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High and
Mighty: SUVs: The World’s Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way
by Keith Bradsher Rating: ••• (Recommended) |
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Click on title or picture to buy from amazon.com |
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Pigs on Stilts Readers who get as far as the subtitle
have a pretty clear understanding of Keith Bradsher’s point of view in his
book, High
and Mighty. As a transportation reporter for The New York Times,
Bradsher has covered Detroit for years, and knows a thing or two about the
auto industry. Over hundreds of pages, Bradsher lays out the story of why
SUVs are dangerous, all the players who helped them get that way, and why
they are so popular for car buyers. Here’s an excerpt from the introduction
(pp. xix to xx): “Picking
the most offensive SUV ad is hard, because there are so many candidates. My
favorite is the nearly full-page newspaper ad that Cadillac ran for its huge
Escalade in early 1999. The Escalade was photographed from a point about five
feet in front and about two feet off the ground, so that the vehicle’s huge
grill looms over the viewer. The
windshield above is entirely black, giving no hint of who inside is bearing
down on the viewer. Trees are a blur of motion around the sides of the
vehicle but the SUV itself is in perfect focus as it hurtles forward. It
looks just like what you might see in the last second of your life as you
looked out the side window of your car and suddenly realized that a big SUV
had failed to stop for a red light. The text of the ad is
even more frightening. “Yield,” it commands at the top, in inch-high, underlined letters.
In half-inch letters under the Escalade is another warning, delivered in
parentheses: "(Please Move Immediately To The Right)" The large
type text below continues in the same tone: "You might as well give in
now. Because this is the new Cadillac Escalade. The one luxury SUV so
powerfully built and intelligently equipped, it's designed to be, well,
irresistible. With the standard go-everywhere support of the OnStar system.
Escalade brings you virtually unlimited personal concierge services,
emergency assistance and directions, right at your fingertips. And no other
SUV in the world can make that claim. So tell the other luxury SUVs to yield
the right of way. Because Escalade is coming through." Underneath was the Escalade slogan, in white
lettering against a solid black box. "Escalade: It's Good To Be The
Cadillac." You might be more likely to survive if you were in
the Cadillac in the ad than in whatever lower-riding car it was about to hit.
But few people reading the ad carefully could possibly conclude that "to
be the Cadillac" was "good" in a moral sense. Nor is it good
for public safety and the environment to have even some people "be the
Cadillac" in the sense of this ad. The ad's advice for other drivers to yield is actually
pretty good advice, however, as the Escalade can be a hard vehicle to control
even for an experienced driver. The steering is sluggish, the suspension
vague and the brakes not as effective as car brakes. I climbed in one of the
early Escalades in early 1999 at Detroit's airport for a test drive, but was
so appalled by its unresponsive steering that I drove straight home. I called
Cadillac and asked them to pick up the vehicle and take it away. Cadillac has
improved the Escalade somewhat since I first drove it, but it still has the
nimbleness and ride quality of a pig on stilts.” Bradsher does stop his tirade with the
vehicles, the manufacturers or the politicians. He also takes a swipe at the
buyers, or, as he would put it, describes what the car companies’ focus
groups tell them about SUV buyers (p. 101): “Who has been buying SUVs since automakers turned
them into family vehicles? They tend to be people who are insecure and vain.
They are frequently nervous about their marriages and uncomfortable about
parenthood. They often lack confidence in their driving skills. Above all,
they are apt to be self-centered and self-absorbed, with little interest in
their neighbors or communities. No, that’s not a cynic talking – that’s the auto
industry’s own market researchers and executives.” For readers prepared to take Bradsher’s
one-sided messages seriously, there are many myths about SUVs that Bradsher
debunks, as follows (p. 427): SUVs are safer than cars. SUVs are good choices for
young drivers. Rollovers happen to
people who drive recklessly but are of little concern for responsible
drivers. If a drunk driver starts
drifting across the centerline toward you, you are better off in an SUV than
in a car. Vehicles with all-wheel
drive or four-wheel drive have more effective brakes than two-wheel-drive
vehicles. SUVs must be safe
vehicles because the overall rate of traffic deaths per 100 million miles
driven in the United States has inched down during the last decade even as
SUV sales have soared. Riding up high improves
visibility and allows the driver to anticipate trouble ahead. The safety problems of
SUVs are “growing pains” that will diminish as safer models come on the
marker in the next few years. Only an SUV can provide
the room that families with children need. SUV air pollution does
not matter because they are less dirty than the cars of a generation ago. The rise of SUVs is a
principal cause of global warming SUVs are unimportant to
global warming. SUVs need to have
primitive gas-guzzling engines to provide the necessary power for towing
large objects. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. If you’re an SUV owner or lover, High and
Mighty will raise your blood pressure. If you hate SUVs, High and
Mighty will give you all the facts you need to communicate to others
exactly why you hate those pigs on stilts. Steve Hopkins, April 19, 2003 |
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ã 2003 Hopkins and Company, LLC The
recommendation rating for this book appeared in the May 2003
issue of Executive
Times URL
for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/High
and Mighty.htm For
Reprint Permission, Contact: Hopkins
& Company, LLC • 723 North Kenilworth Avenue • Oak Park, IL 60302 E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
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