On the "Newshour with Jim Lehrer" which in on PBS on SUVs in American culture.

"Ray Suarez reports on the evolution of the sport utility vehicle and the SUV's role in American culture today. "

Normally I find the Newhour pretty bias, but this was a well done piece. Story starts about 15 minutes into the hour.

Check local listings.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/newshour...html#wednesday

 

Don't keep us in suspense - what's the good news? They're banning SUVs? :p

Oh wait, you meant a good news story, not a good news story. Dman.

Regards,
Gordon

 

Here's my ray of hope:

The concense is that the traditional SUV is on the way out to be replaced by station wagons with SUV styling. Basically tall wagons on raised suspensions.

And there will be 3 hybrid SUVs coming out next year.

 

Its good to see them attempting to make some progress on the fuel economy/emissions front. Will this help with vehicle compaitibility in crashes (i.e. obliteration of occupants in passenger vehicles when hit by SUVs)? Attached is a link I posted several months ago about the direction of cars in general (due in part to the plethora of SUVs).

http://www.rx8forum.com/showthread.p...6085#post26085

Let's just say sports cars design (i.e. heavier and higher) will be affected unfortunately at least according to this article.

 

Well, let me give you a personal example.

Before leaving MI the last program I worked on was a new large sedan and "soft-ute" built on the same platform. Release date was set for mid-2004 last I know. Not the Chrysler Pacifica or Caddy SRX, though a similiar product from another of the big 3.

Anyway for the soft-ute version the bumper height and ground clearance where the same as the sedan, but if you looked at the 2 cars side-by-side you would swear the Ute was on stilts.

It was all styling. With a higher roof line, fatter bumper covers, more pronounced fender flares with a larger gap and tires with more sidewall height the thing looked high off the ground.

Also the seats where mounted higher than the sedan. Curb weights where similiar.

I think this is the future of the "SUV." Since in reality people want the style, commanding view from the seat and perceived ruggedness. And you can get that from creative styling.

Only 10% care about clearance, departure angles, break-over angles, etc....

 

Sounds interesting. Are those the only drawbacks or are those the only ones?

 

From what I've picked up from the safety engineers, and being a brake engineer I had good contact with them, is that these are the big "problems" with traditional SUV's:

1. Bumper height - with high bumpers a SUV can go right over the bumper of a car

2. Mass - lots of kinetic energy

3. Stiff frames - tradition trucks have body on frames and the frames are very stiff. They act like battering rams on a car.

4. Inheret instability due to not only high center of gravity but the weight is distributed poorly over the volume of the car.

5. Also to add from my view point- massive dive under braking due to the high CG and usually long wheel-base. This overwhelms the front tires and makes the rear brakes nearly useless during hard braking. Very inefficient.

Now sedan or wagons can have some of these issues also, but rarely at the level of a traditional pickup or SUV.

 

:D I interpreted the title of this thread as "Story with good news about SUVs" -- as in their sales are declining, or they were becoming more fuel-efficient, or they were becoming safer...