"Who has been buying SUV's since automakers turned them into family vehicles? 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-centereed and self-absorbed, with little interest in their neighors or communities.
No, that's not a cynic talking -- that's the auto industry's own market researchers and executives."
Keith Bradsher, reporter for the New York Times demolishes the mystique of the SUV in High and Mighty: SUV's -- The World's Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way. Equally comfortable with the world of politics and marketing and the world of camshafts and transmissions, this book explains how loopholes in regulations paved the way for automakers to make record profits while making a generation of vehicles which negated decades of improvements in fuel economy, emissions and vehicle safety.
SUVs are passenger vehicles based on pickup truck designs. SUVs consist of a passenger compartment bolted on top of a stiff metal frame, unlike an automobile, for which the body panels are closely integrated with the frame. This makes for a vehicle which is good for off-road travel and towing heavy loads, although few SUV owners do so. The SUV is cheap for auto makers to manufacture and design, since they can make changes to the look of a vehicle without altering structural components -- as a result, Detroit can make profits of $15,000 or more on a full-size SUV.
Unfortunately, the heavy construction of SUVs make them heavy polluters and gas guzzlers, a problem compounded by the fact that SUVs are less tightly regulated by cars -- so SUV engines don't adopt the technology which make late model large cars more efficient than the compact cars of the 1970's. Because SUV frames are rigid, SUVs do more damage to their occupants and to other vehicles in a crash, unlike cars, which are designed to crumple, sacrificing themselves for the safety of their passengers. Many SUV owners have been paralyzed by crashes which did only a few hundred of dollars of damage to their vehicles.
Riding high off the ground poses special hazards. It's hard for other drivers to see over and around SUVs. SUVs are particularly prone to rollover accidents, which often have fatal and life-changing consequences. Highway guardrails aren't designed for tall vehicles, and SUVs often crash through them or flip over them in a collision. SUVs are also incompatible with other vehicles -- in a side collision, a tall vehicle can miss the bottom of the frame of a car, crash right through the door and crash directly into the occupant. As a result, SUVs are much more dangerous to the passengers of other vehicles than minivans and large cars -- the death rate for SUV crashes is 17% higher than it is for automobiles.
Thanks to an trade dispute over frozen chickens in 1962, the US passed a 25% tariff on imported light trucks. By letting Detroit escape foreign competition in the 70's and 80's, this was the first legal loophole to benefit the SUV. When safety standards and fuel economy for cars were improved thanks to Ralph Nader and the energy crisis of the 70's, light trucks faced light regulation because, then, they were primarily owned by farmers and businesses. Until quite recently, SUV owners were a powerful lobby that benefitted the industry -- now, however, that SUVs are popular with politicans and swing voters, safety issues are taking center stage as seen in the scandal over Ford Explorers and Firestone tires.
Many of the problems with SUVs can be patched up with technical changes; for instance, a steel bar mounted below the bumper can transfer energy to the frame of a car in a collision, rather than to it's occupants. Advanced engine technology seen in large and small cars could improve their emissions and fuel efficiency. Unfortunately, efforts to tighten regulations on SUVs, to remove the legal loopholes that discourage people from buying safer, cleaner cars run into the power of the car industry, concentrated in a number of influential "swing" states.
Even if we do fight for legislation, the SUV problem is likely to get worse, rather than better, in the next few years. SUVs are the vehicle of choice for the younger generation: in a 1990 survey, 90% of teens expressed a preference for SUVs over other vehicles. Since the SUV boom is so new, most SUVs are in the hands of careful, affluent, middle-aged drivers. As SUVs change hands on the used vehicle market, we'll be sharing the road with teenagers and drunks driving oversized monstrosities with failing brakes.
High and Mighty is an enjoyable book by an author who's equally comfortable writing about gearheads and politicians, and is worthwhile reading for anyone concerned or annoyed about the SUV phenomenon.
Title: High and Mighty: SUVs -- the world's most dangerous vehicles and how they got that way.
Author: Keith Bradsher
Publisher: PublicAffairs, New York
Year: 2002
ISBN: 1-58648-123-1
