What do we do with that SUV bought without enough forethought?

Judith Warner has some ideas for the Futility Vehicle:

I haven’t actually made a formal study of the Land Rover’s gas mileage. I’ve simply stopped driving the car to anywhere other than our metro stop (1.5 miles; about a quarter tank of gas) or the supermarket (.88 miles, maybe an eighth of a tank of gas) or the gas station. Last Sunday, needing to transport a camp trunk, we drove it to Virginia, which was costly (96 miles, perhaps 1,800 tanks of gas), but highly worthwhile, because the driveway leading up to the camp’s welcome area was gravelly and steep.

“She loves this terrain,” Max said, patting the dashboard.

But there are so many places where driving an SUV is fuelish, so what do do? Judith has some ideas.

Thanks to Bob Seeley for the recommendation.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 18th, 2008 at 1:30 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “What do we do with that SUV bought without enough forethought?”

  1. linda says:
    7/20/2008 at 9:18 pm

    That’s a great piece. Thanks for linking to it.

  2. Jerry says:
    8/2/2008 at 12:10 pm

    Instead of spending money buying buses, municipalities should buy SUV’s being sold at discount prices, and use them as “tractors” pulling 5th wheel-like trailers adapted for passenger service. This would be a very effective way of using the investment since the town would not have to buy buses and increase the use of mass transit since they would operate on a greater frequency than buses. It could also reduce the number of unemployed.