My Prius & My SUV - do I need it?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bigmahma @ May 23 2007, 06:41 PM) [snapback]448574[/snapback]</div>

Nice tits.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bigmahma @ May 23 2007, 06:41 PM) [snapback]448574[/snapback]</div>

If she is that bad of a driver, what happens when she is reaching for a cell phone or applying eye liner and she runs off the road, over corrects and that "BIG SUV" rolls over. well designed small is better than poor designed big..............

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bigmahma @ May 23 2007, 06:41 PM) [snapback]448574[/snapback]</div>

In a word, yes.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bigmahma @ May 23 2007, 06:41 PM) [snapback]448574[/snapback]</div>

Thinking? You're giving yourself too much credit. Have you ever thought about just *asking her what SHE wants* and then doing that? It might give you more time to compare and contrast longneck vs. can.

 

I was going to ask if she comes when you call her...but I'm afraid the moderators will think I'm referring to phone sex...and they'll ban me again!!
[laughing]

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bigmahma @ May 23 2007, 07:20 PM) [snapback]448593[/snapback]</div>

Wow! Someone who actually follows the Motor Vehicle Code. From the description she should be driving the Prius. The vehicle is bought. There is no point to the discussion. I wish you many years of happiness with your vehicles.

 

You pretty much echo my feelings exactly.

I bought a Prius for commuting, which I totally love. Best car ever made.
I bought my wife a Tahoe to protect her and the kids from the homicidal maniacs on the road. It has already been hit once. Severe damage to the hitter, only minor bumper damage to the Tahoe. Kids were not injured.

She only drives a few miles a week, and the heavy frame means more safety. (it is a real pile of junk though).

We are in the process of moving away from here. Once we escape from Maryland we plan to buy a Highlander hybrid for her. But, not until we are safely away from Maryland.

 

Same situation as yourself. I have 2 cars, my 4Runner and my Prius. Love both of them, but HATE filling the tank these days!

Motivation for Prius, no need to waste all the oil and give yet more money to the damn greedy oil companies which are raping americans daily. (ok just a little hostility there )

I have decided I can't do without the suv, kinda a waste considering it sits around much of the time, but when it comes time to tow items, the little pri just can't cut it.

What I think folks are realizing now with gas prices, is do they really need the SUV? I see a woman drive by me at least daily with all the kids packed in her HUGE caddy SUV and I just laugh. It must be nice to be wealthy enough to not care how much money you waste at a gas pump.

The mentality of some folks amaze me......My neighbor in the middle of June-July last year traded in her Civic on a Trailblazer, I just laughed when I saw her with it, so stupid. Now her house is being forclosed upon shortly, guessing she wished she had the Civic back.

I would rather have a 2nd car than give them any more money...

thats my 2 cents.

 

I really don't understand the "I have to have a big SUV" to be safe... there are plenty of safe cars on the road.. but if you have the money and want to waste it on a big tank- who are we to tell you not to?

I had never heard of Brandenton FL until a few months ago- a client of ours just moved out there... Cheaper housing they said.

I love 4 wheeling and camping, but i gave up my 4x4's it just was killing me. Even when I kept them as second vehicles, just sucked the gas and I felt "bad" for letting it just sit... I don't enjoy letting the vehicles just sit.

My friend teases my because I sold my truck and bought a Yaris as a spare vehicle, and I call it my gas guzzler- it ONLY gets 38 mpg on average.

 

piling on with the "SUV is safer" argument. Total BS. Your exhibiting paranoid tendencies. Plane slides off runway kills child in car. i dont care what your driving your not gonna beat a 747. Have a little faith in some higher power and your destiny. Give your kids a brighter future. Take one huge obstructive killing wasteful SUV off the road. I cant see past them on my bicycle and their fricking rearviews are a B#tch to slide past.

 

I can fully empathize with the dilemma. I deal with a long commute and acute road rage on a daily basis. My Mom lives in fear I will be squashed in my tiny Prius by a truck driver! I sorely miss my Acura MDX. If you can afford to keep both of them, then do it! At least she isn't driving a Suburban or Escalade. The MDX is an amazing SUV!

Oh...and the "men are better drivers" comment. That is so not true. It's actually ludicrous.

While I do agree that soccer Moms make horrible drivers, as they are often distracted by the kids, cell phone, etc...Men are the ones who usually tailgate and initiate road rage.

I, being a single professional female, who has never caused an accident, nor had a ticket, consider myself to be a top notch driver.

 

I have 2 coworkers who have MDX's and one who has a Pilot (same car but not as luxurious) and they all love their cars. Maybe they don't need all that extra room all the time but they have everything they want/need but they get jealous when they find out that it only takes $25-30 for me to fill my Prius tank every 350-400 miles whereas they're paying $60-75 every 300 miles.

 

I think the flip-side of the coin is that by giving an SUV to your wife, you're actually making the road less safe for others (in addition to the pollution). You're also increasing the odds of your family being in a rollover accident, though it's true that SUVs would be a bit safer in a crash (59 fatalities per million vehicles vs. 71 per million with a mid-sized car, SUV's 5.2% safer than passenger cars: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/?p=3580).

Really, I don't think anyone "needs" to protect their family with a tank, however. The Prius has traction control, vehicle stability control, side curtain airbags, child-seat anchors and a four star crash test rating. When my baby girl is born this July, my wife is going to start carting her around in our green machine, and I feel confident that they're going to be safe.

The odds of them getting in an accident are low. The odds of them getting in an accident with an SUV are lower. The odds of them getting in a high-speed accident with an SUV are very low, and the odds of them being in a fatal accident are astronomically low.

Look at it this way. If we give all of our money to nuke-happy oil-rich terrorist states, or pollute the air so much our planet melts, then we're all dead!

 

The (pre-2007) MDX is basically an AWD Honda Odyssey minivan with hinged doors instead of sliding doors and a nicer interior. It really doesn't deserve to be put in the same category as gas guzzlers like a GMC Yukon or Ford Expedition. Mine gets 25mpg at a steady 65mph and is infinitely more comfortable than my Prius.

Anyone who claims a Prius is far better at accident avoidance than an MDX is basically full of sh*t. It pulls about about the same Gs on the skidpad as a Prius, something around the .74-.76 range, and it stops way better than a Prius on stock Goodyear Integritys. Mine has stability control (standard on Touring models I think). I'd say it's a tossup which one is better at avoiding accidents. It's nothing like a 6000lb+ truck-based full-size SUV.

Crash test ratings tell you how safe a car is when impacting a stationary object, or when hit from the side, compared against other cars of comparable weight. They tell you absolutely nothing about what happens to you when some soccer mom in a Yukon Denali yelling at her kid on the cell phone rear-ends you going 45mph while you're stopped at a stop light (this happened locally a few years back and the soccer mom went to prison - at least one person in the car she hit died from the injuries). Despite the fact that I think the Prius is a perfectly safe car, I totally understand why a parent would want to surround their kid with something more substantial, what with all the morons driving around in 5000lb+ trucks and SUVs.