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David Goewey’s, Careful You May Run Out of Planet, is an essay that describes America’s fascination with the sports utility vehicle, and the irony associated with this fascination. Goewey’s main argument revolves around the idea that the SUV is the predominant symbol in American culture. The names that car companies give to these vehicles are in direct correlation with the American frontier and the early exploration of America, such as the Ford Explorer and the Chevrolet Trail Blazer. Goewey gives the Jeep Cherokee as a specific example of the irony in its name. This car is named after the Cherokee Indian tribe which was suppressed heavily earlier in our history, and because of the exploration of our country these people paid dearly for it (p. 116-117). The advertising campaigns that car companies use to market their machines often involve wilderness settings that show the car driving off-road through a creek or up a mountain, but as Goewey points out in his writing, only 10% of these vehicles ever leave the pavement (p.
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