I have lived in rural northern Michigan and rural Oregon and I have no problem with rural people having trucks (though preferably biodiesel) pickups if they have real hauling to do. But how many SUVs are really sold for that purpose? I'd estimate 5% or less. The rest of them are the leather seat and 8 speaker sound system models (now with more cup holders) sold to yuppie males who THINK they have extremely small penises and are overcompensating with a vehicle. These dimwits will doom us all. :(

p.s I notice you cherry picked the one of two factors out of dozens listed that was trending in a positive direction, nice. To everyone else with a more open mind I suggest reading the WP article to see what its overall conclusions actually are.

"And honestly...when this hits in 2100....I'm very likely NOT to be alive then...so, it isn't like this will affect me."

After you the deluge, eh? Of course conservatives aren't evil mean spirited SOBs who don't care what kind of planet they leave for future generations, how could I ever think that?

If if the result of the aggregate of our individual decisions is ecological disaster what then? Was it really worth it so some smug self centered yuppie could park their Lincoln Navigator next to the Hosta moncrop lining the driveway of their mini-mansion?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/24/AR2008122402174_pf.html

No! Look at Craig's list used cars for example, you can pick up 15 to 20 year old Japanese cars all day long for between 500 to 2000 dollars, and American cars that old, not so much? Why? They went to the crusher already, and I am talking in south east Michigan right in the midst of American auto plants so there were MANY more American cars to start out with.

A heavier car also has more inertia thus it take more energy and more vibration more to start and stop producing more wear. And the more weight you add to compensate for the poor wear performance by beefing the car up even more the worse gas mileage the car gets exacerbating the problem of inefficient poor handling American cars very few people need for the hauling capability even more.

Again read the Malcom Gladwell article it's because SUVs WERE tremendously profitable to make compared to cars. They figured unfortunately correctly that they could SUVs to cubicle drones with poor male self image problems who substituted having a big macho vehicle for having a life. Unfortunately this strategy worked for about 15 years and now the big 3 management is stuck with manufacturing and distribution facilities here geared up to make vehicles no one wants anymore. The big 3 are such big titanic like boats that it will take them a long time (years?) to retool their factories and rethink their marketing strategies. As a Michigan resident I think they should be given the chance to do that, and the blame for the big 3s current failure should be placed squarely where it belongs, management.

And my 19 year old Toyota Corolla has 254,000 miles on it and gets 30 mpg. And guess what BOTH of these examples are anecdotal evidence, I highly doubt on average most American V8s make it to 200,000 miles where many Japanese 4 bangers do.

Except the SUV isn't safer if it flips over when driving a tippy vehicle like a dumbass. I see flipped over SUVs all the time oo 1-94 outside of Detroit. The only good thing about this is at least natural selection over time will weed SUV driving dumbasses out of the population.

"Ethics are different for everyone one," eh? So you don't mind if I kick your door down and shoot you and your family with a pump shotgun if that is MY interpretation of what an ethical action is? When someone has a BFG suddenly postmodern ethical relativism isn't so appealing is it? That my friend is why the only relativists you find are in sophomore college philosophy class rooms, in the real world people know that ethics are the ONLY thing holding us back from man on man fight to the finish barbarism.

Now you are pissing me off SUV apologist, here is the data from the article:

"Make/Model Type Driver
Deaths Other
Deaths Total

Toyota Avalon large 40 20 60

Chrysler Town & Country minivan 31 36 67

Toyota Camry mid-size 41 29 70

Volkswagen Jetta subcompact 47 23 70

Ford Windstar minivan 37 35 72

Nissan Maxima mid-size 53 26 79

Honda Accord mid-size 54 27 82

Chevrolet Venture minivan 51 34 85

Buick Century mid-size 70 23 93

Subaru Legacy/Outback compact 74 24 98

Mazda 626 compact 70 29 99

Chevrolet Malibu mid-size 71 34 105

Chevrolet Suburban S.U.V. 46 59 105

Jeep Grand CherokeeS.U.V. 61 44 106

Honda Civic subcompact 84 25 109

Toyota Corolla subcompact 81 29 110

Ford Expedition S.U.V. 55 57 112

GMC Jimmy S.U.V. 76 39 114

Ford Taurus mid-size 78 39 117

Nissan Altima compact 72 49 121

Mercury Marquis large 80 43 123

Nissan Sentra subcompact 95 34 129

Toyota 4Runner S.U.V. 94 43 137

Chevrolet Tahoe S.U.V. 68 74 141

Dodge Stratus mid-size 103 40 143

Lincoln Town Car large 100 47 147

Ford Explorer S.U.V. 88 60 148

Pontiac Grand Am compact 118 39 157

Toyota Tacoma pickup 111 59 171

Chevrolet Cavalier subcompact 146 41 186

Dodge Neon subcompact 161 39 199

Pontiac Sunfire subcompact 158 44 202

Ford F-Series pickup 110 128 238"

http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_01_12_a_suv.html

(safety statistics compiled by Tom Wenzel, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in California, and Marc Ross, a physicist at the University of Michigan. ) See article linked above for a better formated table of this data.

Malcolm Gladwell the author of the article:

"Honors

In 2005, Time named Malcolm Gladwell one of its 100 most influential people. He is the author of three New York Times #1 best sellers.[12]
In 2007, he received the American Sociological Associationâ(TM)s first Award for Excellence in the Reporting of Social Issues.[13]
Also in 2007, Gladwell received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Waterloo.[14][15]
[edit]Works"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Gladwell

And you? Just some jerk who is defensive about his love of big wasteful cars. Like I said my well documented data from Gladwell's article v.s. more scattered anecdotes. The ball sir is in your court.

Everyone THINKS they are an above average driver but only empirical data tells you what cars are actually safer given a normal distribution of drivers, driving them. Data trumps personal anecdotes of people who self evaluate, get it? Read the Gladwell article which has those statistics and get back to me, m'K?

More people need to hear this message in the U.S. We are soooo far behind Europe and Asia in transportation habit it's not funny. I blame the big 3 relentlessly advertising their WWII truck platforms on tee vee (now with new improved CUPHOLDERS) for a quick easy ethics free buck.

"It's just that I also happen to see trucks as being much better built and ultimately safer to drive."

Except in the rational world of facts you'd be wrong, people drive SUVs too fast in wet and icy conditions leading to these top top heavy vehicles rollin over or not stopping in time. SUVs also suck at accident avoidance which is half the battle due to inertia and poor steering compared to smaller more precise cars. For empirical substation of this see Malcom Gladwell's excellent article on SUVs:

http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_01_12_a_suv.html

And as for better built I'd say the average American V8 is very, very lucky to make it to 175,000 miles where as OHC Japanese 4 bangers OFTEN make it to 250,000 and Mercedes diesels and Volvos to 350,000. A heavier car wears out faster due to simply physics even if built to the same build quality standards which American trucks aren't.

In the long run I hope we do have the social will to switch our auto plants here in the U.S. to making hybrids, small diesels, trains, buses, and windmill parts but I am NOT holding my breath. :(

Comparing the luxury of talking on a cell phone while driving to the necessity for many of driving to the store is amazing, I dub thee Sir. Douchebag the 1st douchiest of all douchebags for the entire millennium, Congratulations!!!!!!!

Driving is unfortunately been made very necessary in our society do to for example stores being long distances from houses to food stores, etc. Talking on a cell phone while driving OTH is a non necessity 99% of cell phone talk is gossiphy blather or banal requests to pick up crackers on the way home from work. I don't have a cell phone because even when people aren't driving I think it's rude for example to talk on a cell phone when you are physically with another person.

  And I am hardly a luddite I have 2 dual processor Macs the MacBook which runs XP and Ubuntu under VMs and a separates based stereo system. I do however loath cell phones and if I could hit a button to make them all disappear I would do so without even an instants hesitation and as an added bonus probably save hundreds of peoples lives a year. My guess is far more people die from stupid driving mistakes made while using cell phones than are saved during emergencies despite the fact that "emergency" is often the rational people fall back on justify their little "hit me back yo" gossip box.

The fact you can even compare the trivial luxury of gossiping on a cell phone while driving with the utter necessity for survival of growing food shows what a dingle berry chewing deep tonguing butt sucker you are. And that's actually even an insult to innocent gay people that enjoy rim jobs for you are far worse than that!