dynamho

Just venting...
Got my first windshield crack today kicked up by a Honda Pilot going 65 mph with a 5 second gap, primarily to avoid such a thing.

Before this I got two other chips on the hood; one by a semi-rig, the other by Jeep Grand Cherokee.

I can understand tractor-trailers kicking up dirt with their huge wheels and I'm willing to look the other way because these guys are essential to our economy.

But SUVs are so wasteful and unnecessary. Their high ground clearance kick up so much sh*t. It's so rude and they make us, or insurance, spend money on repairs. They are extravagant and wasteful any way I slice it.

There should be legislation mandating long mudflaps on all SUVs. If an SUV is caught after having caused windshield damage and it doesn't have mudflaps, it is at fault. <--- Wishful thinking

Thanks for bearing with me on this pet-peeve of mine. [SIGH]

JAC

I'm sorry about your windshield dude, that sucks. But what you're proposing is ridiculous, itll never happen.

dynamho

Yep, that kind of legislation will never see the light of day.

Undeniably, SUVs are extremely popular and insulting such a huge market by my ridiculous proposal would indeed be costly. Boohoo.

Perhaps we should join in the fun and get one of 'em house on wheels, like a Navigator or an Escalade.

dre2ooo

What you're proposing is utterly RIDICULOUS ...


A better law would be to ban them completely

dynamho

I dig souped-up vintage rotaries that whoop bung.
Nice photo angle.

neuromancer

Interesting that SUVs are singled out as unneccesary and wasteful. What exactly is a sports car?

Do you think sports cars will pass this MPG limit?

Interesting...

Jay

dynamho

Good counterpoint.
It's less the cars themselves that are in question as much as the induced peripheral inconvenience the two types of vehicles engender.

Sports cars attract only people who really like cars because true sports cars are usually impractical for anything else but reacting fast to the driver.

SUVs on the other hand attract virtually everybody (wannabees included) because of the false sense of security and seeming practicality (hauls everything) it provides. The effect is a sad one for people who really do need SUVs.

Of course sports cars also attract wannabees but not to the epidemic proportions of the SUV.

So broadly speaking, sports cars are not as wasteful. I'm not just talking about gas consumption. Some other factors are roadspace, more potholes to be fixed (due to their weight), cracked windshields due to ballistic debris , etc.

Your excellent question may cause us to debate this to death without coming to a conclusion.

I think I'm just full of hot air (and not making any sense). Forgive me.

BTW: I don't think our Proteges are sports cars. They're most likely sporty cars. That RX-7 up there is a sports car!

dynamho

On a side note, I'm wondering if a motorcyclist has ever been injured/killed by ballistic debris?

Makaveli

A legislation that at a road check, you have to have at least three people in an SUV would be a good legislation hehe

I hate SUV, the most impractical pieces of ish in the world..... they're made for posers.

By the way, about 5% of the SUV drivers actually need them, and I have no beef with them

By the way, most of the sports cars aren't daily drivers and if they are, they're to the tune of the Celica, Prelude, Miata, RX-7, etc, which get MUCH better gas mileage then the SUVs. SUVs however are daily drivers for most of their owners.

igator210

Slight tangent:

I love watching a big 4X4 truck with a big o'l snow plow on the front cruise down the highway at 60mph. Talk about a waste of gas.


SUVs are a pain in my ***. I hate riding behind one not so much for the kicked up debris but for the simple fact that they block my visions. rinding in traffic with all cars, you can see several cars in front. Riding behind an SUV and that's all you see.

semtex

agreed , u ever try to pass them on a two laned road in the back country, u literally have to poke out into the other lane to see if anything is coming! and the biggist suv i ever saw was at a tourist beach on the east coast some old folks from MA or something anyway it was a lincon navigator, black and i parked my pro beside it and the bottom of the windows on the navigator was were the roof of my pro stopped, this thing towers at least 1 foot maybe more above my car, this i say is ridiculas, harmful to so many things, and to add insult to injury, they (the owners) drove it from the states to Nova scotia, that my friends is a huge waste...........so many things wrong with that, SUVs are so wasteful and everyone is or has turned a blind eye to it

redrims

Hey, watch your mouth. I love SUVs. I think there pretty cool . But if I got an SUV, you better bet I will be going off road with it. I just don't like the fact that some ppl get huge SUVs just for groceries. Its pointless.

hihoslva

Not entirely true:

It's not that all VEHICLES must get a certain MPG, but all manufacturers' vehicle FLEETS must gain an AVERAGE MPG across the board.

Right now, the same legislation IS in place, but the numbers might get tougher - which would be a good thing. They have a different way of calculating the average also - trucks "count" more than cars or something like that - I'm not 100% sure how it is done, but I know for a fact that the Chrysler PT Cruiser is listed as a TRUCK in DaimlerChrysler's vehicle lineup, to help increase the average MPG for all the TRUCKS.

Not sure how it is across the country, but here on Long Island we have several mahjor highways that are restricted to commercial vehicles. I would propose that any vehicle with a gross weight of over - say - 5500 lbs, MUST be registered as a COMMERCIAL vehicle. Then these behemoths would get off of the passenger car roads. I don't really mind the mid-size and small SUVs - it's the Suburbans, Escalades, Navigators, Excursions, Explorers, Land Cruisers, Sequoias and such that I can't stand.

Unfortunately, laws here have changed in FAVOR of trucks and SUVs - several years ago, they lifted the law that said all pickup trucks without bed caps MUST be commercial - they can now be registered as passenger vehicles, and I now have to deal with large pickups on the road - I've actually started seeing DUALIES on the parkway LEGALLY - it's hideous.

~HH