The Suburban experience

Last Thursday, while painting an upstairs bedroom at my cousin’s new house, I watched a massive black Suburban rolled down the street and pull into the driveway next to my uncle’s minivan. It looked like part of the presidential motorcade had taken a wrong turn. It was, in fact, my aunt arriving in the rental she picked up in Iowa City.

My uncle was hoping she would get a Ford Fusion. He requested something in the compact or intermediate class of vehicles, and is thinking about buying a Fusion. Frankly, I was hoping for a Fusion, too. Back in April I listened to an “On Point” episode about the new breed of domestic cars changing minds about the Big Three; they are built better and feature smooth, European handling. Callers had mentioned Ford a lot, which piqued my curiosity. My family has never had good luck with Fords — they have always lived up to the joke about what Ford stands for (Fix Or Repair Daily) — so I was looking forward to driving a Fusion back to IC.

But, alas, that did not happen. I instead drove through the Illinois countryside that night in what felt like a Panzer. (Interestingly, I saw a Maybach one night during my stay. During World War II, Maybach engines were used in Panzers.) Accustomed to my Corolla, the Suburban handled like a bus. However, I will say it was all right on the freeway, and the ride was smooth. But the trip to IC burned more gas than sub-Saharan Africa uses in a year.

Before heading back, my uncle filled the Suburban’s gas tank. My aunt’s trip in used less than half the tank, which I thought was impressive…until I saw the numbers on the pump: 13 gallons and over $50 worth of gas. Damn. The story was the same the next morning when filling the Suburban to return it. Thirteen gallons? The tank on my Corolla is smaller than that. And I could drive to my cousin’s and back and use less gas.

In the national conversation about our oil and transportation dilemma, fingers always point to gas guzzling SUVs for making the situation worse. One of those fingers has always been one of mine, and, after my Suburban experience, I will always be pointing to gas hogging SUVs as a contributing factor to our transportation crisis.

Though the new breed of cars coming out of Detroit may handle better (I still cannot vouch for that), they certainly do not help us become energy independent.