Free Drive by Tim Falconer Page A

Bradsher, “and SUVs are much more likely than cars to kill the other driver in a vehicle-to-vehicle collision.” Despite all these dangers, the sport ute practically taunts its driver to be over-confident.
    Most provocatively, Bradsher describes SUV drivers this way: “They tend to be people who are insecure and vain. They are frequently nervous about their marriages and uncomfortable about parenthood. They often lack confidence in their driving skills. Above all, they are apt to be self-centered and self-absorbed, with little interest in their neighbors or communities.” The former Detroit bureau chief for The New York Times then attributes that profile to “the auto industry’s own market researchers and executives.”
    MacDonald, who does social values research, doesn’t agree. When he separates the male SUV drivers from the female ones, he sees some of what Bradsher is saying, but it’s no different from the conclusions he’d make about men in general. As an SUV owner himself, he admits these machines are not as green as minivans but argues they are still sensible vehicles. “For me, the packaging works. It’s not because I’m insecure in my marriage and a tyrannical driver; it’s because it’s comfortable, I fit and it doesn’t get stuck in the snow,” he said. “Look at SUVs and look who’s in the driver’s seat—a lot of soccer moms and middle age guys with greying hair, not exactly the people you need to be afraid of. Andeven in the States the profile is not as bleak as he made it out to be. This is quite a sensationalized statement of these drivers.”
    Bradsher’s warnings aren’t without merit, though. SUVs are prone to “tripping,” a rollover caused when they collide with low obstacles such as curbs and guardrails. And when an SUV collides with a car, the people in the bigger machine usually come off okay, while people in the smaller vehicle are far more likely to be injured or killed than if they’d been hit by another car. Worse, the real danger will come later. People who buy cars and SUVs new are usually fairly sedate drivers, but when neglected, worn-out fifteenyear-old models become three-thousand-dollar “beaters” for teenaged males, we could see a repeat of what once happened with aging muscle cars. “In the seventies, when those cars became cheap wheels for the subsequent generation of teens, it was just mayhem,” MacDonald said. “A vehicle that’s heavier in mass, easier to trip—laws of physics are laws of physics—and an inexperienced driver or danger-prone driver is something to be concerned about.” Already we’re seeing SUV resale prices dropping rapidly as gas prices climb. “Nobody wants them because of the fuel economy. Then they become cheap wheels for whoever wants them, and what kind of person wants a cheap big car? An eighteen-year-old guy!”
    Many of the people selling their old SUVs are switching to crossovers. Built on car chassis, they are safer and more fuelefficient, and the lower centre of gravity means they’re less prone to rollover and easier to control when doing emergency manoeuvres. The crossover is a blend of the minivan, the SUV and the station wagon. To some people, that’s just the least of all worlds, but to others it’s the best because it offers the better driving dynamics and safety of a passenger car, the height and comfort of a minivan and the all-weather traction of an SUV.
    While environmentalists would like to see all these big gas hogs disappear, MacDonald doesn’t see that happening, especially with the aging population. “Older people have trouble bending downlow. My wife’s car when we got married was a ’91 Toyota Tercel, and after we had children I had to drive around in that and it was agony doubling myself over and bending in that little tiny egg. After that, I swore I would