However, going out and buying a big SUV for a daily commute is ridiculous. My neighbor has been complaining for more than year about the price of gas but bought a Hummer H2 about 2 years ago that gets about 9 miles to a gallon. With his 60 miles roundtrip commute to work, he is using nearly 11 gallons per day. At about $4.25 per gallon now, that is nearly $50 per day, $250 per week and over $1,000 per month.
Yes, I have an SUV also. A 2002 model that has less than 20,000 miles on it. It used mainly for hauling our boat to the ocean. Other than an occasional drive to work, it pretty much sits in the yard.
Maybe its the company you keep. I don't anybody who owns a hummer, I don't know anybody who bought an SUV just to tool around in. The only people I know who own trucks are farmers who actually use their trucks in their jobs and contractors who haul tools in theirs. Those are work trucks. I've never owned either and only because I'm a pretty conservative spender to begin with - when I had a boat, we had it hauled down to the bay and paid to dock it there so we didn't need a large vehicle. It isn't only people here in the USA that are complaining by the way - if you read enough, you'll see that the frustration and anger is hitting ALL people around the world. Those Europeans that everyone is so fond of comparing others to are screaming just as loud - I just wish that the USA had the balls to clog the highways and streets and march on the capital like some other countries have. A 50 mile back up of trucks and cars and a few million marching on DC might get some news for a change. sammieswife.