I know this will get voted down into oblivion, but what the hell. SUV's bashing is trendy and fun. It seems like almost everyone enjoys doing it, and they don't really give any thought to the why. To me, the vast majority of people who truly hate SUV's are doing it because they enjoy bashing trendy things. I'm going to go through a list of complaints about SUV's here, and point out why they don't really make a lot of sense.

I would just like to say here that I am not trying to say that SUV's are great, that they are not a threat to the environment, that they are the safest things on the road, etc. I'm just trying to point out the stupidity of most of the complaints.

  • people buy them only for the image
    So? People can do whatever the hell they want. I hear this argument a lot, which makes me laugh because this has to do with people and not SUV's.
  • people who buy them can't drive
    Again, this has nothing to do with the SUV. Bad drivers are bad drivers. SUV's may take special skill to drive due to their larger size, however so does a pickup truck. In addition, SUV's are a lot easier to drive than say... a Dodge Viper. I find it funny that people feel an SUV should require a special license, but don't mind that anyone can go buy a high performance car with no special training. Driver education in the US sucks, it should be fixed, but that's no the fault of the vehicle. I support better driver training, and even specialized training for various special purpose vehicles, but I'm not going to single out one type of vehicle and say it's the problem.
  • They get bad gas mileage
    Such as? most SUV's get around 20 MPG nowadays. I hate to break it to you, but that's what most performance cars get. In addition, pickup trucks get the same gas mileage as SUV's, and there are more of them on the road. So why are we picking on SUV's, shouldn't we pick on the vehicle that has a greater market share? Oh, maybe we just hate the trendy SUV's?
  • They pollute more
    More than? According to the EPA, over 30% of airborn pollutants from vehicles are put in place by commercial trucks and busses. In addition, the EPA estimates that about 50% of the pollution is caused by "gross polluters" (this includes poorly working vehicles such as your neighbors 1970 gremlin which burns oil at a rate of 2 quarts a week). These vehicles, which comprise about 10% of vehicles on the road, are responsible for about 50% of the pollution. Let me ask again, why are we picking on SUV's? Shouldn't we focus on the worst offenders? If you want to hate SUV's, fine, but picking on them for pollution is really just taking the heat away from the real problems (don't even get me started on coal burning power plants), you are hurting more than helping.
  • The safety issue
    People seem to feel that others buy SUV's because they think they are more safe. Well, that's their right. In truth, SUV's probably aren't more safe. Over 30% of fatalities in SUV involved collisions are cause by rollovers (oddly enough, it's about 25% for pickup trucks, which no one ever seems to complain about...). If people believe for some reason their SUV is safe, let them, I don't care. Now the other side of the issue is, who wins in a crash? Obviously, the bigger vehicle. Now, here there are two problems. First is mass. Well, it's not that bad here. The Ford Explorer, one of the most popular SUV's out there, weighs in at about 4,000 lbs. That's about what a Cadillac weighs. My car weighs about 3200 lbs. This is not a lot of difference here. I also own a 1986 Honda CRX which weighs in at 1900 lbs. If an explorer hits it, I'm history. However, if my other car hits it, I'm history as well... Hell, if a fly hits it I'm in trouble.

    The second issue here is the height of the vehicle. SUV's, being rather tall, can plow right into the hood of a smaller vehicle. This is a bad thing, however SUV manufacturers have been working on making lower vehicles and bumpers designed to prevent this problem. The 2000 Excursion has a solid steel reinforcement low on the front that will absorb the impact at the height of a car. Another thing to keep in mind here is that Pickup Trucks (of which there are more on the road) have the exact same safety problems as SUV's, yet no one hates them... But safety is a concern, and I am a supporter of making any vehicle, including SUV's, safer to their drivers and others on the road.
  • people never take them off road
    And most people who own corvettes never take them to a race track. I dunno about you, but I'd rather have the SUV's on the road than have a bunch of people riding around tearing up this beutiful country we live in... Again, this is an argument against the driver, not the vehicle.

    So why do you hate SUV's? If you take a look at the fact that no one complains about pickups, which are more common on the roads and have the same downsides as SUV's, it seems pretty clear to me that people just hate the fad. If you hate SUV's because you think they're a fad, that's fine, but don't make up a buch of BS trying to justify it. And if you're really concerned about the environment, then there are a lot more useful things you could do than whine about SUV's (which, if you think about it, does nothing to help the problem). And if you want to complain about the reasons people buy SUV's, fine, but you need to complain about your fellow human beings, not the vehicle.

    Oh, if anyone is wondering about the fact that there are more pickups on the road than SUV's, look up the facts. The Ford F-Series pickup has been the best selling vehicle for like 20 years running. Last year Ford sold more F-Series trucks than SUV's by about a 2:1 margin.