J3R0MY

i ran across this on SemaSan, im actually in support of this bill. i hate all these SUVs soccer moms have that they drive 90% of the time by themselves to go shopping in. In the process of doing this they can do such things as block left side view on oncoming traffic while turning right, run smaller vehicles (us) of the road due to excessive blind spots, take more time to fill up at a busy gas station, and finally can totally kill you faster that you can say oh shhh.......!

anyways, opinions? do you support this new possible legislature?

http://www.semasan.com/main/main.aspx?id=62251

however, i do like sport suvs like xterra, older jeeps, rodeos ect.

Korean_Redneck

It's about dang time.

Kantizuni

I would be in favour... maybe.

I'd have to actually see the proposed bill to make a decision.
It seems too iffy from what you posted and from reading the anti-bill article.

J3R0MY

i like it for more or less safety reasons; and for more or less greedy assholes who think they own the road because their car weights triple the amount mine does. not so much for the save the earth reasons.


also, i like that the 2K plus dollars would be put towards hybrids, that is pretty neat. People should have the right to have a big SUV but they should definetly have to pay ALLOT more for it. also, more highway deaths due to everyone driving smaller cars? if there wasn't bigger ones there wouldn't be a problem ehh? also, its called a volvo!

DTN

I'd say go for it. But use procedes for reducing cost of gas for everyone else. I'm tired of having ridiculous pump rates. If you're going to spend that much on a car, and also spend that much on gas, you may as well spend a little extra for the rest of us.

The whole thing about being more about maintenance then the type of car is BS. I gaurantee there is no way a well maintained Suburban could emit less greenhouse gasses then a tib which is running ok.

I'm also with J3 on that. Those cars are too big for the road and parking spots. Not to mention that the owners usually do not accept the responsibility of keeping their cars in the center of the parking spot.

J3R0MY

when you need such things ass higher roofs on drive-trues, car washes, and parking tunnels there IS a problem. GIANT vehicles are GREAT for occasional recreational use like camping, off-roading, and road trips. But that doesn't mean they are great for everything, everyday driving is NOT safe i dont care what you say. My brother doesn't give a shit what traffic is like because he has his durango 4.7. when you need backup sensors STOCK that is a problem. when you need a bar to step on to climb into your big ass contraption there is a problem. when you can literally watch your gas gauge drop there is a problem. when your car has 4 to 5 times the gas means of a car, there is a problem...... need i say more?

now i think i should have made this in Gripes and Complaints..... lol

Mad-Machine

Americans like big cars.. that is a fact. However, even the largest of the big cars still being produced are not as large as the SUVs..

Personally I hate them for the above reasons.. not only can you not see around them, but often times they cannot see you. Couple of weeks ago I had somebody in an SUV enter the highway on my right, slip across 3 lanes without looking to the far left, and almost crush me into the guardrail.. if I had not noticed them and stood on the brakes, they would have done it too.

I still have to laugh whenever they have to fill up

StrikeEagle

I'm surprised I'm the first to say it, but I'm strongly against it. A number of reasons:
Tax? Who supports more tax?
Choice kinda goes out the window, you now have the choice to spend a lot more money, or get what the government wants you to.
This can be by no means limited to just SUVs, some SUVs get better mileage than some cars, so they'll have to start taxing gas guzzling cars as well, then where will they stop and draw the line?
Having smaller cars won't make people less dangerous on the road, when you're going 70 and get in a wreck, it won't matter too much if you're hit by an SUV or a compact, it's going to be one bad crash. If anything, SUVs are safer when they do get in a wreck.
This will NOT lower gas prices! That's dictated mostly by what's going on where the oil comes from, not where it's going. Yes, it may reduce slightly the amount of gas the US consumes, but don't expect a $.10 drop overnight, it won't happen.
Then there's 4 more reasons on the site J3r0my posted:
* H.B 493 will limit consumer choice in purchasing vehicles by making popular performance and luxury cars, as well as SUVs, light trucks and minivans, substantially more expensive to own.

* H.B. 493 will potentially lead to more deaths on California’s highways as higher taxes on larger, safer vehicles forces consumers into smaller cars with higher accident fatality rates.

* H.B. 493 will not conserve energy. Greenhouse gas emissions depends on a host of other factors such as total miles traveled.

* H.B. 493 will do little to improve air quality. Air quality has more to do with overall basic vehicle maintenance than it does with owning and operating any particular class of vehicle.

Did I mention it's a TAX?

Kantizuni

The fact that the tax (some of it, anyway) goes towards hybrids (in whatever sense), is why I like it.
I feel that regardless of what we do now, eventually it's gonna be hybrids all around anyway though, so this won't have much of an effect on how many hybrids are sold right now.

What StrikeEagle said is true though. You should never support more tax. Whether the tax is on cigarettes, alcohol, toll bridges, sales, income, gas-guzzling cars, airport security fees, or anything else. Even if it goes to "support our schools" or to "maintain our roads" it doesn't matter. It's a fundamental fact of freedom. Taxes are something you have no choice but to pay, regardless of whether you support it or not. It's the governments way of pushing you into a decision.
I'm not saying all taxes are bad. We NEED to maintain our roads, keep the cops and firemen around, and all the other things that those taxes help to pay for. But even those are things that we have no choice but to pay.

Tibbychick

Good. I wouldn't mind paying taxes if they actually produced good results. But when we're paying $36 million to transport a bunch of tractor trailers carrying frozen ice around for 2 years, which was intended for Katrina victims, but never made it there and ended up in PA, where they had to melt it all eventually because after 2 years it was "unsafe for human consumption," yeah, shit like that pisses me off. Not only did we waste tax money, but we wasted gas and polluted a whole bunch.