To me it looks more like the SUVs are stuck in some sort of net or webbing so as to imply that once you've bought one you're fucked.

Absent Blue

@Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!: Will they be available in the major metropolitan areas, or ghost towns only?

aelver

This just in:

Giant Buckyballs provide cheap tumbleweed-like transport for your vehicles.

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

I'm not sure the SUV is "good for little else than the scrap heap". This will likely start a flame war, but when you need the towing power of a truck, but not the bed (would rather have more seating), SUVs are quite useful.

Just because it doesn't work for you, don't discount it totally.

RamV10

Satire is dead.

PastorDoodah

@Rustabout: I imagine they are arranged lower to the ground to higher in increasing order of how much Land Rover wants the model to be visible to people on the ground. Defenders probably require the least amount of marketing at this point, therefore at the top.

danson

@Soldier_CLE:
Telling how the one on top is the Defender, arguably the only one whose envisaged role isn't the school run...

Rustabout

@aelver: Agreed.

danson

It kinda reminds me of a tangled mess (economy, energy prices, etc.), and the SUVs are tumbling off of a convoluted roadmap. One SUV up top is trying to hold on, but it's a futile attempt, as even it will fall with the rest.

Soldier_CLE

Looks remarkably similar to a huge turd with flies on it.

aelver

@Rustabout: @danson: Oh and some SUVs will always have a place in society there are just simply places i cannot go in my wife's car that my jeep can reach without a problem. When people absolutly need to get somewhere regardless of weather or other factors SUVs or pickups are the only option.

jeepingeek

Say what you will, but I would rather pay $10/gallon and drive my SUV, than $4/gallon and drive a Pious. At least, I will know I am getting my money's worth.

adlyb1

With the price of steel reaching the sky...

SigmundTheSeaMonster

@jeepingeek: Most SUVs on the road have utterly abysmal off-road performance. There are real utility vehicles, and then there are the status vehicles or the super-sized cars that make people feel safe (even though, they're sometimes not).

rjp

This sculpture is useless (as are most sculptures). That being said, I'll probably buy an SUV when we have kids ... only because I refuse to buy a minivan. But I'll go for a smaller 4 or 6 cylinder or hybrid model, I don't think anyone needs a V12 Hemi to drive the kids to school.

broho

To me, it looks like an advertisement for dying in a tangled mass of metal.

itchytooth

Rich men, trust not in wealth,
Gold cannot buy you health;
Physic himself must fade;
All things to end are made;
The plague full swift goes by;
I am sick, I must die.

txpunk

spiderman, spiderman, does whatever a spider can....

sqeakytoy of the apocalypse

It looks like there's something missing in that composition. Got it!
The spaces between the SUV's should be punctuated with the robotic creatures that created them, hung from heavy-duty chain nooses.

Would that make it more useful @broho: ?

ANoel

wow maybe i should just shut up until I either wake up or get an edit button, i'm sorry for my terrible typing everyone.

jeepingeek

@rsquared: Sorry about responding to your comments I clicked changed my post halfway through and forgot to unclick them.
I do agree most people do not use their SUVs for what they are capable of. However there is no chance on this planet you could take your outback where my Rubicon can go. As i said there will always be a place for them, though that niche is much smaller than their current market share.

Oh and obviously you know nothing about towing. power only plays a small part in the towing process. The weight of the towing vehicle ans even the length play a major part. Unless you want to end up dead on the side of the road, towing a boat with a corvette just because it has the power is a really bad idea.

jeepingeek

@jeepingeek: Funny, my 4 cylinder, full efficient Outback does all of that.

Let's be honest, 99.9% of the people driving SUVs never take them off road and never tow anything with them. Also, SUVs (for the most part, there are some exceptions) have car chassis & car engines and aren't truck or off road capable.

FYI, I've seen tow hitches on a Jetta and on a Sunbird, any vehicle with enough power can tow something. If I put a tow hitch on my Outback I could tow a trailer with a Seadoo on it, nothing much bigger than that but I could tow.

rsquared

@mister_s: what makes you think there was any misinterpretation?

sqeakytoy of the apocalypse

it makes me miss my Range Rover..:tear:

iCarmen 2.0-Yellow Free Edition!

i am wondering, how could the designer of this thing not see the 99% scope of misinterpretation of his intentions?

mister_s

Looks to me like SUVs driving on the lifeless husk of a dead planet.

fizzyl

@jeepingeek: Oh, I don't doubt that the 4-wheel-drive, sturdy frame, additional cargo capacity, and ample tourque is all very necessary for many people around the world. I don't even frown on others for buying a gigganto-ute for a life style statement. I just simply don't think it's very practical as a everyday runabout for use city dwelling folks. Use a small hatchback, hybrid or station wagen to carry all the crap about the town, and use the gas guzzling SUV once a month to take the family up to the mountain to go camping. That sounds reasonable, right? On the other hand, taking the Suburban ( completely empty except for my own driving ass) to a Starbucks drive-through in LA seems silly.

danson

I have a Rover, and use it. I live in South Dakota, near a lake with little to no access. I use the 4x4 every winter for essential purposes, and every summer for recreation. So yes, there is a reason to own one. Maybe not if you live in Los Angeles or NY, NY, but there sure is if you live anywhere that can have snow cover from September until May some years.

Further, I do love art/sculpture/etc more than my standard midwestern ilk, but really don't feel that bolting a land rover to a large metal web is art. It is just my opinion, but this certainly could have been done more artistically than it was. Maybe it loses something on the net, and needs to be seen in person, but for some reason I just don't see it.

zenpoet

@RamV10: Last time I saw an SUV tow anything it was a skateboarder who grabbed a ride up Market St., SF. LOL!

But those racks on top of a Rover come in handy when the owner indulges those Hemingway fantasies and takes it over to Africa to shoot game.

propertius

@jeepingeek:
You're funny. No, really.

ANoel

owning a rover does not come with a membership in the earth first club.
face it, if you live in the city there is zero reason to have a 4wd vehicle, anyway.
in the frozen wasteland that is Mn, you see lots of urban 4wd carnage in the ditches in the winter because owners think that 4wd makes them invincible to the effect of snow and ice. the sad truth is, while they may be able to "go", they have no capacity to "whoa" in the bad conditions. but the towing companies love them just the same.
my crappy 87 s-10 with the 2.5 4 cylinder does a fine job at hauling around whatever stuff i need it to.

godwhacker

@sqeakytoy of the apocalypse: So, you are saying that they used up tonnes of steel and thousands of dollars to show SUV's driving around on a shriveled up planet?

mister_s

@danson: that is exactly how i feel. It just bothers me a little when SUVs in general are criminalized simply because people don't have the lifestyle that requires them. Just because most SUVs are a waste does not mean they don't serve a purpose.

jeepingeek

Say what you want but the car at the top is the Defender, and that's what GM use to tow Humvees out of ditches they can't get out of themselves.

SUVs dead? Not while we still have wars!

Collins1

It really wouldnt surprise me. Especially when they can get some auto maker to pay for it...

sqeakytoy of the apocalypse

@zenpoet: "...but really don't feel that bolting a land rover to a large metal web is art." Hey, if you can slice a cow in half and drop it in a vat of formaldehyde and call it art, then this must be art too.

And if people want to drive SUVs who really cares? The way I see it, the more people that drive existing SUVs, the less existing SUVs there will be to make shit like this.

Rabid Penguin

@Collins1: There are so many things wrong with that statement I don't even know where to begin...

I hope you are a brit...

bpapa9013

@Collins1: Doesn't Ford build the powertrains of Land Rovers now? :P

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

@jeepingeek: Yes, I know what you mean. It's very important to remember that *ownership* of a gas guzzler doesn't pollute or consume fuel at all, but rather *driving* it does. If you own a Prius and drive 100 miles a day, you're likely to be consuming more fuel everyday than someone who owns a Land Rover and drive 10 miles a day. If you own a big gas guzzling vehicle that you only use occasionally to tow your boat or go 4 wheeling, I don't see any problem with that. Of course, if your gas-guzzler is your regular means of daily commute, then you might want to consider getting something smaller... if only just to save some money on gas. Or carpool... carpooling is much simpler and far more effective way of reducing your fuel usage than buying a more fuel-efficient vehicle.

danson

So has anyone seen shelob around recently? Seriously, they look like flies caught in an old cobweb. I'm sure they could do better than this.

walkingagh

@RamV10: I'll give you credit: there are some uses for SUVs in today's society. But for most cases, it's not if you NEED the towing power, it's if you WANT the towing power. People can choose to camp in a tent rather than a trailer, or fish out of a canoe, not a powerboat. I'm not suggesting one if better than the other, just suggesting that the term 'need' is, in most (not all) cases of SUV ownership is a bit of an overstatement.

jorvay

Dad, where did you park the car ?. Ummm... above a lot of metal lines, why sweetie ?
Ummm... is that our car ?

seems to be a weird spiderweb with cars on it.

Mannyatic

Even if very few people require SUVs, at least the Land Rover maintains their line as highly-capable off-roaders. These are purpose built machines and have a better reason for existing than the plethora of other SUVs out there that would need to be towed to the shop if they went over a rough dirt road.

tcolberg

You guys are WAY off!

it looks like a windchime.

merebito

HELL NO, I will always have a car bigger than all your Priuses. Now it happens to be a Range Rover (1998 still running proudly and usefully over your Hybrids)

tkohrs2002

@broho: though I imagine you're exaggerating to make your point, which I agree with, that no one NEEDS a v12 or a hemi to get their kids to school, I feel the need to point out the fact that:

a: the highest (and only) numbers of cylinders chrysler currently makes a hemi in is 8
b: the highest number of cylinders in any chrysler engine is currently 10, and it's not a hemi.

@jorvay: You're exactly right that people can camp in a tent rather than a trailer, and fish in a canoe rather than a larger boat, but I was going in a different direction.

Imagine you own your own business and have kids. Landscaping is probably a good example. You've got a 9000 pound compact track loader that you need to haul around, yet you still have to get your kids around. You're the only driver in the household, so there's no need for 2 cars. A diesel excursion looks pretty good about now.

Still, I think we both understand the same thing:

If you're bitching about the cost of gas in your daily driver SUV, you could probably do without. I get 8 in my pickup whilist going downhill with a tailwind, though I can bring an entire house back up the hill with me. I use a more fuel efficient vehicle where conditions suit, but I drive the pickup as well.

RamV10