My Other Car is a Plane (Dan Neil, LA Times) - Great SUV slam...

[petronius]

THERE'S something peculiarly egregious, something antagonizing about the 2007 Mercedes-Benz GL, the company's new full-size, 15-mpg sport-utility vehicle, which might be described as a Cadillac Escalade with a hankering for Czechoslovakia. For one thing, it goes to show that, even though the full-size SUV market has fallen off dramatically in the last year, there are still sufficient numbers of selfish rotters out there to constitute an appealing market segment.

Mercedes-Benz executives offer this wholly meritless defense: Many of its customers leave the brand because the company does not offer a full-size SUV that meets their needs, which is to say, a seven-passenger, 17-foot 4x4 with a 9,300-pound towing capacity. At this point in the presentation in Napa Valley last week, execs showed slides of the GL pulling a 30-foot boat. So there you have it: Mercedes' audience of water-skiing polygamists is underserved.

Needs? Did the man say needs? OK, then. I propose needs testing for the purchase of such a vehicle. You must have a Chris-Craft and three or more school-age children in the yard to qualify. Your vehicle must do double-duty as, um, a bookmobile.

Need has very little to do with it. This segment is about want, naked and unquenchable, I-got-mine-you-get-bent appetite. It's well established that the vast majority of these vehicles never touch gravel, never carry more than a couple of people, and never tow anything heavier than the weight of their owner's childhood traumas.

More...

http://www.latimes.com/classified/automotive/highway1/la-hy-neil15mar15,0,2051556,full.story?coll=la-home-highway1

[Skittles]

1. I despise SUVs

if ever there was a symbol of American arrogance and greed, the SUV is it. And I think one of the main reasons vehicles in America became bigger is because the American people got bigger.

[Bozita]

2. Large SUVs becoming less "cool" -- 5 figure rebates growing more common

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/18/business/18trucks.html?_r=1&oref=slogin


March 18, 2006


Trading the Hummer for a Honda
By MICHELINE MAYNARD

DETROIT, March 17 — For Janna Jensen, it was the dirty looks and nasty gestures from other drivers that finally persuaded her to give up the family's $55,000 Hummer H2. Her husband, Michael, meanwhile, was tired of the $300 monthly gasoline cost and the quality problems that began soon after they bought it.

So the Jensens of Reno, Nev., dumped the sport utility vehicle this year for a more modest Honda Element, still an S.U.V. but one with better gasoline mileage and a lower profile than the H2. And they are not alone.

Luxury sport utilities are becoming decidedly less cool than just three years ago, when they were the hottest things on wheels and dealers had long waiting lists for the most popular models.

On top of the sales drop that has hurt all sport utilities, fewer than half the people who bought luxury S.U.V.'s are going back for another one. Incentives for the vehicles are at record levels and for the first time, luxury automakers are paying out more for rebates and lease deals to entice consumers to buy luxury S.U.V.'s than to buy cars.

more...

[Porcupine]

4. The French do REALLY nasty things to SUV's

The least of which is removing valves from the tires.

[Bozita]

6. priceless Hummer pic

[musiclawyer]

3. Dan Neil is one of the better automotive writers

in the county. He's one of the few reasons I still read the LAT

[TommyO]

5. I love his last line in the article:

Final thoughts: Steroid abuse