even I, and SUV driver, see excess in these vehicles. we’ve been looking at new cars, and found that the VW Toureag weighs 6,500 pounds, which got me to thinking…

why haven’t the auto makers and the gob’ment looked at composites for passenger cars?

Reaps on June 3, 2008 at 7:48 PM

I know how you feel man. I’ve got an 05 GTO and it got axed in 2006. I’m glad I grabbed it. That’s the worst part of all this high gas cr*p; some really sweet hot rods are going extinct just when it was starting to get interesting. I just don’t like the hybrids; buddy of mine had an Insight for a couple of years, but it sucked so he sold it and got a Lancer Evo..I think instead of going the Prius route, I’ll just take the goat out on weekends and bike to work during the week. Or there’s the Bobby Boucher method..break out the riding lawnmowers.

For my own personally jaundiced reasons, Ed, this sounds like good news to me…

TexasJew: See you in Vegas in November. ;-)

Alden Pyle on June 3, 2008 at 9:37 PM

I’ll drink to that!

Last time I checked this is a FREE country

you may want to check again…

and every single person has the CHOICE

only to kill babies…

Instead of a baby?

fourstringfuror on June 3, 2008 at 12:58 PM

I know I’m late on this, but yeah. Every time I’ve seriously talked about having another kid, husband adopts me a cat. We have two cats, and yeah, they’re hella cheaper, and listen better too.

I should have elaborated. : )

CapitalistPig on June 3, 2008 at 9:33 PM
My H3 is not an H1, by the way. Please get your figures straight..
I’m an oil and gas exploration geologist, so I really don’t give that whole Prius/electric car crap a lot of thought. I’m really busy these days.

And I have seen (since the early 70′s) all these idiot schemes fall apart, as soon as someone finally figures up the bill. The market cures all ills, I have found. Trust the market, not the scumbag politicians.

I didn’t vote for the schmucks who pushed through the ethanol subsidy, which is starving millions right now, or the cretins who think that locking up ANWR and our coastlines to drilling is a really good idea.

And I certainly don’t like McCain’s good buddy Lieberman’s multi-trillion dollar Carbon Credit scam. ‘Not prudent”, as Pappa Bush would say..

The H2 is a bit more than I need right now, and we’re getting a kicker Ford Expedition with all the bells and whistles for family trips, but I love my little Hummer!

Buzzy -

You want your pay to go up? Don’t work for someone. Work for yourself. Start a business out of your home. Since you’re a conservative – this should fit in well with your life philosophy. Bitching and Whining about pay is for liberals and socialists.

Also, America will never be a third world nation. Be a little more positive. Americans never back down from a challenge, or a fight. Especially if it’s self preservation.

NeoConSnakePlissken on June 3, 2008 at 12:28 PM

OutFriggin’Standing! That is exactly correct. Well said, NeoConSnakePlissken!

We live in the most prosperous nation on the face of the earth. Our poor people are fat, for pete’s sake. There is more opportunity here than can possibly be sated. You just have to reach out and grab it and be willing to fail just one less time than you try.

Owning your own business is definitely the way to go. I believe you’ll only fully appreciate what it means to be a truely Free American by finding a need and filling it.

Highly reccommended!

Somehow, the idea exists that if you drive one of these 8000 lb steel beasts that makes you more of a man, when in fact, all it does is make you look like a fool.

That’s a nice attitude for someone with the handle ‘capitalist pig’. Maybe you should change your handle to ‘communist whiner’. The response was to the other dude claiming that every Hummer owner was ‘compensating’ for something. So your response to our response is ‘there’s an attitude that it makes you more of a man’. I guess you just weren’t keeping up with the conversation.

Now, I don’t feel a need to defend myself. But I do feel like making other people feel stupid about the costs of the vehicle. The Hummer was the least expensive vehicle I could buy. Why? Because of the tax break that I got with it.

I got it used, paid $35,000 for it even though it had $40,000 worth of extra upgrades. I took the $35,000 off of my taxes. At 35% tax rate, that means that I would have had to pay 12,250 in taxes if I had gotten a different vehicle. So it cost me $22,750. How many 2 year old cars could I get for that price?

It is actually smaller in length than MOST Cadillacs and drives more like a car than you might imagine. . . though I am certain that most of the readers here would have to imagine.

Once I get it paid for, I can keep it and it becomes an INSTANT classic. Car collectors will be willing to pay a premium for this vehicle should I decide to sell it or hand it down to the next generation. Generally vehicles aren’t investments. . . but I’d be willing to bet this H2 is worth 2x what I paid for it in 15 years (it stays garaged and well maintained – my baby).

So I guess I need some lessons from the Capitalist Pig the next time I invest to make sure that I am not a ‘fool’. The 4×4 is great and I’ll never need to get another 4×4 vehicle in my life. Top of the line GM still ain’t too bad.

If you have a problem with Hummers dont drive one, that simple.

This too shall pass, and Hummer WILL be sold to another company if GM drops it.

I have a Hummer and LOVE it.

Whoever gets the most attention from the [Hooters] waitresses wins. . . deal?

The Hummer driver will win that one easily … because it will be clear to any observant Hooters waitress that he’s got more money than sense and is eager to try to impress people by spending it lavishly — and therefore it will be easy for her to coax a big tip out of him if she just flirts a little, laughs at his jokes, and acts like she really likes him.

But hey — buy what you want, I don’t really care: this is America, so you’re not obligated to needs-justify how you spend your money. I don’t particularly like getting stuck behind those behemoths on the road, because it’s impossible to see around them in my car, they’re too wide to lane-split past on a motorcycle, and it seems at least half their drivers are either incompetent (can’t keep the thing in its lane or park it without spilling over into another space) or jerks (tailgating, not using turn signals, cutting other drivers off). That latter group are the only ones who are clearly overcompensating for something. But as someone who has a lot of unnecessary toys that go fast or make a lot of noise or both myself, I’m not going to tell somebody else that they shouldn’t be able to get whatever they want if they can afford it.

I’m just a big dopey American guy! I love my big scary doberman, I own lots of guns, eat way too much BBQ, drink lots ( I mean LOTS) of ice cold beer, I could get whip lash if a herd of cute girls in bikinis walk on by, and nothing is better than rock n roll music.

I’m a former Marine, I’ve put it on the line, I’m a little over the top but life is friggin short, I’m not some weenie “compensating” for anything I just know what I like, and hell I’m paying for it so no one should give a rat’s ass what I’m driving or how much gas I use. This is America, you get what you can afford. Everyone’s budget is different, whether it’s outlandish vacations, extravegant dinners, or gas guzzling cars.

Spoken like a real Prius Pussy.

TexasJew on June 3, 2008 at 8:39 PM

Come on now, that’s a silly argument, and in fact it makes the point. Somehow, the idea exists that if you drive one of these 8000 lb steel beasts that makes you more of a man, when in fact, all it does is make you look like a fool.
If you really were looking for 4×4 performance, I can think of about a half dozen other SUV’s which are cheaper and don’t suck up gas by the gallon every time you are idling at a light. Besides, most of the ones I have seen are pretty shiny with no speck of mud anywhere.

Also, has anyone ever given thought to just how these people who own these behemoths are contributing to the global demand for oil, one for which we all pay, regardless if we drive a Prius or a Hummer?

Texas Jew:

Spoken like a real Prius Pussy.

I don’t own a Prius. I take the bus to work. Actually, now I ride a bicycle since it’s warm. I’m really a pussy, huh.

You’ve actually met women?

You are a clever, funny guy. It’s clear that you must get plenty of women.

dave742 on June 3, 2008 at 4:40 PM

Spoken like a real Prius Pussy.
You’ve actually met women?

You must adhere to the Dave Ramsey school of finance ;)

Aggie85 on June 3, 2008 at 5:25 PM

Not sure what that means, but if it means that i’m a poor cheap b@stard and I do whatever I can to get the best deal then thats me.. >:D

I also build my own PC’s and overclock them.. :D

Not that it’s not kewl. I still want one.

Every woman I have ever met knows that people who buy Hummers are compensating.

dave742 on June 3, 2008 at 4:40 PM

I didn’t even know women liked them before I bought mine off of Ebay. It was a pleasant surprise to me. The funny thing is that even if it were to overcompensate (though I’ve never had any complaints), it wouldn’t matter. A woman could turn a girl into a lesbian with an H2.

I was also happy to see smiles on kids’ faces as I’d pass them. They would smile and laugh and point and be like OOOH OOOH! That always made me feel kinda good too.

As for the mileage, you need to anticipate with the brakes so that you don’t come to a complete stop. Fill up the tires as high as they recommend. Think ROLL! If you want to get fancy, you could always put it into neutral when going downhill / pulling up to a stop. You can see immediate results when you do this if you have it on the ‘instant fuel economy’ setting in the on board computer.

Don’t worry, I’ll keep them LHD.

Now is a great time to get that too-big SUV.

As a woman, I have to agree with that!

Do women think the opposite about male Smart Car owners?