by Mark Saleski
A friend of mine (a car aficionado, racer and mechanic) loaned me this. If you’ve ever been interested in how SUVs came into existence…and how they became so popular, then this might be of interest. The safety issues are well known (rollover risk, damage to other vehicles, etc).
What I thought was particularly interesting were all of the politics that tilted the landscape in favor of larger vehicles (and the auto industry in general). Just plain bizarre.
All that being said, there were definitely a few problems. The author sort of implies that somehow Americans have been tricked into their love of these vehicles, which I just can’t agree with. While there are some safety issues that people are generally unaware of (for instance, people seem to think that four wheel drive vehicles have greater stopping power) I just don’t think drivers have been duped.
The other (minor) problem is the book’s length. At over four hundred pages the editor needed to be a little more involved … themes and facts tended to get reiterated way too much.
Me, I like my tiny little car just fine.
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