DrKnife Blog

That, and kids aren't creative enough to keep themselves ammused for a 20 minute ride to McDonalds, so they have to watch a movie in Mom's Hum-scalade.

This is a generalization, but I see waaaay too many people driving themselves or only one kid in an Expedition or Suburban.

Absolutely! When you live in rural places it is harder but in big cities it is just irresponsible.

DAMN...your gas is only 2.99?!?!

I just payed 3.49 to fill up..In California...

Ouch! Our station near us is $2.89, but it's one of the cheapest in Portland.

I have never & will never allow any kind of "visual" entertainment device in my car.

Gas was $3.099 this morning on my way to work in Phoenix, AZ - the Fit's looking better & better!!! :)

Start of rant!

"We have family vehicles that have DVD players built into them because all American kids have A.D.D. and cannot keep quiet long enough for Mom or Dad to drive them home safely."

I am sorry, but these statements about how the kids all have A.D.D. just rubs me the wrong way. Reminds me of old grampa sitting in his rocking chair saying "Thes young whippersnappers! In my day, we walked 10 miles to school and we liked it!" I know I am not alone in remembering my parents say "If you guys don't be quiet right now, I will turn this car around!" :)

The only reason we didn't have DVD players in cars when we were growing up is that they were not available, just as we did not have an MP3 player hook up in our vehicles that we spent hundreds of dollars on just so we could listen to the music we like 24 hours a day. Funny little twist on the point af view, huh? Spending several hundred dollars to add a Ipod link to a car that already has an CD player and AM/FM stereo built in?
Rant #2

You talk about how big the SUV's are, and I admit that they are huge, but was it any better 30 years ago or was it worse? People were driving around in 1970 station wagons getting 8 miles to the gallon thanks to the big block gas hog of an engine.

No small cars back then you say? They sold alot of VW bugs back then to somebody.

I have a Fit on order as we speak, so it is not that I want to drive a big gas guzzling SUV. I would love it if they started selling more diesel powered cars, now that they have been able to reduce the amounts of emmisions from them (remember the old deisel cars that left black clouds in the air and stunk to high heaven?)

As a matter of fact, I think they should offer as an option on all cars and trucks a deisel engine that has the ability to burn cooking oil. That would eliminate wasted used oil and help deminish our need for crude oil! The deisel engine was originally designed to run on soybean oils, and it actually runs a lot better and cleans the engine at the same time! You will never see this happen though due to the pressure from the oil companies. What would they do with all the extra fuel that nobody would buy? As for gas costing more than soda, it should! Soda is 95% water! Cost them pennies to produce. The markup on soda is a hundred times the markup on gas!

The one thing big vehicles do have going for them is mass. would you rather be driving a Escalade or a Fit and get into a head on colision with a Crown Vic?

OK! End of rant!

Bill D,

I have a couple points to add.
The A.D.D. comment was meant as a social commentary on how us "Americans" deal with issues related to our kids. We usually just slap a label on it and say it can be treated.

Also, I understand that having an iPod link may be frivolous. But I do not understand the twist of the point of view.

I understand all of what you are saying older cars were also large and used a ton of gas in USA. But look at European and Asian cars from 3 years ago. they were still smaller than American cars and more fuel efficient.

It seems that you and I agree on many items.
The fact that the USA does not get the same diesel cars as does Europe and elsewhere is appaling. We need to tell the car manufacturers what we really want, and it is not big SUV's. We are quickly needing "smaller" more efficent cars. I am not saying make the biggest car a Fit, but we need to evaluate what Americans need. We DO need more fuel efficient cars. Otherwise middle income families will not be able to afford driving to work or their kids to school, etc...

We have family vehicles that have DVD players built into them because all American kids have A.D.D. and cannot keep quiet long enough for Mom or Dad to drive them home safely.

I interpeted this as to mean that the cars had gadjets built in to keep the childrens minds occupied during the drive. Just struck me as funny as isn't that also the purpose of the Ipod link? To give you something to enjoy and occupy your mind while you drive?

Just reminded me a little to much of listening to the old man growing up! :)

We have turned into a society of the instant fix, I will give you that! Kid acting up? Old time solution: a pat on the fanny. New time solution: a trip to the Doctor to adjust him medication!