Why do all the politicians roll in suvs?

16 comments

1. Presumably to fit his entourage and because they’re heavily armored

2. Easier to fit the body guards with uzis.

3. Those are the armored “limousines” in production right now. They blend in.

4. Because security

5. They’re big and generally luxurious. Higher level politicians use them because they have space for armed guards and armor. Lower level politicians use them because they wanna look as important as the high level ones.

6. Security. You can hide a lot of armor and other gear in an SUV.

7. – Big
   – Easier to see
   – Many are armored
   – Easy to get in and out of (you step up, step down vs fall in, climb out)
   – The rear seats have a lot of leg room
   – US Companies

8. Most Americans roll in SUVs

9. Typically, only the high profile politicians have security details. For most members of congress their choice of vehicle is just their preference. Back when I first started out on the Hill I doubled as the driver for the Senator I worked for and the car was just a standard sedan.

10. The big old American sedan (Town Car, DeVille) is a thing of the past. Big SUVs are pretty much the only practical option these days, as they’re spacious, durable and easy to modify.

11. Higher level ones do because they travel with staff, media, and often security. State level senators and representatives and such typically drive themselves in their personal vehicles.

12. I used to work for Armored Holdings working on government contracts, mostly for NSA, but we also fitted other vehicles. SUVs are monumentally easier to armor plate, specifically Chevy Suburbans. The armor plating, ventilation, windows, tires are all pre-fab and installed on an assembly line set up in just a few hours. Anytime we had someone bring in a different vehicle it would take days to weeks to learn the vehicle and custom fabricate them. With presidential vehicles, it was basically just a stock armor job with thicker steel. I can’t speak on the limo though, I’m sure that was an over the top custom job.

13. They’re big enough to fit a security detail, an aide and the politician’s ego. Bill de Blasio was a very tall mayor and he would sit in the front passenger seat and his security detail was not happy about that.

14. They have a high payload capacity and are built on a pick-up truck frame. This allows for them to put a shitton of armour on them without having to do a bunch of heavy modifications to the vehicle’s underpinnings. They also have engines from the factory that provide good horsepower and torque, which it needs to carry around the shitton of armour.

15. armor, space, badass

16. More space to fit security detail and sturdier chassis to fit with military-grade armor plating. There’s a reason we don’t put politicians in convertibles like JFK anymore.