O.T. - WSJ article about Chicago snow and "SUVs"
(Personally, I wish SUV owners were charged an insurance surcharge for all of the incremental accidents they cause).
January 6, 1999
Sport-Utility Vehicles Are Buried
Under the Test of Chicago Snow
By ROBERT BERNER and CALMETTA Y. COLEMAN
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
CHICAGO -- The record-breaking snow that fell on this city Saturday offered
thousands of sport-utility vehicles their first chance to surmount an obstacle
bigger than a speed bump. The results, alas, don't all resemble a Jeep Grand
Cherokee commercial.
Adrienne Jankelow's first four-wheel-drive experience in her rugged Mercury
Mountaineer (price tag: $35,000) ended with the 34-year-old real-estate agent's
phone plea to her brother: "Come dig me out."
By the hundreds, the very vehicles that in ads scale steep mountainsides and
cruise across oceans of snow have been getting stuck in the streets of
Chicago. And the damage hasn't been limited to pride and $200 towing
charges. Many stuck drivers are spinning their wheels so furiously that they
burn out their transmissions, or worse.
"Some people have basically
destroyed" their vehicles, says David
Hessing, president of A-1 Towing
Service in the Chicago suburb of
Niles. "They think that just because
they've got four-wheel-drives they can
drive right through 18 inches of
snow."
It was inevitable that the largest snow-storm in 30 years in Chicago -- at more
than 20 inches it was the biggest single-day accumulation ever -- would be a
test. Never has so much snow fallen on so many four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Like urbanites across the country, Chicagoans have gone wild in recent years
over the type of truck traditionally used by ranchers and other rugged types.
The trend is so hot that during one month last year, sales of light trucks, which
include sport-utility vehicles, actually outpaced those of cars, and nearly every
auto maker has rolled out some sort of four-wheel-drive model.
But city roads can pose bigger problems than ranch roads. One reason is
snowplows. The snow they remove from the center of a street forms walls on
either side that imprison parked cars. So, before Trina Kakacek and her
husband could engage their four-wheel-drive Jeep Wrangler, they had to grab
shovels and dig it out. "No way could you drive it over that snowbank," says
Ms. Kakacek, a Chicago swim coach.
Attempting to do so can be a mistake, as Ruben Ramos found out. After he
pulled his 1988 Jeep Wrangler up to a Walgreens drugstore near Chicago to
buy some washer fluid, a plow came down the street and pushed up a 4-foot
wall of snow, blocking the exit.
"I tried to go though the snowdrift and I got stuck," says the 30-year-old
photographer. "Then my axle broke in half and the tire almost came off." The
tow truck that hauled the vehicle away dropped Mr. Ramos off at the church
where he was to photograph a wedding.
Such experiences are amusing to those who dislike sport-utility vehicles.
"SUVs are fuel-slurping metallic objects that block my view in traffic, and it's a
sad day for them in Chicago," says Sam Mintani, features editor for Road &
Track magazine, which mainly writes about sports cars.
But sport-utility enthusiasts counter that the problem is the driver, not the
vehicle. "You can generally maneuver through all kinds of conditions with a
four-wheel drive," says Trent Riddle, editor of 4 Wheel Drive & Sport Utility
magazine. But, he adds, "a four-wheel drive vehicle is not a tank, and even a
tank can get stuck."
A rule of thumb, Mr. Riddle says, is that the wheels need to touch a firm
surface. So drivers attempting to push their way through mounds of snow
should be sure they have enough clearance to maintain traction.
Four-wheel-drive manuals often provide explicit warnings about driving slowly
when that function is engaged, and about using caution when the wheels spin
or otherwise encounter resistance. "When you are stuck, you've got to accept
the fact that you are stuck," says Greg Urban, service director at Land Rover
of Hinsdale, a Chicago suburb.
A Good Tradeoff
But many don't. Over the weekend, Mr. Urban's dealership towed in one Range
Rover and two Land Rovers whose drivers had burned out their transmissions
trying to get unstuck. "That's drivers' abuse," says Mr. Urban. "It's worth
paying $200 to get towed out rather than a $4,000 damage bill and still have to
get towed out."
Those who use their four-wheel-drive vehicles off-road aren't surprised that
city drivers -- whom they deride as "pavement pounders" -- are taking some
wrong turns. "They have a sports utility ... for the prestige, but they don't
know how to drive it," says Kathleen Snyder, office manager for the United
Four Wheel Drive Associations, an international group of four-wheel-drive
enthusiasts.
Of course, with some of these vehicles selling for as much as $66,000, no
wonder some people are mistaking "all terrain" for "invincible." A common
mistake is to think that sport-utility vehicles aren't subject to slipping and
sliding under snowy conditions. Three wrecked SUVs have been towed into
O'Hare International Autobody since Saturday, one a $38,000 Range Rover
with $13,000 in damage. Other auto-repair shops report towing in wrecked
SUVs as well. "With four-wheel drive they can go like heck, but they don't
stop any faster," says Rick Larson, body-shop manager at Knauz Motors in the
Chicago suburb of Lake Forest.
The mighty machines share another problem with their more-timid
counterparts: batteries susceptible to cold weather. Tow companies across
Chicago report hauling in SUVs with dead batteries.
Occupational Hazard
And towing an SUV can in itself be a problem. Ones with full-time four-wheel
drive can't be hooked up to a regular tow truck because the rolling of the rear
wheels would start the front wheels turning, which could cause the SUV to
climb up the back of a tow truck. So towing companies must load the vehicles
onto flatbed trucks.
Even for expert four-wheelers, the city poses special problems. Many Chicago
residential streets are narrow and one-way, so every time a two-wheel-drive
car got stuck over the weekend, it essentially paralyzed several sport-utility
vehicles behind it. Also, snowbanks have narrowed two-way streets to a single
lane, "and if you're in the sport utility, you're always the one who has to back
up when you meet another car, because the other car can't," says Ms.
Kakacek.
Of course, many SUV owners have had no problem at all. Katherine Brennan, a
Chicago real-estate agent, took out her Toyota Rav4 during the height of the
storm Saturday morning and got around just fine. At long last, the big premium
she had paid for a four-wheel-drive vehicle paid off. "It was the first time I got
to do that in the three years since I've owned this thing," she says. "It was
fun."
Seeing people in two-wheel-drive cars "slipping and sliding," she says she
thought: "Those fools!"
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