SUV hater

Fighting Irish

wyk wrote:

My guess is because a car does half as much wear and tear on the carriageways as an SUV, uses far less resources to make, wears down tires less quickly, consumes less petrol or diesel, spews out less pollution, and is easier to recycle once it's life is over.

Wez

so SUVs wear away carriageways? :rolleyes:

Mahatma coat

Sleepy, tis not about money in the bank, tis about choices, I choose t drive a Landcruiser, 90% of the time i'm in the city, but its my choice, I'll be Fckued if some 'greenie is going to tell m what to drive based in their perceptions of whats good for us

ODS

Fighting Irish wrote:

so SUVs wear away carriageways? :rolleyes:

From Google (Previusly, I had heard the figure of a 40 tonne equating with 10,000 cars)
40 tonne truck does as much road surface damage as 9600 cars

The average reduction in CO2 emissions from new cars sold in 24 countries in Europe (the EU25 minus Malta) in 2006 was 0.6% compared to the prior year, dropping from an average 161g/km to an average 160g/km, according to an analysis by the organization Transport and Environment (T&E).

Green Car Congress wrote:

At the same time, the average weight of cars sold in those countries rose 18 kg (1.3%) from 1,356 kg in 2005 to 1,374 kg in 2006. From: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/09/reduction-in-eu.html

Its fair to say then that that although the weight of a 40 tonne lorry equates with that of 30 cars, the actual damage/ impact to road surface done by 1 truck is that of 10 thousand cars. It seems clear that weight when concentrated must an exponential factor. If that be so, then a mid-size SUV might have an impact of 10 -100 times that of an average family saloon.

One or two more stats:

From Yahoo Answers -
There isn't a realistic "average" weight. Some SUVs weigh barely 2000 lbs, and others are on the sunny side of 8000 or more.

While Wiki has a very informative page devoted to crits of 4x4s - covering
1Safety; 2.1 Rollover, 2.2 Risk to other drivers, 2.3 Visibility and Backover Deaths, 2.4 Wide Bodies in Narrow Lanes, 2.5 Recent improvements, 2.6 Psychology, 2.7 False Sense of Security, 3 Marketing practices, 4 Tax benefits, 5 Fuel economy, 6 Pollution, 7 Weight, 8 Size
Available here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_sport_utility_vehicles

Genghiz Cohen

Aurelia Lively Page wrote:

I just think I'd would prefer a car over a fancy jeep.

My girlfriend's father has a Landcruiser and gives it a proper work-out, driving around the farm, carrying cattle nuts etc. in the back, and towing trailers up passage ways and around fields. No one would give an X5 or equivalent that much work in case you damage it!

Any other use of a jeep in Ireland is insanity. They are made to go off-road and pull/push things cars can't.

I do have a small grudge against the new landcrusers, it's too close to a thing you want people to see and go "wow, nice car", and all of them I've seen dont have a pick of dirt on them. What a waste of money and diesel.

dodgyme

Mahatma coat wrote:

I'll be Fckued if some 'greenie is going to tell m what to drive based in their perceptions of whats good for us

Ah ya keep killing the planet and being a selfish neaderthal

Mr. Incognito

If people want to drive them it's their choice. I don't begrudge them. They must be driving different roads to me though and some previously unknown magical parking space.

ODS

Mahatma coat wrote:

Sleepy, tis not about money in the bank, tis about choices, I choose t drive a Landcruiser, 90% of the time i'm in the city, but its my choice, I'll be Fckued if some 'greenie is going to tell m what to drive based in their perceptions of whats good for us

Mahatma coat wrote:

I have a Landcruiser, does that count?

I laugh at people who whinge about Fuel prices, I am currently able to fill the Cruiser for about 15c/L, we grow our own Biodiesel, so my 4L straight six is less polluting than a 1L Starlet.

Your argument is remarkably flawed. RE Vegtable oil being the great solution, it has been estimated that were Ireland to convert all arable land to bio-fuel crops, it would still only meet 10-15% of the island's transport requirements. Biofuels have a significant but small part to conribute - but on their own its a false economy.

Mahatma coat wrote:

Landcruisers scare other people on the road into staying out of my way, I just dont get that sort of reaction when I'm driving my little BMW, people will try to cut you off, sneak out in front of you etc, but no one really wants totangle with a cruiser

to the OP, What gives you the right to decide whats acceptable for people to drive, if I parked alongside you in my Landcruiser exactly what would you say to me??

Someone also posted about the F150, they are available in RHD, we have them here in Australia, couple of my mates have F250's with the 7.3L Turbodiesel V8, now they're big cars

Kindly stay over in Australia - there's already enough unneccesssary agro on Irish roads. This years quota for agressive **** is over-subscribed - and even more so for those in SUVs

One final thing, from Australian Govt Website -
"Australia's Ecological Footprint in the Living Planet Report 2004 was 7.7 global hectares (gha) per person1. This is over 3 times the average global Footprint (2.2 gha), and well beyond the level of what the planet can regenerate on an annual basis - an equivalent of about 1.8 global hectares per person per year.... The average Victorian needs 8.1 global hectares of land to sustain his or her lifestyle. If everyone on the planet lived like Victorians, we would need more than four Earths to support us."
http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/ecologicalfootprint/ausFootprint/default.asp

Australians have the largest carbon footprint per capita on the globe. Go Australia, Go!... or shock! Maybe Australia might be better off if it did have some "greenie"s :eek:

dodgyme

Mahatma coat
"to the OP... if I parked alongside you in my Landcruiser exactly what would you say to me??"

I would probably do what I said in the OP. The making is in the man not the car. I dont need a Landcruiser to intimidate people. I am man enough not to need to intimidate people to feel like a man. I feel nothing but sorrow for the aggressive antics shown by you and your kind and they dont intimidate me, trust me on that one. You'd find out whan you's step outside the Landcruiser.

zuutroy

lol..internet threats are deadly

Sleepy

Mahatma coat wrote:

Sleepy, tis not about money in the bank, tis about choices, I choose t drive a Landcruiser, 90% of the time i'm in the city, but its my choice, I'll be Fckued if some 'greenie is going to tell m what to drive based in their perceptions of whats good for us

While global warming is something to worry about, that's not the reason I object to SUV's. It's ****wittery like your previous comment:

Landcruisers scare other people on the road into staying out of my way, I just dont get that sort of reaction when I'm driving my little BMW, people will try to cut you off, sneak out in front of you etc, but no one really wants totangle with a cruiser

So, you're a **** driver who's unable to react quick enough to other **** drivers mistakes so you buy something you can intimidate other people with? You shouldn't have a license.

stovelid

mikedragon32 wrote:

What's worse, someone driving a 2L SUV or a 5L saloon?
.

For me, it's more the physical size of them. Especially the dopey Texasesque pickup yokes.

Arrogant or bad driving with a luxury saloon is one thing but with big SUVs, they are designed to be imposing and intimidating and it works.

wyk

Fighting Irish wrote:

so SUVs wear away carriageways? :rolleyes:

All vehicles do. Heavy SUV's just simply wear them out faster. Or did you miss simple physics in school?

It may not be a problem there like it is in the States, where they are finding the roads aren't lasting as long as they used to with the same amount of vehicular traffic.

Wez

Mahatma coat

dodgyme wrote:

Mahatma coat
"to the OP... if I parked alongside you in my Landcruiser exactly what would you say to me??"

I would probably do what I said in the OP. The making is in the man not the car. I dont need a Landcruiser to intimidate people. I am man enough not to need to intimidate people to feel like a man. I feel nothing but sorrow for the aggressive antics shown by you and your kind and they dont intimidate me, trust me on that one. You'd find out whan you's step outside the Landcruiser.

Get kicked in the face much BigMan?

bostonian

ya suv's suck.

dodgyme

Mahatma coat wrote:

Get kicked in the face much BigMan?

No I dont and I dont need an SUV (or a pitbull terrier or anything else) to frighten people, unlike your good self.

People don't drive them to frighten other people. At least I wouldn't. I just think they look cool, have good powerful engines etc. I couldn't give a monkeys about carbon footprint. Thats just the latest trendy buzzword.

Black Swan

Have heard the excuse more than once from women while Stateside that they bought their SUV to feel safer on the road. Then hear news reports about SUVs flipping over all the time. Something about drivers taking corners too fast on roadways and losing control. Doubtful that most of the owners over here have any idea how to drive one, onroad or off. So much for safety... Ha!

is_that_so

My own dislike of SUVs is due to

Absolutely atrocious driving
Many drivers in my experience, have no spatial sense in them, and seem to care even less
Atrocious parking
Aggressive, often testosterone fuelled, driving (fat balding men for some reason :rolleyes: )
Christmas tree lights and high beams
Why buy one, when much smaller MPVs will do exactly the same thing with the lil uns?

"They make me feel safe" - Inherently idiotic comment IMO.

Do people who buy these things for "safety" not trust their own driving? Are they implying that they are such poor drivers and therefore a risk to their children or family?

IMO there should be special driving licences for them , i.e prove you can drive the damn thing before menacing everyone else.

As for the money bit , well if you were clever enough to get all that money why be stupid enough to buy something that depreciates far faster, in cash terms, than all the little washing machines around you?

dodgyme

I heard the protect the kids crap also - another loada rubbish

exCrumlinBoyo

I have two cars, a 06 Corolla (30 mpg, 1.8 L V4) & a 1999 Ford Explorer Sport SUV (15 mpg, 4 L V6).

I have both cars for the following reasons.

06 Corolla I bought simply for the gas millage and the retention price when reselling. Its a great little car and I like it a lot, very practical & economical. Myself the wife and two kids can fit in the car no problems, great stuff. My wife mainly uses this car.

1999 Ford Explorer Sport I bought and use for work, no more no less. Its a beast of a car with lots of room and lots of power. My work means I have to travel to various places around town with the SUV full of computer parts, servers and the like. It gives me plenty of room for all of that and more. It costs me about $17 a week in Petrol (at current prices). My insurance is $39 a month and my Tax on the vehicle is $40 a year.

Now if people have a problem with my use of this big gas guzzler well tough sh*ite to you all you feel that way.

Irish people can begrudge people what they like to have and can be jealous of what other people have. I am pretty sure, if your insurance and tax on your car cost you as much as it does on my one here in the States I know for a fact that most of the begrudger would be driving one... If people can afford to drive one, so be it. We talk about the oil reserves of the world, but there is a lot more products that we use every day that requires oil not only cars so for thoes who moan about the amount of petrol these use, look at your own contribution to the oil issue. As I said, 17 bucks a week is the amount of petrol I use. I am pretty sure that most of the sh*ite heads with the go faster stripes in Ireland use a whole lot more petrol racing to the red light than I do in a week.

Its all about the purpose of the vehicles.

SarahSassy

Only pretentious, wannabe, tossers use SUV's to drive their wee darlings to school.....

You see the fools going 5 mph in traffic every morning to work and 5 mph back - yeah you would need a big jeep to do that alright!!! :rolleyes:

kowloon

mikedragon32 wrote:

I have a bigger problem with these Lexus Hybrid cars which claim to be green while hiding a 5 litre engine behind an electric engine the equivalent of 1 litre.

Dont get me started on those, they get a vrt exclusion if i remember, meanwhile someone in a hatchback thats a fcukload more economical gets shafted, if theyre going to introduce incentives to go green it needs to be fair with no loophole to allow the landed gentry to keep their trucks on the cheap.
That said, im all against the govt. using every opportunity to grab cash without concern for how its spent on $hite.

jawlie

Blue_Lagoon wrote:

Have heard the excuse more than once from women while Stateside that they bought their SUV to feel safer on the road. Then hear news reports about SUVs flipping over all the time. Something about drivers taking corners too fast on roadways and losing control. Doubtful that most of the owners over here have any idea how to drive one, onroad or off. So much for safety... Ha!

Most SUVs did not suffer from this problem and those few which were prone have eliminated it.

Why can't someone have an SUV because they like it? Why is it so fashionable to dislike SUV's. Personally, I am ambivalent and find it hard to get excited about someone elses's choice.

jawlie

kowloon wrote:

Dont get me started on those, they get a vrt exclusion if i remember, meanwhile someone in a hatchback thats a fcukload more economical gets shafted, if theyre going to introduce incentives to go green it needs to be fair with no loophole to allow the landed gentry to keep their trucks on the cheap.
That said, im all against the govt. using every opportunity to grab cash without concern for how its spent on $hite.

How great to see such unbiased and un-chippy contributions!

exCrumlinBoyo

exCrumlinBoyo wrote:

1999 Ford Explorer Sport I bought and use for work, no more no less. Its a beast of a car with lots of room and lots of power. My work means I have to travel to various places around town with the SUV full of computer parts, servers and the like.

snip--

Its all about the purpose of the vehicles.

What's wrong with an estate car??

I could understand the tractor if you needed to tow heavy loads or go off-road, the streets of Dublin ain't that bad!

Mahatma coat

Right just to clear something up, I said that the Landcruiser intimidates other road users in a way my BMW does not, I didnt buy a Cruiser with this in mind but tis a nice added bonus when jostling for position in trafic, I bought the cruiser cos its a large comfy Diesel that can still getupandgo on the highway, havin the 4WD comes in handy now and again aswell.

as for reaction times Sleepy, its 2.5Ton of steel propelled by a diesel 6, reacting aint the problem if you cut me off, stopping might be tho. people giveout about inconsiderate SUV drivers, they aint half as much problem as morons in Micra's who dont understand the stopping distance required by a vehicle of that size and assume that if they can stop inside of a carlength the SUV behind them must be able to do the same thing.

stovelid

Mahatma coat wrote:

Right just to clear something up, I said that the Landcruiser intimidates other road users in a way my BMW does not, I didnt buy a Cruiser with this in mind but tis a nice added bonus when jostling for position in trafic,

Excellent. The next time I tell myself I'm being too prejudicial re: the majority SUV drivers; I'll remember this.

layke

hshortt wrote:

I enjoy driving my SUV. I like the look of some of the newer ones and may change shortly. The only 'car' I'd consider over an SUV would be an Audi Estate, lovely car.

My money, my choice.

As a fellow IT professional I SHAME you.

We don't drive SUV's, we drive saloon cars. The Maza RX8 is really our choice of car unless ofc you're the IT manager in which case you may purchase a Merc.

! ! ! S H A M E ! ! !

Sleepy

Mahatma coat wrote:

Right just to clear something up, I said that the Landcruiser intimidates other road users in a way my BMW does not, I didnt buy a Cruiser with this in mind but tis a nice added bonus when jostling for position in trafic

jostling for position in traffic? Seriously? Did you get your license in the amnesty or are you still on your provisional? Either way, please give it back before you kill someone.

as for reaction times Sleepy, its 2.5Ton of steel propelled by a diesel 6, reacting aint the problem if you cut me off, stopping might be tho. people giveout about inconsiderate SUV drivers, they aint half as much problem as morons in Micra's who dont understand the stopping distance required by a vehicle of that size and assume that if they can stop inside of a carlength the SUV behind them must be able to do the same thing.

Again, more proof of your clear ineptitude behind the wheel. Whose responsibility is it if you go into the back of said Micra? Are you incapable of judging the breaking distance you need in order to stay that far behind the Micra? Or do you just not value the Micra driver's life enough and feel it's okay for you to tailgate them in your 2.5 tons of steel because you can afford a big jeep?

Seriously, Mahatma coat, you're the walking embodiement of the stereotype of SUV drivers being bashed in this thread.

dodgyme

exCrumlinBoyo wrote:

My work means I have to travel to various places around town with the SUV full of computer parts, servers and the like..

What a loada crap - I did the same type of job a while ago in a Polo. Designed for city driving unlike your Silly SUV and never had an issue or space problem filling the car with servers/computer parts (what a cop out). Ye SUV drivers make my sick - you tell us why you have them - all bogus excuses! and then tell us ye dont care if we dont like it and that we are jealous which is more rubbish. Some people have a brain and think about things other then themselves and their ego's and hence will not (also out of choice) buy an SUV. I will never buy an SUV and when I meet people that do I feel sorry for them.