Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: A Weblog

Did it have a good sound system or was Sheryl Crow playing?

I drive a one ton, high spring pick up truck for my construction work. It is huge and I hate driving it to anyplace but work places where there is plenty of room. It gets about 15 mpg diesel. If it were gas, it would be worse.

I much prefer to drive my gas miser car. Easy to park, quite small. I don't miss sitting high and mighty, quite the opposite.

C'mon, Brad, get with the program. Not only do you want a vehicle like that, you now have your choice - the Hummer "Sport Utility Truck," the International Harvester monster, and - if you're one of those tree-hugging, global-warming-fearing, godless commie environmentalists, your basic Ford Expedition/Caddy Escalade models.

And the best part is that if you're a small business owner, you get a tax break for buying one of these things! Who says the Bush administration doesn't have its head in the right place (namely, up its a..)

Someone captured the essence of BushCo: large houses with small minds. Ditto for their vehicles.

Did the Starbucks soundtrack come with the rental?

You are being paged to the Bar, poly-ticks naturally.

No, no, no, you gotta play Nelly doing "BOOM BOOM.. whatever" through the neighborhood.

Today we test drove a car. My wife asked, "Is that the air conditioner vent? It's really huge."

It was the subwoofer.

Good thoughts, positive vibes, and a lit candle go out to the Subaru.

Welcome to the gas guzzling pollution spewing mega vehicle world that much of America has abandoned itself to post 9/11 (Duh!). I personally can't decide if I like the Ford Expletive or the Ford Excrement better.

SUV's burn so much gas that they should be rated in terms of miles/dead marine instead of miles/gal, so people can begin to comprehend that it stops being a "lifestyle choice" when someone else loses their life to support it.

Welcome to red-state America.

Every time I see one of those preposterous things, I'm reminded of the thousands who have been killed to bring us oil.

Come on Brad,

Grizzly Peak is a terrible litmus test. It's a tough road to negotiate even in the old Honda I drive. Factor in the nighttime fog and the experience becomes akin to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. It's amazing it hasn't led to more deaths of aging Berkeleyites driving home after a night of smoking joints in the hot tub.

No, Grizzly Peak is a GREAT litmus test - if some gawdawful thing like that is on that road the same time I'm on my bike on that road, where the heck am I gonna go? Ergo, keep that f'n thing off the road.

Best,

D

I would have preferred Frank Zappa's "Pentagon Afternoon", "Drafted Again", or "Crusin' For Burgers".

If one of the rationals for SUVs is their ability to negotiate off-road, I would think that it would be more than competent on anything paved. Silly me...

Even cars are getting into this "command seating" stuff; my Prius has me sitting a good 4-6 inches higher than most older cars. Pretty soon manufacturers are going to introduce fold-down stepladders.

Think the barber-chair scene in The Great Dictator...

Chevy Trailblazer right? Thats the SUV that Enterprise rent out. I had this same experience a month ago (three days rental when the car booked was N/A) less AmericasSilliestDog™.

If anyone here has driven a variety of SUV's, this question: Do they ALL wallow and lurch and shimmy and in general fight corners every inch of the way? All have the same suspension as the Cadillacs that 80-year olds drive? Are all sheeps in wolves clothing?

I've driven Land Rovers and other 4WD vehicles the UN uses in places like Africa, and the ride was radically opposite to this distinctly queasy experience. I am looking at SUV's on US roads now with real fear of those timebombs.

My truck turns just fine. It is also very uncomfortable to drive. No sponginess for us! The SUV is a true menace and now trucks are being remade into cars so the driver can be 'comfortable' but then they become unmanageable.

When in the Bay area this summer my kids chose a Linclon Aviator as the car to tool around in. Since we were going to be driving from San Francisco to Sacramento and back and picking up people and luggage along the way I said OK. While I did enjoy the view from sitting higher then most other vehicles, and it was fun to drive, I certainly was remined why I drive an Altima when it was time to either park or fill up. How do people deal with $45 tank refills? We certainly are helping the terrorists with their fund raising when one drives one of these monsters.

Did you rip your pants trying to climb in? That seems to be the soup du jour these days.

We just got our Prius. The first time we refilled the gas tank, I checked the mileage: 48 mpg. On a new engine. Plus it's fun to drive, once you get over the feeling that the car's stalled when it comes to a stop (because the engine shuts down).

I've driven real trucks--Mack semi-trailer tractors, International 24 and 30 footers etc.--and I was stunned by how bad the new Toyota Land Cruiser was to drive. (The old one was much more Land Grover-like.) You never felt like you were going to over the edge in thei real trucks like in the Land Cruiser. The straight trucks actually had a teeny bit of acceleration. Most of all I actually had room to haul stuff in those.
The giant station wagon are really, really stupid.

... Grizzly Peak -- didn't that blow up in a Pierce Brosnan movie?

It's astonishing how many of these fire-breathing behemoths are driven by Manhattanites. There are at least eight of the damned things owned by people in my block. This, in a city where parking is scarce, gas is over $2 a gallon and traffic is impossible. Go figure.

Will Brad's next post be: "Maxim Magazine"?

I got stuck with a huge car-- a Chrysler 300-- when in Florida last month, and hated it. The blind spots were enormous, the steering was soft, and the tail end of the car might as well have been on another planet. I drove it just over 100 miles, and it took about six gallons to fill it back up before I returned it, too. On the plus side, it was pretty easy to find at Disney World, where everyone's in economy cars or minivans.

The weekend after I came back, I bought a Honda Civic with a five-speed, and love it.

Brad wrote..."America's Silliest DogTM refused to try to jump up into the rear--too high."

I think it is Cabela's that offers a neat little ramp that our dogs can use to enter the rear of the big SUV's. Of course, my 90 pound Blue Tick loves to run and jump in my Armada. But, he does have to get a running start.

The Mitsubishi Montero (biggest pig they make), sad to say, is NOT larger than a Suburban ... and Surburbans outsell the Montero by about 100 to 1 or more. Word is that the Montero is about to leave our market because it does not sell ... which no doubt means it will be replaced by something bigger with a bigger engine. The Montero is underpowered in any real truck sense (it cant even haul its own weight around, let alone tow something) so is shunned by those who even might use a truck as intended.

I have owned some of Mitusubishi's smaller cars (Mirage, Galant) and they have been efficient and durable.

SUVs are not safer, thats a frame that needs to be broken, they break worse and like you said tip over easier.

Filling a Toyota Camry tank is about $40 these days in the Bay Area. I hate commuting.

Surely, Brad you were driving a Mitsubishi Optimus?

devgirl
thinks that a Mitsubishi Megatron would have a least one neat feature - a traffic jam eliminator for use in the Caldecott Tunnel and the 101. Energon, not included.

Amazing how important it is, what a person drives. Subaru. Top of the line. No need for prosthetics.

Reminds me of this article from theOnion:

Transformer Refuses To Change Back Into Volkswagen

CYBERTRON—Following an intense battle with Megatron and his evil Decepticons Monday, former robot-in-disguise Bumblebee refused to revert to his natural state as a yellow Volkswagen Beetle. "I hid my existence in this world by taking the form of a vehicle! I revealed my true nature when I was called upon to protect earth!" said Bumblebee, a member of Optimus Prime's heroic Autobots force. "I refuse to change back into a humiliating bubble-shaped compact car!" Bumblebee added that Megatron arrived on earth with one goal: Destruction!

Was it also stupidly designed inside? I drove one of those things once, with the shift stick on the side of the wheel instead of next to the seat, and couldn't figure out whether I was in drive or reverse. About four hours later, leaning forward for a stretch, I saw the guide at the base of the wheel, on the very bottom of the front display panel. In other words, completely out of sight unless you're leaning way forward, with your nose clear over the steering wheel. Why not put the window opener button under the seat? Or the temperature control in the glove compartment?

Driving in downtown Chicago, you will be amazed at the number of Hummeroids and Ford Excretions. It is really funny to see a 50 year old short fat white guy sliding his ass out of a Hummer because his legs are not long enough to find the running board. But driving that Hummer with the "spinners" I quess buys him some serious street cred with the homeboys. Although the "W/04" sticker on the bumper does not help.

I also like it when the Doormen and Valet attendants outside the clubs and hotels have to put out the step stool so young women can climb into the passenger side without flashing the world a "Jennifer Lopez or Paris Hilton". And yes Brad I assume even you know what I am talking about.

Speaking of the ramps so Fido can climb into the back, they now sell them at every Petsmart. When is the hydraulic crane coming so you lift the grandparents in and out?

Worse I drive a 97 Saturn and park on the street. In Illinois you must have a front license plate. The SUV's keep backing into the front of my car and pulling off the license plate holder. It has happened so many times I don't even try screwing it back on anymore. I just put it in the front window at night.

I have almost given up ever seeing anything out of my side and rear mirrors then some SUV's bumper.

I usually have to go elsewhere for my Transformers
references, so this is a welcome post. Economics,
politics, and now battling robots from Cybertron.
DeLong is the best.