Ahh.  Perfect for the school run and the trip to the supermarket for a pint of milk!  I didn't know you were a trophy wife, Nate. 

In the UK, only one type of person drives an SUV, dude.  Trophy Wives.  They use it to drive their kids the 20 yards to school, then pop to Tesco for a tin of hairspray or whatever the hell it is that girls buy in supermarkets, before meeting up with their trophy wife friends for a latte to complain about how difficult it is to stay slim!

Not your bag, then?

Not the case, in Minneapolis, dude.

SUVs are very manly; many men who like to out shoot deer and birds drive them... At least the pure-play SUV, the car-like versions, like the Lexus thing, is a different story...

Truth be told, in Minnesota these are very practical vehicles, because the weather's so crazy here, 50 and raining one day, the next, 2 feet of snow! So it's very nice to have the weight and 4-wheel drive to get you on the road and keep you on it.

I used to have a rear-wheel drive, and on any given night, the ride was scary! And you can't get much of an engine in most front-wheel drives, aside from Caddy's, but you still don't get this kind of horse-power!

Most grocery-getters here would be a minivan... And, I would think a trophy wife would more likely be driving an Audi station wagon, or some other sporty station wagon, e.g., a VW...

This is a niche vehicle as mentioned here:

http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/06/Autos/carreviews/jeep_srt8_vs_trailblazer_ss/index.htm

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But these are niche vehicles, intended to sell to a few people who want to drive the fastest SUVs around but who can't afford a $90,000 Porsche Cayenne Turbo. There just aren't many people like that, though, so don't get too worked up about the impact on our nation's fuel consumption.
{snip}

Stomp hard on the gas and hold on tight as your stomach mashes itself against the back of your rib cage.
{snip}

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This is no grocery-getter, this is a manly road-eater!! Remember, the growl of the engine, alone, will frighten small children!!

Beware the Cherokee SRT-8!!!.

At the risk of repeating myself, you're not getting it, and I don't know why?

This vehicle could be the most masculine car on the road, to date. It's the embodiment of pure testosterone. It's got a 6.1 litre Hemi, 420 Horsepower, 420 lbs. of torque, 20 inch tires and can tow over 3,500 pounds; that's a big boat, boys and girls.

There's no flower pots with daisies in this thing, or any other girly-girl things about this vehicle... This is a hot rod, where you sit higher up and have (very manly, rugged) 4x4 drive.

But oh no, don't take my word for it, heres some other opinions, by resonable men:

http://www.autobytel.com/content/shared/articles/templates/index.cfm/article_id_int/919

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"An odd thought spawned by too many hours spent watching campy TV shows shouldered its way into consciousness the moment we laid eyes on the 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8: This black-as-night bad boy is exactly what a modern-day Batman would drive."

"With a humongous Hemi engine and a sizeable cargo area perfect for stashing all the latest Bat-Gadgets, there’s no question this midsize SUV has got the goods to do superhero service. Add a downright sinister look sure to scare the bejeebees out of even the most colorful criminals and this sporty sport-utility makes the original Batmobile look like Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang."

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Ha ha, Batmobile, people! Not grocery-getter! C'mon, it's so obvious, too. What are you people on about?!

http://www.edmunds.com/apps/vdpcontainers/do/vdp/articleId=108449/pageNumber=1

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"Is it necessary to have 420 horsepower in a Grand Cherokee? Probably not. But it looks and sounds mean and I like the performance." And after a week in this road-bound hyper-Hemi SUV, we'd have to agree with the crusty son of a gun.

At first blush, the idea of a full-on street-performance-oriented Jeep may seem sacrilegious. But one look at the hunkered-down stance, deep front air dam and big wheels with low-pro tires and you'll quickly realize its true purpose is blazing the blacktop, not tackling the trail.

With a vehicle capable of pulling 0.9gs of lateral acceleration (that's sports car territory folks), aggressively bolstered buckets are a must.

At the track the Grand Cherokee SRT8, which rides on massive 255/45ZR20 front and 285/40ZR20 rear Goodyear Eagle RS-A run-flats, laid down some serious numbers: 5.2 seconds to 60 mph, 13.5 seconds in the quarter-mile. That makes this a 4,800-pound SUV that easily smokes a new Mustang GT, Pontiac GTO and, its most direct competitor, the Chevy TrailBlazer SS.

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A vehicle designed to 'smoke' a Mustang GT and a GTO? You bet. And this surely isn't on the list of a soccer Mom, who's more likely to have a Volvo Wagon.

This is a Man's man's vehicle. If you don't follow that, you really need to stop and think about it.

And, beware the Cherokee SRT-8!!!.

-- Edited by NateO at 01:13, 2006-03-30

Ah, sweet, shiny SRT-8!!

It's not that it's not for girls, some girls drive very masculine rides, like Danica:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danica_Patrick

But you're right, one of the finest aspects of the vehicles is that it frightens small children!

Which I assume isn't appealing to soccer-Moms who like their kiddies to be happy...

Beware the Cherokee SRT-8!!!.

Hmmm, here's an article on cool 'Soccer Mom' cars:

http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/list/top10/103745/article.html

3 out 10 are SUVs... But most 'Soccer Moms' don't drive vehicles that are that cool, let alone an SRT-8!!