Sport Utility Vehicles Use for Other Purposes :: Argumentative Persuasive Papers

Sport Utility Vehicles Use for Other Purposes Sport Utility Vehicles have grown very quickly in popularity in recent years. Originally, they were coveted for their ability to go off-road by hunters and boaters. Now, they are used as alternatives to minivans or station wagons by soccer moms and businessmen. Unfortunately, these vehicles are not appropriate for everyday use, and most of the drivers are ill equipped to handle them properly. SUVs need to be taken out of general use and put in a category where only people who really need the utility can drive them. With all the controversy that these vehicles have caused recently, it is difficult to believe that they existed in relative obscurity for over sixty years. The Chevrolet Suburban, which is still around today, was introduced in 1935. It was mainly used as a work vehicle, however. Jeeps were the first SUVs to break into the personal vehicle market. In a move that nobody understood, Jeep began marketing their vehicles to people in affluent, urban areas in the 70s. High gas prices kept the sales low, however. In 1981 gas prices plummeted and the public’s appetite for large cars returned. Jeep Cherokee was introduced in 1984 and was gobbled up. The origin of the SUV’s problems comes out of the lack of regulations. Today, as it has always been, cars face very stiff regulations on things such as safety and the environment. Lawmakers control everything about cars, from bumper height to fuel efficiency. These regulations are the reason that cars have seatbelts, safety glass, and catalytic converters. Because of a convergence of historical oversights, trucks are curiously exempt from many of these strict car standards. The first thing that happened was that the automakers lobbied to have SUVs classified as light trucks so that they could take advantage of these lighter standards. At the time, nobody really raised much of a fuss because there was not much to make a fuss over. Trucks made up less than 1/5 of the vehicles on the road. There were simply not enough of them to do much damage if they were left out of the regulations. Plus, most of the people who owned these trucks, and eventually SUVs, used them for the ir businesses.