Let's talk cars. Or should I say, "motor vehicles"? Because I'm starting to see fewer and fewer actual cars on the road. Oversized SUV's are ruling the roads, making them unsafe for other drivers and guzzling gas beyond belief.
My favorite example of a gas-guzzler is, of course, the Hummer. It's huge, ugly, and really quite unnecessary as a vehicle. Even the lightweight H2 weighs 8,400 lbs! That's more than TWICE the weight of the average car/SUV. A Hummer is less fuel efficient than a Model T, according to www.codepink4peace.org, getting 9 mpg city. Any car that uses that much gas should not be owned by anyone, if only because of its effect on the environment. Think about the amount of CO2 emissions it pumps into the atmosphere! And gas-guzzlers certainly aren't helping resolve this country's dependency on foreign oil.
SUV's like the Hummer are also more dangerous in crashes. They are more likely to flip over due to a high center of gravity and very large vehicles are hard to maneuver because of their sheer size. A Hummer is about as agile as a rhinoceros on stilts. (It looks kind of like one, too.) The stiffened frames of SUV's can cut into the body of an ordinary car during a crash and cause injury to passengers. Is driving an SUV or Hummer really worth the added risk?
Finally, let's compare costs. An H2 is $50,000 and an H1 is $100,000. A hybrid costs significantly less than that! So consider doing Mother Earth a favor and sticking to a normal or fuel-efficient car.
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