I gather from your tone that what the article's author was trying to get
across was that the Chicago snow vindicated SUVs (ie put them to their
intended use) and, therefore, not deserving of all the bad press they get
for their crummy fuel economy. Gee, I've never owned a four-wheel drive
vehicle, let alone an SUV. But my husband and I survived the big storm that
hit Rhode Island and the rest of the northeast in 1978 and all we had was
an old 1971 VW bus with no heat. But when we put chains on that baby
nothing would stop it. We were pulling 4 X 4s out of snow banks for two days!
And as for mileage, in its prime that car got 37 mpg on the highway, and
that was well before the oil embargo, well before Detroit began paying lip
service to the concept of fuel economy. I wonder if the article's author
gave one thought to the long-term damage today's SUVs do to the
environment. Perhaps he drives an SUV himself and simply had snowflakes in
his eyes.
Kat Bennett
Longmont, CO
>Yes I know that this is not "on point" but, I think most everyone will
>enjoy this enough to digress:
>
>The 1/6/99 Wall Street Journal reports that the record breaking snow in
>Chicago gave "thousands of SUV their first chance to surmount an obstacle
>bigger than a speed bump....By the hundreds, the very vehicles that in ads
>scale steep mountainsides and cruise across oceans of snow have been
>getting stuck in the streets of Chicago. And the damage hasn't been limited
>to pride and towing charges. many stuck drivers are spinning their wheels
>so furiously that they burn out their transmissions, or worse."
>____________________________________
>Peter Anderson
>RecycleWorlds Consulting
>4513 Vernon Blvd. Ste. 15
>Madison, WI 53705-4964
>Phone:(608) 231-1100/Fax: (608) 233-0011
>E-mail:recycle@msn.fullfeed.com
>