Twenty years into the sport utility vehicle era, we're still ranting, raging and rocking over SUVs.
And it isn't getting more polite.
"My son owns an SUV," said Susan Leavy of Miami, who drives a Toyota Camry. "I asked him if you have to be a jerk (I used a stronger word) to buy one or do you become one after you own one? He said, 'It's a little of both.'"
Spray-paint vandalism against SUVs in Oregon. California ad campaigns saying SUV drivers support terrorism.
SUV lovers reply that they're only trying to keep their families safe, and that the last time they looked, this was still America, where people are free to choose their transportation.
There's no doubt SUVs are gaining in popularity, soaring from 2 percent of new sales in 1985 to 25 percent today (or to 50 percent, if you count light trucks and minivans, which safety analysts lump in the same category as SUVs), according to federal experts.
The biggest cause of anger is the car drivers' feeling that they're at the mercy of 6,000-pound tanks on the road.
"Having such huge vehicles on the road," says David Rosenthal of Plantation, Fla., "only puts the rest of us at risk that a heavy, powerful, poor-handling, under-braked, overly high truck is going to kill us people in normal cars."
Many SUV drivers say they're aware of the size and weight differences and try to drive carefully. But "me first" is the MO.
"If I'm in a fender bender," says Eileen Lopez of Miami, who drives a Lincoln Navigator, "my big SUV can withstand pretty much everything, while your little car would be inside out. We the SUV drivers own the road, as we should."
Insurance companies and federal safety experts agree that SUVs, despite their propensity to roll over, are somewhat safer than cars -- for their occupants. But it comes at the cost of car drivers.
On the other side of the road, Stan Bishop, 37, of Atlanta, who grew up in Palm Beach, Fla., started a pro-SUV Web site, suvlove.com: "The anti-SUV movement is nothing but success bashing in America. People think the anti-SUV issue is about pollution or safety. It's not. It's pure, unadulterated class envy."
Bishop, who drives a 10-mile-per-gallon Hummer, says: "People that choose to drive small cars are jeopardizing their family's safety. Just because you drive a skateboard in front of my Hummer doesn't mean I'm more at fault because I chose to escalate the auto arms race."
Already, some smaller SUVs are arriving. Eron Shosteck, spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents nine of the biggest automakers, says the latest is the "crossover" -- an SUV built on an auto frame instead of truck frame. Examples are the Toyota Highlander, Saturn Vue and Ford Escape.
"It's the fastest-growing segment," Shosteck says. But such smaller SUVs are attracting buyers who now drive cars, not bigger SUVs.
Another force also might motivate smaller SUVs.
New EPA standards for gas mileage and air pollution -- to begin next year -- will make SUVs follow most of the same rules as cars.
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