MY RIDE- Steve Shifflett: 2003 Ford Excursion

PHOTO BY CLAIBORNE THOMPSON

Steve Shifflett may get a lot of flack for driving his huge gas-guzzling Ford Excursion, but that doesn't stop him from loving it. Recently, while Shifflett was tanking up at a gas station, a lady started ranting and yelling at him about the Excursion's fuel-efficiency and its detrimental effect on the environment. 

As she yelled at him about his "audacity to drive a car like that," he says, "I didn't argue with her because she was right. Agreeing with her probably made her madder."

Even though he gets only eight miles to the gallon, Shifflett says he doesn't buy anything but big cars because he saw "what car crashes can do to small cars" and "too much carnage on the roads" while he was a deputy sheriff in Charlottesville and especially while he was the auxiliary deputy sheriff in Greene County. 

And apart from safety, he also likes that his car "goes anywhere in the snow."

Do his kids object to his big SUV? Nope, they love it too, especially because of "all the letter combos...FM, AM, CD, TV, DVD."

While there are many pros to his car, Shifflett can't think of any cons (besides the fuel economy) except "It's just too big to take it through a car wash." But driving is a life and death matter, and to Shifflett, "Gas prices mean nothing to me when I'm surrounded by 7,800 pounds of metal and a full frame in the Excursion."

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