Spreading awareness about the dangers of SUVs.

Last week, we told you that a glut of SUVs on used car lots had led to low prices, making this a great time to buy a recent used sport utility or truck, if you have the need. Throughout the weekend, media reports have focused on the other side of that coin.

If you own an SUV, it’s probably losing value.

Gas prices rising steadily toward $4 a gallon have driven million of consumers to buy smaller cars this year. When they buy that small or midsize sedan, a tremendous number have used an SUV as a trade-in — leading to a glut of SUVs sitting on used car dealer lots this spring.

Read the rest of this entry »

(CBS News) WASHINGTON When comparing the death rates in passenger vehicles with similar weight, cars are still safer than SUVs and pickup trucks because of their lower center of gravity.

But new technology is helping to level the playing field, reports CBS News transportation correspondent Nancy Cordes.

“SUVs haven’t always been the best choice for safety, and they still have a higher risk of rollover than cars, but our study shows that SUVs are becoming safer,” said Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The overall death rate has gone down 30 percent in the past 10 years. One reason has been the addition of electronic stability control, now standard on many vehicles. It helps steer on slippery or tricky roads.

“ESC does save lives,” McCartt said.

General Motors Corp. vehicles had the highest and lowest driver death rates from 2002 through 2005, according to the study by the insurance industry.

Two-door, two-wheel drive Chevrolet Blazers built from 2001 to 2004 had the highest rate of 232 driver deaths per million registered vehicles during the four-year span, the IIHS found.

By contrast, the Chevrolet Astro minivan had the lowest rate with only seven deaths per million registered vehicles. It was followed by the Infiniti G35, BMW 7 Series and the Toyota 4Runner.

“You do see that the bigger, heavier vehicles tend to be safer,” said McCartt.

The two-door Acura RSX had the second-highest rate with 202 driver deaths followed by the Nissan 350Z, which registered 193 deaths.

“Among the vehicles with the highest death rates, many are older designs. And older designs are not as crashworthy,” said McCartt.

Automakers said the study was limited in its scope because it did not include factors which could play a major role in the fatalities.

“The study doesn’t really take into account driver behavior or how the vehicles are used so it’s difficult to really draw much significance,” said GM spokesman Alan Adler.

The Astro and Blazer went out of production in 2005. GM currently sells the Chevy TrailBlazer midsize SUV.

Nissan said all of its vehicles “are engineered to meet or exceed government safety regulations as well as our own rigorous internal safety requirements, and the 350Z is no exception.”

The automaker said it urges “everyone driving a Nissan or Infiniti vehicle to do so safely.”

Chris Naughton, a Honda Motor Co. spokesman, said the company, which makes the Acura RSX, has “long striven to build very safe vehicles with a long list of safety features.” He noted the sports coupe typically had younger buyers, which could have contributed to its ranking.

The study also reaffirmed past research which found that heavier vehicles in categories such as cars, SUVs and pickups generally had lower death rates.

The study of 202 passenger vehicle models included rates of driver deaths in all crashes plus rates in multiple-vehicle, single-vehicle, and single-vehicle rollover crashes.

The rate represented the reported number of driver deaths divided by the model’s number of registered years, according to data from the federal government’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System and registration counts from The Polk Company, a Michigan-based provider of automotive information.

So, there I was last night running errands when I found myself at a stop light next to a large SUV… There were two lanes, the left obviously a left turn lane. I was next to the SUV in the right lane which has the option to turn left, go straight, or turn right. I was also making a left turn, w/ my blinker on, not that they could even see it… The light turns green, I’m a little quicker off the line due my car weighing a third of that beast and it’s a damn good thing! The moron on the SUV decides he has the right to go straight through the intersection almost T-Boning me on the driver’s side!! Thankfully, I have enough left to punch it and swing the rear end of my car out of the SUV’s way w/out getting into an accident…

This is just another example of a careless, stupid, SUV driver and their poor driving skills, thoughts of owning the road, and complete blindness due to the size of their gas guzzling penis extension!

Finally, something is being done about the biggest of the big gas hogs… Automakers will be forced to increase the fuel efficiency of trucks and SUVs to just over 24mpg. Is this going to hurt the pocket books of SUV owners?

According to Ron DeFore, a spokesman for SUVOA, Sport Utility Vehicle Owners of America, the answer is yes. Of course that’s what he wants you to believe because the public’s fear of this will benefit him. He says that this will lead to higher vehicle prices… The fact is that it will only raise the price by $200 – just a fraction of a 30k to 80k dollar SUV, which you’ll get back w/ the added fuel savings! Does he actually believe what he says? He also claims reduced performance and fewer options such as V-8 models. Give me a break! If you really need that to, oh say, fight a war in the middle east, I’m sure they’ll give you an exemption.

At least this is a step in the right direction, though you need to consider this… “Fighting America’s oil addiction with these standards is like fighting lung cancer by smoking 49 cigarettes a day instead of 50,” said Don MacKenzie, a Union of Concerned Scientists engineer.

…now if they weren’t rolling death…