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4WD drivers 'fat, homophobic' A new study has found that city owners of large four-wheel-drive vehicles are less community minded than other drivers, less charitable, more likely to be homophobic and have a low opinion of indigenous culture. The Australia Institute study has also found they are more likely to use force to get their way. Based on a Roy Morgan Research survey in 2003-04 of 24,718 people aged 14 and over, the study found the typical city driver of a large 4WD is a male in his forties or fifties in full-time work with a higher than average income. The 4WDs are also far more likely than conventional vehicles to kill or maim other road users, are less fuel efficient, and are resented by other road users. Two-thirds of their drivers in the city are overweight or obese. They also had a lower regard for the welfare system than the general population. (...) The survey counted only city drivers of 4WDs, where over half of the vehicles are owned. However, drivers of luxury 4WDs are very different. They are more likely to be female, in their 30s and 40s, and are more materialistic than other Australians. "This group is more than twice as likely as the general population to say, 'I was born to shop' (33 per cent)," the authors said.
A new study has found that city owners of large four-wheel-drive vehicles are less community minded than other drivers, less charitable, more likely to be homophobic and have a low opinion of indigenous culture.
The Australia Institute study has also found they are more likely to use force to get their way.
Based on a Roy Morgan Research survey in 2003-04 of 24,718 people aged 14 and over, the study found the typical city driver of a large 4WD is a male in his forties or fifties in full-time work with a higher than average income.
The 4WDs are also far more likely than conventional vehicles to kill or maim other road users, are less fuel efficient, and are resented by other road users.
Two-thirds of their drivers in the city are overweight or obese.
They also had a lower regard for the welfare system than the general population.
(...)
The survey counted only city drivers of 4WDs, where over half of the vehicles are owned.
However, drivers of luxury 4WDs are very different.
They are more likely to be female, in their 30s and 40s, and are more materialistic than other Australians.
"This group is more than twice as likely as the general population to say, 'I was born to shop' (33 per cent)," the authors said.
"Born to shop" sounds like a good epitaph for something. It's up to us that it be only the epitaph of an epoch and not a civilisation.
European Tribune / The Oil Drum / EA2020
by Jerome a Paris on Thu Sep 29, 2005 at 04:19:12 AM PDT
[ Parent ]
January 12, 2004
SECTION: FACT; Commerce & Culture; Pg. 28
LENGTH: 4885 words
HEADLINE: BIG AND BAD; How the S.U.V. ran over automotive safety.
BYLINE: MALCOLM GLADWELL
Here's snippet
". . . internal industry market research concluded that S.U.V.s tend to be bought by people who are insecure, vain, self-centered, and self-absorbed, who are frequently nervous about their marriages, and who lack confidence in their driving skills. Ford's S.U.V. designers took their cues from seeing "fashionably dressed women wearing hiking boots or even work boots while walking through expensive malls." Toyota's top marketing executive in the United States, Bradsher writes, loves to tell the story of how at a focus group in Los Angeles "an elegant woman in the group said that she needed her full-sized Lexus LX 470 to drive up over the curb and onto lawns to park at large parties in Beverly Hills." One of Ford's senior marketing executives was even blunter: "The only time those S.U.V.s are going to be off-road is when they miss the driveway at 3 a.m."
by Roadbed Guy on Thu Sep 29, 2005 at 04:46:06 AM PDT
See you at the debate, bitches!
by calipygian on Thu Sep 29, 2005 at 05:34:41 AM PDT
Had enough yet?
by phillies on Thu Sep 29, 2005 at 06:01:22 AM PDT
And yes, the worst drivers I see on my short commute to work usually drive SUVs. Second worse: them damn "sports car" drivers.
War is young men killing other young men they do not know on the orders of old men who know one another too well.- Erwin Kowalke
by jrm78 on Thu Sep 29, 2005 at 06:44:59 AM PDT
SUVs seem to be amongst the hardest vehicles on the road to drive because of their size, lack of visibility (sure, you can see well out the front), etc. It's absolutely criminal that people who can barely drive a compact are allowed to get in one of them.
Street Prophets Livejournal Feed
by Expat Briton on Thu Sep 29, 2005 at 08:18:54 AM PDT
-- Plot your political compass scores at KosCompass
by Hatamoto on Thu Sep 29, 2005 at 12:41:35 PM PDT
Let's parse this out, shall we? Actually, I did this once before many months ago, but its a fun exercise in rhetoric and logic.
'Whatever I bump into, I win.'
'Whatever I bump into', excuses this woman of any responsibility for her lack of driving skills. Hey, bitch, how about not bumping into things? I-285 isn't your personal fucking bumper car rink.
'Whatever I bump into', as if a 10,000 pound vehicle with bumpers higher off the ground than any other stock production vehicle simply bumps into objects. Of course, that's all you'll feel, so maybe that's what you meant.
'Whatever I bump into, I win'; win what? certainly not in small-claims court, or traffic court. Notice use of the word 'win'; winning implies someone loses. She wins, what does she care if someone loses? Why should she give a shit that someone lost a limb, a child, a spouse? She won. Its all about her. She and her spawn are protected from any inconvenience at the expense of whatever she bumps into. Nevermind whether or not she's at fault; she ensures her own survival at all costs.
It boils down to the ugliest example of an arrogant lack of personal responsibility for one's own driving habits, and a lack of any consideration for anybody else. Apparently, killing someone's son or daughter, husband or wife, doesn't weigh too heavily on her mind. And in a large SUV, in an offset-frontal crash, you are 4 times as likely to kill the other person than if you are in a mid-size car. In a side-impact crash, that number jumps to 27 times as likely.
If this woman's horribly flawed logic holds water, then we all need to go out and buy bigger SUVs to rpotect ourselves from her, all in a futile game of endless escalation.
only fools are enslaved by time and space
by PanzerMensch on Thu Sep 29, 2005 at 10:30:54 AM PDT
Meanwhile, my wallet's fatter cause I get better gas mileage and gues what... you have 300 HP, so what? You weight 5 times as much as me. Weave and bob.
by jammin90mph on Thu Sep 29, 2005 at 11:23:17 AM PDT
Actually, though it doesn't make me look good, I had a nice run in with a Hummer on Fri. Going down the twisty 4 lane George Washington Parkway on the way home to DC, I got stuck behind two iiots in a Hummer pretty obviously doing an intentional parallel to a slow car. If the slow boy on the right sped up or slowed down to allow the increasing backup to pass through, the Hummer weenies matched.
So, having a nice nimble Miata, I was able to slip through...and flipped off the Hummer. The idiots proceeded for five miles to try and run me off the road (all the way onto the Roosevelt Bridge). Then they almost rammed the concrete center divider and had to give up.
Luckilly, I was a much better driver than them with a faster and more nimble car. No contest. Plus, they had to give up the little "rolling roadblock" game they were playing to do it.
by ElitistJohn on Thu Sep 29, 2005 at 09:32:20 AM PDT
Call me what you may, but I always flick off Hummers.
Sometimes you'll catch me yelling at them as if they could hear me.
I wonder how I'm still alive at 5,10 130 pounds with the mouth of a gangsta outa Compton but really outta the subburbs.
Ohh me.
by jammin90mph on Thu Sep 29, 2005 at 11:35:47 AM PDT
"I call you 'my base'"
--- George W Bush
I truly believe this is why the Republiclowns actively refuse any regulation to increase fuel efficiency, especially anything which discourages needless SUV's.
They are the party of dumb, rich and selfish---exact profile of the useless city SUV driver---and they know it.
And they like it.
Fascism is indistinguishable from any parody thereof.
by mbkennel on Thu Sep 29, 2005 at 11:35:30 AM PDT
wide narrow
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