Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for December 27, 2024

South Park did a wonderful episode on this. The people placing “tickets” on SUVs drove Toyota “Piouses”.

They also had Smug Pollution coming from San Francisco and Hollywood.

Admit it, Mike—wouldn’t you rather have a Rolls-Royce??

I haven’t seen an ad for SUV’s in ages. Nowadays, car ads seem to be focused on gas mileage and safety features.

My favorite one is the Land Rover driving up a dam spillway!!!

I’ve never seen an intelligent ad, but I’m only mumble mumble decades old…..

It is still small enough to drive up the ramp into the service boat for my yacht.

Can you name the truck with four wheel drive,smells like a steak and seats thirty-five..Canyonero! Canyonero!Well, it goes real slow with the hammer down,It’s the country-fried truck endorsed by a clown!Canyonero! (Yah!) Canyonero!

[Krusty:] Hey HeyThe Federal Highway commission has ruled theCanyonero unsafe for highway or city driving.

12 yards long, 2 lanes wide,65 tons of American Pride!Canyonero! Canyonero!Top of the line in utility sports,Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!Canyonero! Canyonero! (Yah!)She blinds everybody with her super high beams,She’s a squirrel crushing, deer smacking, driving machine!Canyonero!-oh woah, Canyonero! (Yah!)

We are talking about a nation of cheap energy addicts that pay to watch advertising while walking around like corporate billboards.

SUVs are really station wagons. The have a tailgate. Only thing worse is a minivan.

It wouldn’t be so bad if that’s what they were primarily used for, but for the vast majority of SUV owners, the closest they’ve gotten to off-roading is running over the curb at Walmart.

I liked the episode of ‘Top Gear’ where the gang went to Africa and drove 1,000 miles across the bush in the cheapest used cars they could find.

I also remember a really snowy winter we had. There were a couple of rugged SUVs that stayed parked in the same spot all winter.

I drive an 11 year old Mercedes diesel SUV. It gets close to 40mpg on the highway andhas averaged 29mpg over 45,000 miles. Comfortable, easy entry/exit for a 75 year old & has hauled mattress’s to mulch. My all time fave, (beating out a Corvette & Jaguar).

…I live in Ohio and drive a highly made fun of 2012 Prius that gets{with a headwind} over 52 mpg on a semi-long trip{150 miles or so}…

…I’ve been rolling coaled more than once…

…I laugh…

…I do…

…they can spend their money anyway they want…

…but the State …

…

…it charges me an extra $100.⁰⁰ a year …

…when I renew my plates…

…every year!…

…every freakin’ year!…

…because I own a hybrid car!…

…that’s almost a tank of gas for a rolling coal…

Which is worse “Think of the children” or “The Public Good” as excuses for government mandates?

I love my full size , 8 cylinder SUV.

Way back in the early 1990s I had a 4WD SUV[aside: roads are built with a camber]I was leaving a local ski resort, pulled up to a stop sign, unfortunately the road was covered with ice and my SUV slid sideways off the road into a fairly deep ditch. the car[county sheriff] behind me also slid sideways into the same ditch. It took about 2 hours, a county plow/sander and a AAA tow truck to get us both back on the road. That was the only time in 23 winters in northern MI that I got stuck. My farm was 32 miles from work and for several years my daily driver was a 1983 Plymouth Horizon. Despite some pretty bad winters[like 1989 when I was forced to get a motel room and stay in town after I got off work 4 Sundays in a row as the roads were closed due to blizzards]

Twenty plus years ago I bought a small SUV (RAV4). On one trip over a mild Colorado mountain pass I got behind a Range Rover weekend outing. By how slow they drove, I think those people were scared of taking their expensive SUV off road.

I’ve never understood the urban cowboy mentality that’s the driving force (pun intended) behind SUVs and people living and working in cities.

For most of my adult life I’ve had pickup trucks – starting with Ford F150s and later a series of smaller Datsun/Nissans, Toyotas, and Ford Rangers – almost all standard transmissions and not 4×4s!

Back in the 60s, when I was living in Ireland, I did have a Land Rover which I used for work when outside the city – a necessity, considering some of the roads and off-roads I traveled on!

The point is that my trucks were working vehicles, not status symbols or some sort of macho penus-compensator.

I still remember the first vehicle called a Sport Utility Vehicle back in the early ’80s. It was made by Mitsubishi and was smaller than the smallest of the current crop of SUVs.

What is it with our need to make cars bigger. My ex-wife had a mid=’60s Thunderbird that was about twice the size of the classic ’57 T-bird. Similarly, the Mustang had gotten much bloated in the ’70s from the original ’65 Pony car. At least Ford saw the error of their ways and brought both of those cars back closer to their original sizes.

We have a 2011 minivan that is convenient for carrying my lady’s wheelchair and walker. It’s getting harder for her to climb into it, though.

I was really surprised to see SUVs hit the market after the energy crisis and those gas lines

It’s like people who buy a weapon on the off-chance they can someday be a hero.

and now EVERY car looks like a mid-size SUV to the point that you might not spot your car right away in a parking lot because of how many other cars look just like it

Are we done yet ??? ;-)

trivia: nearly all owners of teslas have at least one gas guzzler, too.

But can you drive your Prius literally through a creek bed?

They’re a phallic symbol.

A boy and his toys, give the poor guy a break.

People started buying big after the gas crisis, and still haven’t stopped. All the auto manufacturers find big is the best seller. So they offer bigger. Making them EVs is the only way to kill sales.