When Will SUVs Go the Way of Cigars?
Today's Doonesbury begins what promises to be an amusing look at the mania for and against SUVs, though nothing will ever rival The Simpsons' Canyonero:
Twelve yards long, two lanes wide,
Sixty five tons of American pride!
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Top of the line in utility sports,
Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!
Canyonero! Canyonero!
It's obvious that in all but a very few cases, ownership of an SUV is indefensible for economic, environmental, and safety reasons. And personally, my drives along the Merritt Parkway to visit my family in Connecticut are made much more exciting than necessary by every second or third vehicle being a poorly driven rolling obstruction. But my primary objection to SUVs is social.
SUVs existed for twenty years, and then suddenly, everyone had to have one--they are, in the simplest sense, a fad, like cigars and boutique coffee before them. And I always wonder, watching people blindly following such a fad, if, given their attention to things superficial, they are aware of how ridiculous they look. Most people climbing into or out of an SUV look just as ridiculous as a man in a suit savoring a large burning phallus in his mouth, all the while thinking he looks cool.
10:43:53 AM 
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