[Cyber Wolf]

I don't have one myself. I have a nice efficient 8 year old Nissan Altima (which still runs beautifully by the way). But my dad bought one of those behemoths about a year ago. I want to say he has an Escalade. I can't remember for sure because all those big luxury SUVs just run together in my head. In that year, he's dealt with Hurricane Isabel clean-up, supervised the building of a grand new house, moved out of the old house into this new house, helped my gramma remove a tree from her yard and moved some furniture up to me, all using this thing. It's nice to have around when you might need to haul a big load and it's much nicer to ride in than a rental truck.

On the flip side, doing all that stuff probably took no more than 10-14 days out of a 366 day year. He could've done with a much more managable car for those other 352 days, saving about $30 in gas every week. That $120 can pay bills elsewhere! And consider the size of the thing...I live in the DC Metro area and it's always amusing watching people try to get these things down the narrow and not-built-for-really-big-vehicle roads we have in downtown DC and nearby Old Town Alexandria. The roads in the older parts of the cities here were built back in the 1600s and 1700s for horses, carriages and foot traffic and can't be widened.

I see reasons outside of status symbols and out-doing the neighbors for people to buy these things. There are families with 4+ kids out there...not many but they are there. But for most I'd say its a colossal waste of money and gas. And time too. My dad has had to take that brand new Behemoth back to the dealer so many times for really stupid things (the windshield leaked water, the electrical system was faulty, the backdoor wasn't as automatic as advertised, etc, etc....etc). I just wish I had known he was looking around for one before he bought one. I'd have haggled him into getting a decent pickup truck if he planned to haul stuff around (and not a luxury pickup truck, which is a laugh by itself.)