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Suv critics gaining { December 18 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=harrop18&date=20021218&query=suvhttp://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=harrop18&date=20021218&query=suv
http://commondreams.org/views02/1218-03.htm
Published on Wednesday, December 18, 2002 by the Seattle Times
Nation's SUV Critics Are Gaining Traction
by Froma Harrop
Defenders of the SUV can contain themselves no longer. A new book dedicated to bashing the big sport-utility vehicles has sent their defenders in the automotive press to the battle stations. They're pounding their keyboards, and out has come much verbal violence, though little substance. Lacking good arguments, the defenders have taken to attacking people who express anti-SUV views, rather than the views.
Count me among the SUV critics, though with some reservations. I do not think that SUV owners are necessarily headed for the hot place, as environmentally conscious clergy have recently suggested. I could even envision my having one — if, for example, I lived on a llama farm and had to transport 80-pound bags of feed up a dirt mountain road on a daily basis. That not being the case, I drive a Honda Accord.
In any event, the storm centers on a book with a long, descriptive title, "High and Mighty — SUVs: The World's Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way." As you may guess, author Keith Bradsher does not like SUVs. Formerly chief of The New York Times Detroit bureau, Bradsher spends 441 pages condemning the safety record of SUVs, their environmental impact, their manufacturers and their buyers.
His remarks have not gone unchallenged. In the December issue of Automobile magazine, columnist David E. Davis Jr. calls Bradsher some things I cannot repeat here. He creatively describes other critics as "bicoastal glitterati" and "hysterical housewives of the '80s" — all dedicated to "denying freedom of choice to hundreds of thousands of sublimely happy SUV owners."
In AutoWeek, columnist Steve Thompson accuses SUV detractors of "vitriolic assaults," not only on freedom but on fun, as well. They are furious, he says, that "millions of people are 'allowed' to make their own choices about what to own and drive, let alone to enjoy." He calls people who hate SUVs the "Alliance against Fun."
Speaking of fun, may I interject something here? I don't find this war on terrorism to be much fun at all. Americans might be having a far better time had SUVs not increased their dependence on Mideastern oil. And not a few of them think the cause of freedom might be better served by removing the source of terrorist funding.
I'll take a pass on delving into the psychodynamics of SUV owners. There may be some truth in Bradsher's generalization of SUV drivers as vain, insecure and aggressive. But the SUV drivers I'm close to — a single mother and two elderly couples — are none of the above. It's not the fun factor but the fear factor that has them wheeling around in their 5,000-pound Oil Warriors. They think that bigger size automatically translates into greater safety, even though it's not true. SUVs are top-heavy and tend to roll over in horrifying accidents. (Bradsher offers studies showing that occupants of SUVs are actually slightly more likely to die in crashes than are occupants of cars.)
It can be amusing to wax sociological, but both sides should be careful. Karl Brauer, editor at edmunds.com, insists that SUV critics are simply losers who are envious of successful people. "What better representation of success currently exists than the SUV?" he asks. Oooh, I can think of some, and without even leaving the dealership.
When I see a nation given over to gas guzzlers, I think not of success but of failure — a failure of public policy to protect our nation's environment and its security. More depressing is the unwillingness to even lift a finger to reduce fuel consumption when the technology to do so is readily available. You'd think Detroit would embrace the improvements to make SUVs far less objectionable, including to SUV owners themselves.
Last summer, William Clay Ford Jr., chief at Ford, touched on something when he conceded that fights over fuel economy had dimmed Americans' love affair with the car. "People used to write songs about T-Birds and Corvettes," he lamented.
With Americans headed toward another war in the Mideast, the Toyota Prius has become a hip automotive statement in Hollywood. The Prius is a gas-electric hybrid made in Japan. Cameron Diaz and Leonardo DiCaprio each have one. Meanwhile, sheriff's offices in Florida have been buying these 40-mile-a-gallon vehicles, they say, to help the nation reduce its dependence on foreign oil.
When Americans start buying Japanese cars as a patriotic gesture, Detroit should worry.
Providence Journal columnist Froma Harrop's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times.
Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company
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