John Edwards hears it from Jason Vines
Jason Vines, Chrysler's VP of Communications, read about John Edward's comments about SUV buying and just couldn't hold his tongue. Democratic presidential hopeful Edwards let slip during a speech to a labor group that Americans should sacrifice their SUVs in favor of more fuel efficient vehicles. While there are undoubtedly many people out there who have SUVs for their trendiness and perceived indestructibility, many SUVs are owned by people who truly need them. And those are the people Vines is defending. He blasts Edward's hypocrisy for asking civilians to give up their freedom of choice, when the presidential hopeful must realize that Secret Service motorcades are full of large SUVs.
And what does the presidential hopeful and his family use for personal transport? Jalopnik reports that Edwards drives a Cadillac SRX, and while his spokespeople claim the senator drives a hybrid SUV (they're all the rage on Capital Hill) around his home state of North Carolina, the family also reportedly has another SUV and a small truck.
[Source: Chrysler]
The Trabant, the vehicle for the masses, regardless of need
Jason Vines, Chrysler VP of Communications
Jason Vines, Chrysler VP of Communications
I can only hope that Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards suffered a momentary slip of the tongue. But during a speech to a labor group, Edwards reportedly said that Americans should sacrifice their SUVs in favor of more fuel efficient vehicles.
Sacrifice? Would any president sacrifice their safety, or comfort, and give up the presidential motorcade, which includes many SUVs laden with heavy armor?
Obviously the Secret Service knows something that millions of other Americans already know – SUVs are great vehicles for transporting groups of people comfortably and safely, as well as hauling cargo. According to a recent Popular Mechanics article, large SUVs like the Dodge Durango and the Chevrolet Suburban have the lowest death rates of any vehicle on the road.
But when you're looking for a soundbite, why fuss with facts? Look, you can love the planet and love your SUV too. Hybrid SUVs, delivering superior fuel economy, are also quickly becoming a reality – we'll have the Chrysler Aspen Hybrid and the Dodge Durango Hybrid on sale next year.
Then there's diesel SUVs – like the Jeep® Grand Cherokee – which deliver 25 percent better fuel economy. And other gas saving technologies on gasoline engines, such as multiple displacement systems which shuts off select cylinders when not in use.
Last time I checked, America is about choice. This kind of reminds me of book burnings of the past. Shouldn't a president try to preserve freedoms? So let's lay off any suggestions of "vehicle choice by government committee". Trabant anyone?
Sacrifice? Would any president sacrifice their safety, or comfort, and give up the presidential motorcade, which includes many SUVs laden with heavy armor?
Obviously the Secret Service knows something that millions of other Americans already know – SUVs are great vehicles for transporting groups of people comfortably and safely, as well as hauling cargo. According to a recent Popular Mechanics article, large SUVs like the Dodge Durango and the Chevrolet Suburban have the lowest death rates of any vehicle on the road.
But when you're looking for a soundbite, why fuss with facts? Look, you can love the planet and love your SUV too. Hybrid SUVs, delivering superior fuel economy, are also quickly becoming a reality – we'll have the Chrysler Aspen Hybrid and the Dodge Durango Hybrid on sale next year.
Then there's diesel SUVs – like the Jeep® Grand Cherokee – which deliver 25 percent better fuel economy. And other gas saving technologies on gasoline engines, such as multiple displacement systems which shuts off select cylinders when not in use.
Last time I checked, America is about choice. This kind of reminds me of book burnings of the past. Shouldn't a president try to preserve freedoms? So let's lay off any suggestions of "vehicle choice by government committee". Trabant anyone?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
SPG 5:41PM (8/31/2007)
I bet his Hybrid SUV is a Hybrid of good intentions and utter stupidity.
Thusly it's a Saab 9-7x.
The Saab that makes me sad.
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rem83 5:42PM (8/31/2007)
Ughh, here we go again. You guys really need to stop beating this horse.
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Don 3:41AM (9/01/2007)
That particular horse needs to be beaten.
And beaten again.
Adam500 5:43PM (8/31/2007)
Yes he is a hypocrite.
Yes he seems like a lier too.
Yes he asks for others to sacrifice while he doesn't.
Yes to all that.
However, there is some truth to the fact that most people do not need an SUV. And all this freedom of choice crap you can shove it. The constitution does not say you have a freedom to buy an SUV and it doesn't say it is illegal to buy one either. Since we all live on the same planet and have to drink the same water and breath the same air, its only fair that we are all responsible to others.
Maybe a small 3% sales tax on the purchase of an SUV. On a 30,000 truck its only 900 bucks. If you need one pay it.
That 900 is enough money to subsidize your waste. Then go burn twice as much gas and twice as much emmisions and all that.
I drive a Ford Explorer, and I like my SUV even though a wagon probably will do. I am willing to pay an SUV tax if it would get EVERYONE OFF MY BACK.
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Alex Nunez 5:50PM (8/31/2007)
More taxes. Right. Because that's always the answer. On what planet is $900 not a big deal to the average car buyer?
Listen, need has nothing to do with it. In America, you get to drive whatever you want, and arrogant political hacks like John Edwards have no business deciding what people need or don't need when it comes to their personal transportation.
No one "needs" a Porsche or Corvette either, but you don't hear a peep from the political class about them, do you?
rem83 6:01PM (8/31/2007)
Alex,
Like it or not we live in a country with a heavily regulated economy. Just because you are an American, and this is a "free" country does not mean you are entitled to whatever you want.
Also, Mr. Edwards has framed this within the context of making a sacrifice. It would not be the first time that our government has asked us to make sacrifices, and considering that we are living during a war with oil as a central theme, it is not entirely inappropriate. During WWII Americans saved up excess fat/cooking grease to help with munitions manufacturing, and the entire auto industry (as well as many other sectors of the commercial economy) was shut down and its resources were diverted to military manufacture. There were also several instances of drafts being instituted throughout the 20th century. If you ask me, driving a more fuel efficient vehicle and renting a truck/suv when it is absolutely necessary is a small sacrifice. That is much more patriotic than painting the rear window of your pickup with an American flag and putting a "Support Our Troops" sticker on your bumper.
sbessette91 6:01PM (8/31/2007)
Thank you Alex, at least someone has some common sense here.
Slice 6:13PM (8/31/2007)
Alex is spot on. Plus, I don't like being told not to drive an SUV by someone who criss-crosses the country in a private jet. One cross-country trip on a private jet uses more gas than the average H2 driver does in a year. Therefore, it is safe to assume that people like Leonardo DiCaprio and Al Gore have used more gas than the average American does in a lifetime telling average Americans to use less gas.
Seminole 6:17PM (8/31/2007)
Alex Nunez for President in '08!!!! Make John Neff the vice pres. on the ticket and you will be unstoppable.
Golferal 6:24PM (8/31/2007)
"The constitution does not say you have a freedom to buy an SUV and it doesn't say it is illegal to buy one either."
It doesn't take a constitutional scholar to understand that the 14th amendment DOES give us the right to own any type of vehicle we want provided is has not been deemed illegal through due process of law.
In case you doubt, read the relevant verse from section 1 of the 14th amendment:
".... nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law..."
Any more false statements you'd like to make?
fordman 6:27PM (8/31/2007)
I am with Adam and Rem on this one. I dont care who John Edwards is or what he says, this sense of "free country" and entitlement you guys express is disgusting.
Im in roofing and I drive a ford ranger and that is all the truck I need. However my two workers both drive Rams. Actually one of them is 22 and I just hired him 4 months ago and he showed up to work the next day having bought a crewcab ram with a Hemi and all that. He pays 640 a month, plus 400 bucks gas a month and another 250 insurance and whatever else. He bitches about it constantly and the couple of times I asked him why he had to buy this beast he says things like "Its a free country", "because I like it", "whatever, I like it its cool", and then goes on and on and on and on about why gas is so expensive.
I tell him one gallon of gas is cheaper than 1 gallon of orange juice, one gallon of milk and one gallon of beer at a pub. Stop thinking the world owes you something.
F451 6:30PM (8/31/2007)
I am afraid that Alex Nunez has redefined "freedom" to exclude accountability and responsibilitywithout these two factors there is no freedom. And believe it or not the government has had a lot to do with our personal transportation, but Alex already knows this fact. Without the government there would be no America as we know it. And no, it would not be a better place.
Sam 6:45PM (8/31/2007)
Fordman you are right however you should know this is just a temporary fad everyone goes through. All young men splurge when they are in their twenties, but the critical part is coming out of it.
I am 37 and after a couple of beaters I bought a 1991 Porsche 928 S4. I paid 60 grand for that thing. I was 22 and just graduated university. 70% of my monthly paycheck went to payment, gas, insurance and maintnance.
However for the last 12 years I have bought much cheaper cars and also cars that I have needed. I own a home, have money for vacations, and am financially richer by it.
Louis Duran 6:53PM (8/31/2007)
The correct answer is a higher federal tax on gasoline. We can use the extra revenue to fix bridges that fall down when people cross them, we can use it to fund an endless war in Iraq and maybe, just maybe people will have to think a little harder about whether they need a V8 or can live with just a V6 or step down from a V6 to a 4. Cheap gas is gone forever and SUVs sales are in the toilet as a result.
Alex, there are very few incentives that work as well as financial incentives. I think you don't really understand how government is supposed to work. There are plenty of regulations already on the books and as a matter of fact in America you don't "get to drive whatever you want" Otherwise I'd be driving a F430.
Walter 6:58PM (8/31/2007)
Can we carve up a bit of the South and create a country and dump all these wacko wrongwing nutjobs like Alex and seminole and the whole republican party there? Life is not about rightwing or left wing its about right and wrong and you idiots are wrong.
You probably want the old days of no regulation where we had no headrests, seatbelts, crumple zones, catalytic converter, gasoline with lead and on and on. The good old days huh?
Alex Nunez 7:44PM (8/31/2007)
Hey Walter,
In addition to driving the cars and trucks of our choice, the "nutjobs" and I also choose to live where it suits us. So sorry to disappoint you.
Please be sure to let Adam500, fordman, and Sam know, too.
You know them, right? They're the other three "commenters" you've posted as on this thread.
Seminole 10:11PM (8/31/2007)
Hey Walter,
First for your information, I am originally from Maryland, not the south. Second I am not a Right Wing Republican, I am a moderate in that I agree with Republican's economic policies, but I lean more to the left on social issues like abortion and gay rights.
Third, I'm really really getting sick of you dumb ass, mostly left wing leaning, elitists trying to tell me how to run my God damned life. If I want to go buy a f***ing SUV I have every damn right to buy one. I don't know what gives you the right to think you can tax me to death or try to stop me from buying the vehicle of my choice. If I wanted to live in a society like that I'm gonna move China or some other Communist country. The Democrat party is, mostly, made up of super rich elitists who just keep trying to think how they can dupe the working class into thinking they are the "working man's party". The Kennedy's, Clinton's, Edwards', etc. all preach about how we should live our lives and what's good and bad for us, but then go and do the opposite of everything they say. They tell us to make sacrifices, but live in mega 20,000+ square foot houses, drive big SUV's but buy a Prius to try and look good, then buy carbon credits to make us all think they "care" about the environment. You guys are claiming that we are going to destroy our planet through global warming, but in the 1970's you same people said we were going into another Ice Age. How the hell did we go from Ice Age to global inferno in 30 years?
So you know what Walter, I wish you would shove your head up your ass with all the other left wing lunatics, go off to some Pacific island, and then have the military test a nuke on you all. Then I will be free to drive my SUV in peace.
Weatherman 10:25PM (8/31/2007)
Hey Louis Duran
You do get to drive whatever you want as long as you can afford it. Alex is right if u wanna drive an suv then go ahead.
F451 5:46PM (8/31/2007)
I guess the bigger question is whether Autoblog is Republican or Democrat slanted organization?
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Golferal 6:04PM (8/31/2007)
I have seen nothing on Autoblog that that points to either. We are all here on Autoblog because we love our vehicles, be it a Prius, Hummer, or whatever.
When someone (politician or otherwise) suggests that we should not own the type of vehicle that we want or need, I would hope that the journalists that write for Autoblog and the enthusiasts that enjoy this site stand up for what we are passionate about.
Especially when that person is a complete hyprocrite who lives in a 28,200 square foot house and then tells ME to conserve energy.
Keep up the good work Autoblog. We know you're looking out for us, no matter our political persuasion.