We were wrong about people not needing those big SUVs...

[sendero]

.... they're going to need them to live in when their house is foreclosed on.

[JBoy]

1. I'm living in a Lincoln Navigator, down by the river

[MadMaddie]

2. oh dear.....well that will be short lived...because more and more

of those repossessed SUV's are showing up at used car dealerships....

[ret5hd]

3. From a McMansion to a Jack-In-The-Box.

[JPZenger]

36. Other Names for McMansions

Other names for McMansions are Hummer Houses, Garage Mahals and Starter Castles. To be a real McMansion, it has to have some completely useless but ostentatious feature, such as a huge entry foyer.

The key is to find a way to help the people who were conned into bad mortgages vs. the people who just bought much more house than they needed or could afford.

[MindPilot]

4. How compassionate of you.

:eyes:

[skepticscott]

5. What's compassion got to do with it?

Greedy and self-indulgent waste of resources are damaging the entire world. I don't find it unjust if some of the consequences of that greed catch up with them.

[CRF450]

6. Not every SUV/truck owner has one just for status.

My truck gets a measly 16mpg, but I need it for summer work.

[skepticscott]

10. That's fine

but I'm assuming you don't also have a 5000 square foot house that costs a fortune to heat and that you don't use even half of, but that busts your budget every month.

[CRF450]

30. My house is 1800sq/ft

My 01 Trans Am is my daily driver, but even as a high performance car with a 5.7 v8, its averages around 23mpg, and has gotten up to 31mpg on the interstate.

[skepticscott]

31. There's nothing wasteful

about having a big truck if you actually use it to do productive work. But you know as well as I do, that for lot of people, their big truck or SUV is just a gas-guzzling penis on wheels that they never use to haul or tow anything, and don't ever go off-road. And too many people that indulge in a vehicle that's more than they can afford don't cut back in other areas of their life, like housing. You seem to have been a lot more sensible.

[CRF450]

33. I do go offroading once in a while in it, but thats mainly for the dirtbike

I really dont like taking it off-road, not because I'm worried about scratching the paint, but because it drinks gas like a fucking elephant! I went offroading on the beach one day, and half the time I had it in 4x4 hi, brurned like 10 gallons (half a tank) in about 45 minutes. Its not a full size truck, but man, thats just crazy. I'm sure a Tocoma configured like mine wouldn't do much better even though they have a v6, my Dakota has a 4.7 v8.

[EnviroBat]

17. But don't you know?

People in SUV's are far more important that you... They need that big waste of space vehicle to keep them and their family safe from the scary world that's out to get them. Stupid fucking dumpsters on wheels, and I'm seeing more of them every week. Just this weekend I was almost side-swiped by two of them within an hour. The people driving these garbage trucks are so self-absorbed that they are barely aware that there's a world of other vehicles on the road. No, they've got to get to the Home DePot to outdo the neighbors. God help me, I live in the land of stupid.

[Warpy]

7. I know big guys, like 6'6" and not lightweights

who need that kind of room. It's an SUV or a regular size pickup truck for them. Dinky passenger cars are extremely uncomfortable for them.

I know people who live at the end of dirt roads and they need that 4WD and high clearance in mud season. Get stuck in the mud around here, you need a jackhammer to get you loose. There's a reason people build their houses out of it at the ends of a lot of those dirt roads.

However, if you're thinking ahead to foreclosure, think Momvan. Those things can have the seats removed and become quite comfortable sleeping quarters for a whole family. The seats can be easily reinstalled the next day if the vehicle still has enough gas and the occupants have work and school to attend.

[CRF450]

8. Some people that have bad knees/backs also have a problem with small econo cars.

They have a hard time getting in and out of them. So they tend to buy something a little bigger and sits up higher.

[Warpy]

9. Good point

but I don't find my Korean econobox any more difficult than my old Ford Ranger. The Ranger was higher, but the ergonomics are the same. I can pivot out from a seated position and I'm high enough off the ground that I don't feel like I'm stooping and have to struggle to stand.

Detroit decided in the 70s that the way to design a small car was not only to make it as cheap and disposable as possible, but to keep the driver low to the ground in a semi reclining position. Those cars were miserable to get into and out of. They're why I drove a series of $100 VWs.

I just pointed out that there are some folks out there who need those SUVs and momvans for other things than emergency housing. I'm just not one of them, bad knees, bad back and all. Foreign cars with decent ergonomics have always been OK for us. Now Detroit has discovered the same thing, and I tested a couple of their offerings that were just as easy to cope with.

[CRF450]

27. You should try getting in and out of my 01 Trans Am WS6

The seats on these cars are like 6 inches above the ground!(:sarcasm: actually about a foot, but thats still pretty low) But I'm young at 21, so it doesn't bother me at all getting in and out of the car.

[Warpy]

32. Detroit found that putting you lower to the ground

made you feel like the car was going faster than it actually was, so they did it to a lot of muscle cars as well as the cheap little cars that would wheeze up steep hills in second gear, at best.

Those cars are great in your 20s, a slight nuisance in your 30s, and just plain annoying when you're over 40.

[CRF450]

34. Realistically, its to lower the center of gravety to make it handle better

Your right about it making it seem like I'm going faster than it actually is. I could drive my dakota after I'v driven the T/A for a good while. When I'm going 60mph, it seems like I'm going hardly over 45mph, being that high over the ground. I'v been up to 165mph in the T/A, its scary as hell going that fast, but man, what a rush!

Note: Its VERY rare that I go that fast, and when I do, I always do it when theirs no other cars visible.

[Warpy]

35. That was their rationalization

but those old VW beetles were a blast to drive and rarely rolled. I remember being stuck with a Vega and that thing was a total pig, especially in snow. I sat in the VW, reclined in the Vega.

[Tesha]

13. There's an endless list of excuses why people "need" SUVs. (NT)

[EnviroBat]

19. We've heard them all haven't we...

[Echo In Light]

15. Works the opposite way too: vehicles that require climbing are hard on knees/backs

[EOTE]

14. I'm 6'5" and 300 lbs.

I fit very well into my 2800 lb GTi with lots of headroom and legroom to spare. I think the size argument is a bit of a bogus one when it comes to purchasing SUVs/trucks. They use their space much less efficiently. Have you ever sat in a Scion xB? It's HUGE on the inside, I fit without a problem, yet it weighs only slightly more than a Miata (previous generation). If you need 4WD and high clearance, that's one thing, but you can get all the interior room you need in a much smaller, cheaper, lighter vehicle.

[EnviroBat]

20. Hell, a new VW Bug has some crazy head-room!

[Tesha]

21. Daniel Pinkwater, a well-known NPR commentator and large person...

Daniel Pinkwater, a well-known NPR commentator and
hroizontally-large person, once called Car Talk
and extolled the space virtues of his new VW Bug.
Apparently, his new Beetle had far more front-seat
interior room than the BMW 750i he had just traded
in.

And yes, it has headroom too for the vertically-large
folks among us.

Tesha

[EOTE]

24. One thing about luxury cars...

is that they use the bulk of their weight for things like dampening and making a softer, smoother ride. Most cars of equivalent size weigh a good deal less because of all the amenities and such left off.

[Warpy]

26. Right, I found the Scion very roomy

but the cargo area wasn't designed as well as the Korean job was and the Korean job came with everything standard while the Scion came with "packages."

I did point out that car makers have changed from the 70s and are now considering human ergonomics instead of making "long low" clown cars that were so hard to get into and out of and bottomed out on speed bumps.

[distantearlywarning]

25. I have a friend - 6'3" and fairly large

He fits comfortably into my Scion XB, which gets almost 40 miles to the gallon on the highway.

[sendero]

11. I think...

.. my point was not exactly grasped by everyone, my fault I didn't elaborate.

There is a certain kind of person I'm referring to, not everyone that owns an SUV. Hell, I own a 1/2 ton pickup that I drive when I need to.

I think those of us who live in Dallas might get the nuance of my post, it was joke but then like all jokes has a grain of truth :)

[MindPilot]

16. Probably so...

I don't think--judging from what I see around me--that the people with the 5000 sq ft McMansions are the ones getting hurt. There likely weren't many subprimes handed out for homes in the 2 million plus range. The people looking at homelessness are the ordinary working folks who got conned into believing they could make the payments on a 700k house that was actually worth half that.

Things are different in Dallas?

And the bottom line is if you own a house, you need some kind of truck; if you have a family you need a people-hauler, and since the carmakers don't have much to offer in the way of station wagons or vans, you get an SUV.

[Echo In Light]

12. To this day I still marvel at how so many would choose huge gas guzzlers

The size of the enormo-dome. Those of us still driving our {contradictory?} less safe, less macho cars have a helluva time trying to see traffic, or anything else, beyond the huge ass end of such monstrosities. Big Vehicles and Cell phones = big heap doses o' stupid.

[Virginia Dare]

18. Nah, they'll all be repo'ed...n/t

[Xenotime]

22. I have a neighbor who has 5 SUVs parked at his house...

and they are all in the street making very difficult for traffic to pass.

[Tesha]

23. Call the police and ask for "parking enforcement". (NT)

[Javaman]

28. Nature and a really crappy economy will solve that problem very soon. nt

[blues90]

29. I had a 1969 ford van with the long wheel base for years

I used it for work and even lived in it from time to time . When I no longer needed it i sold it and got a small car .

I never liked the van for the milage or the space it took up and always felt guilty blocking people view behind me . But it was a good thing to have for many reasons and now I would want to have it just in case I need a new roof .

I worked at dealerships and saw many people who never needed these huge SUV's they felt it was a safely factor or that that they had money to burn so the got one and justified they needed it for their two small children .

My van only had a small V8 not some 10 cylinder gas hog .