Does Size Matter? (Part II)
Question: Why do I
see so many sport utility vehicles on the road? Aren't manufacturers
making cars and pickup trucks anymore?
AnswerMan: Questions of mutation. Yes, genuine
sedans are still rolling off the ends of automotive assembly lines.
However, to meet rising consumer demand, more car makers are now
converting existing car and pickup models into "crossover" SUVs
(think SUV-lite). The former Ford Contour, for example, has been
transformed into the larger, more powerful, less fuel-efficient Ford
Escape. Thus, you are really still seeing a lot of cars and pickup trucks
on the roads, only some have been cleverly disguised as SUVs.
While this is bad news for the environment and gas pump
prices, it may be good news for you. For those still brave enough to go
head-to-head with SUVs on the nation's highways, American conformists
flocking to SUV showrooms are trading in a nice selection of oftentimes
late-model cars and pickups.
Where the Rubber Meets the SUV
Q: Are Firestone and Ford too busy pointing fingers at
each other over these fatal accident statistics to solve the problem? What do
you think: Are Firestone tires killing people, or are Ford Explorers killing people?
A: Really rolling questions. Could be a combination of both.
The mystery may be solved by the escalation of the feud between Ford and
Firestone's parent company, Bridgestone. With Bridgestone ending a century of
tire-selling ties to Ford, consumers can sit back and see if the accident numbers with the
Explorer change. For American conformists who simply can't wait to join the
SUV crowd, how about going with a nice set of Goodyears on a Honda CR-V? Just
remember when you take those curves, a SUV doesn't handle like Lamborghini.
Percentage Projection
Q: Didn't the Globe-Guardian report the rise of sport
utility vehicles in one of its early FutureNews™ stories?
A: A hard-driving question. Yes, our
interstate correspondent, Walter Walters, included a brief mention of the
direction SUVs would take in a story which appeared in our July 1998
edition (New round
of sales incentives initiated by U.S. carmakers). Near the end of
his timely story, Walters noted that "None of the new programs apply to sport utility vehicle purchases, which
collectively account for 75 percent of current Big Three sales." While
SUV sales have not quite reached that level at this point in time,
Walters' story was dated Aug. 1, 2003. Following the current trend, we may
be right on the money.
Welcome. You've Got a Price Hike
Q: America on Line plans to raise my
unlimited dialup service to almost $24 a month starting in July. What can I do?
A: A connection defection question. Well, if you
act quickly, you may be able hook up to one of the dwindling internet service
providers still attempting to compete with AOL. I'm surfing the web via a
locally-based ISP providing unlimited service for a mere $14.95 per month with
no commitment for anything beyond the current month. Even more amazing, my ISP
doesn't "limit" my service by disconnecting me every time I download a
large file or walk away
from the keyboard for a few minutes.
One of the cyberworld's great unsolved
mysteries is why AOL continues to expand in the face of more economical and
often less problem-plagued alternatives. Perhaps it's some strange sense of
loyalty on the part of those who started with AOL and fear change.
AOL says it needs the additional revenue to meet its growth targets and
to help fund improvements in service. Personally, I think that a corporate
entity with more than 28 million subscribers and the capacity to absorb
something like Time-Warner doesn't really need to grow, but who could argue with
service improvements funded by an additional income of $56 million a month?
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