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I live in Florida. As above, it's a guarantee that at the front of every traffic jam, there's somebody in a minivan holding up the flow. They're in their own little world. They're on the phone. They're texting. They're weaving all over the road. They're screaming at the kids.
I hate minivans. They're the scourge of the earth and should be outlawed.
And my SUV (Chevy Equinox) gets 26 mpg in town and better than 32 on the open road. Plus I can carry four bales of hay in it.
I have a Chevy Spark. It could not be any more ideal for me: it fits my budget and my commuting needs and my aesthetic tastes and my city parking requirements, plus of course I appreciate the high MPG. Even if cars ran on sunshine and rainbows, the Spark would still have been my choice. As stated above, I know it is not a fit for everyone but it is absolutely a fit for me.
My partner just recently purchased a Ford Fusion hybrid. It is physically larger than he wanted, but other than that it is everything he was going for. He drives a lot for work so he needs something comfortable enough to spend a lot of time in, and most of that mileage is reimbursed so the fuel efficiency is directly putting money in his pocket. He likes to have all the bells and whistles, and he loves that he was able to get it loaded with luxury features like heated/cooled seats, heated steering wheel, remote start, adaptive cruise control, auto high-beams, lane keep assist, etc. etc. etc. As a late 20-something dude, he also appreciates that it has some oomph, unlike some sluggish options we test drove. *coughPriuscough* Of course it is a sedan and not a sports car, but a sports car wouldn't fit his needs anyway.
In conclusion: I have no idea whether our cars would excite you or not. But they certainly excite us.
As a true car lover, I find something to enjoy or admire in just about any car.
But no...those would not be what I'd consider fun/exciting cars, but that is certainly my opinion only. And they have their own merits.
Except SUVs were around before minivans. Crossovers have replaced minivans for the most part, even though the minivan has more utility.
His hatred of SUVs however, is in fact full of falshoods and misinformation, so it's relevant to call him out on it. I've never had an SUF flip over and I've gone around corners over the suggested speed limit with no problems. It takes a tripping event to flip one, just like for a car, and that's why less than .0001% of SUVs flip over annually (and in fact, according to NHTSA data, twice as many cars flip over annually than SUVs/pickups/vans).
SUVs were around before minivans, but they were niche products, e.g. the coach in 'Dazed and Confused.' It was not until the four door Ford Explorer debuted in 1991, seven years after the Chrysler minivan came out, that they became a viable family vehicle.
Also from NHTSA:
"The proportion differs greatly by vehicle type: 46 percent of passenger car occupant fatalities in single-vehicle crashes involved rollover, compared to 63 percent for pickup trucks, 60 percent for vans, and 78 percent for sport utility vehicles (SUVs)."
SUVs were around before minivans, but they were niche products, e.g. the coach in 'Dazed and Confused.' It was not until the four door Ford Explorer debuted in 1991, seven years after the Chrysler minivan came out, that they became a viable family vehicle.
Also from NHTSA:
"The proportion differs greatly by vehicle type: 46 percent of passenger car occupant fatalities in single-vehicle crashes involved rollover, compared to 63 percent for pickup trucks, 60 percent for vans, and 78 percent for sport utility vehicles (SUVs)."
Percentages are used for scare tactics. You'll note that your stats are misleading in that you are trying to paint the picture than 78% of SUVs flip over and that's factually incorrect. What they are talking about is fatalities. The total number of rollovers for fatalities is still in the hundreds per year. What your stats are REALLY saying is that IF you are in a rollover, you are more likely to die in an SUV than in a car, not that more SUVs roll over. But you are very unlikely to get into a rollover in the first place. Total number of rollovers tend to be in the 2000-4000 range annually.
Compare that to how many SUVs are out there and you'll see that very few SUVs actually flip over. Not enough to worry about unless you're a crap driver or drunk, which is still a factor in over half the fatalities on the road. Fact is, twice as many CARS flip over annually as SUVs in sheer numbers! While the RATE (number of rollovers per hundred vehciles of that type on the road) is slightly higher for SUVs than cars, the totals are still in the .0001-.0002% range for either (i.e. only .0001% of cars and .0002% of SUVs flip over). It's pretty easy to be in the 99.9998% of SUVs that DON"T flip over, even driving fast in the corners.
I live in Florida. As above, it's a guarantee that at the front of every traffic jam, there's somebody in a minivan holding up the flow. They're in their own little world. They're on the phone. They're texting. They're weaving all over the road. They're screaming at the kids.
I hate minivans. They're the scourge of the earth and should be outlawed.
And my SUV (Chevy Equinox) gets 26 mpg in town and better than 32 on the open road. Plus I can carry four bales of hay in it.
Or it could be a florida thing. In NY, it always the SUV driver or someone in a Benz that is on the phone or texting.
I do agree minivan drivers tend to be slow...which is why insurance rates are dirt cheap. When I went from a minivan to a SUV, my rates went up 30%. no joke.
My wife beats the arse off our 2013 Sienna lol, probably whilst using the phone and yelling at the kids.
The Sienna is a very quick van, don't take one on without knowing what you are up against lol
The OEM tires are going to be knackered by 20K, just as well because they are dangerous in the snow.
I don't think it is that. I think it is the fact that they are right for certain people at certain times. As a teenager, I had no need for one. I had a sporty little Toyota Celica GTS.
In my twenties, I had two young children and I had a minivan and that thing was the best! As they grew older, I didn't need as much space.
Then as they grew even older, I needed more space again! Leg room, trunk room, etc. So now, at forty years old and with a teenager and a twenty year old who is six feet five inches tall,I need plenty of leg room and their luggage is bigger!
Now I have a Grand Cherokee Laredo and it is perfect.
Seriously, I don't get it! When I was 17, my first car, which was a hand-me-down from my folks, was a 1993 Dodge Caravan. That thing was awesome, as far as I remember. It was a tank, held seven people, and I could take the rear seats out and fit a 4'×8' sheet of plywood inside it with no overhang. It got way better gas mileage than an SUV (somewhere around 25 to 26 mpg, whereas most SUVs of that era were lucky to get 18 on the highway) and had more cargo room.
The other thing about them: they're about the most inexpensive vehicle to buy used. It's why I suggested a coworker look into one. He had no vehicle at all, and said above all else, he needed it to be cheap. He said he'd rather walk than drive one. This seems to be a common attitude, and I don't get it.
Maybe I'm idealizing the one I had due to nostalgia, but I know I had a ton of fun with it as a 17 year old. Especially once I got past the "no other teenagers in the car with you" restriction, which at the time was only like 3 or 6 months.
I realize that some people don't like the handling of big vehicles, but it seems a lot better than walking!
I used to hate minivans with a passion derived purely from dogma associated with the condition of being a human male under the age of 25.
I now drive an appropriately masculine 4x4, but I don't like driving it as much as I like my wife's T&C. If I'm being honest and objective, minivans are actually pretty awesome.
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