SUVs Fare Poorly in Gov't Rollover Tests By Dee-Ann Durbin, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Sport utility vehicles performed poorly in the latest round of rollover tests released Tuesday, with none winning the government's highest safety rating.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released rollover ratings for 14 sport utility vehicles from the 2003 model year. Most got three out of five stars from the agency. None got a four- or five-star rollover rating. That shows little improvement from the 2001 model year, when the Pontiac Aztek was the first and only sport utility vehicle to win a four-star rollover rating from NHTSA. In 2002, the Aztek and the Acura MDX earned four stars. Two General Motors Corp. SUVs — the Cadillac Escalade EXT and the Chevy Avalanche — and the Mitsubishi Montero Sport received two-star ratings.

SUV rollover ratings became a big issue earlier this year when NHTSA chief Dr. Jeffrey Runge said at an auto conference that he "wouldn't buy my kid a two-star rollover vehicle if it was the last one on Earth."

Runge later said he only meant that buyers should be aware of the driver's experience when choosing a vehicle. But he has repeatedly expressed concern about SUVs' high rollover rates. More than 60 percent of fatalities in SUVs involve rollovers, compared to 22 percent of car deaths.

Continue reading>> http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=7&u=/ap/20030520/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/suv_rollover_2

S.U.V.'s under Fire

The New York Times

The 1990's economic boom, combined with cheap gasoline, turned the sport utility vehicle — the S.U.V. — into one of Detroit's most popular and profitable products. Lately, though, S.U.V.'s have been taking their lumps, including sharp criticism from the new head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Jeffrey Runge, one of the first federal officials to speak openly and honestly about rollovers and other hazards associated with a vehicle that the industry insists is essential to its economic survival. But most of the criticism remains focused on the vehicles' environmental costs and the huge contribution they make to the nation's growing dependence on imported oil. And properly so: S.U.V.'s produce, on average, 40 percent more carbon dioxide — the main global warming gas — than ordinary cars. They are also far less efficient than ordinary cars, averaging as little as 13 miles a gallon in city traffic. It's past time to change all that. Even the Bush administration is getting nervous. A massive loophole in federal law allows S.U.V.'s — and all other vehicles technically classified as light trucks, including minivans — to achieve an average fleetwide standard of 20.7 miles per gallon, compared with the 27.5 miles per gallon required of regular passenger cars. The administration recently proposed a slight increase from 20.7 miles per gallon to 22.2 miles per gallon by 2007. A bipartisan bill introduced last week in the Senate by Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Olympia Snowe, Republican of Maine, would reach much higher — a 33 percent increase for all light trucks to 27.5 miles per gallon by 2011. That would not only bring S.U.V.'s and minivans into line with the standard for ordinary cars but, when fully effective, would save this country a million barrels of oil a day — more than a third of what we now import from the Persian Gulf. Technologically, this is easily within Detroit's reach. Indeed, most manufacturers are already planning limited rollouts of gas/electric hybrid cars capable of 40 or more miles per gallon. The question is whether it is within Congress's reach. Similar proposals were crushed last year in the House and Senate by the combined weight of the automakers and the unions. The White House, fearing both, did nothing to help the cause. Perhaps this time it will: oil dependency is no less an issue, and the S.U.V. problem seems to have registered, however faintly, on the White House radar. But the bill will not succeed without the vigorous intervention of President Bush himself, who at the moment seems enraptured by the hydrogen car. Unfortunately, the hydrogen car and the vast infrastructure needed to fuel it are at best 20 years away, probably a lot longer, whereas the problems we face now — air pollution, global warming, oil dependency — require immediate attention. And that means making the cars we have now a lot cleaner and a lot more efficient — starting with S.U.V.'s.

Continue reading>> http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/09/opinion/09SUN2.html?ex=1045822846&ei=1&en=

NHTSA Head Claims SUVs Are Unsafe

ABCNews.com

For Chicago resident Nydia Gregory, sport utility vehicles are the way to go. "I feel safer in it for one thing," she said. In Atlanta, Mike Schoeffner agreed. "I feel safer in a brick home," he said. "I just feel safer in something that's sturdy." And car dealers like Rob Buchman are happy to oblige them: "A bigger vehicle equates to safety."

But the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Jeffrey Runge, said Tuesday in a speech at an auto-industry conference in Detroit that some of the SUVs are so dangerous, he wouldn't buy one for his daughter even "if it was the last one on Earth." These are strong words from an administration not known for getting all that tough on the auto industry. But when asked today if Runge would expand on his remarks, a spokesman said he would have nothing further to say.

Continue reading>> http://www.automobilemag.com/news/news_16_3/

NHTSA: SUVs not safe enough

CNN Money, New York

Top auto-safety regulator says SUVs vulnerable to rollover accidents due to high centers of gravity.

In another blow to one of automakers' most popular and profitable product lines, the top U.S. auto-safety regulator said sport/utility vehicles and pickup trucks aren't safe enough due to rollover risks and consumers should think twice about buying them, according to a published report Wednesday.

"The thing I don't understand is people, when they choose to buy a vehicle, they might go sit in it and say, 'Gee, I feel safe,'" said Dr. Jeffery Runge, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to the Wall Street Journal. "Well, sorry, but you know gut instinct is great for a lot of stuff, but it's not very good for buying a safe automobile."

Continue reading>> http://money.cnn.com/2003/01/15/news/suvs/

The Typical SUV Driver

National Public Radio

Auto-makers know their customers well and market SUVs for a certain type of customer -- the "self-centered", "me-first" driver.

"Hoping to decrease U.S. dependence on foreign oil, a non-profit organization releases a new ad campaign that links sport utility vehicles to terrorist funding. NPR's Steve Inskeep talks with Keith Bradsher of The New York Times, author of 'High and Mighty: SUVs -- The World's Most Dangerous Vehicle and How They Got That Way.'"

Continue reading>> http://www.planetizen.com/news/item.php?id=8360

It's good to see mainstream America wrestle with the blowback from its lust for turbo-driven fuel consumption. It's just too bad Huffington doesn't have the guts to point to the real belligerant behind the oil economy - America itself. America is the biggest player in the global oil cartel, with an economy so addicted to fuel that only the Middle East can meet the demand. The countries Huffington flashes on her map? Every one of them is or has been an American ally or client state, and every one of them has been supplied with American arms. "George" isn't supporting al-Qaida when he goes to the pump - he's supporting American foreign policy. Still, hats of to Huffington for opening up this can of worms. Once you get past the-West-against-the-rest jingo, the ads make a strange kind of sense. The SUV as a weapon of mass destruction? Just check out the destructive force of global warming and America's bloody hunger to control Iraq's multi-billion-dollar reserves of crude.

Continue reading>> http://www.adbusters.org/debate/suv_terror/

It's not just a Hummer, it's a tax break By Brad Wong, Seattle Post Intelligencer Reporter

Standing next to his shiny Hummer H2, John Brightbill recounted a perk that a fellow owner noted about driving this immense sport utility vehicle. "He said some young women wanted to drive around the block with him," said Brightbill, a real estate broker. "That hasn't happened to me yet."

But some people have a more practical reason for laying down $50,000 to $60,000 to buy an H2: a federal tax deduction of nearly $38,000. "The government is sort of subsidizing people for buying these land yachts," said Henry Pierman, a certified public accountant with Hauser & Associates in Bellevue. "It's one of those odd things that happen. I would say maybe half of the CPAs are aware of this loophole."

Continue reading>> http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/104601_hummer17.shtml

"Have you ever wondered why sport utility vehicle drivers seem like such assholes? Surely it's no coincidence that Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, tours Washington in one of the biggest SUVs on the market, the Cadillac Escalade, or that Jesse Ventura loves the Lincoln Navigator.

Well, according to New York Times reporter Keith Bradsher's new book, "High and Mighty," the connection between the two isn't a coincidence. Unlike any other vehicle before it, the SUV is the car of choice for the nation's most self-centered people; and the bigger the SUV, the more of a jerk its driver is likely to be. ..."

Continue reading>> http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=14839

" We've had an overwhelming response to the suggestion in my column that we mount a citizens' ad campaign aimed at getting people to stop driving SUVs and other gas-guzzling vehicles -- and jolting our leaders into taking action. It's been a busy and productive week. Lawrence Bender, producer of "Pulp Fiction" and "Good Will Hunting," and director Scott Burns, co-creator of the "Got Milk?" ad campaign, have agreed to donate their services to make these ads a reality through A Band Apart, Bender's production company. To get these ads on the air we are establishing a nonprofit fund for the sole purpose of creating them. Many of you have asked where you can contribute. The Natural Resources Defense Council was kind enough to take donations for an interim period, but now that we've got our independent fund up and running, please send your donations to: SUV Ad Fund/A Band Apart 7966 Beverly Blvd. 2nd Floor Los Angeles, CA 90048..."

Continue reading>> http://www.salon.com/news/col/huff/2002/10/29/suv_ad/index.html

"The Bush team's ridiculous and wildly inflammatory anti-drug ads are still running in heavy rotation. You know the ads I'm talking about -- the ones where innocent-looking, middle-class teens admit their culpability for the consequences of the drug trade. "I helped blow up buildings," says one doe-eyed youth.

So if that is legitimate logic, and our president says that it is, I wonder if we might turn the tables on him by starting a little ad campaign of our own to sabotage another misguided Bush campaign: the War on Conservation. The thought occurred to me after the startling announcement that the administration was taking precious time off from an actual, necessary war -- the one on terrorism -- to sue the state of California for daring to require that carmakers put more energy-efficient models on the road..."

Continue reading>> http://www.salon.com/news/col/huff/2002/10/22/oil/index.html

Other Sites:

"Since the events of September 11th, 2001, those of Allah's faithful wishing to support Global Jihad have faced an ever-increasing diversity of challenges. Islamic charities have been shuttered and seen their assets seized by jack-booted federal agents. Sleeper-cells of like-minded brothers have been forced deeper into hiding and even exile. Many in our movement have actually gone over to the other side, volunteering information to the infidel in places like Detroit and Portland. In addition to these challenges, there are also the negative public-relations ramifications inherent in the Glorious September Blessing itself. So what is the best method for a Brother in Islam to support Jihad in these difficult times?"

Continue reading>> http://www.spies.com/~gus/osama/

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