Funmurphys: the Blog

SUV - That Says It All

I'm not someone who either drives an SUV or hates them. My wife drives a mini-van, and I drive an econo-box. We looked at SUVs when we bought the mini-van, and they were just too expensive, more expensive than the mini-van. Greg Easterbrook has an article based on a book about what's wrong with SUVs (found via Archpundit). I knew they gobbled gas, but I didn't know that they really weren't that safe. I also was vaguely aware that by being classified as trucks, they escaped a lot of regulations that cars were under. The article details a lot of those exemptions. In the end, I'm struck by how we have two lines of vehicles - those highly regulated as passenger vehicles (cars, mini-vans), and those somewhat less regulated as trucks (SUVs). I suppose what really galls the anti-SUV crowd is how many people pick the less good for you SUVs despite the high price and the faults required to be legally considered a truck. If people want to overpay for a hunk of junk, what's it to me? Why are some of the people up in arms about a supposed loss of civil rights due to the war on terror so bound and determined to tell me what my automobile has to be like; why do those who resent any intrusion in the bedroom welcome it in the drivers seat? I know, it's for my own good.