SUV Owners Group Broadens Base
SUVs' Life-Saving Utility Underscored During Recent Blizzard
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 -- Responding to rising attacks against sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) and their owners, Sport Utility Vehicle Owners of America (SUVOA) today announced steps that will increase its visibility and expand its grassroots support.
SUVOA was formed to give voice to the 22 million SUV owners whose rights are being trampled by special interests and activist groups, as well as to provide consumers with practical information about their SUVs. Founded in 1999, the group actively defends the rights of SUV owners and rebuts false charges regarding SUVs' safety and environmental record. A variety of new consumer features are planned for the group's web site, http://www.suvoa.com/ , in the coming months.
"Day after day, anti-SUV activists and others are stepping up their assault on SUV owners, outrageously suggesting that we are fellow travelers of terrorism, heartless highway marauders and selfish environmental criminals," said Bill Brouse, founder of SUVOA. "But the facts paint a completely different picture: SUVs are among the safest vehicles on the road, have vastly improved their environmental performance and fuel efficiency, and are a mainstay of America's quality of life at work, home and play."
SUVOA today expanded its reach by announcing initial members of a broad- based board of directors of groups representing millions of SUV users. The board includes Derrick Crandall, President, American Recreation Coalition; David Humphreys, President, Recreational Vehicle Industry Association; Larry Innis, Washington Representative, Marine Retailers Association of America, David Gorin, Washington Representative, National Association of RV Parks & Campgrounds (invited); Jason Vines, Principal, Strat@comm. The group will be expanding its board in the months ahead.
During last week's blizzard along the Eastern Seaboard as well as other snow episodes nationwide this winter, the community-spirited altruism shown by SUV owners offers a powerful rebuttal to a particularly egregious claim: that SUV owners "are self-centered and self-absorbed with little interest in their neighbors or communities" ("High and Mighty," by Keith Bradsher, Public Affairs Publishing, 2002).
Throughout the lengthy storm and its days-long aftereffects, thousands of hospitals and other essential services turned to owners of SUVs and other four-wheel drive vehicles to transport doctors and nurses stranded by the deep snow.
"Last week, SUVs delivered further proof why 'utility' is their middle name," said Brouse. "In state after state, SUV owners stepped up to serve their communities. By transporting emergency staff, 'SUV Samaritans' were essential to keeping crucial life-saving services operating.
"Anti-SUV critics claim that Americans don't 'need' SUVs and are selfish for buying them," Brouse continued. "But hospital administrators across America have a starkly different view of our vehicles and SUV owners. What's more, the argument that four-wheel drive is unnecessary because it is rarely employed makes little sense. By that logic, we should also remove air bags and other occupant protection from vehicles because they also are rarely called upon to save lives."
Fact sheets addressing key safety and environmental issues accompany this news release.
WHY SUVS?
* More and more Americans are turning to SUVs because they provide the
utility they need at home, work or leisure.
* Americans buy vehicles based on what meets their peak needs. While SUV
owners may commute alone in their vehicle, at other times they are
using their SUVs for jobs that cannot be done with a car -- carpooling
large groups such as soccer teams; towing boats, campers and trailers;
hauling bulky home improvement supplies; safely traveling in inclement
weather.
* Americans own nearly 24 million boats, ATVs, horse trailers, towed RVs,
snowmobiles and off-road motorcycles. Fewer than 6% of 2003 model year
passenger cars can tow more than 2,100 pounds.
* SUVs have replaced minivans two-to-one as the most often used vehicle
to carpool kids.
* About half of SUV owners in a recent poll say they use their vehicles
to haul tools, appliances and other large or unwieldy items that just
won't fit into cars.
* It's not just about day-to-day utility and convenience -- sometimes
it's about saving lives. During heavy snows, hospitals and local
governments regularly put out the call for four-wheel-drive volunteers
(most of which are SUVs) to transport patients, doctors and nurses.
SUVs ARE SAFE FOR THEIR OCCUPANTS
ALLEGATION
SUVs are rollover prone, creating greater risk of death and injury for SUV occupants.
FACTS
* SUVs are more protective of their occupants than many other classes of
vehicles, including most passenger cars.
* While SUV critics focus on one crash mode -- rollovers, which account
for only 2.5% of crashes -- they fail to mention that SUVs are 2 to 3
times more protective of their occupants in front, rear, and side
collisions,(1) which account for 97.5% of crashes.
* Drivers cannot choose the type of crash in which they may be involved
and they should not choose their vehicle based on its performance in
one rare kind of collision. Instead, a vehicle's overall safety
performance should guide consumers' decisions.
* Data covering 1991-98 from the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) shows SUVs had lower overall fatality rates than
small cars, medium cars and small pickups. And in frontal, side and
rear crashes, SUVs had the second lowest fatality rate of all classes
of vehicle -- better than all cars, minivans and pickups (so-called
"standard vans" rated just slightly better).(2)
* Regarding injuries, the Highway Loss Data Institute reports that "very
large SUVs" have the lowest injury rates of the 31 categories of
vehicles they surveyed in 2001. Two other SUV categories -- "Large 4WD
SUVs" and "Large 2WD SUVs" -- also ranked in the top 10 of 31 rated
categories.(3)
* While it is accurate that the higher center of gravity of some SUVs
make them somewhat more likely to roll over, any type of vehicle can
roll over. In fact, rollovers kill more than twice as many passenger
car occupants as SUV occupants.(4) In total numbers, more small cars
roll over than any other class of vehicle.
* Failure to wear safety belts is by far the main reason why rollovers
result in fatalities and injuries. Safety belts are particularly
important during rollover crashes because they help prevent ejection or
partial ejection. Consequently, according to NHTSA, the simple act of
buckling up is estimated to reduce the risk of fatal injury by 75%.
Based on 2000 figures compiled by NHTSA, safety belts could have saved
7,412 of the 9,882 lives lost in rollover crashes of all vehicles.
* Since 1990, annual SUV sales have surged more than three-fold
(over 200%).(5) Despite all these SUVs joining the vehicle fleet over
the past decade-plus, rollover fatalities in the recent years
(1997-2000) have remained relatively flat, increasing 3.6 percent.
SUVS DO NOT POSE INORDINATE RISKS TO OTHER DRIVERS
ALLEGATION
The increasing number of SUVs on the road poses a growing threat to drivers of automobiles.
FACTS
* Differences in vehicle sizes and weights have existed ever since Henry
Ford first adapted a Model T car into a delivery truck. Indeed, in the
late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a greater disparity in weight
than there is currently, as then-new compacts were sharing the road
with the existing fleet of cars that on average were twice as heavy.
* Data shows that SUVs have not been contributing to a large number of
small car fatalities. According to the latest available report, only
4% of occupant deaths in small cars occurred in crashes with SUVs
(1999 analysis of 1990-96 model years). Similar figures hold true for
crashes with virtually every class of passenger car. By contrast, 38%
of light car occupant deaths occurred in single-vehicle crashes and
23% occurred in crashes with other cars, totaling 61% of small car
crashes -- 15 times more than fatal small car crashes with SUVs.(6)
* The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety had this to say about
SUV-small car compatibility: "The fact that single-vehicle crashes
dominate passenger car occupant fatality statistics means
incompatibility isn't a major contributor to the deaths ... The high
risk for occupants in light (and small) cars has more to do with the
vulnerability of their own vehicles than the aggressivity of other
vehicles."(7)
* A study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found
that removing the lightest cars on the road would have a much greater
safety benefit than withdrawing the heaviest vehicles. The report
found that adding 100 pounds to small cars would have a seven-times
greater safety benefit than removing 100 pounds in light trucks."(8)
* How do critics reconcile the fact that highway fatality rates continued
to decline in the 1990s -- and currently are at the lowest point in
history -- while sales of SUVs skyrocketed over the same period?
Answer: they cannot.
SUVS: FAR LOWER EMISSIONS
ALLEGATION
SUVs are big polluters benefiting from clean-air loopholes.
FACTS
* SUVs, which the federal government classifies as "light trucks" along
with minivans and pickups have traveled a tremendous distance in
cleaning their emissions.
* The difference between car and light truck emissions standards is now
very small and will disappear altogether by 2008.
* Several 2003 midsize SUVs (the most popular size of SUV) have cleaner
tailpipe emissions than the average passenger car built in 2000.
* To achieve the same emissions performance as cars, many SUVs and other
light trucks must be equipped with substantially more emissions
controls than cars to overcome the effects of larger engines, heavier
bodies, four wheel-drive and other attributes their owners demand and
use.
* Regarding smog emissions, all SUVs since 1996 have been at least 96%
cleaner than their 1960s counterparts in hydrocarbons and most have
been 83% cleaner in nitrogen oxides.(9)
* Many of today's small and midsize SUVs already meet car standards,
ahead of 2004, when a requirement to meet car standards starts to phase
in.
* In 2004, additional SUVs and other light trucks will meet car emission
standards for both hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, a transition that
will be complete in 2008 when all SUVs will pollute no more than the
super-stringent standards cars must meet.(10)
* Compared with their early counterparts, today's SUVs and other light
trucks emit 55% less CO2, a main greenhouse gas. This is a function of
today's light trucks being 55% more fuel efficient than their mid-1970s
counterparts.
* So, what do all the numbers represent? The huge reduction in SUV
emissions means that a 2002 Ford Explorer driven from Washington, D.C.
to Albuquerque, New Mexico and back to Washington, D.C. will pollute
less than a 1969 Chevy Blazer driven one-way to Baltimore, Maryland.
* SUV, light truck and car emissions improvements have and will continue
to make enormous clean air contributions -- far surpassing progress
from any other source of air pollution.
* By 2005, in 25 major U.S. cities facing air quality challenges, SUVs
and other light trucks are projected to account for only 8% of
hydrocarbon and 9% of nitrogen oxide emissions.(11)
* Because SUVs will represent approximately one-third of in-use light
trucks by 2005,(12) SUVs will account for only about 3% of total smog
emissions in major US metropolitan areas by 2005.
SUVS: MUCH BETTER FUEL ECONOMY
ALLEGATION
SUVs guzzle gas, increasing our reliance on foreign oil. Simple changes can be made to boost fuel economy.
FACTS
* SUVs and other light trucks average 55% better fuel efficiency than mid
1970s counterparts and almost 50% better efficiency than cars of that
era.
* A 1998 4WD Chevy Blazer SUV goes farther on a gallon of gas than a 1978
Chevy Nova.
* U.S. reliance on foreign oil has little to do with vehicle fuel
efficiency and everything to do with world oil prices. Since the mid
1970s, auto efficiency has more than doubled and light truck efficiency
has surged more by 55%. Yet, the U.S. now imports 56% of its oil from
foreign nations compared with 35% in the mid 1970s.
* Survey after survey shows that when Americans shop for a new vehicle,
they look for comfort, safety, performance, cargo capacity, passenger
room, off road/inclement weather capability, towing ability far more
than fuel efficiency. These attributes inherently work against fuel
efficiency.
* Fuel economy is not free. It fundamentally requires downsizing and/or
eliminating attributes.
* With regard to safety, the immutable laws of physics hold that when
vehicles are downsized, they become less able to survive crashes, all
other factors held constant. A 1999 investigation by USA Today using
insurance industry analysis showed that federal fuel economy standards
came factory-equipped with a deadly side-effect: For every mile per
gallon fuel economy standards have been raised since the mid-1970s, the
study estimates roughly 7,700 deaths occurred.
* The best long-term way to achieve efficiency and energy independence is
to wean our vehicles off fossil fuels. President Bush's State of the
Union Address harkened to fuel cell vehicles being widely available
within a generation. Until fuel cells are readily available, hybrid
gas-electric vehicles hold major promise. SUVOA is excited about the
large number of hybrid SUVs poised to come on the market in the next
few years.
* From SUVOA's perspective, the key issue that will determine whether
these technologies leave the laboratory for our driveways in large
numbers is whether utility and affordability can be maintained with the
new propulsion systems.
(1) NHTSA information in January 12, 2001 Federal Register Notice
(2) Ibid
(3) "Injury, Collision & Theft Losses, by Made and Model, 1998-2000 Models," Highway Loss Data Institute, September 2001.
(4) NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System Data for Calendar Years 1997-2000.
(5) Wards Automotive Reports, 1975-2001.
(6) "Putting the Crash Compatibility Issue Into Perspective," IIHS Status Report, Vol. 34, No. 9, October 30, 1999.
(7) Ibid
(8) "Relationship of Vehicle Weight to Fatality and Injury Risk in Model Year 1985-1993 Passenger Cars and Light Trucks," NHTSA Study DOT HS 808 569, April 1997.
(9) EPA standards for light trucks and automobiles, Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, February 2003.
(10) Ibid
(11) "Clearing the Air," An Updated Report on Emission Trends in Selected U.S. Cities, AAA, September 199