I agree with raptor and DWCAP – its all about the driver. The fact is – when you collide with a SUV – you are much more likely to be the one dead, dismembered, disfigured, injured. The rollover and the braking argument – these are things YOU as the driver of your SUV/CUV can control with the way you choose to drive. What you cannot control is the idiot driver who smashes into you or broadsides you. Therefore I’m going to go with the odds that I’m not an idiot and can drive my vehicle safely versus relying on others not to hit me.
Unfortunately, since these statistics hold true, people will choose to protect themselves and drive bigger cars so they don’t end up getting crushed by a SUV.
I drive a crossover and get better mileage than some of my friends in non SUV or CUV gas guzzling V8s car that have smaller bodies than mine.
What do you SUV loathing ones propose we do to remove the majority of SUVs off the road? Do you think that people will just “choose” to do it on their own? I’m not big on government regulating our choices, but I’m afraid in this situation, it has to occur top down. I posted a link to the Nova piece on the future of cars that you can watch online if you didn’t catch it on PBS a few weeks ago in another thread.
Why are car companies not investing in other materials that while may be more expensive, are far more durable and far more efficient? Maybe because their entire manufacturing process and investment is a sunk cost? Something like 80%-90% of your energy used occurs between your engine and your front tire. This is an excerpt of the interview that you don’t have to sacrifice car size or car safety to increase efficiency.
“Over the next 10 or 12 years, we can increase new vehicle efficiency by another 50 percent without having to make smaller vehicles, just by making more efficient engines, more efficient transmissions, slipperier shapes, reduced rolling resistance, and taking some weight out of cars with material substitution. [See Model of Efficiency for more details.]”
