I LOVE my gigantic SUV.

Funny, I get offers all the time. 

Wait, what?

You broke up with the pro cheerleader girl who you've been going on and on and on and on and on about?

Dude, what happened?  Or at least link to the Padded Room post where you tell all.

Sorry about your dog (and I do mean that sincerely).  :(

Try hyper-driving. Key element is learning the art of slow starts, coasting and slow stops. I have a 4700 pound SUV. Last year drove to Tahoe from Sun Valley and back, got 30.5 miles to the gallon. Went 1 to 5 over the speed limit. Did not read this entire thread, so I apologize if this is old news.

Point is, when people criticize you because of your vehicle choice, you can wow them with your mileage stats. Could be said it's not about the vehicle, it is about the brain directing it.

[sweetblog]

C'mon, I've said like two things on here about 'er...  Ok, maybe more but you would too if your girl was so hot when she shit the toilet water boiled...  Ever dated a really hot girl tho?  It's a huge pain in the ass, seriously.  Like Everest-High maintainance (and I didn't have an oxygen mask) - it gets to wear on you after a while.  It all culminated in a huge drunken blowout that spanned from one end of Mohegan Sun to the other if you really want to know.  It was the straw that broke the camel's back.  She woke up in the morning wondering where I was.  I still love the girl and we talk but she keeps trying to get back together and no way will I do that to myself.  It's tempting- VERY tempting- but we're just too different and stress is something I get at work, not something I want to go home to no matter now nice the scenery is.  Like I told her- maybe someday we can try again, but that time is not now.  I think my next girlfriend will be fat, ugly or maybe an amputee/hunchback/midget.  It has got to be easier. 

[/sweetblog]



Thaks for the doggie vibes man, that shizz sucks.  Bad. 

DoWork - you rule. That is all. 

DW, loosing your dog totally sucks and I am very sorry to hear! 6 months now and I miss my boy every day.




Regarding hot girlfriends....
A quote from "the swinging medalions"- If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life, never make a pretty woman your wife, so from my personal point of view, get an ugly girl to marry you......

Hey, flattery will get you everywhere with me, buddy...  (pick up your Die Living shirt yet BTW?) 


Edit:  I really don't feel awesome about it.  Knowing you have to do something doesn't make it easy, especially when it hurts someone you care about.  But thanks for the compliment, it makes me feel better dude 

Edited by Do Work - 7/2/2009 at 06:15 pm GMT

Fixed it for ya

 I'm probably too high maintenance. I think he should stick with the hunchback mail-order bride.

Hyper-miling is a slow, ponderous death! It only simulates driving, but barely! 

 DoWork CoSkiGirl lives in ski country, is athletic, not high maintenance and single.

I dunno, I think I may be damaged goods at this point... 

Welllllll Duh!

I never dated a really hot girl, but that's because I'm not a dude, dude.

Anyway, you don't want a fat or ugly girl.  You want a nerd.  Basically a girl who self-identifies as smart rather than beautiful.  Many of them are attractive, but don't know it.

Downside is, you might have to memorize all of Star Trek to impress her.  

;-)

How YOU doin'???  

Well, y'know just cuz you're not a dude doesn't mean you've never dated a hot girl

Smart = beautiful.  I couldn't agree more...  Now where did i put that library membership card????   

Sooooo...  What's your favorite Star Trek episode? 

I drive a Subaru Outback that gets 26.5 mpg and an AWD Astro Van that gets 18.5 mpg.  The Subaru fills up with gear very fast and isn't that great for mileage.  I might be buying a 1500 RAM Truck this week.  It will pull all of my trailers and carry all of the gear and probably do about as well as the Van.  I will probably not drive the truck every day.  I would really like to convert a small 4WD truck or Subaru Legacy to an electric vehicle.  I could drive something like that almost everyday here in the hole.  My wife has been bike commuting for several weeks now.  We could get our gas consumption way down. 

I wouldn't have to memorize any Star Trek.  I already know all about it.  I only ever had 1 girlfriend who was into Sci-Fi like I am.  She was very smart, unfourtunatly she wasn't hot enough because she really liked to eat lots of raw cookie dough every night.  I had to go see the latest Terminator movie with another woman because my wife refused and her husband wasn't interested.  Nerds Rule!

That's HAWT!   

mmm...cookie dough...

I've got a 2005 1500 Ram 4x4, hemi no less, I love it. Took it on a 4,100 mile trip last Sept. got 19 mpg overall most of the miles were 4 lane, But just around home I get 16 mpg ave. I smile when I'm driving it, well maybe not when I fill it up at the pump.
I couldn't resist a trip down the salt flats - that was also included in the 19 mpg ave.

There must be something wrong with your ASTRO.  I got a combined 21 mpg on the Wagon, and on the highway I was able to get 28 mpg on the highway when trying to save gas.

Oh wait, you guys don't have real gallon, but I still think I was getting better milage in the Caprice Wagon than you in the Astro.  What were you towing?

I rented a Dodge pick-em-up with the 5.7 L Hemi for a week.   I wonder how long my driver's license would last if I had one of those; it's awfully tempting to keep your foot on the loud pedal a little too long.  

18.5 is actually good for the Astro.   It and the outback are AWD which really cuts it down.  The Subie should be getting 30 + if it was 2WD.  I have a raft and a job trailer.  I used to have a Hobie cat.  The job trailer is really heavy.  The raft not so much.  My wife rides and jumps horses. 

Geez, she must have strong legs....Does she take a running start or is the horse lying down?

Nice TPJ, I have only an air mattress and a tent with a pro pain heater. I used to have a maltese dog; it wasn't very heavy. My wife doesn't ride, she skis and she jumps my ass on a regular basis. Please forgive my postings, I couldn't hellp myself it's July don't you know??

From: http://dymaxionworld.blogspot.com/2007/06/myth-of-rational-consumer.html
Quote:

...because the entire consumer economy in which we live is explicitly based on appealing to our primitive side. Lest you think I'm exaggerating, you should read Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker piece from a while back about SUV marketing and "the Lizard Brain". Just a small excerpt:

"The No. 1 feeling is that everything surrounding you should be round and soft, and should give," Rapaille told me. "There should be air bags everywhere. Then there's this notion that you need to be up high. That's a contradiction, because the people who buy these S.U.V.s know at the cortex level that if you are high there is more chance of a rollover. But at the reptilian level they think that if I am bigger and taller I'm safer. You feel secure because you are higher and dominate and look down. That you can look down is psychologically a very powerful notion. And what was the key element of safety when you were a child? It was that your mother fed you, and there was warm liquid.

That's why cupholders are absolutely crucial for safety. If there is a car that has no cupholder, it is not safe. If I can put my coffee there, if I can have my food, if everything is round, if it's soft, and if I'm high, then I feel safe. It's amazing that intelligent, educated women will look at a car and the first thing they will look at is how many cupholders it has." Cupholders = safety.

/quote

So there you have it.  SUV's are marketted to the Lizard Brain.  Google the concept it's cool.

^^^ The guy, Rapaille, being quoted there has his share of detractors, ranging from some at Chrysler saying he inflated the importance and impact of his work there to psychologists who disagree with his research and theories. 

It's easy to laugh at women wanting cupholders if you don't carpool 5 kids to/from soccer.   Statistically Chevy Suburbans, the classic soccer mom SUV, are pretty darn safe.  Compare a Suburban loaded with 5 kids and backpacks and a sedan loaded with 5 kids and backpacks -- oh wait, that means putting a couple kids up front exposed to airbags, ain't gonna be enhancing safety there.  Suffer the effects of NE potholes a few times in a minivan and the Suburban starts looking awfully good by contrast, again, both in net cost to own for driving in that physical environment and safety. 

Marketers definitely do, and should, try to manipulate consumers.  True for hybrids and for SUVs, true for Patagonia, true for groceries at Whole Foods.  The best manipulation is substance, see Patagonia. 

It may be shocking to the college-educated but people ain't that stupid. 

Best post of the month.

$.02 more on cars (it's a slow morning):

Cupholders -- what's wrong with them?  Even fuel efficient cars have them.  The only people who don't want them are those who've never spilled a cup of hot coffee on their crotch.

Car height -- I can't speak to the psychology of high-ridng SUVs, but at the other end of the spectrum, our second car is relatively low to the ground, and when my parents last visited they had a hard time lowering themselves into it.  Many SUVs have a more natural height for getting into.  Just because a car has an SUV-like height doesn't make it fuel-inefficient (example: Ford Escape Hybrid).

 

Not sure I agree on Chevy Suburbans per se -- I've seen too many in downtown DC with just a driver and no passengers to be neutral on them -- but I do agree with the gist of what you're saying.  It's very easy for someone with no kids to put down SUVs as some kind of psychological "cowboy" thing -- I used to do it myself.  But once you have kids, attending different schools, with multiple sports, SUVs are very functional.  I think we as a society have to get beyond the "either/or" and "holier than thou" mindset on this and increase the pressure on car manufacturers to build cars that both meet these real (not just psychological) needs and are not gas hogs.

Also, there are relatively easy actions we can take now: 

1. You buy a car for carpooling, use it for carpooling: call/e-mail around and volunteer to pick up the other team members and take them to the game (or ski slopes).  

2.  Check your tire pressure frequently.

3.  When you're parked, turn off the engine.  We're all tough skiers; we don't need to keep the heat on while putting on our boots.

4.  When you buy your next car, vote with your feet (so to speak): buy the most fuel efficient option among the choices that have the functions you need.

OK, rant over.  Did I mention it was a slow day....

Quote:
Ever since the new Star Trek: Reboot came out, girls like Star Trek now.   That's right, teenage girls are now perving over the likes of Chris Pine, Karl Urban, and Zachary Quinto; and also are rediscovering the original series. 

Better practice that Vulcan salute, DoWork.