SUV Perception

Safe like this where some equate "I feel" with reality?

From some crash-data for the Tundra vs the Prius is it reading the Prius is somewhat safer?

 

Very interesting article. Thanks!

 

i'm just saying what she's saying. she feels safe.. fine... just don't complain about gas...

 

Saved me a few minutes of typing...

 

Well, I agree with LaughingMan - It does sound like she makes good use of it.

However, I think people take far too much stuff with them when they go places these days, simply because they can. I would bet if your wife drove a smaller vehicle that got better gas mileage (could still be an SUV, doesn't need to be quite so big though), she'd find a way to fit everything in or only take whats needed.

I'll admit - I loved all my previous vehicles. Ever since the day I could drive up until this past September, I drove SUV's (1 Chevy Blazer and 3 Jeeps). Now.. I've also made good use of them - I'd drive in any conditions (even went from Mass to Killington,VT in a blizzard) and I made use of the cargo area (when I was in school and when my wife was in school - plus we had 2 dogs at one point) and I used my last one to tow as well (The one thing I'll miss with my Prius).

The reason I made the switch, was due to driving 30k miles a year. There was no need for me to drive an SUV for all that driving. A Prius made far more sense and I can borrow a vehicle from my Parents for towing.

If more drivers look at real need, we'd see a big difference in fuel consumption.

 

Husband and I decided we could borrow his brother-in-law's work SUV when we needed one.

Borrowed the SUV ONCE in 2005. Cost us over $80 to refill the blanky-blank gas tank.

Granted, we have no kids, don't own any pets and the boat is too big to tow but if we needed the hauling space, we would have bought a van. A van is safer than an SUV, too.

 

That's just another reason I love my dad. When ever I borrow one of his vehicles, he always tells me to not bother filling it up

 

I do not have a problem with most of the people driving an SUV. At least part of them got caught by the rising gas prices, or so they have told me, and if they could afford it, would get rid of what they have for something more fuel efficient.

The ones I really HATE :angry: are the big SUV's and pickup trucks that feel that they own the road, and want to show you that they do, by riding about 2 feet from your rear bumper. Included in this group are the ones that get close behind you in heavy traffic and flash their lights, indicating that they want you to pull over so they can speed past. Maybe I am being to critical of the latter. They might just be proud of the fact they have headlights and want you to know it.

 

My wife and kids are much safer in her Yukon than they were in the minivan she was previously driving. That means a lot to me!

 

How are they safer in a top-heavy vehicle that according to NHTSA statistics is far more prone to single-vehicle fatality in a rollover? Also, the top-heavy SUV doesn't have to meet minimum Federally-mandated roof strength for rollover.

Of course, that applies to about any "traditional" SUV from any maker, not just The General.

 

Would you agree that overall my wife and kids are much safer in the Yukon. The vehicle is equipped with stabilitrak, it would not be easy to rollover even if she was trying. Statistics can be used to say anything. She would be statistically more likely to roll over if she was driving a Corvette. There are many other factors including age, alcohol, and speed.

 

How many kids do you have?

 

Four kids and one chocolate lab!

 

How would they be safer overall? Unless she sails through a stop sign or stop light and t-bones somebody in a small car? Then she walks away and they shovel the other driver off the pavement.

In my line of work I deal with numbers as anything else - "gut" feeling, "instinct," "I just know" - are usually wrong. Dead wrong.

ALthough some folks do use statistics to slant an arguement, I don't. Unless you happen to believe the NHTSA is somehow at "war" with The General.

 

how many wifes?

 

So Jayman, what would you recommend they drive, that is safer overall? Give me some reasoning, and other facts besides rollover stats. In my line of work numbers can be manipulated to tell almost any story.

 

I'm from the midwest not utah.

 

Jayman beat me to it while I was searching for my previous response to this assertion on a different thread. Jay's observation is exactly right and here is a little more detail:

Most of the safety offered by these monster SUVs stems from their sheer mass compared with most ordinary vehicles they might collide with (the Navigator weighs 5,900 lb). The "safer in an SUV" myth falls apart when they experience rollovers, often single-vehicle accidents, which occur at much higher rates for SUVs due to their inherently poor stability and high centers of gravity. Theoretically, there is an NHTSA reg that mandates minimum roof-caving resistance (Rule 216), but the auto industry essentially wrote this rule, so..."In effect, the heaviest trucks and SUVs, mainstream products like the Dodge Durango, Lincoln Navigator and Chevy Tahoe, are technically exempt from the 216 test."

See: http://800lawinfo.com/practice/news.htm?st...20Roof%20Caving

 

OK, this particular piece of verbal ejaculation has been smeared all over the walls by every anti-SUV contingency since the very inception of SUV's.

What are the chances someone will roll-over due to their own poor driving (or whatever other reason) as opposed to an actual collision with another vehicle or object? THAT would be a far more real-world meaningful statistic. If you're going to drive your SUV like an nice person, ignoring how they effectively operate, you're going to end up a statistic (likewise for any other vehicle for that matter). Excluding the idiotic one point perspective on roll-overs, you ARE safer in an SUV.

 

Bloody hell. Come visit colordao in the winter. Wait for a decent snow storm and you'll see a wasteland of SUV roll-overs. There are two basic causes.

1.) The driver was way overconfident and driving too agressively for the situation.

2.) Some other idiot in a random vehicle (could be SUV or not) was doing #1 and the SUV driver lost control of the vehicle because of the poor handling/stability.