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    The good news about soaring oil prices...

    “The era of the truck-based large S.U.V.’s is over,” said Michael Jackson, chief executive of AutoNation, the nation’s largest auto retailer.
    As Gas Costs Soar, Buyers Are Flocking to Small Cars

    I am so happy. I never thought I would live to see that headline.

    #2
    The good news about soaring oil prices...

    I don't care. I hate most compact cars. They're boring and ugly and as often as not driven by idiots who change lanes without signalling.

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      #3
      The good news about soaring oil prices...



      I saw one of these parked on capel st. It was the biggest vehicle I've ever seen. (outside of that stripper limo that drives around town, and the stretch hummer I saw outside holloway prison) Apparently these are very common in the US.

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        #4
        The good news about soaring oil prices...

        And I am the Life wrote:
        the stretch hummer
        They somehow managed to get that bugger down the tiny road to Leadenhall Market this morning.

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          #5
          The good news about soaring oil prices...

          very popular - they are pretty much the most common car outside of cities (especially in the midwest), but that may be because they cost $10000.

          There is a guy on my street who has a hummer. On Manhattan. As their regular car. It is crazy.

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            #6
            The good news about soaring oil prices...

            how the fuck can that thing cost $100000. Actually looking at the picture on my phone, the version I saw of that was newer.

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              #7
              The good news about soaring oil prices...

              Reed of the Valley People wrote:
              I don't care. I hate most compact cars. They're boring and ugly and as often as not driven by idiots who change lanes without signalling.
              And of course there aren't any SUV drivers who do this (and worse, given the size of them). My bug was almost smashed yesterday when the driver of a large SUV whose lane was ending tried to merge on top of me as though I wasn't even there.

              I think SUVs and large trucks are ugly and boring and as often as not driven by idiots who haven't been properly trained to handle something so large.

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                #8
                The good news about soaring oil prices...

                AIATL - You've got an extra 0 in there.

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                  #9
                  The good news about soaring oil prices...

                  Comment


                    #10
                    The good news about soaring oil prices...

                    And I am the Life wrote:
                    how the fuck can that thing cost $100000. Actually looking at the picture on my phone, the version I saw of that was newer.
                    I guess the accidental zero there is the case - the price of those things is absurd. They are constantly on TV with finance deals. I got the price wrong (probably due to the way those adverts are designed) and it is actually $20k. Which is still absurdly cheap for so much metal.

                    My brother-in-law(ish) drives one, but thankfully he needs all its pick up functions for his job.

                    The prevalence of these things in the MidWest, much like the place itself, is a thing of wonder. I have seen people drive them for a block to go and see a friend, as walking without climate control really isn't an option.

                    To be fair to them, they are very useful in the winter they get there - but that is the way these cars get themselves bought (playing on insecurities).

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                      #11
                      The good news about soaring oil prices...

                      Anyway, you haven't seen the six-wheel ones (four at the back, jutting out from the normal body frame). Those are the ones that terrify me.

                      As a brief interlude, I recall having to explain to a bunch of MidWesterners (for I spend a bit of time there) what car I drove. I had a VW Polo. It is tricky to explain, when the smallest VW they have here is the Rabbit (Golf). Trying to tell them there are two VW models smaller than the Golf was filled with very unusual facial expressions on their part.

                      I doubt they will go that small here - maybe on the East, but people spend huge amounts of time in their cars elsewhere and wouldn't compromise. Thankfully the Toyota Prius has been hugely successful and really shifted the minds of GM and Ford.

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                        #12
                        The good news about soaring oil prices...

                        FF, the car that cut me off this morning was a Toyota. Please let me have my moment of umbrage.

                        One needs a big truck like that in the first picture to carry all of one's tools and gear out to one's rig. And if one doesn't have tools and gear, let alone a rig, then one is a panty-waist non-real-man who should go back to fucking sheep in France.[/irony]

                        Those really small cars are catching on in New York and San Francisco and other places where smug people like to smell their own farts and/or have a hard time finding a parking spot.

                        Personally, if I felt the only feasible car for my situation was one of those glorified go-karts, I would just buy a motorcycle and learn how to ride it. It would be much more comfortable, I think and easier to park.

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                          #13
                          The good news about soaring oil prices...

                          There is no way I would drive a SmartForTwo on the NJ Turnpike. I think my Beetle is the right size for me.

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                            #14
                            The good news about soaring oil prices...

                            Femme Folle wrote:
                            Reed of the Valley People wrote:
                            I don't care. I hate most compact cars. They're boring and ugly and as often as not driven by idiots who change lanes without signalling.
                            And of course there aren't any SUV drivers who do this (and worse, given the size of them). My bug was almost smashed yesterday when the driver of a large SUV whose lane was ending tried to merge on top of me as though I wasn't even there.

                            I think SUVs and large trucks are ugly and boring and as often as not driven by idiots who haven't been properly trained to handle something so large.
                            I concur with everything FF said above.

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                              #15
                              The good news about soaring oil prices...

                              Serious question:

                              Would most people who drive large trucks/SUVs/4x4s/larger MPVs still choose them if their speed was electronically limited to 70mph ...or even 60mph?

                              Y'see, since I've started riding a bike (and I have a 600 now, so I do my fair share of overtaking) I've noticed that alot of the most aggressive drivers and alot of the ones who charge along the motorway in the fast lane at a fairly constant 90-100mph are those that drive the vehicles I listed above. ...And yet it is these that use the most fuel. So surely, it would be the best for the environment, other road users and the 4x4 driver's pocket if they could only drive them at a slower (and - dare I say it - legal) speed?

                              Reed's reasons for using a pickup truck are totally valid, but would such people suffer and such practical concerns be negated if their speed were limited? (I'm talking about the UK here.) Of course not. People would just have to get used to leaving 10 minutes earlier.

                              In reality, I think that if a speed limit were imposed upon these vehicles, their sales would just be decimated. In my opinion it's not a practicality thing; it's not an off-road thing; it's not even a protecting-your-children thing - it's simply a status thing, a domination thing. It's wanting to dominate the roads and bowl everyone who isn't in a similarly-sized vehicle out of the way. You limit those vehicles to 70mph and watch everyone (at least all the arrogant fuckers who drive the huge BMW, Audi and Volvo versions) instantly migrate to M3s, S4s and anything else they can 'be better' than other drivers in.

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                                #16
                                The good news about soaring oil prices...

                                Clive, what did you end up buying?

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                                  #17
                                  The good news about soaring oil prices...

                                  I once submitted an idea for consideration to the Global Ideas Bank that was based on the idea of higher-consuming vehicles paying more per litre for fuel than lower-consuming vehicles. There would be an established median fuel consumption and a comensurate price. Vehicles above the median would pay progressively more per litre, and vehicles below would pay progressively less. This would doubly-reward or doubly-penalize those at the extreme ends of the scale.
                                  They liked it, but ultimately rejected it as it would have been too difficult to put in place.

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                                    #18
                                    The good news about soaring oil prices...

                                    I'd love to have a yute, I'd wear thongs and singlets all day.

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                                      #19
                                      The good news about soaring oil prices...

                                      JTS - You are Ray from 'Achewood' and I claim my £5.

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                                        #20
                                        The good news about soaring oil prices...

                                        Word!

                                        There are now two Smart Cars in my neighborhood, in addition to the three electric glorified golf carts that I've seen. One of them even has the California DMV carpool lane access sticker on it--seeing how it isn't freeway legal, I don't get it. But that's just Santa Monica.

                                        Where I grew up, Lakewood, and where I lived before here, suburban Long Beach (both just about 25 miles away from here), you would never see eco-cars like that. Giant trucks are far more common, driven by mouth-breathing idiots that grew up in their neighborhood, maybe took a few classes at Long Beach City College, knocked up their girlfriend when they were 19, lived in one of their parents' houses, and now live in their own house in the same neighborhood (if you ever read Joan Didion's piece on Lakewood and the Spur Posse, these are exactly like the guys in the story). And often, their trucks are lifted. Someone on my parents block drives a truck that looks exactly like this:



                                        Except I'm sure he (I know the guy) would say that because that has purple detailing, it's a "fag mobile", and it's a Chevy. For some reason, they're always Chevys.

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                                          #21
                                          The good news about soaring oil prices...

                                          evilC wrote:
                                          Serious question:

                                          Would most people who drive large trucks/SUVs/4x4s/larger MPVs still choose them if their speed was electronically limited to 70mph ...or even 60mph?
                                          In the US? Yes. These things are damn slow. Admittedly the Porsche Cayenne Turbo is one of the fastest cars on the road, and the luxury SUV's aren't to slouchy.

                                          But an F250, or the average SUV? They are so bloody heavy, they certainly aren't quick.

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                                            #22
                                            The good news about soaring oil prices...

                                            That one's a Ford though innit?

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                                              #23
                                              The good news about soaring oil prices...

                                              Yeah, I was trying to say that though the one in the picture is a Ford, most of the Big Truck Guys I know drive Chevys.

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                                                #24
                                                The good news about soaring oil prices...



                                                I think my Jeep is the right size for me. Not so big that I'm too much of a danger to everyone else, but not so small that I feel scared of the big trucks on the road. In that chart of driver-killed/other-driver-killed that was posted on the old OTF, it's sort of in the middle, but on the very low end of death among SUVs.

                                                It's not as useful as it was when I lived in Massachusetts, so if I'm still living here next time I need to buy a car, I may go with something that gets better gas mileage. Then again, there's a diesel version of what I have now so maybe in a few years it will be possible to get one of them that runs on biodiesel. My sister-in-law's brother is way into that stuff and has converted several diesel vehichles to run on cooking grease.

                                                I think it would be great if all vehicles on the road were limited to 70 mph (or maybe slower. Find whatever's most efficient and add 10 mph for passing). The only reason I ever drive faster than that is to keep up with traffic. I don't like people passing me on the inside, tailgating or hanging out in the blind spot. But if nobody could go more than 70, everything would slow down, be more fuel efficient and probably safer. We'd get to where we're going a little slower, but so what?

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                                                  #25
                                                  The good news about soaring oil prices...

                                                  Every time I see one of those pissing boy stickers on a pick-up window, I want to do something violent to the driver. That and those "It's a Jeep thing, you wouldn't understand." stickers. Just how much personal identity do you attach to your gas-guzzler that you feel the need to draw tribal lines around them?

                                                  The worst is those guys with the big red testicles hanging underneath their trucks. Euthenasia's too good for 'em.

                                                  Like this:

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