Alan-
SUV stands for "Sport Utility Vehicle", which is a rather dubious description
at best.
They are vehicles, they have some utility, but they are nothing like sporty.
They are generally large unwieldy vehicles based on a midsize, full-size (or in
the case
of the Ford Expedition, oversize) truck chassis, and only a very few SUVs sold
have
4-wheel drive. While a small percentage of these type vehicles are purchased
and used by
people who really need their carrying and towing capacity (like for towing a
Roadster
race car to the track!), most of them are bought by yuppies, suburban yuppie
wannabe's and
housewives. SUVs have become, for reasons I will never understand, a general
substitute
for the family sedan or station wagon. They have a high center of gravity and,
generally,
soft suspension - which ensures that their handling characteristics can most
charitably
be described as scary and more accurately as dangerous. Just as the
inexperienced Porsche
driver of yore was likely to go off the road backwards, the victim of trailing
throttle
oversteer, SUVs have an alarming tendency to go rubber side up when Hanna
Housewife makes
a sudden lane change to avoid a puddle that might get her precious "sport ute"
dirty
(Heaven forfend!).
The vehicle manufacturers love SUVs because they are classified as light trucks
for the
purpose of safety, emission and fuel economy regulations - in all three of which
categories they enjoy less restrictive (read "less expensive to manufacture")
standards
than passenger vehicles, though they are used strictly as passenger vehicles by
95+
percent of those who drive them. They are purchased by people who want to sit
up nice and
high, ostensibly for a good view of the road - which again I do not
understand, because
most SUV drivers spend most of their time behind the wheel talking on their
cell phones,
changing the station on their radio or looking for something in their
briefcase/handbag
while changing lanes w/o benefit of turn signal and driving solo in the carpool
lane - in
short, doing everything BUT keeping an eye on the road. SUV drivers feel safe
(until that
lane change) because they know that they outmass smaller vehicles - the typical
SUV/passenger car collision scenario involves the driver of the SUV standing at
the curb
wondering if the body shop will be able to polish out the scratches in his
paint job,
while the EMTs use the Jaws of Life to pry open the other vehicle and get the
driver out.
The latest trend in SUVs is the "luxury SUV" with leather interior, high-end
stereo system
and all of the other high-end goodies - all in a vehicle with a rugged,
outdoorsy exterior
that says "I COULD go off road if I wanted to - but then I'd have to go back to
the detail
shop for a wash, polish and interior detail job..."
I hope this answers your question...
Gary McCormick
San Jose, CA USA
P.S. - As Paul Hogan says in that old Australian Tourist Council commercial,
"After all,
we speak the same language - although you lot do have a funny accent.")
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Alan Bent wrote:
> This is probably a really stupid question, but it will end a debate that
> several of us Australians have been having. The problem is that we both
> Australians and Americans speak English, but we speak it properly and
> you yanks tend to make a debacle of it and make up things we don't
> understand :-) The question is this- On the Roadster list there has
> been several references to "SUVs". We have figured out that an "SUV" is
> a four wheel drive or something similar. What we haven't figured out is
> what the initials "SUV" stands for. Please tell us so we can end our
> debate.
> Alan Bent. Queensland, Australia.
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