Car WTFs
Major Cities Continue To Discriminate Against Obese SUVs
When it comes to owning a car, you really can’t win these days. If you buy a small car you stare death in the face every time that you get behind the wheel, and if you buy an oversized SUV, you’re going to pay more for parking—at least that’s the case in bigger cities such as Boston, Manhattan and San Francisco.
The news comes from a study conducted by MarketWatch, which found that some parking garages in bigger cities are charging up to $10 to $15 more per day for oversized vehicles. There are even some parking garages that forbid oversized SUVs from parking there at all. Needless to say, this is absolute bullshit.
For years, the morbidly obese have gotten away with paying the same price as everyone else at all-you-can-eat buffets, because that’s the way that it should be. They take up one chair, just like an oversized vehicle takes up one parking stall. Just because a larger vehicle takes up a little more space in the stall does not mean that garages should be charging more to use it.
The worst part about all of this is that the trend is likely to spread. Parking is an absolute necessity, and in cities big enough to require parking garages, free parking is typically hard to come by. It’s for that reason that oversized vehicle owners will be forced to pay the extra money, because it will be the only option. Damn you, greedy parking garage owners.
If the whole overcharging for parking overpriced SUVs thing takes off, there’s a damn good chance that you won’t see as many SUVs cruising around bigger cities. Filling up the tank is already ridiculously expensive, and if people are forced to pay an extra $15 a day to park them, they’re going to become some of the most financially impractical vehicles on the market.
Where do we draw the line here? It won’t be long before oversized SUV owners will be paying more to get their car washed, and shelling out more change for tolls because SUVs aren’t eco-friendly and their added weight puts the state’s roads under more stress.
This all may sound pretty ridiculous now, but when you consider the fact that emissions standards will soon be stricter and that unnecessary added costs are getting thrown at SUV owners, it’s highly possible that oversized SUVs will disappear from the market completely.
I predict that it will happen right around the time that McDonalds implements a 50-cent SUV surcharge for the drive-thru because the employees have to strain themselves to lift the bags of food a couple of inches higher.
Many of us thought that the Dodge Challenger Hellcat was about as intimidating as a car could get. After all, people couldn’t hardly get them off the lot without crashing them when they first came out. Then Dodge upped the ante with the new Demon. But aside from the raw power, there are some other interesting aspects of the new Demon.
Check out the video below for a full rundown of just how unique this car is.
Think you finally have your Mercedes names mastered? Well, a new challenge appears to be coming, friend.
How to now identify Mercedes models by name
Some moves in the northwoods of Canada by the brand appear to signal a change in the naming conventions that will be used for Mercedes and AMG models. Candian trademarks have been filed for A 40, CLA 40, SLC 40, SLC 50 and GLE 50 in addition to CLA 53, G73 and S73.
If this proves true in the states, it would signal an end to the rule of two digits for Mercedes, three-digits for AMG counterparts. The new world would be two digits, ending in a “0” for Mercedes, and two digits ending in a “3” for AMG. This supports rumors of an AMG ‘73’ model with a hybrid powertrain.
While this change isn’t terribly difficult to comprehend, it certainly makes things interesting when comparing legacy and upcoming Mercedes models. There are a lot of numbers to keep straight, and a lot of explaining to do. And the letter and number combos leave something to be desired in terms of cachet.
It makes one appreciate the simplicity of giving each vehicle an actual name, like the domestic manufacturers do. Sure, that’s how we ended up with the Chevy Nova, but what are you going to do? There are only so many names, surely one for an automobile would end up meaning “no go” in some language, right?…
I like my car. It’s a 2011 Toyota toaster, I mean Camry. If you made a list of everything a car has to do, the Camry would check all the boxes. It gets me from point A to point B with the consistency a learning golfer would envy. It’s a toaster. You put in the bread, choose your level of toastiness, push down the thingy and then wait for it to pop up. But there is one interesting thing about my car. The shifter. That’s it up there. That is definitely not conventional at all. So, what’s with Toyota’s weird shifter pattern? (more…)
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Carol Xu
Apr 1, 2014 at 11:26 am
Common problem. Only, for those of us who drive smaller cars, these price hikes for SUVs will do nothing to eliminate the crowding. The garage I self-park in occasionally in NYC has a “large car parking fee”, but is inhabited with many SUVs who fill up the entire parking footprint – often on the line on both sides. There are no “large car” parking spaces available – just the normal sized ones.
That being said, I drive a smaller SUV (wrangler), and don’t really see a problem in parking it. The Wrangler has also been named as the cheapest car to insure (Google it) with an avg premium of just over $1000/year. I happen to pay just $25/month to insure it (from Insurance Panda).
Also – I have seen the parking police at my hometown train station ticketing an SUV when it steps OVER the line, which usually results in the adjoining safe being totally unusable. Lots should have painted lines which provide door-opening and walking space, and if they are trespassed, fines or increased parking costs are appropriate.