If you have an SUV, you are insecure and a fearful wussy.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/11/suvs-and-trust/547076/

I have one and now I am scared to leave the house.


Bradsher later wrote a book about SUV ownership, and, relying on market research, noted that their owners do, in fact, tend to be “insecure, vain, self-centered, insecure, and ... frequently nervous about their marriages.”

[blues]

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-pzuK1_-bMo/maxresdefault.jpg

[RJ]

Yeah I pretty much cower in fear driving my Diesel 2500 Ram.

[STI]

Regardless of what this toolbag writes, some people buy them because it's inconvenient to get your FWD shitbox stuck on a forest road or minivan stuck in the snow...

[Duelist]

It's in the Atlantic Monthly. Puerile words words words, insult anyone who might have an independent thought or different need, wash, rinse, repeat.

[RJ]

To be non snarky, my sense of the rise of SUV’s has less to do with driver wussiness and much more to do with physical elevation of the driver’s eyeline.

Once shorter stature drivers (aka soccer mom’s) discovered they felt safer sitting up in a full size SUV, they started selling like Beignets in the Vieux Carreé after Lent.

[Alembic]

To be non snarky, my sense of the rise of SUV’s has less to do with driver wussiness and much more to do with physical elevation of the driver’s eyeline.

Once shorter stature drivers (aka soccer mom’s) discovered they felt safer sitting up in a full size SUV, they started selling like Beignets in the Vieux Carreé after Lent.

This is exactly why my wife loves her Pilot. It has almost no blind spot, sits up high and, I don't know from a statistical stand point, but it seems safer, in a collision to be in a heaver car. I hate to think what happens to the guy in a "Smart" car vs. dump truck accident.

My SUV is a CR-V, a week after I got it, a client offered me a free refrigerator. I said sure, please help me load it after I fold up the rear seats. Couldn't have done that with a sedan.

[Malamute]

Yeah, I'm sure it has nothing to do with practical for a wide variety of uses, room for dogs, can sleep in them, enough ground clearance for moderate duty offroading, or more depending on the ability of the driver, towing capable, more crash survivable (probably a subjective opinion) based on there being a lesser number of taller vehicles then me on the road, room for tons of gear, can see well, fun to drive, and in the case of the one I stumbled into, gets about the same fuel mileage as a friends mini-van. So, in a choice between those two.....

[blues]

Yeah, I'm sure it has nothing to do with practical for a wide variety of uses, room for dogs, can sleep in them, enough ground clearance for moderate duty offroading, or more depending on the ability of the driver, towing capable, more crash survivable (probably a subjective opinion) based on there being a lesser number of taller vehicles then me on the road, room for tons of gear, can see well, fun to drive, and in the case of the one I stumbled into, gets about the same fuel mileage as a friends mini-van. So, in a choice between those two.....

You poor, poor, insecure wretch.


;)

(Loving my 4Runner Trail Edition Premium...and I can use mine for just the reasons you enumerated. :cool:)

[okie john]

To be non snarky, my sense of the rise of SUV’s has less to do with driver wussiness and much more to do with physical elevation of the driver’s eyeline.

Once shorter stature drivers (aka soccer mom’s) discovered they felt safer sitting up in a full size SUV, they started selling like Beignets in the Vieux Carreé after Lent.

This, plus everything Malamute said. An SUV is a 4WD station wagon, but nobody busts on station-wagon drivers.


Okie John

[spinmove_]

Given that I live in Michigan, do the majority of the driving for my family, just got a new job that’s a 20 minute commute, am now a home owner looking to get various projects done around the house, as well as a hunter with a family that’s interested in doing at least some recreational camping, I’d rather trade in my Mazda3 for a pickup or SUV that fits my life better than a Prius or some other hybrid or electric car.


Sent from mah smertfone using tapathingy

[NEPAKevin]

It's in the Atlantic Monthly.

Isn't that one of those really large "coffee table" periodicals seen in better waiting rooms of specialists and law offices? Maybe they are worried that Gen-Y and Millennials are undoing the hard work of the Prius revolution.

[Guinnessman]

My Wife's Uncle is a painter at the local Auto Body Shop. He is forever thankful for women and their SUV's. :p

He has job security for life!

[Duelist]

Isn't that one of those really large "coffee table" periodicals seen in better waiting rooms of specialists and law offices? Maybe they are worried that Gen-Y and Millennials are undoing the hard work of the Prius revolution.

Yup. Beautiful art photography, very lefty articles and editorials.

[blues]

Yup. Beautiful art photography, very lefty articles and editorials.


Nattering nabobs of negativism.

[Kram]

That article has inspired me to continue my search for a clean Toyota Landcruiser.

[NEPAKevin]

I'm leaning toward a 3/4 ton diesel Suburban but the surplus M1045A2 HMMWV 4D Slant tops are intriguing. Either way the Atlantic would likely diagnose paranoid schizophrenic narcissistic cisgender agoraphobia.

[FNFAN]

Flash forward 10 or 15 years and they'll be saying the same thing about vehicles that are still steered and driven by humans. Lemmings get nervous around other species.

[orionz06]

Clickbait to get people fired up. Wonder how their ad revenue for the day is going?

[hufnagel]

I needed to tow/plow/haul-things, and I didn't want a truck. I hate that it only gets 16mpg, and plan on atoning by getting an all electric car, soon. :D

[Maple Syrup Actual]

I drive an old 4runner.

I assure everyone reading that only am I not insecure about my marriage, I think my marriage is totally awesome.


I will admit that for someone with my lifestyle, which includes hauling a lot of stuff that needs to be protected from the elements, towing a large boat, launching and collecting the boat at slippery rural boat ramps, driving in mud and snow, and traveling regularly on logging roads in Canada all year round, a Prius would be more practical.

But I drive the 4runner because as a heavily tattooed former doorman of biker bars, driving a beige Toyota is the only thing that makes me feel adequately macho.

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk

[Hambo]

“insecure, vain, self-centered, insecure, and ... frequently nervous about their marriages.”

Sounds like some SUV driving soccer moms I know. ;)

[blues]

I drive an old 4runner.

I assure everyone reading that only am I not insecure about my marriage, I think my marriage is totally awesome.


I will admit that for someone with my lifestyle, which includes hauling a lot of stuff that needs to be protected from the elements, towing a large boat, launching and collecting the boat at slippery rural boat ramps, driving in mud and snow, and traveling regularly on logging roads in Canada all year round, a Prius would be more practical.

But I drive the 4runner because as a heavily tattooed former doorman of biker bars, driving a beige Toyota is the only thing that makes me feel adequately macho.

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk

Brother, you need to dip your toe in the water and get out more. ;)

(Let me know when you'll be in the neighborhood.)

[Hambo]

The way some SUV owners have to justify their SUV ownership seems...insecure. ;):)

[Trukinjp13]

Always had a truck, still do lol. But just bought a older suburban. Needed room for 6 peeps and 3 dogs. Aint happening in a car or truck. Also needed 4wd and pulling capability. Have already done a bunch of work to her. Gotta turn her into a useful vehicle not the soccer mom ride it was.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Joe in PNG]

Considering that the standard vehicle for driving the linear potholes & unpaved ruts of Papua New Guinea is an overloaded 2wd Toyota HiAce 15 passenger van, I have a hard time with most Americans saying they "need" offroad capability.

However, "want" is a perfectly fine reason to buy anything.

[Joe in PNG]

Always had a truck, still do lol. But just bought a older suburban. Needed room for 6 peeps and 3 dogs. Aint happening in a car or truck. Also needed 4wd and pulling capability. Have already done a bunch of work to her. Gotta turn her into a useful vehicle not the soccer mom ride it was.

SUV's are awesome for 5 large adults and their golf clubs. Or for 3 adults, 2 kids, and luggage enough for a week.

[Stephanie B]

Guy pulled up next to me in a bright-yellow H2. It had chrome wheels, heavy-duty off-road tires, all the lights that a person could stuff onto it and not a speck of mud or dirt to be seen.

If I had a PA system in my car, I might have yelled: "Sorry about your penis, dude."

:rolleyes:

As it turned out, I know some people who know the guy who has that H2. Seems that my initial reaction was pretty accurate..... :D

[blues]

Did he look like this?

https://nyppagesix.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/t1287282_19.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=664&h=441&crop=1

[Malamute]

Considering that the standard vehicle for driving the linear potholes & unpaved ruts of Papua New Guinea is an overloaded 2wd Toyota HiAce 15 passenger van, I have a hard time with most Americans saying they "need" offroad capability.

However, "want" is a perfectly fine reason to buy anything.


Guy pulled up next to me in a bright-yellow H2. It had chrome wheels, heavy-duty off-road tires, all the lights that a person could stuff onto it and not a speck of mud or dirt to be seen.

If I had a PA system in my car, I might have yelled: "Sorry about your penis, dude."

:rolleyes:

As it turned out, I know some people who know the guy who has that H2. Seems that my initial reaction was pretty accurate..... :D

Ive found 4wd to be pretty useful, and vastly better on ice and snow. I did however, go all sorts of dumb places in an old 2wd IH farm truck pickup when I was first in Az. Good chains allow you get even farther into the mud and muck before you get stuck, as does 4wd. I did some pretty impressive work getting vehicles stuck back in the day. The worst had me getting a friend, we cut down a number of trees to make room and use as skids to drag the truck around to get it pointed back towards decent ground. It was chained up, but you couldnt see the chains. it was in to the frame in mud. Another time took me about 6 hours of digging, jacking and collecting rocks to try to get decent material under the wheels to get a run for good footing.

Regarding the hummer, and people afraid to take them offroad, there was a funny part in this. Guy in a crown vic was way back on the trails in Moab area, having a nice day out with his dog and bicycle, a guy in a hummer was apparently afraid to go out on the trails.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFwPXEeJ3aI

[TR675]

An SUV is a 4WD station wagon, but nobody busts on station-wagon drivers.

Two responses, can't decide which to go with:

(1) Since when?

(2) There are station wagon drivers?

[Wondering Beard]

I read until I came to this line:"authors of The Spirit Level, a book about the human costs of social inequality by epidemiologists "..

I didn't need to read anymore.

[blues]

I read until I came to this line:"authors of The Spirit Level, a book about the human costs of social inequality by epidemiologists "..

I didn't need to read anymore.

You're just so two weeks ago...you knuckle dragging brute!

[Wondering Beard]

You're just so two weeks ago...you knuckle dragging brute!

Wait, I can be a knuckle dragging brute and a wussy at the same time (yep, I drive an SUV)?

So that means I can flirt with girls who like alpha males and girls who like beta males?

Shame I'm happily married.

[blues]

Wait, I can be a knuckle dragging brute and a wussy at the same time (yep, I drive an SUV)?

So that means I can flirt with girls who like alpha males and girls who like beta males?

Shame I'm happily married.

Peugeots don't count. ;)

[Wondering Beard]

Peugeots don't count. ;)

But Citroën DS does.

[blues]

But Citroën DS does.

Loved those as a kid. (Last night in Miss Meadows saw an old Nash Metropolitan to bring back the memories.)

Right! Back to SUV's you scalawags!

[Dagga Boy]

I have serious issues with Toxic Masculinity as evidenced by my vehicle. Of course our own rob s has pointed out often the issues with driving things you don’t need.

[Malamute]

Wait, I can be a knuckle dragging brute and a wussy at the same time (yep, I drive an SUV)?

So that means I can flirt with girls who like alpha males and girls who like beta males?

Shame I'm happily married.

I recall someone describing themself as a modern, sensitive guy, in the manly traditional style. Seemed to cover all the bases. Guess if it works, it works.

^^^ DB, need can be subjective, I think what anyone feels they need, they need. Its also just fine to want something, for what it can do, and because you like it.

[BobLoblaw]

I have an article about people who write articles about SUV owners being insecure. It’s called “Waterproof Bed Liners.” I’m only 3 words in but the potential keeps me writing.

[olstyn]

it's inconvenient to get your FWD shitbox stuck on a forest road or minivan stuck in the snow...

See, that statement doesn't make me wish for an SUV, it just makes me miss my Audi. :(

[Dagga Boy]

I recall someone describing themself as a modern, sensitive guy, in the manly traditional style. Seemed to cover all the bases. Guess if it works, it works.

^^^ DB, need can be subjective, I think what anyone feels they need, they need. Its also just fine to want something, for what it can do, and because you like it.

I have grown into total acceptance of "pride of ownership" as being a a good thing rather than a character flaw.

[Jared]

To be non snarky, my sense of the rise of SUV’s has less to do with driver wussiness and much more to do with physical elevation of the driver’s eyeline.

Once shorter stature drivers (aka soccer mom’s) discovered they felt safer sitting up in a full size SUV, they started selling like Beignets in the Vieux Carreé after Lent.

My wife has some back issues and our daughter is getting bigger. The difference, for her, in being about to stand up right versus bending all the way over (between her current Toyota RAV4 and her old Chevy Malibu) is a godsend for her back. We literally should have made the trade a year ago.

[DallasBronco]

I guess I'm the most sniveling, narcissistic, wuss I know. I have a 3/4 ton truck, a 4WD Ram, and 2 Jeeps. Do y'all think I could wear hipster lumberjack clothes and grow a beard to redeem myself?
I got rid of my old Bronco a few months ago and couldn't figure out why I suddenly hated myself a little less.

[OlongJohnson]

I just bought a 348-hp sport coupe. But it is RWD with a limited slip and all three pedals that god, John Moses Browning and William C. Durant intended. And I'm keeping the one-ton GMC, so I can still steal all your furniture in one trip.

[txdpd]

This sounds like a ripoff of Car Talk satire from the 80's and "SUV" replaced "Volvo". Except this guy serious, and Click and Clack were on to something. The only reason people drive Volvos is that they are insecure and untrusting of everyone else on the road.

[RevolverRob]

The main evidence for this theory is a 2005 paper by media-studies professor Josh Lauer. Lauer points out that SUVs are neither more spacious nor safer than minivans and station wagons. Instead, he argues, SUVs reflect Americans’ growing fear of others and our desire to sequester ourselves and our families from them. In other words, he writes, the “space” people actually seek in SUVs is personal space, and the “safety” is not road safety but personal safety.

Crime did not rise in the United States during the 1980s and ’90s, but fear of crime persisted, and so did sales of giant cars. Around that time, Americans also began buying mace and pepper spray, reflecting the “individualization of social risk”—or the idea that it’s on every individual to protect themselves from harm, Lauer writes.

I'm failing to see the problem here. Clearly Lauer and I are of two different minds, he describes personal safety in a negative light and I view it as fundamentally positive. If Americans are buying SUVs, because they are investing in their personal safety - then fuck it - I guess I don't hate SUVs as much as I thought I did.

The only thing I have against SUVs, is that they sell so well, they further dilute the market of available performance oriented vehicles. It's 2017 and I can't only buy maybe a Baker's Dozen different new cars with manual transmissions and half-again that many that don't suck. The sales of Crossover SUVs, in particular, has effectively made car dealers a sea of SUVs and little else.

[Darth_Uno]

You poor, poor, insecure wretch.


;)

(Loving my 4Runner Trail Edition Premium...and I can use mine for just the reasons you enumerated. :cool:)

I have a 4Runner Premium for one reason only; it's what my wife wanted. Myself, I'd just drive my truck everywhere.

I think our marriage is pretty good...especially since I got her a new 4Runner.

[Drang]

surplus M1045A2 HMMWV 4D Slant tops are intriguing.
I developed a pretty severe loathing for HMMWVs based on all the truly fucked up aspects of the design. I suppose it's possible they fixed the mall after I retired, but I don't care.
If I can't get a Toyotas Hilux TDI I'll take a surplus M1009.

[mmc45414]

I just bought a 348-hp sport coupe. But it is RWD with a limited slip and all three pedals that god, John Moses Browning and William C. Durant intended. And I'm keeping the one-ton GMC, so I can still steal all your furniture in one trip.

The only thing I have against SUVs, is that they sell so well, they further dilute the market of available performance oriented vehicles. It's 2017 and I can't only buy maybe a Baker's Dozen different new cars with manual transmissions and half-again that many that don't suck.
I think another factor in this evolution is the speed limit is so damn low. After all of the safety and performance enhancing developments achieved since the fifties the speed limits are just now back up to where they were when the roads were built. A modern SUV or truck is perfectly comfortable and reasonably efficient at 70mph, if we could use the potential of the road system I think cars would be more popular.

ETA: The manual transmission struggle is real. Recently got a Focus ST to back up my F-150, and the list is short. A close friend has a Ford/Dodge/Jeep store, and I think the performance options were the Focus, the Fiesta, the Mustang and (maybe?) Challenger. Fortunately the Focus has been awesome :)

[Hambo]

The only reason people drive Volvos is that they are insecure and untrusting of everyone else on the road.

Come to Florida and you won't trust anyone on the road no matter what they drive.



PS-I do not, nor have I ever, owned a Volvo.

[OlongJohnson]

Safe roadway speeds are limited not by cars, but by drivers. Unfortunately, humans have not improved.

[mmc45414]

Unfortunately, humans have not improved.Especially when held to low expectations. Kinda like my CHL, I would consider some additional training/testing/vetting, but not gonna happen.

[txdpd]

Come to Florida and you won't trust anyone on the road no matter what they drive.



PS-I do not, nor have I ever, owned a Volvo.

Yeah not going to argue with you on that. Went to Miami on vacation work conference, and driving was more stressful than police work in South Dallas. If I really need a dose of really bad drivers I can just drive to Oak Cliff, where the drunks drive in a straight line and the sober people are swerving all over the road to avoid giant pot holes.

[blues]

Yeah not going to argue with you on that. Went to Miami on vacation work conference, and driving was more stressful than police work in South Dallas. If I really need a dose of really bad drivers I can just drive to Oak Cliff, where the drunks drive in a straight line and the sober people are swerving all over the road to avoid giant pot holes.

I lived there for 17 years and not a day goes by that I'm not thankful to not have to drive in that wasteland anymore.

Though traffic violations weren't our bailiwick, there were times when I just couldn't let some egregious conduct go unaddressed...occasionally with some interesting outcomes.

[NEPAKevin]

If I can't get a Toyotas Hilux TDI I'll take a surplus M1009.

Saw an ad on Craigslist for a M1031 (https://allentown.craigslist.org/cto/d/1986-m1031-dana-60-with-trac/6398208485.html) but I need another project like a hole in the head and dude doesn't take Nigerian checks.

[beenalongtime]

I would be happy to drive one, provided it comes to me at the same cost as my current vehicle..... free.
Heck, I would drive a pink Yugo if it was free, as I mostly only need to go to work and home. For me, I like smaller trucks for the home projects, as well as hatchbacks, and an suv is a compromise that a lot of people have made, that proves to me they could be useful.

[flyrodr]

I tool around in my Subaru Forester, looked down on (literally) by pretty much everyone, particularly those in their giant SUVs who relish their superiority. Secure and happy in my gray man persona.

[NEPAKevin]

Seems to me that "SUV shaming" comes from the same mind set that gave us white privilege, rape culture, safe spaces and LGBTTQQIAAP. To these people I say...

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