A Man Who Wants SUVs to Get More R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Sunday, July 22, 2007; D01

Ron DeFore is the spokesman for SUV Owners of America, a consumer group funded by the auto industry. Noble slogan: "Standing up for SUV, pickup and van owners of America." He is also a founding partner of Strat@comm, a public relations firm whose clients have included Chrysler and Ford.

With two bills circulating in Congress that would raise fuel economy standards (a stringent plan approved by the Senate and a less aggressive one introduced June 27 in the House), we decided to ask DeFore for his thoughts on hybrids, human nature and how SUV owners don't understand the impending threat on their way of life.

-- Monica Hesse
Have you ever seen "Thank You for Smoking," about the loathed Mod Squad of spokesmen from the tobacco, alcohol and firearms industries?

I've joked about that to people. But the big difference is that the main character in that movie is defending a product that is known to kill you if used exactly as directed. SUVs don't kill people if used as directed.

So you've never had anyone egg your house?
No.
Key your car?
No.
Ever have any trouble sleeping at night?
Only out of the frustration that so many people and policymakers are not looking at the big picture.

Which is?

For millions of buyers, SUVs are not a fashion statement. People buy them for four-wheel drive, for towing capacity. There are 20 million things in this country that need to be towed.
What are some of the unique challenges your group faces?

A lot of people don't believe that their SUV or pickup is in danger, so a big part of our challenge is to get the word out.

So the SUV owners you are trying to help don't realize that they need your help?
Exactly. They don't have time to think about it. Environmental groups can somehow get people to volunteer their time. We had a booth at a big RV show up in Oregon and had so many people crowding around that the guys in the booth next to us wanted to know what we were giving away. . . . But will those people go back and write letters? No! They're busy. They're having fun with their lifestyle and they don't think the government would dream of taking their utility away. That's the problem with this issue and we've never been able to pinpoint why.
Well, on your Web site,www.suvoa.com, some SUV owners seem a little self-absorbed. One person writes that he isgrateful for his SUVbecause when he fell asleep at the wheel and hit four other cars, he was able to walk away without a scratch. C'mon now.

I think there's a lot of human nature in that story. When people go to buy a motor vehicle, they're looking at safety, at crash test ratings. They want to know how it's protecting them and their family. We can't regulate human behavior. If safety is your number one priority, SUVs have a lower fatality rate than passenger cars.

A lower fatality rate for people in the SUV. What about drivers in smaller cars?
That's true, because you can't repeal the laws of physics. But there has always been a difference in the sizes of vehicles in our fleet. Should people who prefer smaller vehicles have the right to regulate what the rest of us drive? Ask this question: Would we have fewer fatalities if everyone drove compact cars, or if everyone drove SUVs? The answer is SUVs. The more metal you have, the more crash protection you have.

If everyone drove SUVs, we might eventually have to worry about deaths other than car crash fatalities.

Environmentalists who want to reduce the safety of vehicles say they are doing it for the health of the human race. But people dying on the road has to do with the health of the human race. You might believe in [global warming] 110 percent, but it's still theoretical. The known deaths of car accidents are just as important as theoretical deaths.

How do you feel about the recent CAFE [fuel economy] standard bills introduced in Congress?
It should not be the position of the government to decide what we can or cannot drive. The real solution is a world in which people can have their big honkin' SUVs and have all the power they want, but . . . not running on petroleum. . . . There are a limited number of smart people working at [car] companies. If we pass a really stringent CAFE standard, a lot of those smart people have to put their efforts into gasoline instead of finding other solutions.

What kind of car do you drive?
Lately [with the price of gas] I've mostly been driving my motorcycle. I'm more fuel-efficient than drivers of hybrid cars.