Kim, you seen the Renault Espace and co? And you say there's no room for a pair of big dogs in one?

The problem is simply that people don't see it as a problem. Primarily this is Americans, but the SUV craze is biting somewhat over here in the UK too. "My V6 is fine, bcos I know someone who's got a V8 and you've not complained about them" is not a valid arguing position! ;-) US citizens are spoiled with petrol prices, there's no other way of saying it, and therefore don't consider inefficient vehicles to be an issue. In the UK, a car doing less than 30mpg is definitely a luxury item, and costs accordingly in petrol, insurance and road tax.

I'm currently working in a car engine controller company - ground zero in this, you might say - and we're working on a hybrid SUV. With a bit of fancy tech, we're reckoning on V6 performance out of a 4-pot lump, with about 28mpg economy. All good stuff. It could do better, but the base design says explicitly that they think consumers are only prepared to pay quite a small amount to look "green".

There's always a "but", though, and in this case it's a biggy. In 1986, American cars reached their most efficient ever, at an average of 28mpg. In 1986, fuel injection was still a rarity, turbo-diesels hadn't happened, and electronic engine control was in its infancy. 15 years later, and we get to 2001. This year, American cars are down to an average of 20mpg!!! And that's despite all our best efforts (and my personal best efforts!), computer-aided engine design, electronic everything, and all the rest of the bells and whistles. This is SUVs in action - sorry, but there's no other class of car has contributed to this.

You may not see these figures printed exactly. The simple answer is tax credits - car companies get credits for investing in alternative technology (hybrid, electric, etc), this gets counted against the average, and then this adjusted average is what counts for their taxes. Of course, the adjusted average is what gets printed! It's a nice bit of a dance on the part of the car companies and the US government.

I'm lucky in that all my friends have taste and haven't succumbed to imitation off-roaders. The only ppl who've owned off-roaders have had genuine ones (eg. a Jeep Cherokee) and these have been used for the stated purpose of hauling loads (eg. hang-gliders and pilots) up rough tracks to the tops of hills. As Peg says, using an SUV to go shopping is plain ridiculous unless you happen to live in the Outback!

Oh, another note - some SUVs now (and increasing) actually aren't off-roaders. The US market has invented the 2-wheel-drive SUV, which satisfies no requirement except marketing!

Graham.