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Originally Posted by [b Quote[/b] (Rehaan @ June 02 2004,10:02)] |
They may be a 100 sumos to every honda accord on the road today. I had a neighbor (with only a wife and a daughter) who only got the sumo coz it was cheap to own. He needed all the space in our narrow compound to bring in and take out that load of scrap. So every now and then we had to move our cars to make way for his mini truck.
The only other reason i c ppl opt for bigger vehicles is becoz of the lower tax they have to pay when they buy it new. Some of our laws which give tax relief to vehicles which can carry 10 ppl at a time, safety and all other aspects be damned. So at times you have the full family and the pets crammed into a 10 seater with ppl spilling out of every window, or u have only one solo chap driving himself and a whole lot of vacant real estate.
You can say, well he is transporting goods. But carrying goods, other than personal stuff, in a pvt vehicle is banned by the law.
The option of going for a big diesel engined vehicle wouldnt be so rosy if there was not such a big disparity between petrol and diesel prices.
I think bigger the vehicle, more the pollution it causes.
Okies. Sumo offers you a sense of security. Duh! to that. Its built on a truck chassis, with all the agility of a pregnant hippo. the high roof on its flimsy pillars in the first thing to crush you in the event of a roll over.
What we need is sensible laws to improve safety, reduce congestion and pollution on our roads. Something like what they have done in Japan with their K-class cars.
Give tax benefits to smaller and more efficient vehicles. (Reva, if it was taxed right, would have been very popular with ppl who make only short journeys to work and back. Atleast i would gladly leap into one.)Tax the cars higher as the size and weight increases.
Not even 2% of our total population has a vehicle. You see so many ppl hanging out of trains and buses on their way to work. So does it still justify carrying empty space with u everywhere?