[speeder]

It's funny how as Americans our choices in vehicles are determined more by fuel prices than actual need or suitability for the task(s) at hand. We are conditioned by dirt cheap energy prices over the last 10 years to drive vehicles that are approx. double the size that the rest of the civilized world uses for the same task.

I like big trucks as much as the next guy, (it's the little boy in all of us, IMO), but the performance enthusiast in me inherently dislikes waste. It simply boggles my mind to look around in the U.S. and see how much fuel is wasted on a daily basis on over-capacity of vehicles. You go to Europe and all of the yuppies w/ little kids drive small sporty wagons w/ TDI power that get ~50 mpg highway, and IMO they are living better than typical Americans who are slaves to advertising and out of control consumerism. I mean come on, we have an intelligent person considering handing GM $50k for a huge SUV then giving Exxon-Mobil how much of your hard-earned ching for the next 4 years? To haul around a total of 300 lbs. of human cargo? A 1992 Jetta would do fine. Work your way up from that in a luxurious direction.

Sorry for the editorial, no personal attack intended. It applies to me as well.