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To: IceShark who wrote (14843)	8/30/2000 12:33:08 PM
From: Terry Whitman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

>A lot of women like them because they feel safer when they get in an accident and crush some hapless VW Bug. -g- < The sheeple keep on buying them. Before you go out and get one think about this- More than 50% of the passenger vehicles on the road now are SUVs or pickups. You're much more likely to hit another one of them than a VW bug. Secondly, a larger heavier vehicle with a higher center of gravity is much more likely to be unable to avoid an accident. And the topping on the cake- the majority of accidents are single vehicle. Now do you feel safe in your monster SUV? Or just broke from the loan payments, and the insurance and fuel bills. <g>

To: IceShark who wrote (14843)	8/30/2000 12:34:05 PM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 436258

>>A lot of women like them because they feel safer when they get in an accident and crush some hapless VW Bug.<< This is true, but there's also the fact that the seats are way high off the ground, and if you are shorter then you can still see the traffic around you. Also, lots of windows. I feel much safer with the greater visibility. Plus, I like being able to haul a major grocery run from Costco, at the same time as two kids and a dog, or being able to load up the back with, say, 40 bags of gravel or rolls of sod. Suburban women used to drive station wagons, but they don't make them anymore, and minivans have no power and don't handle the road well. SUVs are powerful, roomy, and safer on snow and ice. Plus, I have taken my SUV offroad, and plan to do so again in the future. I really can't imagine you driving your Porsche up to a trailhead for the Appalachian Trail in the Blue Ridge mountains.<g>

To: IceShark who wrote (14843)	8/30/2000 12:46:58 PM
From: Oblomov	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 436258

I've heard plenty of reasons for owning an SUV, but in the end it boils down to taste. And contemporary upper-middle class taste is molded by the peer pressure for conspicuous consumption. A few years ago, when I bought a quality used car (in cash) from a car dealer I that my family knows personally, he asked if "everything is going all right with my job", in a tone that seemed to question why I was "going downscale". Americans are so class-conscious that it is sometimes painful to watch the slick commercials on T.V. They only encourage the petty striving after ephemera and the delusions that cover up the lack of a more profound happiness.