On Sun, 18 Sep 2005 03:56:26 -0500, anoldfart2@invalid.com wrote:
:On Sun, 18 Sep 2005 00:56:09 -0
:>You obviously don't know Americans. No American would be caught dead in a
:>smart car. Americans view their cars as extensions of their penises, I
:>mean, of themselves. The bigger and bulkier the better.
Have you ever driven with children?
You're not allowed to put them in the front seat. They have to go in
the back, and until they're about 8 they have to have child seats or
booster seats.
And they need strollers. And diaper bags. And then you go to the
supermarket with them and buy food, and you need space for that. Or
go to soccer and give a ride to the neighbors kid, so you have 3 kids,
none in the front seat, and their stuff, and maybe soccer equipment
too.
Sure there are some people who have SUV's because they're big and
powerful. Like Arianna Huffington. But there are a whole lot of us
that would rather have a good, full size station wagon. The problem
is they don't make them anymore, the last one was the 96 Buick
Roadmaster. So instead of a station wagon that would get 18 mpg and
hurt the CAFE ratings, we have to buy stupid SUV's that get 14 mpg but
are listed as trucks, so they DON'T hurt the CAFE ratings.
I drive a cheap-ass Tercel that gets 35 mpg. It has absolutely
nothing to do with my self image. But my wife has to have a bigger
car because she has the baby during the day. It's a small wagon, a
Saturn. If we have another baby it WON'T be big enough. |