It's not the size of your vehicle that matters it's how much gas you burn.

[Mountainman]

I'll bet that some DUers with small cars burn as much gas as some SUV owners. If you drive your vehicle a lot you could be burning more gas than some woman who doesn't work and uses her SUV to run errands.

Of course she has no right to burn what gas she does since she could just as well do those errands in a smaller car.

[ParisFrance]

1. I think you answered everything that can be said.

[K-W]

2. Whats your point?

Yes it is the gas that matters, but yes, larger vehicles tend to burn more gas, and SUV's tend to be particularly bad.

[Mountainman]

3. My point is just what I said.

You may drive a small car and burn more gas than someone who drives a SUV. If so you are just as wrong as you make the SUV owner,

A SUV gets 15 mpg driven 150 miles burns 10 gallons. A Toyota gets 50 mpg driven 500 miles burn 10 gallons. Who is causing the soldiers to die in Iraq?

I really don't agree with the anti SUV thing here.

[K-W]

5. So because its possible for some people to be hypocrites...

no, I still dont see your point.

Yes it IS possible for someone driving a smaller car to get worse gas mileage than someone driving an SUV. Someone doing this and complaining about the mileage of SUV's would indeed be a hypocrite and an idiot. But you seem to be trying to discredit the attacks on SUV's because of this, which is certainly not right.

I am not fully educated on the SUV issue, nor do I speak out about it, but the people who do, in my experience are against all forms of bad gas-mileage transportation, they oppose SUV's because they are a particularly bad class of cars and because they became trendy and were purchased by many people who had no need for them simply because it was the cool thing to do. They dont like the fact that people are choosing less enviromentally friendly vehicles because of cool commercials and a trend.

You seem to be using a straw man to try and discredit an entire line of argument.

[CaTeacher]

4. I am against most people owning big SUVs

because most people really do not need to own a vehicle that large and wasteful, but really the important thing is not just the size, but also the efficiency of the engine.

Hypothetically, if I get 40 miles per gallon--but it takes that much to power an engine of 20 horsepower---that engine is much less efficient than an engine that use 20 miles per gallon but has 200 horsepower.

[Mountainman]

6. The thing we need to be doing is replacing fossil fuels

Ford will be coming out with a hybrid SUV this year. It is a small one but it is going in the right direction. I don't give a damn if someone drives a large SUV if it runs on alternative fuel. That's where we are headed because big sells and small doesn't. We tried that with the Corvairs and Pintos.

[CaTeacher]

7. I am very much in favor of hybrid engines.

But that is a separate issue from my point about the importance of fuel efficiency.

[SemperEadem]

8. tune that hoopty up and it'll get better mileage

my 82 280ZX gets great gas mileage. It has a 17 gallon tank which takes about $38 to fill if it's on empty.

$45/barrel and rising? Not a problem for my hoopty.