Yeah, okay, I vented a bit there... Fair enough, guys, I should have said, "show me mud on the fenders OR SEVEN PASSENGERS". If you gotta haul people back and forth to soccer practice, then, sure, get that Yukon. But I almost NEVER get to see anyone in the back seat or third-row-seating of any of the SUV's I see, and, let's be real, Los Angeles doesn't have a whole lot of terrain that could possibly be too much for a Town+Country, Pacifica or Magnum. The number of Hummers and H2's on the road out here with chrome brush guards around their headlights (!) and big shiny wheels with O-ring tires is truly astonishing. Fashion accessories, most of them.
It would be hyprocritical of me to criticize SUV's gas mileage, since the Magnum isn't doing me any favors at the gas pump, and lord knows the 440's in my Cuda and Charger aren't helping matters any either! It's more the danger to non-SUV drivers from inexperienced drivers that I worry about. An out-of-control Yukon Denali could destroy my Magnum without noticing, not to mention what it would do to the Mini Cooper.
An arms race along the lines of "he who has the biggest battering RAM wins" sort is probably not the best thing for our combined safety.
I don't mean to cheese anyone off over my venomous SUV cracks, but big black Tahoes with one tattooed, sideways-baseball-cap-wearing driver talking on the cellphone while weaving thru freeway traffic with no turn signals have no place on the seven-lane-wide stretch of the 101 freeway at four in the afternoon, IMHO. (Unless he'll be carrying a full load and driving more safely on the return trip.)
My AWD Magnum can get me and three friends and all our ski gear up to Big Bear and back in record time, and we breeze right past the roadblock requiring chains or 4WD, saying, "Hello officer" and pointing to the prominent AWD emblem on the fender, while 2WD SUV's are being turned around and sent back down to buy chains! I did grow up and learn to drive on a dirt road in rural Vermont (and Mom still lives there), so I know a little about mud and snow, and Mom does have a Cummins-powered RAM with a snowplow behind the barn, but she sure doesn't use it for grocery getting, unless the town hasn't plowed our road that morning.
For quick errands, I use the wife's bright yellow Mini Cooper for high mileage and high visiblity. (Yes, I have to admit that the family does own one non-mopar, so flame on me if you will!) It's just fine for local runs to haul groceries, and the Jamaican flag decal that covers the entire roof is a great conversation starter!
But hey, we all drive what we want for reasons only we can understand, right? For all I know, that 102-pound lady driving the 9-pass Lincoln Navigator is on her way to pick up her daughter's soccer team, but for some reason the only ones I see are Realtors on their way to an open house....... I guess those little "open house" signs take up a lot of cargo room!
Anyway, drive what ya like, but I hope ya know how to drive it well, that's all. :thumbs:
(Just had to add that I'm 42, have lived in VT, Boston, NYC, N'awlins, Philly, and L.A., and driven nearly 2,000,000 miles with ZERO accidents... so far!)
