period. Add to this, apparently, Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules that eventually made it difficult to build wagons, but still (at that point) had the Light Truck Loophole - thus, people who still needed the space and power of a large wagon didn't really have a choice anymore. That's how you end up with millions of crossovers and SUVs stupiding all over everything. Also, as I said before, I think people actually like the buslike driving position. They like the feeling, or it makes them feel safe, of being able to crush smaller cars that get in their way. I meanwhile, like to sit down low, where I feel like I can evade any big stupid SUV that tries to crush me.
As long as you don't make them really tall and ugly then send most or all of the engine power to the front wheels, I'm fine with that.
Don't worry, most industrial lawnmowers are rear wheel drive! And rear engined, like a Porsche! So refined! (But they are usually quite tall and their has never been an attractive lawnmower, just less ugly ones) So refined!!!
I completely agree, I can't stand driving anything bigger than a mid-sized sedan. I once had to drive a F-150 while helping a family member move, and I felt like I was going to hit absolutely everything I could see. I really don't like driving my father's X3 either, which has about the same size wheelbase as my E46 M3, but is a lot higher up. Also, someone driving a Infiniti G35 was trying to get me to race him at the lights last night. I came to the conclusion the intersection at Anderson Mill and 620 probably isn't the best place to do that. He was revving his engine and peeled away from the lights before he figured out I wasn't racing him. Not that it would be something I would do, anyways. I don't really care for straight line racing, I like to stick to grip driving on secluded roads or a track if I have the opportunity.
Really, SC is on point, but really, this is where you've taken this conversation? How hippies and tank drivers created the SUV revolution in the 70's. I guess that is important.
Building on g0tsl33p14's reply You, as in SC, claim that the beginning of the rise of the SUV is because the marginalization of the "large family headed by a monogamous, heterosexual pair" now I would love to go into how that itself is very innacurate, but I'll stick to the vehicular side of things. The SUV was essentially a result of "monogamous, heterosexual pairs" trying to be cool. Kids that grew up being driven around in their parents' station wagon found station wagons to be lame, but these hot new minivans were really cool, somehow. The same thing of the kids riding in the minivans happened, but these cool new SUVs were beginning to show up, and nowadays Crossovers seem to be the new hot thing for families. It's just people trying to be cool, not them evil hippies loosening Americas moral structure and shaming families.
What completely sucks about all this (entire page included), is that while we go to hell discussing this, sitting in Los Angles traffic is much more comfortable with On-Star and a Whopper than being cramped with a clutch plus no money trucking with it.
