In a word Inertia.

No, this is not a character from the Will Smith movie "Wild, WIld, West", but an actual physical reason.

Put simply, Inertia is the property of matter by which it retains its state of rest, or its velocity along a straight line so long as it is not acted upon by an external force.

But, lets examine the whys rather than pander to the obvious. What is an SUV, it is normally a large vehicle capable of carrying large loads (whether goods, children, or day to day paraphernalia of everyday living. It can be a 4wd, Awd, or 2wd. It can have a high ground clearance to go cross country and off road, or not. It can seat 2 people, 4 people, 5 people, or 7 people. It can have a high level of luxury (dead animal seat covers, wood grain on every flat surface, in car entertainment systems that are more at home in a house than car and car seats that are more recliner rocker than car seat).

SUVs are heavy vehicles, they need to be to carry all of things I have just described. They have a large frontal area that has to displace a lot of air as the car moves forward (at any speed). If a wing on the back of your car adds a couple of hundred pounds of downforce how many hundreds of pounds of air does the car have to push through to go forward.

Add the weight of the Engine, Gearbox, drive shafts (2 on a 4wd, or Awd), heavy chassis to withstand the trials and tribulations of off road, plus all the luxury items (dead animal seats, stereo systems, etc) and you can see where the weight comes from.

Now add on the drag the SUV develops from this very large vehicle trying to push all that air aside to go forward. It all adds up to a serious fuel burn penalty.

How could we reduce this fuel penalty, reduce the vehicle's weight, less luxury, less dead cow, less large stereos, fewer seats. Every pound of weight reduction would reduce the amount of fuel needed to power the vehicle.

Use a 2wd only this would reduce the number of drive shafts (if it was front wheel drive even more weight saved).

Make the vehicle more aerodynamic, reduce the frontal area, make it more streamlined.

All these things are great ideas, but at the end of the day, if you have a need for an SUV, if you need a vehicle for towing, if you have a lot of equipment to carry around, if you frequently go off road, or drive over very bad roads you will need a SUV.

On the other hand if you don't need all this, buy a sedan, save fuel, save money, save the environment and if you ever have a major accident, the sedan will probably save your life (more airbags, crumple zones, passenger safety cells).

Learn more about this author, Robert Mcmartin.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about Why SUVs burn more gas than cars?
We want to hear your view. Write now!