Make it Stop!
What is it?
It’s a scam. SUVs were born in the 1980s-1990s, when US automakers discovered a loophole: by classifying passenger cars as “light trucks”, they could dodge fuel efficiency and safety regulations. Of course the international car industry followed suit.
Marketing sold them as symbols of security and status. SUVs and trucks have significantly higher prices and profit margins than comparable sedans and hatchbacks. it’s a deliberate business strategy by greedy corporations, built on oversized fat cars that make much fatter profit margins.
They cost you more, but are less safe, less efficient, less practical and less fun than regular cars in every conceivable way. And they make their drivers look small and anxious.
Why is it a problem?
It is simple physics. SUVs are overweight road bullies that seriously endanger everyone around and in them.
They devour twice the fuel of normal cars, use more energy to produce and from 2010 to 2018 they were the second largest contributor to the increase in global carbon emissions – and since then sales skyrocketed. Electric SUVs are the same just with a different drivetrain and even heavier. They clog cities, streets, parking lots and wear infrastructure. But the car industry won’t invest in smaller cars as long as they can make absurd profits selling gargantuan death traps.
What can we do?
Just say no. There is no earthly reason to buy an SUV — unless one’s life’s ambition is to line the pockets of executives and shareholders, trying to impress the neighbours by going even larger, or mask personal insecurity inside an aggressive-looking metal fortress on wheels.
If you need a car, choose literally any other type. They’re all better, safer, more practical, more efficient, easier to park and more fun.
Trying to ban SUVs would not work, but push for size-based parking fees, higher taxes on fuel-swilling behemoths and tax regulations with teeth. Expose how car and oil lobbyists ceaselessly undermine laws that would make us all safer and healthier, but would reduce the margins of their clients.
It’s time to make SUV drivers feel as awkward as they should for falling for a snake-oil salesmen.