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Maybe it won't be in the Escalade family, but more the FX45 (I hope).
Why I Hate SUVs:
It's not so much the utter waste of natural resources they represent.
It's not so much the arrogant attitude displayed by _many_ of their drivers (I see the same attitude in drivers of other vehicles as well; the SUV just seems more in your face).
It's not so much the American arrogance they protray to the rest of the world.
It's more the distasteful way they were politically railroaded onto the highway. If anyone wants background into how they came to be, circumventing the CAFE standards and defying any independent warnings of their danger, I suggest PBS's Frontline episode on SUVs (linkage below). It's a sordid tale of auto makers and their political connections in the NHTSA dating back to the Nixon administration, but coming into it's full glory during Bush I.
To me it's more that they represent government corruption (in both parties) at the expense of public safety. Should they have been banned? Not at all, but they sure could have been more difficult to obtain and thereby be less of them on the highway.
(excerpt)
1990
After Saddam Hussein's forces invaded Kuwait, U.S. politicians grew concerned about U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Senator Richard Bryan (D-Nev.) proposed a bill that would raise CAFE gas mileage requirements 40 percent by the year 2001. SUVs were included under the Bryan bill, which would have made the gas-guzzling vehicles an expensive liability for automakers.
President George Bush's NHTSA administrator, Gen. Jerry Curry, would have been responsible for enforcing the bill's fuel efficiency standards. He believed that the only way to meet the new requirements would be to make cars smaller, which would make them less safe. He ordered NHTSA engineers to conduct a series of crash tests between one of the largest cars on the market and two of the smallest, and released the video with narration that said, "Any government fuel conservation legislation that forces a significant reduction in car size can be expected to increase the number of deaths and cause injuries." The narration specifically attacked the Bryan bill: "These two accidents graphically illustrate that the laws of physics cannot be set aside by well-intentioned but ill-advised legislation. What happens when cars are made smaller? Draw your own conclusions."
A lobbying group called the Coalition for Vehicle Choice -- funded by the auto industry and headed by former NHTSA administrator Diane Steed -- obtained a copy of the video and used it in a national ad campaign attacking the Bryan bill. Using the safety argument, Senator Donald Riegel (D-Mich.) led a successful filibuster that killed the Bryan bill in October 1990.
...
C.
posted by 24.47.10...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rollover/
, Sat, 19 Apr 2003 16:58:19
, Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:55:31, Fri, 18 Apr 2003 11:48:47, Fri, 18 Apr 2003 11:28:39
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