Has the increase in fuel costs dampened your love affair?
However many SUVs there are to choose from, our love affair with these mighty vehicles is in danger. Soaring gas prices threaten to eliminate any vehicle posting less than 12 gallons per mile. Moreover, Darwinian Law dictates that a vehicle unable to corner at speeds over 17 MPH may indeed succumb to natural selection. Nevertheless, however shaky the future of the SUV may look, we can rest assured knowing that at least one French inventor is spinning in his grave as he looks over what has become of his cherished creation.
Had the frenchman created his artillery hauler with only a reverse gear, it would have been a huge success.
I traded in my wife’s aging Explorer for a much smaller and much less thirsty four cylinder Escape. We still pull the boat, still haul groceries and Home Depot goodies, but I now feel like I can beat up 25% fewer people. Huh.
The point of the linked article eludes me. My love affair with SUVs will end when GM completely ceases their manufacture. I’m in the market for an Escalade EXT before they stop making them, as a matter of fact. Furthermore, my better half’s Lincoln pick up will corner at much better than 17MPH, as did my Avalanche and as does my SRX. What, pray tell, has that man been driving? A Renault Dauphine? Time to man up, let the Hyundai go and drive a real vehicle. Clearly, my comments are fragmented, but it’s always perplexing when people who wouldn’t recognize a good vehicle if it ran over them insist on writing about them.
I’ll keep my big iron, thanks very much.
I just came back from towing 18 feet and two tons of car trailer and 1947 Ford COE frame to the garbage transfer station and back. Plus two people and a busted toilet. (I kept the people and the frame, the toilet I left. Free weight scale, see?)
At one point in the road is a very steep hairpin hill. The 300hp V8 started to bog in first about 1/2 way up (steep!) so I stuffed her into 4 wheel low range and carried on no problem.
Do that with your frackin’ Citroen! Bwahaha!!!!
Well the wife’s Explorer was written off and since we were thinking of replacing it eventually, the process was somewhat sped up.
She had her heart set on a Rav 4, but we ended up with a Ford Fusion AWD loaded. All I can say wow, low C of G, great handling, great stereo and sat radio. If anyone is looking for a crossover, may I suggest taking a good look at the Fusion AWD.
I’ll stick to my ’06 Lariat F150 Crew Cab, I like my truck and mileage be darned. The only thing about it I don’t like is that my wife’s car has a better stereo-10 speakers.
My F.J.Cruiser is about a month away from purchase.
Hey, not all SUVs are huge gas guzzlers! I’ve had a Tracker 4×4 for 11 yrs and it gets great mileage (600km on a $50 fill-up), tows a small trailer, climbs mountains. I like the Escalade, but don’t need a big SUV right now that I’m retired. Smaller SUVs are just as much fun even though they can’t pull big trailers. GM should get a clue and start making SUVs for everybody again. Not all great SUVs weigh 3 tons.
I don’t like SUVs, but I only because when driving behind one with tinted windows (in my car) I cannot see anything ahead on the road ahead, it blocks your view as much as riding behind an 18-wheeler.
I suspect this is less of an issue in Saskatchewan.
So how come nobody(except maybe Phantom,in an off-sided way)mentioned how well their SUV handles in the field? If you have 4×4,and only drive the road,I hope gas prices go to 4 bucks a liter for you.Yeah,yeah.And don’t try the excuse of you need one to haul groceries.Unless you are buying for the troops,or your local foodbank,you don’t need 1/2 a ton of food.As a very good friend of mine says(and she is a leftie),big truck,little d^&k.
Please an SUV is for sissies, I drive a full size F250 with all the toys. I’ll never give up my truck, NEVERRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
My sporting needs require something that’ll handle fields, gravel, dead critters, and rutted muddy trails. As a result, I’ll never own an SUV … I prefer a real truck.
SUV’s are for city slickers …
Trucks are for real MEN and WOMEN.
With the prices of full sized pickups coming down I’m glad I waited to replace my f150 …next up F250 Superduty Diesel 4×4 … suck my pipe j’think.
I ‘need’ whatever I can afford and want to drive; the last time I looked this was a (semi)free country.
My ’66 Chrysler is as long as my ’88 Suburban and capable of only seating 4. I cordially invite those looking down their noses what I choose to drive, to go and pound sand. In an eco-friendly way, of course, and keeping to as small a carbon footprint as possible.
“””””At one point in the road is a very steep hairpin hill”””””
would that be the Grange or the forks of the credit??????
Nothing is going to take my Jeep Cherokee away. I can load it up with dive gear, throw a boat on the trailer hitch and head off; roads are optional.
It’s got great mileage of the highway if I keep my speed below 110 clicks.
BTW I was surprised to see, in the past two weeks, a Saturn hybrid and a GMC big MF truck hybrid. I got to talk to the owner of the truck, and he was all rah-rah for it. So, don’t bury the 3 US auto makers yet.
Proud owner of a Jeep Liberty (my second one,as I trade up every 2 yrs..put on lots of miles with my job)I also owned 2 Jeep TJ’s,and would still be driving one if not for need of extra room.I love my Jeep’s,and if someone could guarantee that a Prius will get me home in a Manitoba blizzard,and thru deep snow,then it might make sense to get a wee car!BTW,I am a 50 something female,live in the deep boonies,and spend a lot of lonely highway and backroad time,helping the ‘disadvantaged.’ It does help that I get paid mileage,so gas costs aren’t a big issue.I WILL keep my suv,and the ‘man’ loves his big Dodge with the Hemi.
SUVs aren’t all bad. I have a GMC Acadia that costs a bit to run around town in, but it has its place. I can put 5 passengers and some gear inside, drive in the worst weather conditions imaginable, and get about 25 mpg. The thing almost drives itself on slippery roads.
My super duty diesel is not that bad at 20 mpg. I don’t like trucks any more. I’ve driven around 2 million km. in 4×4 pickups. It’s getting old. I calculated I’ve spent around 50 thousand hours sitting in pickup trucks. Good thing I was getting paid for it. Unfortunately, I can’t find anything else tough enough to take off road (for work).
It’s all about the proper application for the vehicle. You just can’t do some things in a civic hybrid.
The best thing about owning a 30 foot power boat is that it makes filling one’s car so trivial…$625 last week for a fill-up…
Kiss my A$$, Al Gore…
Haha, could never figure out why my comedy bits get people more riled up than my serious stuff.
17 MPH is about as real a figure as 12 gallons per mile…although my comments about Nicolas Joseph Cugnot are absoluetly and utterly true, and I shall stand by them, sir, and wager my very life against them.
For those of you searching for the “point of the article”, you’d best stop looking.
GYM, Sulpher Springs Road in Dundas. There’s one little curve that I’ve seen at least three tractor-trailers get brutally stuck on. Too steep for traction, to tight to get around. Forks of the Credit would be a gentle rise compared to this. More of a trials obstacle than an actual road. I went that way just for a giggle, to tell the absolute truth.
Dodge Ram 4×4, low range. Pulled ‘er up like it was nothing. Sweet!
Until around 1972, most people in the oilpatch drove cars on the job. Pickup trucks weren’t very comfy, and 4x4s were downright rough. We used to get where we needed to go, but we did spend a lot more time shoveling and pushing.
My brother used a 1970 Roadrunner for land surveying. He used to pull a skidoo trailer at 120 mph on icy roads. That poor car got hammered over summer fallow fields, and rough prairie, at speeds that seemed almost like a video game. He’d put chaims on, and drive through a foot of snow for miles.
Nowadays, I see 4x4s with lift kits and accessories that must be worth almost $100,000. The guys who drive them won’t take a speedbump at more than 5 KPH. They wash them if they go through a puddle. What I wouldn’t have paid for one of those machines back in the 70’s.
PHANTON
OK, I know were you are talking about now,
I drag hay wagons ,full, up the grange (which is worst then the forks road, it’s gravel)and my dodge 2500 4X4 in 4 wheel drive does an excellent job, I could use a prius in the back for weight tho:-))))))
I am proud to say that to day I took possession of my brand new 3500 dodge ram dually pickup truck
Want to see funny s–t with small vehicles go to you tube and check out the stuff that goes on in the U.K because they dont have the luxury of owning large suvs that can handle the big loads like hauling holiday trailers and wood products from their locale hardward store they try to pile this stuff on top of their little cars
Now you want to see what is more dangerous out on the road the big suvs or the guy trying to over load his little gas saving car you be the judge.