Sockmonkey

http://slate.msn.com/id/2104755/?GT1=4529

Interesting.

Certainly wasn't the "intent" of the law, but I have to agree that if SUV owners are going to utilize the tax breaks based on GVWR, then they need to follow the laws based on GVWR.

Canis Firebrand

Interesting that that article states that SUVs are designated as trucks and they haven't created a new classification for the SUVs.

I don't know if it varies by state, but on my vehicle registration for my TrailBlazer, the Michigan Secretary of State classifies it as a stationwagon.

Iron Chef

I think that TrailBlazers should, indeed, be required to blaze a trail before they can be released to the public for sale.

Sockmonkey

I think it's still the same here in OH, too: stationwagon. Weird.

BigPete

Makes sense to me.

Brain Stew

Great article!

3 tons is a friggin lot! I think they should be treated like business trucks.

Phil L.

I know there is a bridge linking NJ and PA that recently banned larger ones such as the Hummer.

On the Garden State Parkway in NJ "trucks" are forbidden to use it.
However, gigantic hideous SUV's swarm all over it. It would be the funniest damn thing ever if the state banned SUV's from the GSP. The road could actually then become a pleasure to drive on.

mikehunt

I'm 99% sure my trailblazer is not classified as a truck, but it's raining so I'm not going out to check my registration
although a trailblazer isn't really that bulky
in NY (at least in the past) trucks, including pickup trucks not just semi type trucks or big delivery trucks, had to get commercial license plates, yet I don't think I've ever seen an SUV in ny that has the little "commercial" lable on the plate

icondude

A SUV backed into me last week and cracked my front bumper. Thing is that the lowest portion of back window of SUV was about the level of my roof, so he couldn't have possibly seen me. There was someone behind be so I couldn't back up. So now I got over $700, and next time I'm in the junk yard I'll be looking for both a front and rear bumper ($42 at my locak U-pull-it place).

No pics because it's hard to see.

OldDude

The guy is obviously on a "I hate SUVs rant."

Through the marvels of the complexity of the law, a given vehicle can be a truck by some rules and a car by others. Most states allow an option of registering SUVs as cars, not trucks. This sometimes applies to pickups too as long as they are not used commercially. Essentially all GVWR ratings are really intended for and enforced for commercial vehicles and if you read the law in detail, not the sign, the exemption for personal vehicles is usually explicit (may vary by state).

Sorry for interruption, resume SUV hatred.

kvrdave

Even though most are classified as cars, they are classified as trucks for CAFE standards.

In fact......the PT cruiser is also a truck. However, the new convertible is not.

Yes....The PT Cruiser is a truck.

kenbuzz

Three tons is three tons is three tons. If the city/state has banned vehicles over three tons, it shouldn't matter whether it's a commercial semi or an SUV. The road dosen't know the difference.

They could change the law to permit SUVs, but I'd like to see the licencing process for those vehicles include a surcharge to cover the additional roadwork expense they incur.

Brain Stew

Exactly. Right now, these vehicles use up a lot of resources without paying anything extra. They can't have it both ways!

JasonF

It's true that something can be a truck by one standard and a car by another, but based on what he wrote in the article, it appears California law prohibits vehicles of 3 tons GVWR from driving on most residential streets. That's what the law says, and if the people of California don't like it, they should change the law.

I have no problem with people who actually need SUVs. You live in the country and drive over unpaved ground? Get an SUV. You're a contractor, and often haul building supplies? Get an SUV. You like to go camping 3 or 4 times a year? Get an SUV. What irks me are the people who buy a Hummer and then use it to ferry their kids back and forth to the mall.

C-Mart

It doesn't matter if it is classified as a truck or a car. OldDude has it right, the law is intended for commercial vehicles, not personal vehicles. That being said, if a Hummer has the huge sticker on it proclaiming the shop the guy works for (Banned Board Shop in Redlands for example) then it may be classified as a commercial vehicle, and then the law could be enforced.

OldDude

Yup, the miracle of the law. Truck for CAFE, car for registration.
Similar games are played with foreign and domestic content to "choose" which fleet the vehicle goes in. In general every manufacturer has four fleets, domestic and foreign, car and truck.

JasonF

Strict construction! We can't guess at the lawmakers' intent!

The law, as quoted in the article, defines a commerical vehicle as a vehicle over a certain weight and with a certain hauling capacity. It doesn't say anything about the purposes for which the vehicle is used, and reading such a provision into the law would be the sort of judicial activism that posters here usually line up to attack.

OldDude

I'm sorry, but the article is quoting the sign, not the law. The law may or may not be explicit about exceptions, but signs have to be short and simple, every lawyer here knows the law should be complex so people need lawyers and can't understand the law w/o them. For example, private cehicles are not supposed to stop at truck weigh stations and get weighed. THey are for commercial vehicles. The author seems confused about that too.

Anybody have access tp the CA law? I have no idea whether private vehicles are exempted in the law, they are in MI.

costanza187

I saw that article too... I almost think its a good idea, some of those things are ridiculous in size, as an owner of an Explorer (which I think is big enough for anybody) I am tired of people in these monsters parking next to me and making me feel like a dwarf.

kvrdave

I would think they pay extra in gas taxes at the pump.

C-Mart

Either way, it would be a waste of a cop's time to pull over every Navigator that decided to drive down a small street... Ooh, what if the person lived on that street? The cop could ticket them every day!!!

C-Mart

California Vehicle Code

Here is the link to the California Vehicle Code. I tried reading some of the pertinent sections, but there is too much and I have to get some work done today.

JasonF

The article has links to the ordinances of various cities -- look for hyperlinks with the names of San Francisco and Los Angeles about a third of the way through the article, and then links to Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and Pasadena about a page further down.

Mongo

This is an important point that many ppl seem to be missing. When I worked for the moving company, we used to drive a truck weighing up to 70,000 pounds on those very same streets and never once got hassled by cops. The main goal of posting those is to keep trucks from using the street as a through-fare, but if you have local business, you're exempt.

(That and the trucks on the sign are always black, our semi was white )

JasonF

When will we learn to judge a truck not by the color of its skin, but by the content of its character?