I was asked by a friend today to help him convince his sister-in-law not to buy an SUV. I know there’s a ton of sites out there with anti-SUV info, but rather than give out a bunch of links, I figured I’d just sum up a few of the reasons I see to not buy an SUV :

1. They’re much less fuel efficient - Using the comparison tool at fueleconomy.gov makes this point clear :

Using a baseline of $2/per gallon (which is pretty normal in California), someone who drives a Yukon is going to spend more than $1500 every year versus those who drive the Civic Hybrid. Once you start adding higher car payments, higher maintenance costs, and higher insurance rates, it becomes obvious that SUV’s are a big money pit.

2. They’re horrible for the environment - This one really should be obvious. As the Sierra Club has pointed out repeatedly, the SUV’s loophole around fuel efficiency standards makes them much worse for the environment :

Cars and light trucks consume 40 percent of the oil used in the U.S. every day — some 8 million barrels — and emit 20 percent of U.S. carbon pollution that is causing global warming. Raising Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards (CAFE) standards is the biggest single step the United States can take to reduce oil consumption and curb global warming.
. . .
CAFE standards slash urban smog by reducing carcinogenic hydrocarbon emissions, a key ozone smog precursor. Since less gas is used by cars and light trucks, less oil has to be refined, transported and pumped into gas tanks. Increasing CAFE standards will be much better for the environment than the diesel SUVs being developed by the auto companies. While switching to diesel improves fuel economy somewhat, doing so would sharply increase the pollution that causes soot and smog that triggers asthma attacks and causes cancer — a lousy trade-off for public health.

The second way the environment is helped is through lower carbon emissions, reducing the atmospheric buildup of greenhouse gases. Over its lifetime, a typical SUV emits more almost 100 tons of CO2 and today’s average new car emits 70 tons over the same lifetime and driving assumptions. Ford’s “Valdez” Excursion will emit 134 tons of CO2 overt its lifetime. The more efficient the truck or car, the lower the CO2 emissions.

If the Yukon above uses three times as much gas to go the same distance as the Civic, it only makes sense that it makes three and a half times as much pollution. That doesn’t take into account the other factors like the SUV’s heavier body and more powerful engine.

3. Oil money supports terrorism - Considering that members of the House of Saud likely had a hand in the 9/11 attacks and that a few cents from every dollar you spend at the pump ends up in their pockets, it doesn’t take a rocket scientists to realize that oil money supports terrorism.

Use this argument at your own risk. Since we all buy gasoline, if you’re arguing with someone about this too much, you’ll probably just come off as an elitist hypocrite.

4. SUV’s are less safe than passenger cars - When people buy SUV’s they think they’re encasing themselves in some sort of automotive armor that will protect them from all the hazards of the road. As the Transportation Department pointed out, that’s completely false :

The number of people killed in sport utility rollover crashes rose 14 percent last year as total highway deaths hit a 12-year high at nearly 43,000, the government reported Thursday.

The Transportation Department also reported that car crash injuries fell to an all-time low in 2002. Child and pedestrian deaths also went down as did fatalities involving large trucks.

But in 2002, SUV rollover fatalities jumped to more than 2,400 victims, an increase of 14 percent, the government said. Sixty-one percent of all SUV fatalities involved rollovers.

“Sure”, you might say, “but SUV’s can’t be that much more unsafe than passenger cars.” Nope, sorry. The same loophole that allows SUV’s to get around CAFE standards also applies to safety features as well.

SUV’s do not have to meet the same safety standards as passenger cars. The double standard exists due to arcane federal rules classifying SUV’s as light trucks. Less rigid rules mean occupants of SUV’s are not protected by the side-impact crash safety standards or strength requirements for bumpers required on standard passenger cars. According to The Truck, Van and 4×4 book, 1998 by Jack Gillis, the “newly adopted roof strength standard does not go far enough to effectively protect occupants in a rollover situation.”

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research organization for the insurance industry, has conducted crash tests of SUV’s. The results have been mixed, at best. In a test designed to show how well vehicles protect the driver and passengers in a crash, midsized SUV’s were given a rating of “good”, “acceptable”, “marginal” or “poor”. None of the 13 SUV’s tested was rated “good.” Five were rated as “acceptable,” three as “marginal,” and five as “poor.” Popular models including the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Nissan Pathfinder earned “marginal” ratings. “Poor” ratings went to models such as the Chevy Blazer, GMC Jimmy and the Isuzu Rodeo. The tests measured how well head restraints and bumpers performed and damage to the vehicle’s structure.

In addition, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety looked at driver death rates. The largest SUV’s had fewer driver deaths than average. However mid-sized and smaller SUV’s - like the Nissan Pathfinder, Suzuki Sidekick, and Jeep Wrangler - had driver death rates substantially higher than average. In examining deaths per million passengers, SUV’s had nearly the same death rates in accidents as small cars, but substantially more fatalities than mid-sized or large cars.

Damn, and I haven’t even gotten into the fact that SUV’s also make the roads more dangerous for the rest of us on the road….

I’m sure there are plenty of good reasons to avoid buying an SUV that I’ve forgotten (feel free to post them in the comments). One thing to keep in mind when trying to convince a friend or family member not to waste their money on an SUV is that your’re tying to convince them. Don’t be confrontational or rude. Simple point out that SUV’s are more expensive, worse for the environment, and less safe. If you do your job right, they’ll make up their own minds that SUV’s are a bad purchase. Remember : You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.