The Suv's of America

Sean Smith
Week 5
Journal

The purpose of the author writing this paper was to compare how wasteful SUV’s are in comparison to compact cars. The author makes a mention to how America’s fuel consumption is greater because of people who drive SUV’s. The fact that Americans drive so many SUV’s means the more fuel we’d need to operate them. This was mentioned in the essay as being one of the reasons terrorism from the Mideast was started. The Idea is that the petrodollars transmigrate from the Gas ‘n’ Go to the oil sheiks to the hands of maniacs wielding AK-47’s. There is also a setting about the safety of SUV’s. The author makes the point that he has to drive 100 miles north of New York to get to his home. He states that there are many steep driveways and miles of dirt roads to drive through. Also, when it snows heavily and the sun starts to melt the snow by the time night falls the half melted snow refreezes. This creates the dangerous condition know as black ice. His tones in telling his readers is to be convincing and to make the reader believe that it’s good to have an SUV in those conditions. It’s easier to get through dirt roads in a larger vehicle and it also may be safer in an accident. The sense of security of being in a huge Chevy Tahoe verse a Nissan Sentra in an accident is overwhelming. The unsafe concept to an SUV is that they have the potential to rollover a lot quicker then a compact car. The author argued that it’s all in how the driver is handling the vehicle. The view was made that when operating an SUV you have to take all corners and turns slow and to allow plenty of distance between you and the drivers in front of you. This will reduce your chances of having to make quick spur of the moment stops which therefore would drastically reduce your changes of the SUV flipping over in the first place. The author also makes the claim that when you compare SUV’s to compact cars and the amount of gas used you should also compare bigger houses to...