Finger Pointers and Suv’s

February of 2009 I was helping a friend with a paper route. I got to one driveway where I was greeted by the home owner who I handed his paper personally. He started making small talk about the weather and other things. While we were talking, his neighbor across the street was pulling out of their driveway in a Ford Expedition. This prompted my newspaper customer to make a negative reference to their vehicle of choice as it drove down the street. He clearly said "Guy’s like him and their big SUV’s really pollute the air". I kept my mouth shut for a couple seconds knowing this statement was wrong. I then asked "what are his other vehicles like". My customer said "That’s it, just that truck". I then started a conversation leaning in the direction of the larger vehicles being safer in some kinds of accidents.

While we were talking, I looked over his shoulder noticing he had 2 cars in his garage, one of them being a full size Cadillac which probably had a motor as big or bigger than the SUV he was complaining about. Next to the Cadillac was a Toyota sedan. I didn’t say anything about my observations while we were talking, but here was a example of a two vehicle home complaining about a one vehicle home simply because of the vehicle type chosen.

After driving away to continue the paper route, this conversation caused me to go into one of my ‘Curious George’ modes. For the next 45 minutes while doing the paper route, I paid close attention to the vehicles owned in this Menomonee Falls Wisconsin community.

Actually that guy with the Expedition he was complaining about had nothing on some of the other homes I spotted. Numerous homes in this community have two, three, and four vehicles. This was more common than someone might think. A few homes had a lot more, … A LOT MORE.

I found one home that I just have to talk about because it is obvious they use a lot of gasoline in their family. This home had a full size work truck which probably belonged to the man of the house. Then there were two mini vans which I’m assuming were the family transportation. Two rusty clunkers were parked in the driveway closer to the road. These apparently belonged to the teenagers in the home. My guess is these two cars are not tuned up and probably not driven in any efficient manner if driven by teenagers. Next to the garage was a trailer with two snowmobiles on it. Inside the garage was a dirt bike and the usual snow blower and lawn mower equipment. The back yard had a motor home on blocks for the winter.

I admit it, I felt this was something the guy complaining should see to cool his jets on SUV’s. The fact is that there are also some cars on our roads that use unforgivable amounts of gasoline. Think of what this does for pollution. I personally can verify this. Anyone who has been in the image gallery of my website and looked at the pictures of the vehicles I’ve owned in the past can see my old green Chevrolet Caprice wagon. This wagon had a 454 engine and a half ton rear end in it. I put more gasoline in this family style car than any truck or SUV I ever owned. Almost as fast as I fueled it up, it was gone. The car ran absolutely great. It had no fuel leaks, it was using every drop the way it was made to do when it was built. Definitely not a good vehicle for running around in, that’s why I got rid of it.

For all the finger pointers out there bad mouthing SUV’s, … yes you are entitled to your opinion, but take a look at the bigger picture, … the whole picture, before making that opinion public.

Reporter Joseph Toth

Washington Micro Bank BBS