More SUV Bashing

HummerTeam · #1 12-06-2002, 04:31 PM

You know it's gonna be a ROUGH article when it starts out with: "Have you ever wondered why sport utility vehicle drivers seem like such a**holes?" What's up with all these people?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/fea....mencimer.html

HummerTeam · #2 12-06-2002, 04:31 PM

You know it's gonna be a ROUGH article when it starts out with: "Have you ever wondered why sport utility vehicle drivers seem like such a**holes?" What's up with all these people?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/fea....mencimer.html

ktower_heels · #3 12-06-2002, 04:47 PM

Why is it that they blame SUVs? Put the blame where it ought to be and that is that if you drive like a Jack@#s; whether in a car or an SUV, you are a hazard. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif[/img]
It should be much harder to get a driver's licence than it currently is; do you have a pulse and fifty bucks.
I got an SUV because a)I like being up high, b)I got too many tickets in a sports car, and c)I don't want to have multiple vehichles for different things; SUVs cover kids, trips, lawn supplies, towing the boat.
If people were more cautious in general while driving, regardless of vehichle type, we wouldn't have as many accidents. Every day on the Dallas Tollway (our daily version of NASCAR); I see people doing their makeup, reading or working on their laptops while driving.
Sorry for the rant, but these BS studies are getting out of hand and are coming close to encrouching on my rights to own whatever I want!

HummerTeam · #4 12-06-2002, 05:18 PM

Last month I saw a lady driving her mini-van, putting on lipstick, talking on the phone, and trying to whack one of her kids in the backseat while driving about 75 mph, passing me in my SUV. Who do think was more of a danger to the others on the highway?

TS · #5 12-06-2002, 05:41 PM

It's Friday... so I'll open myself up for abuse. The most dangerous driver is a woman..putting on lipstick.. talking on a celphone..with kids.. in a minivan.. wearing a hat..

Dan · #6 12-06-2002, 05:50 PM

It's the seniors that are the problem. They drive so slow they'll never get in an accident themselves, but I bet they cause tons! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

Seriously though, that article is a bit unreasonable. If you follow the author's line of thinking, we all should be driving the same exact car so no one has an "unfair" advantage/disadvantage to tip the equilibrium of the roadways. Which would also mean the end of trucks too. No 18-wheelers carrying freight, no milk delivery tankers, no gas transport tankers, no dump trucks for construction, etc, etc.
I vote for those hybrid electrics that can only carry about 1 ½ persons so that we have to make 3 trips to take a few people out to dinner and burn more energy than if everyone piled into the H2 and went together at once.

- *sarcastic today* Dan

TS · #7 12-06-2002, 05:51 PM

I just read the article.. by the tone of her writing, she is poking fun at SUV owners.. "the vehicle of choice for self centered people".."insecure about their marriage" "Ran over his 2 year old and thought he hit the curb".. funny. I ran over a Miata and thought it was a speedbump.. maybe she can use my line!!

ktower_heels · #8 12-06-2002, 05:54 PM

I usually wouldn't be so sexist, except that I got rear ended by a woman, on her cell phone yelling at her two kids who were jumping around in the back of her van. The cops let her off without writing her a ticket because they felt sorry for her. She should have had her right to drive totally revoked!
Thankfully, I was uninjured because I was in a larger SUV!!

SJ · #9 12-06-2002, 06:12 PM

Where I live, it's not the SUV drivers that tend to cause problmes, but the little Tokyo Tin Cans buzzing around with oversized mufflers. The drivers of those things have been known to not use turn signals, cut people off, and generally annoy any one that follows driving etiquette.

kelleymac2000 · #10 12-06-2002, 09:30 PM

There are so many bones to pick with your article found at:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/fea....mencimer.html

that I don't know where to begin. The paragraph that prompted me to write is this one:

"Ironically, SUVs are particularly dangerous for children, whose safety is often the rationale for buying them in the first place. Because these beasts are so big and hard to see around (and often equipped with dark-tinted glass that's illegal in cars), SUV drivers have a troubling tendency to run over their own kids. Just recently, in October, a wealthy Long Island doctor made headlines after he ran over and killed his two-year-old in the driveway with his BMW X5. He told police he thought he'd hit the curb."

I couldn't be more troubled that you chose to use this example in an article full of sarcasm, "wit," and social commentary about other people's choices in life. I cannot imagine the pain that doctor must have felt to kill his own child, and I'm sure your article calling him (by turns) "an *******," "insecure" and "narcissistic" goes a long way toward making your point.

Kelley McNally

Steve R · #11 12-06-2002, 09:35 PM

good for you Kelley.....your speaking both well and on our behalf!

Some writers sensationalize and delibertely try to evoke emotional repsonses when they publish...it gets them the attention they want.

Oh yeah...guess what...when studying photos back from the Kennedy assassination...turns out the shooter was driving an SUV! guess that's our bad too! Geez!

Arizona Hummerboy · #12 12-06-2002, 09:40 PM

I must say that I must be at the Top of the ASS HOLE List. Because I love my Hummer H2 [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif[/img] it is top dog of vehicle to me.
The rest of the world can kiss are Hummer BUTS.

HummerGirl · #13 12-06-2002, 10:37 PM

Uh...and I am a woman and it pisses me off to no end to see a woman on the cell phone while driving, putting on lipstick, or smoking all at the same time.

It's ridiculous and scary. People have no clue about those stupid cell phones. I hate them in the car.

Not all women are bad drivers but there sure is a large majority who are too busy being beauty queens and the Goodie-Goodie Gossip.

When I see folks talking on the cell phone I give them the "put the phone down" motion with my thumb and pinky as a phone to my ear and mouth.

I am having my sign man make me a window vinyl that reads in about 1 inch letters along the bottom of my back windshield that reads:

Get off that phone and @$!#@-ing drive!

~amy
Move it or Lose it...

SONA · #14 12-06-2002, 10:40 PM

Dear Editor, I had read Stephanie Mencimer's review of Keith Bradsher's, "High and Mighty: SUV's" and was appalled the such crab actually made it to print. All Ms. Mencimer did was repeat the often over used inaccurate and statistical manipulations to further carry on the new sport of SUV bashing. Did Ms. Mencimer actually ever go out and test the statistical measures in Mr. Bradsher's book? Or did she just buy into the recent fury over SUV owners right to drive any thing they can afford to buy and afford to drive. How about a little investigative reporting. The paragraph in which she criticizes the purchase of SUV's by large and small police departments was interesting but quite weak. In the opening sentence of the very next paragraph suddenly the word "firemen" appears as if there is a global conspiracy by members of the emergency services profession. The classic sentence "According to market research conducted by the country's leading automakers, Bradsher reports...." should give any reader a sudden and electrifying jolt back to reality. What "market research", a series of 100 phone calls to SUV owners and the results then extrapolated to hundreds of thousands of SUV owners? Followed by the insightful statement "SUV buyers tend to be "insecure and vain. They are frequently nervous about their marriages and uncomfortable about parenthood. They often lack confidence in their driving skills. Above all, they are apt to be self-centered and self-absorbed, with little interest in their neighbors and communities. They are more restless, more sybaritic, and less social than most Americans are. They tend to like fine restaurants a lot more than off-road driving, seldom go to church and have limited interest in doing volunteer work to help others." So now in this market research they have conducted an in-depth psychological profile of the motivations of SUV owners including questions of personal insecurity, vanity, relationships with each individuals respective spouse, parenting ability, confidence in their ability to get to the store to buy milk, and relationships with their neighbors, Not to mention Community service record! All this insightful and reveling information in "Market Research". Your publication of Ms Mencimer makes her look as stupid as Mr. Bradshers assertions in his book and is an embarrassment to your ability to publish accurate and interesting news. The editor who approved this story should be ashamed. You may contact me at [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

"Let me show you my gun collection"

kelleymac2000 · #15 12-06-2002, 10:43 PM

Glad a few of us spoke up!

Kelley

SONA · #16 12-06-2002, 10:59 PM

Speaking up may cause you to offend some liberal mouse who thinks we should just lay down and be driven over by someone driving a Gremlin hanging out the window of their car spray painting your H2. Wouldn't want to squash the right to do that.... LOL [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif[/img]

"Let me show you my gun collection"

kelleymac2000 · #17 12-07-2002, 01:44 PM

If there's any squashing to do, I'll be the one to do it! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] (Isn't that why we all bought the H2????)

Oh, wait...I'm not being terribly PC, am I??????? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Kelley

HeeHaw · #18 12-07-2002, 06:01 PM

I too fired off a letter and I was very direct!

The following is for the Board and is NOT THE RESPONSE I WROTE.

Most of this is just crap and a little smoke and mirrors! I have owned SUV's for years and I can say this, they may roll over from time to time, but most of that can be attributed to POOR driving by both sexes. Remember, months ago when the Explorers were rolling over when they had a blowout? Ever had a blow out going 75 MPH? I have and it is VERY easy to control the vehicle and come to a safe stop in an SUV. It's easy! Let off the gas and allow the vehicle to slow down on its own, steering off of the roadway, as stated right there in the driving manual in drivers’ education.

They get most of their anti-SUV numbers from the rollover and tire problems and from WANT A BE Import SUV's. I say this because of the numbers they are quoting are very similar to those stats and have simply re-hashed for their self-serving article.

I have never professed myself to be an expert at much. I counted the traffic accidents I have taken over the years and the totals were staggering. I have taken in excess of 3,000 traffic collision reports and some of them were FATAL ACCIDENTS and this is WHAT I KNOW.

Honda, Nissan, Toyota and most of the other imports will GET YOU KILLED. Most of the fatals I have seen were small cars vs. small cars. Most of the people I have seen walk away were in larger vehicles, SUV's and such. And it did not appear to matter what they hit or who hit them, (with-in reason) they survived and the vehicle usually held up well.

Import SUV's don't do as well as the American SUV's. The Toyota Land Cruiser is an exception and the only exception that comes to mind. Give me a Ford, Chevy and now a Hummer for those collisions. I take'm EVERY time.

This brings me to another point, the Honda CRV, Rav 4 and other "WANT A BE" SUV's are the ones responsible for the inaccurate numbers. These PRETEND SUV's do not hold up well and Sustain CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE even in minor crashes. Not to mention, the poor folks driving them.

The only thing true about their study is that if you hit a smaller car while driving an REAL SUV, it is probably game over for them, cuz it will be a very devastating impact for the unlucky Honda or Nissan driver. These small cars and imports in general, do not hold up and yield FATALS in these situations.

Ever seen the 5 and 10 MPH bumper tests? Big deal! Some of the imports hold up well there and are OK. But get in a collision in that car with another car of the same type going 40 MPH and its GAME OVER. This is what produces more fatal collisions than any SUV related crash. AND I DO MEAN FATAL collisions, the ones like when I arrive FIRST on the scene of a traffic collision and my first radio transmission is "This is confirmed FATAL."

That's just my opinion, and I could be wrong.

Amy, It has been my experience, that the numbers are about 50 / 50 when it comes to stupid crashes and stupid turning movements for MEN and WOMEN. We all do it and ALL of our female officers are great drivers and I'd ride with them any time! There, does that make up for Mac? Just kidding ha ha ha ha

I say "Screw'em, they have to have something to talk about to justify their pathetic failed miserable lives!"

HeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeHawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

HummerGirl · #19 12-07-2002, 07:39 PM

hee haw..that was very well put...how much of that went to the letter your wrote to the journalist???

I think you are right...50/50 is prolly more along the lines as who is doing stupid things in their cars while driving...

~amy
Move it or Lose it...

HeeHaw · #20 12-07-2002, 08:24 PM

I left out a lot of facts figures I told them to make it more powerful.

HeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeHawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

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