My thread above, about wanting a minivan, made me think of this question. In light of our situation in the Middle East, and our dependence on foreign oil, should we drive more fuel efficient vehicles? Just because we can AFFORD an SUV, do we have the RIGHT to drive one? What about the earth's resources for future generations? We are such a CONSUMER DRIVEN society in North America!
I firmly believe that we have the technology to design VERY fuel efficient vehicles, but money "drives the train" in this world, and OIL money is a big part of the economy. What do you think?

By Dana on Friday, September 12, 2003 - 08:22 am:

I don't think "unpatriotic" is the right word. I would say thoughtlesly foolish is better.

Although, I don't think everyone driving around in tiny tin cans for fuel's sake is right either.

I am just as guilty as the next guy. I don't recycle. I used to be VERY frugal and reuse Bounty paper towels, wash the nice zip lock bagies, reuse butter dishes for storage...well you get the picture. However, since being with DH, I no longer do that.

I have always driven fuel effecient cars (and REALLY LOVED how long a tank would last), however, DH got me a V6 Camry. I hate needing to buy gas all the time, but boy, does it drive nicely. I have never driven in such comfort.

America is lazy. We seldome walk to where we are going. We have a machine that can do just about everything. Shoot, I have that Roomba vacuum doing my vacuuming while I sit at the computer. It uses a battery that will need to be tossed out one day, adding to pollution.

Perhaps their is a mid line between comfortable and wasteful. We really do take everythign we have for granted.

And I wonder, if everyone driving those fancy SUV's really can afford them? We are a country of DEBT! What a terrible place to be. Thankfully, both DH and I are very conscience of debt and own much of everything we have (only my car has a loan). Thank goodnes, we wouldn't be able to afford the daily expenses if we had debt.

I think if everyone lived within their cashable means, there would be far fewer SUV's and far fewer many other extras that use up our resources. I would really like to see a simplier life in America. I don't think we are heading in a good and safe direction.

Hmmm, did any of that have anything to do with your question?

By Juli4 on Friday, September 12, 2003 - 08:59 am:

I agree we are a country of debt. Just because people dirve fancy cars does not mean that they have money. They very well may be scraping the payment of the ceiling. Other cars other than suv's use a lot of fuel. Larger trucks that people drive because they want to. Not becuase they have a farm or something like that. So my question is why are we attacking suv's?!! They are good vehicles. They have room with cargo space. They are safer in a wreck. They drive nice and look nice. Our economy is drivin by money. They make them becuase of the suplly and demand. People buy them and so they make them. It is not anymore selfish than other things we can do to conserve resources. You can call a lot of other wasteful things "unpatriotic. And yes I do have the right to drive a suv. It is not unreasonable to dirve it and poses no more threat to any than other larger vehicles. I don't want laws made or people telling me what to drive. by the way I drive a minivan.

By Cybermommyx4 on Friday, September 12, 2003 - 12:59 pm:

I drive a minivan out of necessity (6 people in the family) but we also carpool whenever possible, bringing other children with us (eliminating the need for the other parent to be on the road at the same time) my minivan gets about 20-22 mpg...a lot of sedans get similar milage! My DH drives a Ford Focus, which gets 30-32 mpg, and I drive the car whenever it's available and I don't have all the kids with me. I think as long as we use common sense, and aren't deliberately wasteful, we are doing OK. BTW, my minivan is a '96 And a Ford Windstar (American made).

By Palmbchprincess on Friday, September 12, 2003 - 01:40 pm:

My Suv gets 20 MPG on average, and I really don't see how it is unpatriotic to drive one. Now granted it's made by Toyota, but most "American made" cars are not ALL american made. And our Focus is a piece of you-know-what, so we kinda got burned on American cars.

By Familyman on Friday, September 12, 2003 - 02:59 pm:

Wasteful yes, unpatriotic no.
I'm glad we all have the right to drive what we choose and live where we choose without the government deciding what's best for us.

By Melanie on Friday, September 12, 2003 - 06:14 pm:

We are a family of five and our SUV comes in very handy. When we go away for the weekend, my minivan simply cannot hold all the supplies plus carseats necessary to go. It's either the SUV or take two vehicles. Which do you think makes more sense?

I don't think it's wasteful or unpatriotic. I think it's nice to live in a country where we have options.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, September 12, 2003 - 09:51 pm:

Well, since I just live across the street from the clinic where I work, either hubby drives me across the street or I walk to work. The parking lot is on the other side of the clinic from where I live, so I think that walking to the clinic would be about the same as walking from home, so I usually leave my car at home.

For my school job, I have to drive, since that is about 2 miles away.

My grocery store is just on the other side of the clinic, too, but I drive there because it would be hard to carry groceries home. When the gas guy was here to install the gasline for the new stove I was getting, he was in the driveway. We desperately needed toilet paper. I told hubby I was going to the store. He said the guy's van was in the driveway. We didn't want to disturb the guy to move his van, so I walked to the store for the toilet paper.

Walmart is about a mile away. When I was carless last November, after I hit the deer, dd14 (13 then) needed some sewing supplies for her home ec class. So, we walked there and back. It was about 40-some degrees and we had a nice walk. Right after that, it got much colder and the walk wouldn't have been quite as much fun!

By Juli4 on Friday, September 12, 2003 - 09:57 pm:

We do not need to justify how much we drive or what vehicle we use. An suv is no more unpatriotic than anything other vehicle that gets worse gas mileage than say a Yugo. So why attack suv's and why do we feel the need to jsutify it?

Doesn't make sense. Isn't the ELF organization (or should I say enviromental terroists) that are attacking suv car lots and such? I am not sure but I think it is. I know they attack and have burned Humv's.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, September 12, 2003 - 10:59 pm:

Yes, it is the ELF organization that is attacking car lots. I don't think that is quite the right tactic, either. If they don't want to drive SUVs, then they don't have to buy one, but I don't think they should go all ballistic because other people want to drive them.

We don't drive an SUV because the inital purchase price is way out of our budget and feeding them to keep them running would be out of our budget. It costs enough to keep my Taurus running. Gas prices were recently $1.84, but had recently come down a few cents, still in the $1.70's somewhere.

Our other car is a Saturn. Hubby uses his car a lot for work, since he has to travel different places around the area to shoot pictures for the newspaper. He needs an economic car to drive.

By Daddyof3 on Thursday, September 18, 2003 - 01:35 pm:

The thought of a SUV being unpatriotic is Rediculous. You have the rightto drive what ever you wish. If we could afford one I would be the first in line for a Saturn Vue. AAnd if it is unpatriotic, around 1/4th to 1/2 the military is definatly very unpatriotic.

By Familyman on Thursday, September 18, 2003 - 02:46 pm:

You also have a right to say whatever you wish though some of those words would be considered unpatriotic. I can also remember a time when it was considered unpatriotic where I grew up to drive anything but an American car.
The people that say it is unpatriotic feel that you 'speak' through your consumer decisions. They also feel that my making a decision to drive a larger vechicle than you need (they pick on SUV's here) then you also choose to use more oil than you need to and since much of that oil comes from other countries, some of them that aren't too fond of the US, then you are supporting governments and people that hate us.
That's how they get that unpatriotic thing. It's not much different than the whole buy american and be patriotic thing that we've all heard. I don't think they're right on either count, but I do understand their logic.