[durtkillon]

Would we be having this discussion if fuel was 5 bucks a gallon?

I never tell people what to drive, but I can't help but think more people drive them than necessary. SUV's do however serve a purpose. Heck, I even own one. I drive it as little as possible because I think it's wasteful. If I have to run errands, I drive my TDI. If I have to put a baby seat in the back, carry camping equipment and tow a boat, I bust out the SUV.

I can't say that the environment is the only reason I leave the SUV home as much as possible. It drives like a kitchen appliance. It's slow, coners like jello and takes forever to stop. Combine that with increase rollover risk and cost of repair (its a Land Rover) and my decision gets easy.

Add in dependency on mid east oil, taking up an obnoxious amount of parking space and the disparity in mass compared to an economy car and you have a socially impractical daily driver.

I use it for utilitarian purposes. I avoid using it for a slew of reasons.