Franklin

There are numerous fuel inefficient SUVs on the road in the UK ... some are manufactured there.

tony126

The point is Hybrid cars are more fuel efficient. If these were to become the norm, and I am not against that, the tax revenue will reduce and so there will be an extra tax applied to these vehichles to maintain the balance. I think this is already happening in California(?). So if it is cost your worried about then you are still on a loser.

Gross50

edwords

Why don't we just get a dictator who can run our lives? Why let people decide whether they want to spend extra money fueling a large vehicle. The government always knows best, right?

snowbunny

What flexibility?

I drive a Honda Odyssey minivan which gets about 25 mpg highway and 20 mpg city. No, that isn't the best gas mileage, but I have two kids, their friends, and a load of stuff to haul around (eg bags of garden mulch). I have the flexibility to either carry seven passengers with minimal cargo area or four with a buttload -- I can put a 7' Christmas tree inside the van.

The newer Odysseys, without hybrid technology, get even better mpg on the highway due to transmission innovations.

The SUVs I have seen are nowhere near as flexible. I can walk around inside the van! I can take out the middle two passenger seats no problem and the rear seat converts back and forth on the fly. The handling is more or less like a car -- not a truck.

Guys bitch because the minivan is the new quiche -- real men don't drive minivans -- yet for suburban families, a minivan is safer, more flexible, and gets better gas mileage.

WTF?!

snowbunny

The trouble is that with fuel costs this high, EVERYTHING skyrockets, including the basic staples that a poor family needs, because of the cost of transporting things to market.

The old rules for mpg were that the auto manufacturer had to *average* together the mpg for all cars sold and it had to fall below a certain number. This didn't prevent monster vehicles; but it did mean that the manufacturer had to make more fuel efficient cars attractive to the consumer, and invest in R&D to drive down mpg no matter the size of the car. You could still get your Expedition, bub. Right now there's absolutely no incentive to make smaller cars more salable or to put in place *existing* efficiency techniques, because that would cost MONEY. Cheaper to run adverts telling people they are not macho or safe if they do not drive a car the size of their garage.

Hiro11

Sorry to speak like an arch-capitalist, but shouldn't we let the market take care of it? SUV sales have plumeted in the past few months because of high gas prices. Once gas is sufficiently expensive, people will buy more fuel efficient cars. Trying to tinker with the leveling effect of markets by policy or taxation does nothing but muddy the waters and lead to unforeseen consequences.

I'm with you on SUV hatred, nothing is more ridiculous than getting stuck in a traffic jam that consists solely of lone commuters in monstrous flab-mobiles designed for steer wrasslin' in the wilds of Tejas (this is a daily occurance for me). I also agree that the SUV loophole is ridiculous and should be closed. However I disagree with you that there aren't incentives to buying more fuel efficient cars. Hybrid/SULEV owners get a nice little tax break and (non-SUV) fuel inefficient cars get hit with a "gas guzzler" tax.

snowbunny

Under the old *average* mpg laws, everyone who wanted to buy an SUV / tank / cargo plane could do it, but the manufacturer had to lower its average mpg with incentives to sell more efficient cars *as well as spending the dosh* to put in place existing fuel efficiency techniques and researching others. Gas is going to have to go a lot higher than $2 per gallon before the eejits I live with part with their manly SUVs complete with cattle guard from hell for -- the cow that jumps over the moon?!

snowbunny

There's also the effects on low mpg cars on the environment.... but things are so fecked up that we've completely forgotten about that because of 1) war 2) high gas prices 3) crumbling social security 4) no jobs .... should I go on?

Franklin

A mother or dad with lots of children might live on a large farm with dirt track roads that is very hard on a vehicle's suspension, now the minivan is not really a safe option and the SUV provides a more flexible option than the typical minivan. But for a family with children living in suburbia with normal roads alongside their house, the minivan offers more flexibility. What might suit one fact pattern, might not suit another.

snowbunny

Duuuuude.... the rural population of Texas is dwindling and those with enough money for a ranch getaway is pretty small. *50%* of all vehicles sold here in Texas are either trucks or SUVs. There is no freakin way 50% of the people have any need for a truck or SUV.

My grandparents on both sides were farmers and I have family in the business. An SUV is completely impractical because you aren't going to load up chemicals or feed or whatever in a closed space. Everyone drives pickups, and monster wheels would make it nigh unto impossible to hoist a load into the bed.

I drive my minivan on caliche and dirt track roads all the time. Completely replacing the suspension is still cheaper than the crap gas mileage and extra bucks that an SUV commands, and a minivan is far, far safer. It puts other vehicles at a much lower risk in the event of a collision. I have one cousin who is devastatingly brain damaged after a Ford Explorer tire blowout rollover. Happened six weeks before the recall.

You are not going to find a lot of practical reasons to own an SUV.

Dan725

What they need to do is make hybrid vehicles that don't look like utter shat. People might buy them then. There seems to be a competition on with Hybrid makers, "Who can make the ugliest looking vehicle....."

Franklin

Are all farmers found in Texas? Do all farmers cart around fertilizers? Nope and nope. What holds true in one place or state will not apply in all parts of the globe. There are bound to be many situations where an SUV is more appropriate than a family minivan. I agree, that for a family with lots of kids a minivan will more often than not provide more flexibility than an SUV.

Dan725

Hmm, to answer my own question, they seem to be thinking about that now. Seems Honda have done away with that silly enclosed wheel arch gig on the 05 hybrid civic, maybe there is some hope after all. If the manufacturers can get away from that silly past trend and make some better models rather than the boring base cars hybrids, they might have a chance to change peoples attitudes.

Bob

Problem though is, SUV's aren't all that good off road, well most of them, so they really are a waste....not like the old land rovers, which are proper work horses, or range rovers that work off road, which gets better milage than most SUV's...