Jeff Leatherwood
Broker/Realtor®
Read my blog below
Are Big SUV’s really a thing of the past???
July 29th, 2008 Categories: Community Events
First no more H1 Hummer….Now This??? The Ford Flex?
I agree we need to do what we can to reduce greenhouse gasses and create vehicles with better emmissions. However, I gotta admit that in the back of my mind I always felt that the “Preeminent Death of the SUV” was just a liberal idea that was never going to (or at least not this rapidly) materialize.
But Now This: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121717653220687895.html?mod=googlenews_wsj a “Big Crossover” from Ford (I guess this replaced the Excursion!!!)
It’s great to create a big vehicle that seats a bunch of people. In fact, in alot of ways for many people/familys I think this is probably a better solution in terms of environmental cost that the traditional Hybrid. (Not to mention the environmental cost of the battery parts in, for example, a Toyota Prius…)
What pollutes less??? A family of 5 going to Dinner in a Tahoe (with a service life of over 200,000 miles but thats a seperate argument) Or a Family of 5 going to dinner in 2 Prius’ or Pri (with a service life of ~80,000, again seperate argument)???
My argument is that SUVs are a utility for alot of people…Lets keep’em around America. How else are you gonna pull a boat and a carload of people to go to the lake?
Great article, Jeff. This is a conundrum…It’s got to be better on the environment to have all six people in one vehicle rather than three in one car and three in another. But so often in the Brazos Valley, I see the SUV’s with only one or two people in them.
I guess it just comes down to personal preference and pocketbook!
Kind regards,
Cindy Seaton
Thanks Cindy, people cant have their family with them all the time… For most it is not an economically feesible option to have a small hybrid in the garage for when they are alone, and a big SUV when they have the fam. Even when it is I would guess that the environmental cost of producing the second car would far outweight the benefit. But, To each his own. Thanks for the comment