Letter: Vehicle buyers go overboard

Thursday, March 6, 2003 | 8:59 a.m.

I wonder how all those people who insisted on buying huge SUV's, vans and trucks are feeling now as fuel prices soar. If Americans were practical when they were buying a vehicle, a two- or four-door sedan with a four-cylinder engine would do just fine, and they would enjoy around 30 miles a gallon as well.

Unfortunately, when people go out to buy, they are looking for their dream car, and they leave common sense and reality at home. With visions of driving up mountains, or towing airplanes, they buy something that is totally beyond their real needs.

So you have the sad and ludicrous spectacle of a family of four buying a van or SUV that seats 11, and has the largest engine available. It's sad for the country as well, as we are forced to import ever larger quantities of oil, leaving us dependent on nations always looking to take advantage of our needs.

RICHARD J. MUNDY

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