I read a great book called High and Mighty: SUVs — The World’s Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way a few years back. It’s a great read for anyone really, especially those that want to believe their families will be safer in an SUV. Let’s say that someone in an SUV T-boned me in my sedan. The top two most likely injuries I would sustain would be brain injuries and pelvis bone breakage. Better yet, if an SUV were to hit me head on and didn’t have a simple horizontal bar under the front bumper, it would drive OVER the hood of my car and pretty much take off my feet for me, or permanently demolish them. Whatever, I don’t really enjoy walking that much… or standing… Just park an SUV and a smaller sedan nose to nose and you’ll be able to see what I’m saying.

Perhaps the Brit that made this graph realizes the problem with childhood obesity in this country and I would like to bet that there are plenty of children that DON’T fit in one single car seat.

Are you going to rent an suv every single ‘once a week’ your kids and their friends go ice skating or have a party, or go on vacations if you travel a lot, or anything of the sort? No, you’re gonna buy a car that fits your life style. And for us and many many people out there, that’s an SUV. Especially with twins. Twice the kids = twice the events = twice the occurences of needing to pick friends up.

You’re ridiculous and choose horrible standards for where you live.

1. Parents feel the need to drive their kids to the corner park.

2. People live in places where there is no corner park because everything is a gagillion miles from everything else.

3. When it is necessary for children to get a ride (which I acknowledge happens sometimes), it would save gas if more than one parent drove a reasonably sized car around and then also drove that reasonably sized car to work 5 days a week. I don’t see why it is necessary to buy a land yacht just because your kids like to go to the ice skating rink once a week. You will be wasting a lot of gas when you are going to work and running your regular errands. Most of the time I see people in these large vehicles, they are transporting fewer than the 4 people that a regular sedan can comfortably accommodate.

Most large cities have suburbs though. I don’t think I’ve ever even been to downtown Miami, and I’ve only gone to South Beach and Miami Beach a couple of times :’D We have suburbs, a rather large one in fact. Kendall, Broward, many other areas. :3

I was merely questioning the idea that Miami itself is a suburb, which was implied by the wording in your comment.

Which is exactly the scenario you’ve just described.

The SUVs came into the picture when everyone began to own minivans, chasing the image of it being a “family friendly” vehicle for those reasons. Before minivans it was station wagons, although the term “soccer mom” didn’t exist yet. You only believe the minivan a necessary accessory because you’ve been conditioned by American culture and advertising to believe that it’s necessary based on the criteria you’ve just described.

Before you think I’m only being argumentative, I come from a family of seven, and we have always owned a van with seven seats and seatbelts. We needed that many seats because we had that many members of the family to haul around on outings (e.g., church, museums, vacations, etc.), not that many friends or enough sports equipment to make it necessary.

My sister is 6’2″ and loved her Buick station wagon. She fit comfortably in it with five of her tall friends, and probably got better mileage than most newer SUVS, despite the fact that the station wagon was over ten years old.

But they aren’t designed for that sort of behavior, you’re right. For example, the Element has a 650-lb weight limit, which roughly translates to four small adult men, without any equipment.

Translation: “Agreed, why can’t the British peoples conform to the revoltionist language which deems to name itself after the motherland?”

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.

At what point did I suggest they would be shown AS a percentage? Thanks for your comment, though.

That’s gonna be stuck in my head all evening now…

“OMG, but I so need this car because I have a family of 3!”
I live in the country and drive a small Ford, in the forest, on vacation, AND have a big family….and “suprisingly”: it works fine!

You DO know, that even the small cars have air-conditioning today and seats you can adjust?

Sure: It`s great to drive a BIG car, so the one BEHIND you can see the road anymore. Great. Go on.