the two people who actually read my blog are well aware of how i feel about hummers.  i can’t stand them.  they make my blood pressure rise just to see them.  i heard a foreign actor in an interview the other day say he didn’t see why ANYONE needed a hummer.  the woman interviewing him said maybe a soccer mom but even then…soccer mom’s don’t need hummers.  mini-vans or if they must, tahoes, will work just fine.

in my opinion, people buy and drive hummers for two main reasons.  1)  it’s a compensation vehicle…use your imagination.  2) it’s a status symbol…look at how much money i have.  i’m sure there are other less obvious reasons but these two stand out in my mind.

just to remind you of my first L.A. experience with a hummer:

WTF!?!

check out what’s written under the rear bumper of the hummer. yes! that does say compact! i told my husband i thought we were pushing it putting our ford fusion in a compact space but he was ok with it. at the end of our sightseeing…we go to our car to find this monstrosity parked next to us! now granted, it was an h3 i believe so maybe because that’s the compact version of the hummer the owner thought it was ok?!

i’ve already bitched about that in another blog so i’ll leave it there. the purpose of this blog is to talk about the need for giant vehicles. i totally understand the attraction. they are roomy and luxurious. i loved my chevy venture…it had tons of room, the kids could spread out and it was great for hauling large items.

however, after moving to zagreb and driving around europe, i realize that we just don’t need something that big. (not only are they ridiculously expensive but they are gas guzzlers. whether you believe in global warming or not, you have to admit we will run very short on oil in the not too distant future. so if you don’t believe man is causing global warming…at least think about conserving oil!)

we took a tour of southern europe during our first summer in croatia. we took about two weeks and drove from zagreb to italy – stopping in venice, florence and rome. we then moved on to france – going directly to paris by way of the mount blanc tunnel. we drove from paris to spend an afternoon in luxembourg for lunch. we went from there to germany. michael was stationed near heidelberg while in the army and he worked in marburg years later and i was able to visit him there and see heidelberg. so we thought it would be awesome to show the kids how great heidelberg is (and it didn’t disappoint). we left heidelberg and went to neuschwanstein which was amazing. we had hoped to see salzburg during our stay in austria but the weather was horrendous…rainy, foggy and miserably cold so we had to skip it.

why do i go on and on about this? we did this whole journey in a little red volvo s40. i was worried that the kids would be miserable and would fight the whole time. they could not have behaved better in the car. they leaned left and right in shifts…napping on each other’s shoulders. we stopped quite often for snacks and gas. it was a wonderful trip. now would a hummer or a tahoe or an escalade have been more comfortable? no doubt! but it didn’t matter to us…we had a small efficient car and we had a wonderful trip. we saved a ton of money on gas. you wouldn’t believe how much gas costs over there!

anywho…this is just another rant which i’m known for. our volvo s40, later our vw jetta and currently our ford fusion have all been just fine for us. we don’t need huge. we need economical and environmentally friendly. the next purchase will be a hybrid….as soon as we can.