Observation about "going Green."

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Kierasmom
I love my kids

Member since 5/05

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Name:
Jenn

Re: Observation about "going Green."

Posted by KellyFG

Posted by Kierasmom

I just finished reading most of the posts and I just wanted to add something in. To the people that said my parents had mini-vans or station wagons-those cars did and still do not get much better mileage than a SUV does. For example the Honda Pilot gets 16/22 mpg. The Honda Odyssey gets 16/23. The Pilot has a tank of 20.4 gallons, the Odyssey has 21. The sports car that Honda puts out, the S2000, gets 18/25 mpg but it's tank is only 13.2 gallons-and it has to use Premium gas.

So just looking at the above you can see that SUV's are not the only gas guzzlers out there. They get the bad rap because they are the easy target. Minivans are not the solution for families. We actually looked into a minivan when we get our car 3 years ago and didn't get one because that are not as safe as SUV's and you really don't save on gas or the price of the car at all.

As far as the comment about the crazy soccer moms weaving in and out while talking on the phone with the DVD going, etc, I'm sorry but I don't get cut off by nearly as many SUV's as I do people in sports cars while talking on their phones. People that drive Porsche's drive me crazy. Why do you need a car that goes that fast? People that drive sports cars are the ones that drive nuts because the weave in and out of lanes and they constantly cut people off. So let's not blame the soccer moms here.

And one more thing, about how our parents did it and why can't we just have normal sized cars. I don't know about you guys, but I did not have a car seat when I was a child. Car seats take up a lot more room than a baby's butt. My mom drove me home from the hospital in a moses basket on the floor. Kids in NY have to be in car seats until they are about 8 years old. The regulations, which I am not disagreeing with, are practically forcing parents to get SUV's and minivans. When I was a kid we had one mom pick kids up from school and carpool the kids home. We use to just pack kids in the back of the car without seatbelts-that's just how it was. You can't do that today because you need a car seat for all of the kids. It's crazy but that's how it is. And what it's forcing people to do is buy bigger cars. One of the things we should be focusing on is making the cars safer so that the kids don't have to be in seats for that long. That would allow a lot of parents to get smaller cars because the car seats wouldn't take up the whole back seat.

First of all, I'm not "blaming" the soccer moms for the problems the world is facing, I'm just stating something I see almost daily on Long Island. If you see something different I can't argue with that, however it does not make me wrong.
I have said multiple times on this thread(and others) that I personally believe people should make choices that are best for their family. If that means they need one large vehicle to accomodate their children & belongings or whatever than I can agree with that. I personally( and again this is just how *I* feel & it doesn't make it the law) cannot support or understand why so many families have TWO large vehicles that are both big gas burners. And BTW its more than MPG, its about emissions for me too, I try to look at the whole package.
I have two kids, one college age & the other a teenager & while I don't have strollers & diaper bags anymore I do have a 14 year old that likes to bring a pack of friends where ever we go. My car seats 5, that is the way it is. I don't feel like I'm punishing her or neglecting her because my vehicle doesn't seat nine.

I never said that you were blaming the soccer moms for the problems the world is facing. But you did blame them for making it feel like Long Island is not a safe place to drive. I simply stated that I don't think the soccer moms are the only ones to blame here. I constantly get cut off by sports cars more than I do SUV's.

I can't comment on the emissions of the cars I posted because the Honda website just says they are rated as an Ultra-Low Emission Vehicles. They don't give specifics. But they don't say that about the sports car so I'm not sure if the emissions are worse for the sports car. I won't comment on something that I'm not sure of.

I agree with you about why do families need 2 large cars. As I previously stated in another post we have my SUV and a Camry. We use the camry when we are not hauling around a bunch of things, when we take long trips and when one of us goes out with my daughter.

My whole point that I am making is that SUVs get the blame because they are the easiest target. But there are other cars out there that are just as bad. Yet people never complain about them. People don't say anything about minivans or sports cars being gas guzzlers. I'd also be curious to know about limo's. To me it would seem like they eat up gas but yet Hollywood people that preach about going green will drive them around with only one person or two people in the car. I could be wrong about them but I can't imagine they don't eat up gas.

Posted 1/15/08 8:45 PM