A riddle for you: What rolls over but does not bark, elevates you three feet above the drive-through window at McDonalds, and just keeps getting bigger?
It’s the SUV. Yes, the most beloved and despised of vehicles. The gas-guzzling tanks that people just keep buying. Forget the rising price of gas or the looming threat of global warming. SUV’s are the 21st-century version of Manifest Destiny. Calling all suburban parents: now you too can drive your children along the rim of the Grand Canyon, or click into four-wheel-drive for your trek to the mall. You can conquer the Alaskan tundra or the New York City rush hour. Either way, you’ll tower over the imminent threat of Honda Civic road rage.
It’s a brilliant and telling divergence at the edge of the woods, the split of the popular and the rational. Have you chosen the better path?
(Hosted by Alex Beam)
Guests:
Writer Paul Roberts, whose article “Bad Sports, or How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the SUV” was published in April’s Harpers Magazine
Jerry Hirshberg, former president of Nissan Design International;
Jean Jennings, editor-in-chief of Automobile Magazine.