not the entire story there, docray. as do most enviro-freaks, i wish that we could just condemn all of those who drive excessively large vehicles as selfish consum-o-haulics, but there are a substantial percentage (perhaps even a majority) of those who buy large cars and suvs because of safety factors. of course, this is a never ending cycle, but let's be fair here. afterall, this was the reason why americans moved away from stationwagons to minivans - to get more safety. the difficult thing is that as the u.s. government enforces more strict fuel economy requirements for small and midsize vehicles, they are forced to get smaller and more efficient, and in the eyes of the public, less safe. this of course further pushes them to larger cars and suvs that don't have those requirements.