Skant said:
SUVs simply are not evil inducing machines that turn otherwise good drivers into careless jerks.
Yes they are and yes it does happen. The feeling of "authority" that driving an SUV gives one, is transferred into a type of "agressive behavior", which was not so readily present in a lessor vehicle. Let's just say that it is quite possible those aggressive tendencies were always present, albeit repressed, but just as alcohol can release ones inhibitions, the SUV is the trigger for the release of repressed agression of some drivers.
The machine doesn't make the driver better or worse. A bad driver is a bad driver... whether driving a Honda, an SUV, or a Corvette. A driver who is prone to driving the vehicle beyond its limits will do so regardless of the vehicle. SUV or Corvette, it matters not. They'll go into the wall in the vette at that much higher a speed.
This is true, but only up to a certain extent. A "bad driver is a bad driver", but this bad drivers' bad driving habits are only accentuated by driving an SUV. It's a simple matter of physics.....a bad driver rear ending your Buick with a Honda or Toyota at 30 mph is going to spring your trunk lid and jar your neck a little, but a bad driver rear-ending your Buick with an Escalade at 30 mph is going to wreake untold havoc on your vehicle and probably decapitate you in the process.
Truck headlights adjusted too high. No... they're not. Simple geometry says that there is a certain amount of distance for which they're going to shine in your mirror because they're driving the tallest vehicles on the road while you're driving the shortest (lets face it here... the _average_ car's head lights tend to shine in the mirrors of our low slung vettes). It has just as much to do with your selection of vehicle as theirs. So chill out.
That is plain and simply pure unadulterated balderdash!
A Van's headlights are nearly at the same level above the road as the average passenger car, yet are some of the highest and brightest headlights on the highway.
A disproportionate numer of smaller trucks, such as the Dodge Dakota, have their headlights aimed way too high, and theirs are only 6" or so higher than the average car.
But ALL of the full sized SUV's and 4x4's have misadjusted headlights. Not because they are "higher off the road than the average car" either. I have ridden in many SUV's, and STILL I can pick out other SUV's and 4x4's at night on the highway because of their brighter headlights. And I am at the SAME level as they are.
I used to work for an automotive dealer prepping new vehicles for delivery and back then all headlights were aimed according to certain specific specs. A truck had its lights aimed so that the main thrust of the headlite beam struck the roadway a specified distance in front of the vehicle. The same with an automobile. These settings were directly proportionate to the distance of the center of the headlamp to the surface of the road.
Back then, the only reason a trucks headlights shone into a passenger cars rear window, was because the truck was right behind the car...and this is only understandable. Such apparently is not the case today, for when I inquired into how a modern dealership aims headlights, basically the answer was "best guess" and that they no longer use any aiming apparatus as they used to. It shows too!
And your "theory" about the SUV's and 4x4's headlites being higher off the ground than a cars headlights as being the reason they are so much brighter, gets all blown apart by the simply fact of "geometry", that a semi's headlights are even higher off the roadway than an SUV's, yet they don't glare and blind oncoming traffic like those SUV's do.
SUV capabilities... a good SUV (and many of them aren't, but still) really does possess much better bad weather and bad road ability than a typical car.
Humph, and I guess that's why, out here in Iowa, whenever it snows, there are more SUV's and 4x4's in the ditches along the roadways than there are ordinary cars?
And I guess that's why there is such a high rollover factor to consider when driving an SUV or a 4x4?
And I would suppose taking into account just how far it takes to stop 3 or 4 tons of Detroit steel when one finds themselves barreling down the road at 85 mph and an emergency situation suddenly arises, would be just so much nonsense about inertia and kinetic energy, and worthless mathematical calculations?
And then there is this "off-road" factor that SUV and 4x4 drivers like to brag so much about. Let's see now, a car nowadays is running on anywhere from 16 to 20 inch wheels. Half of that distance, plus the size of the transfer case or differential, is how one determines the minimum road clearance.
Now an SUV/4x4 runs 16 to 20 inch wheels also and its road clearence is figured exactly they same way. I'm afraid I don't quite see what the supposed off-road advantage is here, other than the BODY of the SUV/4x4 is probably a foot or more higher than a passenger car. But that alone is not going to get you over any big rocks or through any running water, any better than someone in their family sedan.
I am NOT talking about vehicles with modified suspensions. I am talking about STOCK from the factory vehicles, where the road clearance from the bottom of a trucks transfer case or its lower control arms are not exceptionally higher from the road than most ordinary cars. So much for THAT advantage.
And it really is considerably tougher and more likely to survive an accident. These aren't absolutes. There are exceptions. But there is a real reason why big 4x4 vehicles exist.
I think you might actually be on to something here, as yes when you surround yourself with about 3 tons more steel than a Toyota Avalon sedan, and run your SUV into that Toyota, you have a much better chance of survival than that hapless fella in the Toy.
And all that extra steel tends to protect you from OTHER 3 ton SUV's if one of them happens to plow into YOUR SUV. That is, if neither of those colliding SUV's happens to roll over on its top and slides for any appreciable distance.
The way I read the reports on these types of accidents, there is a high likelihood that the person in the upsidedown SUV will incur severe head trauma, if not outright decapitation, as the roofs of an SUV are not sufficient to protect the occupants in a rollover/slide situation.
And some SUVs do actually handle pretty well. My K-5 Blazer... while certainly no match for a sports car... could turn and brake quite a lot harder than most people expected it could.
Yes, I have to agree, it IS rather amazing how far some of these SUV/4x4 drivers will push the limits of their vehicles just to try to impress me with their "handling ability". Yeah, right.
Anyway... my point is... well, I guess I've already said it a few times. You folks really just need to chill out. You're generating your own anger and your own reasons to be angry. Really! SUVs just are not a big deal. It's just another car out on the road.
Yup! You've made your point alright. Now, if you would please be so kind as to tell me where I should send my tithe check.......
I noticed you didn't address why these SUV and 4x4 drivers feel it's so "cool" to drive around with ALL their forward facing lighting turned on, especially on perfectly clear nights?
I notice you also didn't address why it seems that most SUV/4x4 drivers feel it is perfectly acceptable to exceed the speed limit by more than just the 5 or 10 mph that is often figured to be an unofficial "buffer zone" before it is considerer "speeding"?
And one thing YOU didn't mention, but I hear all the time, is that SUV's/4x4's are good because they are higher than cars and therefore it is easier to see what's going on up ahead of you. I wonder how long this nonsense logic will hold up when there becomes more SUV's/4x4's on the road than cars? Shallow thinking at its best.
And I DO smile whenever I am out in my Corvette. I smile ever bigger when I get finished with some SUV/4x4 driver that felt the need to "test me"....no, not TEST me, but BULLY me into moving just because he was in an SUV/4x4.
There are SOME responsible SUV/44x drivers out there. But they do seem to be in the minority. Y'all have yourself a really fine day, ya hear?
- Skant[/QUOTE]
:dance 
There's A-Holes everywhere 
