Drive through UNC, college must be hell to have to drive a Hummer.

HG: I will join you. I'll take Durham.

I'd go with a font resembling the Ford one, as they're seemingly most prevalent.

Duke students with giant useless trucks trying to kill me on my bike: fuck you.

Tiny lady alone in the Ford Excavation on your phone: go to hell.

Guy who buys these overpriced deathtraps so his kid will be "safe:" you don't know how to drive a tall vehicle. Your child will die when you flip the stupid thing over trying to pass a truck on the right. Sorry. You will also likely kill me in my Nissan Sentra. Thanks.

People in the H2: first against the wall.

hiredgeek wrote:Sports Utility Vehicles: I cannot decide what special place in my heart hates them so dear. The folks that drive them, the lack of utility, the names which oddly enough are often a real yuck yuck if you put the word anal before...anal trail blaizer, anal passport, ect. I would find it very appropriate if you had to have a license to buy and drive a SUV. Having proof of its utility, like owning a boat, or trailer, not taking speed humps at 45mph in a crowded parking lot...and by the way SUV's are totally fucking up parking lots. Their proportion in size to the parking space is making getting in and out of my car a real pain. I must get a bunch of stickers with the word anal and wage my war...join me!

I will so not join you.

1) your parking space theory is stupid. SUV's are smaller than cars were up until the 80's. If you've compared the footprint of an average-sized modern SUV with an average *car* from the 50's or 60's or 70's, you'll see that the SUV is not some weird parking space fucker like you think it is. If anything, the fault lies with whoever painted the lines in the parking lot... they must've done it in the 80's or 90's, operating on the assumption that nobody would be driving cadillacs, full-size pickup trucks, vans, etc. You should take it up with them. They were stupid.

I can't imagine any parking lots with spaces that were painted in the 70's or earlier being a problem. Would they? Please don't act like this is all some new thing that's relevant all of a sudden. The chevy S10 blazer you buy today is a hell of a lot smaller than the K5 blazer you would've bought in the 80's.

2) lack of utility? Do you think you're right about that? Do you think you really know about it? I've actually had this conversation so many times, I'm really tired of it, so I'll cut it as short as I can and say:

How do you bring a 2x15" cab and a 24" kick to your shows? In your geo?

How does your car handle 8" of snow? Do you have fun shoveling the whole area around your parking space all the way down to the pavement so your honda can actually pull out onto the road?

Don't dare call me when you need help moving your armoire, or your couch, or your mixing console, etc. Don't call any of your friends with cargo-capable vehicles. Rent a U-haul. I'm not kidding. Don't be a hypocrite.

3) I've owned 4 vehicles in my life. In order, a '79 monte carlo, a '79 cutlass supreme, a '92 S10 blazer, and now a '00 4runner. My gas mileage has increased with each successive vehicle, from ~8 mpg with the monte carlo, up to ~17-20 mpg with the 4runner, depending on city/hwy.

FWIW, I think I am probably more annoyed with people like you, that make these weak non-arguments for the "Let's hate SUV" bandwagon, than you are with me and my SUV. You should be riding a bicycle anyway. Or taking public transportation. Not parking in parking lots.

I'm thinking of reading this book:

tmidgett wrote:

Gramsci wrote:gas habit!

Band Name

scott wrote:I will so not join you.

Scott, I think you've missed the point that was being made. If someone buys an SUV for a genuine reason which takes advantage of the difference between a normal sized car, most people wouldn't care. Some reasons I can think of include regular gigging, snowboarding, a job that requires hauling big things around, etc.

However, it's the purchase of these vehicles for no practical reason that galls me. Nowadays, they are getting bought because they are big and flashy. They also happen to be wasteful when compared to most sedans that could carry the same number of people.

Full size SUVs are waaay bigger than normal sedans. The H2 or Lincoln Navigator is longer and wider than an Accord. The fact that there were bigger vehicles in the past has no bearing upon this argument.

And even though I don't own an SUV, I always call my friend with the pickup when I need a favour to move stuff. This doesn't make me a hypocrite - it makes me a pragmatist. Why should I pay for a 17mpg rollover leviathan when I only really need it once or twice a year? If things won't fit in his pickup, I call U-Haul. It's common sense, not hypocrisy.

"FWIW, I think I am probably more annoyed with people like you, that make these weak non-arguments for the "Let's hate SUV" bandwagon, than you are with me and my SUV. You should be riding a bicycle anyway. Or taking public transportation. Not parking in parking lots."

Lets roll. You can drive. We can blow hot air, both of us will right. I usually don't have any places to go when it snows, when I move my drums I use a van, my equipment does not require a utility vehicle, when i move my console i use an 18 wheeler, most parking lots in my region are new developments probably 15 years or less in age, i could argue that the turning radius of SUV's also affects the navigation in parking lots but that would be annoying. I think i was trying to get at the lack of utility people are applying to these ever popular vehicles. Be annoyed when you see a anal sticker on your tailgate. There is only one motherfucker.

hiredgeek wrote:when I move my drums I use a van, my equipment does not require a utility vehicle, when i move my console i use an 18 wheeler

Is it your own van? If you own a van that you never drive, except when gigging, then bravo to you, you are not a hypocrite. I will also assume you are wealthy, if you are able to afford to own a car *and* a van. Most of us can't really do that, especially in a city.

If it's not your van, it's your buddy's van, then I would submit that if your buddy ever drives the van without passengers, without a big load of cargo, then you by are a hypocrite by your association with and use of his vehicle.

The thing that makes this whole discussion stupid is that you have no idea what you're talking about. You see one woman in a lincoln navagator, and she is instantly a deplorable piece of shit for driving an SUV to look fancy. You don't know what she did last weekend, you don't know what she'll do next weekend. All you can do is assume, and lash out and put stickers on her car, when you don't know shit about the reality of the situation.

Put your sticker on my car, and I will put a sticker on your buddy's van, and we'll all be stupid assholes. YAY!!

The case for my bass won't even fit in your accords and sentras, guys. I could be driving to practice, with my bass case in the back where you don't see it, and you look at me and go "asshole! he bought an SUV to look cool!" and you'd be wrong, and you'd be a dumb motherfucker. Have fun with that.

I've seen a guy break a lot of the plastic trim on his nissan sentra trying to fit his 24" kick drum in the back seat.

Little cars are great for buying groceries or driving to grandma's house. Unless grandma lives near a train and a bus, in which case you're a douchebag for not taking public transportation.

Hybrid SUV's. My next vehicle will very likely be a hybrid SUV. It will accommodate my gear, and it will drive nicely in snow. Your honda and nissan are of no interest to me because they sorely lack utility, functions that I expect out of a vehicle like being able to fit my bass case.

if you use the space in your huge-assed SUV, that's one thing. if you're regularly loading it with haybales and motorcycle engines and tools and driving off over the gravel hill, then more power to you. if you live in snowy winnipeg or rochester, and you're a large person, and you have to take your miter box and your 13 kids and four dogs out to the log cabin every day, then an SUV is right for you, and i have no complaints.

for the 93% of those assholes who buy SUVs because they are (a) safer (wrong) or (b) as status symbols, they can go fuck themselves, and you can quote me on that.

stewie wrote:Nowadays, [SUVs] are getting bought because they are big and flashy.

Prove it!