Suburbs and SUVs (a rant)

[ladyfreckles]

I live in a hoity-toity area where there are a lot of typical suburban housewives (most of them work small jobs though). I am so freaking tired of seeing huge suburbans and Land Rovers and Hummers around town. You have two kids!!! You do not need a $70,000 gas guzzler that's designed for intense off-roading or military work. You just don't need it! And more important you people can't drive it. You take up four parking spaces at the grocery store, I watch you drive over curbs all the time, and you're so intimidated by the size of your own vehicle that you have to drive 15mph under the speed limit! Get off the road!!!!

None of these people are ever towing anything and none of them seem to have anything in their cars but kids. WHY do they feel the need to go into massive amounts of debt for these huge, expensive vehicles that they can't even drive? Oh and it gets better, when it's foggy or rainy out... they turn their brights on. I'm starting to think people need to get a commercial license to drive these things. Then maybe that would keep the stupid women who think the need that massive of a thing just for driving to Nordstrom from buying it.

Why am I mad? Because at least twice a week some idiot almost hits me. Today I just watched someone scrape another person's car in the Target parking lot without leaving any note because they thought their Range Rover would fit in a compact parking spot. No note. No insurance info left. Nothing. I freaking hate these people and they are all over the place.

Turn your brights off, try learning to drive before you buy your suburban/hummer/land rover and get out of my way.

[Dainerra]

I just want to ask why the problem with turning the lights on when it's foggy or raining? It's the law that you have your lights on in that kind of weather?
Now, if they've got their brights on, that's just stupidity and not limited to drivers of giant SUVs.

[Scarlettsmom]

I hear you. I always want to ask them "What country club are you going to invade?"

I have a mini van and an OLD Honda accord that I drive. The van is the "feis wagon" and is used on long trips or to haul Scarlett around...otherwise it's in the garage.

There is hope...my son wanted the best mileage car he could get. His girlfriend is the same way. The future rests with these younger drivers who will not drive gargantuan cars if they don't need to.

But, don't judge a book by it's cover...our little, old 1991 Toyota pick-up (V6) gets WORSE mileage than a Hummer H2. Sad, but true. It also requires premium gas. Right now, it's a pier car...meaning it only gets driven if it is to be left on the pier when my husband goes out to sea. Why do we keep it you ask? Because he bought it NEW and LOVES it dearly. Plus, NO WAY is anyone making ME haul manure in my beautiful Sienna. :P

[Kesser]

Ugh I totally agree with the brights!! That is enough to drive me mental!!!

I live in a small city outside of Edmonton and I have to drive the highway every day to and from work and I am floored by all the drivers that drive with their brights on!!! It is a busy highway! It's just a complete lack of courtesy for the other drivers. I was taught to always always switch your brights off when you are driving past or behind another vehicle - even on a divided highway!
One of my biggest pet peeves! - that and people who don't wave or flash theirs 4-ways when you let them cut in front of you!

[jocoyn]

It may not be that their brights are on. I have a Tundra (and yes I need the darned thing for search and rescue and I know how to park it) and I have people all the time flashing lights at me thinking brights are on.

I ask the dealer to adjust them and they say it is all factory preset and they cannot.

So not wanting to further blind someone coming at me with THEIR brights on unless I can flash mine without hitting them in the eye....I just let it go....

[Rerun]

hmmm, guess you wouldn't like me. We have an SUV, currently only 1 child, but the stroller (which is big, it's not one of those crappy cheap ones) lives in the back, and believe it or not, one kid comes with a lot of "stuff." If we just want to go to the park, it's us in the front, toddler in his carseat in the middle seat, stroller and ONE dog in the back (we have four dogs mind you). We did figure out a way to strap the stroller up on its side and put two dogs in the back last summer, but it's a PITA and I'm not sure how safe it really is in the event of an accident.

So yeah, most of the time it might seem like one parent driving out with one kid in a big SUV isn't necessary (don't even get me started on others defining what's necessary for someone else) but sometimes, you actually need that space. Or maybe they just want it to be comfortable.

The driving issues have nothing to do with size. It's just driving ability. They'd drive and park the same in a smaller vehicle.

Sure it'd be nice to have enough money to have a vehicle that could sit unless you were using it for a lot of people or dogs or a trip, but really, most people can't afford that. So the vehicle I drive has to be big enough to do it all.

[jocoyn]

If I did not telecommute (which greatly reduces drive time) I would have a prius AND a tundra - both of them together are still less than one land rover or one hummer.

If I was not having to go offroad, I would have minivan over an SUV.

[ladyfreckles]

My beef isn't with SUVs in general (I drive one), it's with those massive maxed out ones like the Ford Expedition or the Chevy Suburban (things that were MADE for towing) that women who live in the suburbs/city feel the need to drive. It's extremely common in my friend's neighborhood and I KNOW those women are never actually loading the car up with furniture or things like dogs. The thing to do around here is to buy range rovers as a status symbol so no, most women don't need it.

[Zisso]

I have a Ford Ranger for hauling the dogs around (in the crates in the back) and a minivan (when I get it back from dear daughter) for shopping and work and stuff. But the minivan, when my dad gave it to me last Sept., the headlights were aimed way high-it lit up the signs on the road perfectly but not the road so much. I can only imagine how bright they were in people's mirrors! Crazy that the manufacturer's are not more careful about how they set them to begin with! My daughter had them adjusted as much as she could but they are still not right.

[amaris]

*has no idea...drives a tiny Honda Fit*

but yes i get what you mean, it's the same thing with owning a 200k sportscar in the city, kinda pointless and used for nothing more thn as a status symbol, most who own it can't handle it well.