Quote:
Originally Posted by ACT86
As a lightweight vehicle enthusiast, this thread is making me sad. Spot on with everyone buying SUVs - herds of them everywhere these days.
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I hate them with a fiery passion. For one thing, many of them are huge. They hog the road and fill up car parking spaces that still seem to be sized for much smaller 1980s cars. But I also hate what they have done to normal car sales… coupes, hatches, sedans and wagons are all dying off, being replaced by SUV lineups. Other than the elevated seating position and slightly easier loading of heavier items, there is nothing the typical SUV does that a good wagon cannot do better. The wagon is more aerodynamic, lighter and so uses less fuel on average. It has a lower COG and handles better. It doesn’t block the forward view over the roof as much. It looks better! And many wagons actually have more cargo space than many SUVs (especially these fugly ‘coupe’ SUVs). But the market has spoken apparently, and passenger cars are going the way of the dodo as SUVs take over the roads.
The thing that really irks me is that at the same time we have a push to make vehicles as ‘green’ as possible, we live in the heyday of the lumbering great SUV! I mean, look at the things that make a car as efficient and environmentally friendly as possible… aerodynamic (so it must have a low profile), lightweight (so it has less mass to move), small (uses less materials). The SUV is the antithesis of all of these! Even as engineers wring every last ounce of efficiency out of engines, many of the fuel efficiency and emissions benefits of improved engines are lost because these modern engines need to haul around these huge and heavy vehicles! It’s so ridiculous.