Amen! I love my totally impractical Z. That's one of the many reasons I bought it. Why do you have to be practical all the time anyway??


Female DB Touring owner

 

My only problem with the SUV craze is the ethical concerns I have with trading a minor (if it exists at all with a particular model) safety advantage for yourself with a significant safety disadvantage for others. DOT figures show that SUV's are, on average very slightly safer than a midsized sedan to its occupants but much more dangerous to occupants of other cars. You're putting me at risk for the convenience of carrying around a month's worth of groceries?

 

Aside from the gas guzzling, cell phone wandering, fake commercial tags and other whys to **** on SUVs, I can't see around them! They are too tall and wide to allow car drivers a line of sight for whats ahead, and that makes them dangerous for me in my Z and my wife's Maxima.

I have always driven defensively and my best technique for staying out of trouble is to be looking ahead and behind. I have always driven with my head on a swivel, front, rear and sides. If I get behind an SUV, my line of sight for the road ahead is nil and when I'm in heavy traffic, moving fast, I feel very vulnerable if I'm behind one. Guess what, I am very vulnerable and dependent on the driver of the SUV to not have an accident, so I won't be in one, too! If you need a truck, buy it. If you need a vehicle to carry lots of stuff and people, buy a Station Wagon.

Check out all of the new crossover vehicles coming out, they are on car chassises and look like, Station Wagons! Pray for me if I am rolling down a narrowish 2 lane paved road with no shoulder and I meet a Humvee, a real one, not the little #II. ****, I'm dead, I lose. Thanks, Arnold.

 

Come to Virginia Beach for a week, oh and drive a small car like the Z or even smaller like the 240z I used to drive. Now when you come to a stoplight and one of the many hundreds of idiots rolls up in his 6800lb Excursion on 44s or Crew Cab Dually rollin on 36" superswampers, and proceeds to pull up close enough to your bumper to where you can read the writing stamped on his oil pan, you'll think differently I GUARANTEE IT. It's pure unadulterated American excess at it's most grotsque. Why do people need such huge vehicles to haul just themselves around. I think they get a power trip from having such a commanding view, and end up driving EXACTLY like droidekaus said. If one of those idiots hits a small car the people driving the car are doomed. What the hell gives the person in the excursion or suburban the right to drive such a huge vehicle that they are endangering the lives of others on a daily basis. If one of them ever rolls over the top of my car they better mash the gas and crush me while they're at it or I'm liable to climb up in that monstrosity and drag them out. Personally I think that if you choose to drive a mommoth vehicle knowing that if you hit a small car, you could easilly kill the occupants just because of the huge size and weight difference, and the height of your bumper, that you should be able to be charged with voluntary manslaughter. To me driving one of these huge vehicles without needing to, and on a daily basis is much more irrisponsible than street racing, because you endanger drivers of smaller vehicles everytime you get in your SUV. Street racers tend to try and find empty streches of road to minimize the danger (at least the smart ones do) Obviously I'm only talking about the huge truck-bases SUVs, and not the small, and mid-sized ones.

 

Was this a April fools joke?

The only thing worse than a Avalanche woud be an Aztec.

 

No I won't. You forget, I live in TN. We have our share of large trucks and SUVs. Not quite as bad as TX, but probably close.

People have the right to drive what they want.

 

People also have the right to be annoyed by large inefficient vehicles that pose a real threat to their own safety (i.e. the echo vs. suburban argument), who seem to consistantly use 1.5 parking spaces at the shopping center, and, especially in the case of the obnoxious Excursion and its brethren, consume significantly more gasoline than any other non-Lamborghini vehicles out there.

Now, I could just as easily get into the 'funding terrorism' argument, but I'll spare you all.

While they have the right to do all this, we have the right to wish they disappeared off the road, especially when they DO affect us.

 

Except for the Montero's - wooooohhh are they awful or what!! The folks had one for the business and it had bad ride quality, bad gas mileage, bad handling, and bad interior ergonomics. The whole family is glad it's goine. =)

There is no advantage of safety unless you're hitting a smaller car.. and then the advantage of safety lessens b/c you kill the people in that little car..... but that's been covered by others.

 

What bugs me are those ridiculous huge grille guards that people add to their SUV.Do they serve a purpose other than intimidation?

 

Let me hear your bs funding terrorism argument. You'll probably humor me.

Kevin

 

Maybe they do, but I don't know what else they're for except aggression. We don't have a need for "Roo Bars" like the Aussies, but some parts of the USA do have large fauna like Moose, Elk and some large Deer, so maybe they are functional in those locales. We in Oklahoma do have several large herds of Whitetail(small) Deer near the Metro, but unless its a "working" vehicle, they are intimidating on purpose, it seems to me.

Many countries charge a heavy tax for large personal vehicles. Japan, England, the Europeans tax big time for them because they are hard on the roads and are too big for some highways with 2 lanes. Japan is very crowded and tax the width also. We will be getting the Japanese and European Accord as a new Acura, the TSX. The 4 door version of the RSX, smaller and not as wide as the new US Accord. Its getting pretty weird when we have more registered vehicles than people in the USA, according to a recent study.

 

I find it extremely ironic when people say an SUV is safe because of its size.

Smaller cars have a much higher safety rating (look at the new Mini's crash tests) because they are able to protect the occupant in a smaller rigid case ( less metal length to buckle - simple physics).

So to those who justify their SUV's because of safety please start thinking of it this way :

CRASH :
SUV - the car survives but you have a higher chance of getting killed.

Normal car - the car gets smashed but you survive.

I don't care how much you love your car, in any accident you should be voting for yourself over your massive hunk of rollover metal.

 

Large trucks and SUV's are one thing (still unsafe) but trucks like this 6800lb+ projectile are a common sight around here



Now even in a minor accident with your Z you could end up in a Daytona Blue pancake! You can't tell me that you can justify this as a daily driver. Fun toy maybe but far too unsafe for people to drive around taking people's lives into their hands on a daily basis. Hell a stock Excursion is a bad enough safety hazard.

 

This guy's not just spewing unreasonable hatred. As for the rest of you, think about this way. SUVs and sports cars both waste gas, raise insurance rate, and breed idiot drivers. Drive an economy car, then you can *****. Enjoy your z? Then tough, you have nothing to say if you don't want to be a hypocrite.

 

SUV's are the new stationwagens Soccermoms unite!

 

awesome site. i hate SUV's, ESPECIALLY H2's!!!

 

I get 23 in my Z and I ride with a heavy foot.

 

you resurrected a 2 year old thread. To make THAT statement...

wow

 

if that was directed at me.. sory i didnt look at the date.

 

Maybe they were Z owners who traded the Z for an Avalanche and now need to compensate for soething