We have a minivan, and I won't claim that it doesn't guzzle more gas than I'd like. I really have no data to compare minivan gas efficiency with SUV's, so I won't argue that point at all.
And the reason we drive a minivan (our other car is a sedan) is because we have to haul around several children on a fairly regular basis. I figure as long as I have kids and must drive carpools, I'll need that passenger capacity. And I confess that I like being higher up on the road - I prefer that extra bit of visibility. Plus there's that cargo-hauling capacity, which we've used on many many occasions.
As for safety of SUVs, here's my problem with the argument. It seems like a very true statement to say that in a collision of a car and an SUV, the SUV passengers are more likely to walk away unharmed or the least harmed. I wouldn't say that is the same case in a collision involving two SUVs because I would guess that the matched size would outstrip any extra cushioning offered by either. So if everyone drove SUVs, everyone would be equally safe. Thus it begs to argue that if everyone drove sedans, we'd all be back on the same playing field, at least as far as car on car collisions are concerned. It's the actual proliferation of large SUVs and minivans that facilitate the feeling of needing an SUV to be safer.
Granted, this doesn't account for general accidents in which another car isn't involved. Again, I have no hard data to rely on, but like Rivka, I'm not thoroughly convinced that SUVs are always safer.
I do believe there are good reasons to drive an SUV, and I even understand that passenger reason. If you have to tote kids around, an SUV is a good option for capacity.
My problem comes from people like my next door neighbor, who owns a minivan, which his wife drives the kids around in, plus he owns an SUV that gets something like 13 miles to the gallon which he drives into the city, all by himself. Now, I'm sure he'd make the excuse of needing to drive clients here and there, but not so long ago, salesmen were able to drive clients here and there in their more gas-friendly sedans. Why the need for this SUV? Or at least, why the need for both? Anyone living and commuting into and out of big cities can probably attest to the number of SUVs being used as commuter cars. What is that all about? It doesn't make sense to me. I don't think many commuters are taking their kids to the office with them and thus worried about safety.
Sorry if I'm sounding political. I guess this topic is kind of a sensitive one for me because I can't divorce the entire US-reliant-on-foreign-oil situation with things happening in the Middle East, and it seems that as long as we Americans aren't willing to change our attitudes in a big way - an attitude that seems to say that we Americans are entitled to drive large gas-guzzling vehicles and still expect our gas prices to remain as low as they used to be twenty years ago - things are never going to get any better.
Lynn
PS - In case you think I'm picking on people here, my father just purchased an SUV, and I'm not very happy with him. He certainly has no children to haul around, nor does he live in the country or in a place with extreme winter weather. In fact, he doesn't generally haul very much, either, so I have no idea why he feels the need for an SUV. In response to his choice, my mother plans to trade her car in for a hybrid, hoping to offset things.
