Australia's love affair with SUV's

[acidrock]

I think FWD is unnecessary in most cases, but the manufacturers are more than happy to sell it to you. I've been getting around in two wheel drive vehicles for thirty five years with no problems at all, you just got to use a little common sense. If I lived in the boonies where the plows didn't get around very often I would think about it, but for city driving there's no need. My work truck is two wheel drive and I'm driving through fields with it all the time, the only time I ever need a tow was when I got stuck on flat black ice.

 

[ausrock]

Like it or not, SUV's are here to stay.

I'm driving my fourth 4WD (a 2008 Suzuki Grand Vitara) that I've owned over that past 20 years...........three Suzukis and a Range Rover. For me, they're practical and the Suzies are not fuel hungry.

Real 4WDing...........did plenty of that years ago working in open cut coal mines.........believe me, in that environment it's not hard to REALLY bog a Landcruiser or HiLux

 

[Bobbsy]

If we want to talk about the real issue down here in Australia, it's the love affair with the "ute".

Ute is short for "utility vehicle" and it's basically a pick up chassis usually with a flat tray on the back. They're all-to-often driven by idiots who try to overtake at traffic lights, speed through residential areas, swerve in front of you then slow down on a motorway and generally drive like a prat. For the British, ute-man is our equivalent to "white van man". I don't know if there's an American analogy.

 

[kcearl]

pick up truck...theyre everywhere here

 

[Bobbsy]

The Australian ute is a pick up specially adapted to be slightly too wide for normal parking spots and to have sharp corners at exactly the right height to be impossible to see through the windows of a normal car.

 

[kcearl]

lol


I like college kids in F-150's


no sorry I meant I hate them

 

[Greg_L]

Lol

 

[BroKen_H]

But it doesn't have to be an SUV

 

[kcearl]

Lol

want

 

[ShanPeyton]

I am guessing no one here has visited Northern Alberta. Specifically Fort Mc Murray. In that case i can't bring much to this discussion.

I have a Jeep Patriot. Not a real jeep. Not a real SUV, but gets me, the wife and dog from Point A to Point B during our 10 months of permafrost in a more safer fashion then say a Toyota Corolla.

 

[Armistice]

The Australian ute is a pick up specially adapted to be slightly too wide for normal parking spots and to have sharp corners at exactly the right height to be impossible to see through the windows of a normal car.

View attachment 92183

Jeez Bobbsy, that picture's from the 70s... they look more like this these days

And I'd rather have the tradies driving those utes than the big 4WD versions they now get around in.. those things are huge, and they all have bull/roo bars, even though generally speaking we don't get many bulls and kangaroos on city roads, and those cars rarely leave the city and almost never go anywhere where a bull/roo bar might realise its purpose.

Hit a pedestrian and they're dead. Hit a small/smart car and the driver of that's probably dead too... but that's OK, the 4WD ute owner will personally be safe, and that's all that matters.

It is a fucking arms race.

The "tragedy of the commons" explains so much about humanity, unfortunately.

 

[ausrock]

Jeez Bobbsy, that picture's from the 70s...

Yep, probably an HQ from between '71 to '74........and it is a "One Tonner" tray back not really a ute. I once drove a brand new V8 chassis and cab version in the rain........absolutely no weight over the back wheels, absolutely no traction........just plain outright scary

 

[Armistice]

Yep, probably an HQ from between '71 to '74........and it is a "One Tonner" tray back not really a ute. I once drove a brand new V8 chassis and cab version in the rain........absolutely no weight over the back wheels, absolutely no traction........just plain outright scary

Yeah, I knocked around in them and Holden Rodeos (4WD version) when I was a surveyor in a past life. Getting a few hundred kg of survey stakes and theodolites and tripods and levels and pegs and axes and chainsaws in the back helped somewhat with the traction issue...

 

[ausrock]

Armi, some of the things I've seen people do to weigh down the arse end of a commercial vehicle are absolutely hilarious.

BTW, how are you doing?

Cheers mate,

ChrisO

 

[Greg_L]

lol @ arms race. That some of you pretend to care about the well-being of the shmoe in the econobox is hilarious.

 

[drstawl]

lol @ arms race. That some of you pretend to care about the well-being of the shmoe in the econobox is hilarious.

You've got that backwards. Nobody cares about the well-being of the shmoe in the econobox. That's the arms race. I don't pretend to care. But people buying cars for themselves or their family to drive *do* care. They are terrified by the same idiots on the road that can't drive that have always scared them. Great profits are extracted from these frightened people by rhe makers of SUVs.

Worse, this forcing of car drivers into SUVs creates a feedback loop because people that can't drive a truck become rolling advertisements for more car drivers to become too scared to drive a smaller vehicle.

 

[DM60]

Jeez Bobbsy, that picture's from the 70s... they look more like this these days

That looks like the chassis they used for the Pontiac G8. The G8 was imported from Australia and came with a V8, hell of a car.

 

[Greg_L]

You've got that backwards. Nobody cares about the well-being of the shmoe in the econobox. That's the arms race. I don't pretend to care. But people buying cars for themselves or their family to drive *do* care. They are terrified by the same idiots on the road that can't drive that have always scared them. Great profits are extracted from these frightened people by rhe makers of SUVs.

Worse, this forcing of car drivers into SUVs creates a feedback loop because people that can't drive a truck become rolling advertisements for more car drivers to become too scared to drive a smaller vehicle.

No you've got it backwards because you can't relate to a typical SUV owner. SUVs can be safer in an actual full-contact collision, but they are also quite unsafe when performing maneuvers to avoid a collision, and everyone knows it. They roll over like it's nothing. Let me tell you why people like SUVs:

1) Most of these people have families. They're not lonely cat people. These people with families want to be able to haul their bratty spawn around in comfort, and some of these people still have a minimal sense of style, so minivans are out of the question and the SUV is the solution.

2) Simple old consumerism. Middle class people like to buy shit and they like to keep up with the Jonses. Their homes are filled with trinkets and knick-knacks and they need something to haul all of that shit. And since these people often have their spawn with them (see point #1) they need to haul their spawn AND their impulse buys in one vehicle. A Toyota Corolla is out of the question, so is a pickup truck.

3) This is one is more rare, but some people are just adventurous. An SUV is great for the beach, hunting, off-road exploring, or whatever.

I don't buy the "fear of other drivers" bullshit because econoboxes are still everywhere just like they always were. All the SUV did was take the place of the station wagon, and made station wagoning a little more rugged.

 

[drstawl]

No you've got it backwards because you can't relate to a typical SUV owner. SUVs can be safer in an actual full-contact collision, but they are also quite unsafe when performing maneuvers to avoid a collision, and everyone knows it. They roll over like it's nothing. Let me tell you why people like SUVs:

1) Most of these people have families. They're not lonely cat people. These people with families want to be able to haul their bratty spawn around in comfort, and some of these people still have a minimal sense of style, so minivans are out of the question and the SUV is the solution.

2) Simple old consumerism. Middle class people like to buy shit and they like to keep up with the Jonses. Their homes are filled with trinkets and knick-knacks and they need something to haul all of that shit. And since these people often have their spawn with them (see point #1) they need to haul their spawn AND their impulse buys in one vehicle. A Toyota Corolla is out of the question, so is a pickup truck.

3) This is one is more rare, but some people are just adventurous. An SUV is great for the beach, hunting, off-road exploring, or whatever.

I don't buy the "fear of other drivers" bullshit because econoboxes are still everywhere just like they always were. All the SUV did was take the place of the station wagon, and made station wagoning a little more rugged.

I'll buy #2 for sure.

And there is no denying the convenience of the carrying capacity.

But the assumption being made that drives the fear is that the *other driver* will cause a collision that no amount of driving skill can avoid (rear-ended stopped at a light, for example) and the extra mass will reduce the acceleration of the struck vehicle.

You can't tell me that you'd rather be sitting in a Yaris than an Excursion struck by an out of control Suburban. You'd be lying.

 

[Greg_L]

I'll buy #2 for sure.

And there is no denying the convenience of the carrying capacity.

But the assumption being made that drives the fear is that the *other driver* will cause a collision that no amount of driving skill can avoid (rear-ended stopped at a light, for example) and the extra mass will reduce the acceleration of the struck vehicle.

You can't tell me that you'd rather be sitting in a Yaris than an Excursion struck by an out of control Suburban. You'd be lying.

Anyone would rather be in a bigger vehicle when a crash happens. That's not a valid point. That's not saying anything. Duh. But that's not the sole deciding factor. And bigger doesn't mean safer. A 1969 Impala is a big car. You'd die sooner in that thing than you would in an 09 Impala. People aren't racing to buy SUVs so they can out-crash someone else. That's stupid logic. I hesitate to call it any kind of logic. SUV sales have leveled off and dropped over the past 10 years as gas prices have gone up, so it's certainly no "arms race".