Suburbans in the City
The War on Cars
The War on Cars, LLC
4.9 • 937 Ratings
🗓️ 5 February 2020
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Chevrolet Suburban is one of General Motors' most enduring triumphs — the longest-running nameplate in automotive history, to use the industry jargon, and the original SUV. In production since 1935, it's grown from an all-American family vehicle, perfect for loading up the kids and heading out into the country, into an 18-foot-long status symbol for VIPs — including titans of finance, A-list celebrities, politicians and the occasional drug lord. It's even the first vehicle to earn a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. While the Suburban used to be about suburbia, it isn't anymore. In this episode, we talk with Angie Schmitt, a journalist working on a book about the pedestrian safety crisis in the United States, about how the Suburban's rise foretold the modern SUV boom, and just how dangerous these land sharks can be.
SHOW NOTES:
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And check out the new podcast from our friends over at TransitCenter. It's called High Frequency.
SHOW NOTES:
Angie Schmitt is on Twitter @schmangee.
Keith Bradsher's book about the deadly rise of the SUV: High and Mighty.
The dangerous blindspots in front of big SUVs. (The Verge)
A comprehensive roundup of the Suburban's appearances in film and TV. (Internet Movie Cars Database)
The Suburban gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (NBC)
Pictures of the Suburban in its earlier incarnations. (Popular Mechanics)
An homage to the power of the Suburban brand. (Up to Speed)
A social history of the Chevy Suburban. (Car and Driver)
Some of the sounds in this show were included courtesy of Creative Commons licenses, from Kinetic Turtle and nemoDaedulus.
Join The War on Cars crew for two live events this spring!
- A live recording in Denver for Bicycle Colorado's Moving People Forward conference on February 10.
- And another in Washington, D.C., at the League of American Bicyclists' National Bike Summit, March 16.
This episode was edited by Matt Cutler and recorded at the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio.
Find us on Twitter: @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1.
Drop us a line: thewaroncars@gmail.com
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If the Chevrolet Suburban were a feature film, it would have all the makings of a cult classic. |
| 0:07.0 | It's bigger than life, older than almost anyone can remember, and it's won a whole new generation of audiences. |
| 0:13.6 | Bad guys love them. |
| 0:14.8 | Cartels got to have them. |
| 0:16.7 | And of course you can't forget that they're loved by the biggest, |
| 0:20.2 | baddest authority figures of them all. |
| 0:22.4 | Mom's. Badest authority figures of them all. Moms. |
| 0:23.4 | What kind of car you got here? |
| 0:27.4 | The Chevy. |
| 0:28.4 | We have the Chevy suburban. |
| 0:32.4 | Well, that's nice. |
| 0:34.0 | I like Chevy's. |
| 0:36.0 | Welcome to the War on Cars, the show that's trying to take the suburban out of the city. |
| 0:44.1 | And to be fair to get the suburban out of the suburbs, too. |
| 0:47.0 | Yeah, exactly. |
| 0:50.0 | Today we are going to be talking about the Chevrolet Suburban a vehicle that has managed to be all things to all people |
| 0:57.4 | It's you know all American family car drug dealer status symbol. |
| 1:02.8 | Mayoral convoy must have. |
| 1:05.3 | Yeah, all politicians can be seen in Chevy Suburbans. |
| 1:08.6 | Your executives. |
| 1:09.8 | Absolutely. |
| 1:10.8 | You're Goldman Sachs. |
... |
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