Has anyone else noticed... (re: SUVs)

[myswtghst]

That the more expensive the SUV, the bigger idiot or asshole the driver is?

After driving four+ hours back from MI this morning, I had to come into work at 3PM, and I'm stuck here til 2AM. Since I'm tired, sore and a bit grumpy, I decided to run out on my dinner break to Portillo's, a lovely fast food joint that serves some of the best hot dogs and cheese fries ever. Side note: the restaurant is pretty well-known and often busy to the point that they don't use the speaker, just have a guy out there taking orders, so even the drive-thru usually takes 5-10 minutes, and I plan accordingly.

The place is about 5 minutes away from work, just take one major road to another, then pull a left turn into the place. On my way over, I'm behind a Mercedes SUV. The woman driving is hanging her arm out the window, driving slowly, not paying attention, etc. As we pull up near the restaurant, I do my usual, good driver schtick, and put on my blinker, wait a few seconds, then start pulling onto the median to wait to turn in. As I do this, she guns it, slams on her brakes, then hits her blinker to get over. Being a nice person, I slow down. Instead of just getting over, she slows down, forcing me to stop to keep her from hitting me as she FINALLY gets over. And of course, she drives very slowly through the parking lot up to the drive-thru, and I am stuck behind her. Dangit.

To make things better, I get to listen to her abuse the order-taker guy, act like an airhead not knowing what she wanted, smoking right into his face while she ordered, etc. She kept sitting when the line should have been moving up. Then, she puts the car in park and gets out, in the middle of the drive-thru, to adjust something in her trunk for several minutes, all while I get to sit there, wait and watch. In the end, it took nearly 20 minutes to get throught the drive-thru, and it was at least 90% because of this ditz.

This is why I always get anxious when I see the Mercedes/BMW/etc over-priced SUV's--the owners are usually self-centered, don't know how to drive the vehicles they paid too much for, and annoy me.

[iradney]

I know the feeling.
Here in Joburg, we have loads of soccer mommies driving around in 4X4s and they can barely handle the car. And of course, because they paid about the same amount of money you would for a flat, they think they own the road and drive accordingly....

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Around here it doesn't matter how expensive or fancy-schmancy the SUV is. Most of the people here who own SUVs don't know how to drive.

But then again, most people in this town don't know how to drive.

[edible_hat]

It depends - some of the most expensive SUVs I know of are real off-road vehicles, owned by off-road enthusiasts who actually leave the city sometimes.

But of the non-off-road variety, yep, they're all arseholes and there's a correlation between cost and asshattery.

[blas]

Women and huge vehicles. Scary thought. Multiple ton vehicle with stupid mother driving. There's a huge accident waiting to happen. Stupid mother who cannot handle multiple ton SUV as wide as Montana. There's another huge massacre waiting to happen.

Men and huge vehicles. Too much testosterone and the need to compensate for a tiny penis. Too much unnecessary aggravation. HUGE disaster waiting to happen.

[Boozy]

That the more expensive the SUV, the bigger idiot or asshole the driver is?

And the less likely they are to need either the cargo room or the off-road capabilities?

No one drives through swamps or hauls lumber in a Mercedes.

[Becks]

No one drives through swamps or hauls lumber in a Mercedes.

Unless they're drunk.

[RentalRacer]

Personally, I notice people in all types of cars who can't drive, from $500 beaters to cars that cost more than $100k.

[Daskinor]

What scares me is yellow cars. In my experience 9 out of 10 times the driver of a yellow car thinks they own the road, or drives like a maniac.

Just yesterday this yellow civic was stopped at a light right beside me. Music vibrating the car so much, making the mirror look like it was made of water. Soon as the light turned red, VRAOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM. Zero to Sixty fast enough to be caught at the next red light.

I do wish people would figure out that a timed traffic light system means that it will be green by the time you get there, if you go the speed limit.

[drunkenwildmage]

People in general drive like Idiots, but when it comes to SUVs (Stupid Useless Vehicles), it general becomes 10 fold. The city I'm from we are considered the "Home of the Jeep" so Jeep owners around here tend to be worse because they are "buying local" and thus have an obscenely high opinion about themselves.



When I was heading to class on Saturday Morning, I was driving in a curvier section of Interstate. a snow storm just went through, so a the roads were pretty slick, and snow covered, so I was going a rather cautious speed because of the roads. Someone in a Jeep Cherokee flew past me like I wasn't moving, and disappeared around the next curve. 2 or 3 curves later, I saw the same Jeep on the side of the rode, and the idiot driver trying to get himself out of the ditch.

[Primer]

I'm alive today because I was driving a "Stupid Useless Vehicle" a year ago when I got rear-ended by an 18-wheeler. I will never again own a "standard" sized car, and my next vehicle is likely to be bright yellow, or some other highly visible color. I'll be more than happy to endure all the insults, as it will mean I'll still be alive!

[AriRashkae]

Hey, there're exceptions to every rule, including the "big car = big jerk" one.

I learned to drive in a retired State Trooper vehicle, back when they were still boats. I think only a semi could've taken that thing down.

[Sliceanddice]

is it wrong that if it had been me (Seeing as you where alone) i would just let her hit me????
because she so deserved the hike in her insurence rate.... oh and you know the insurence pay out i would get would be nice.... because she would be at fault...

[myswtghst]

I love my car too much to let people hit it, unless I'm really, really angry. The back bumper is already in terrible shape, so I don't mind being hit there, but I'd prefer to keep the car drivable as long as I can.

I've just noticed, especially in the burbs where I live, that people who spend that much money on an overpriced SUV that they never intend to take off roading usually think they own the road, and often aren't fully capable of handling that much vehicle. I've driven everything from a Bug to a pickup truck, and after spending a summer as a valet, I can handle just about any vehicle you can put behind the wheel of. My dad has an Explorer and he's a great driver. It's just a trend I've noticed with the Lexus and Mercedes and Escalade crowd.

As a side note, I've also noticed that yellow cars and cars with oversized spoilers are probably going to be agressive drivers, particularly if either type of car is "riced out," as my brother says, and has numerous poorly done mods, a huge muffler, and/or a poorly installed but very loud stereo system.

[daleduke17]

I find it funny how a lot of people cannot stand SUVs (or at least the people who drive them). Where I come from (out in the country) a lot of what you would see was pickups and the occasional SUV (the good ones). Who was usually behind the wheel of those vehicles? All of the farmer's wives, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, etc. They would usually be the ones who could (and sometimes would) outdrive you. There's one lady in that town who I think could handle driving her Suburban: she drives a school bus regularly. :-p

The ones I cannot stand are those NBA "standouts", and rap "artists" who drive around with their Escalades and other SUV type vehicles all shined up and completely useless because of how low they are to the ground.