[DifferentPointofView]

Being an SUV owner, driver, and do actually care for the environment unlike most people in the US, I will have to say that hybrid SUV's are more of a good thing than a bad thing.

Also, I have been in almost every automotive group you can think of, from the performance nuts at SCC, the having fun Jeeper's at Jeep Addicts, the neon covered cars people, the 4X4 people, the track/rally car people, the muscle car groups, and the guru's here trying to squeeze every bit of MPG from their cars. And I have to say that, everyone has they're own one group thoughts that everyone leans toward and makes fun of the other groups. The performance guys think that the guys who make they're car look like a hotwheels cars are retards and all that heavy show stuff is just slowing them down, The muscle car guys make fun of the performance/track racing Japanese cars cause they're car sounds like a dirt bike and looks like they're girlfriend should drive it. "it'd run better if you'd just drop a V8 in there!". The Jeep guys have a quote and act like there's no such thing as gas mileage, they think that it's all about having fun more than having a good stereo or big rims. And then there is the mpg people, who think everyone else is insane. That said, here's my oppinion on SUV's and why people buy them.

Most people that buy SUV's are either rich folks who don't give a S*** and want them 24" DUBs, The Moms who are paranoid about safety and won't get near a 2 door car, guys who want to make it into the ultimate off-road/ready for any natural disaster truck, and guys like me, who was looking for a first car and that's what came up, the price was spectacular, it ran good and any of the problems were an easy fix.

I know one thing.. my mom will never buy a car that only has 2 seats, 2 doors, or looks like I could accidentally run it over. That means she won't buy a convertible, festiva, metro, swift, miata, or anything that could drive under a semi while on the highway. She says they're too fragile, unsafe, and when you get in a head on collision they will keep going and you'll go the opposite way they went. Oh, and believe me I wanted to get a very small car, I was actually almost gonna buy a festiva but my mom wanted me to atleast have a car that wasn't smaller than even a compact car.

We found my Jeep, it was $2000, looked the way it does now, and ran well. sounds like a good one to me. I know that the times I almost got into a wreck cause people ran stop signs, they were in smaller cars, headed for the exact place you don't wanna hit me, the engine bay. I can guarantee that they would have flown somewhere and I would have kept going. The AMC 4.0L was made thicker and heavier than most I6's cause it was designed for vehicles that could take the weight of a V8, so the I6 has been deemed one of hardest motors to kill, and one of the best off-road motors ever built. It was rated at 20mpg highway. I achieve 21-23 combined mpg.

Not bad for a 4.0L heavy as crap I6 pushing around an SUV, Now safety isn't the only reason for buying, but that's what a lot of people buy it for. They want to be the ones to survive in a wreck, survive when it's flooding, Feel comfortable on those really long trips (oh the comfort!), and look intimidating.

Other people want it for an adventure, to go where no one has gone before, help people who are stranded in a blizzard surrounded by Hyundai's, Saturns, and Yugo's, and look intimidating. I can relate to this, it's a rush to try and get stuck out of that really bad one, it's funny when all of the cars are trying to get through the traffic jam, and you just drive through the ditch and get home in 5 minutes. Finding new places and exploring, it's like being an adventurer, searching the environment for things unexplored. Its really fun.

But for most people buying an SUV they're checklist goes like this,

Space for the family, comfort,
Safety, high off the ground for snow
4wd for the winter
other things that do with stuff that a van doesn't quite have
Dad will not look like a wimp

The thing that at the end that people look at is fuel consumption, and if there's a hybrid or non-hybrid for about the same price, they're gonna probably go for the hybrid, cause they're on a budget for more than just the family car. If they can save at the pump as much as possible then they will go for the hybrid. and what can a hybrid SUV hurt? not at all more than a regular gasoline SUV.

You can't always go with a car, nor a van I definitely know that they are worse than cars for the environment, but Compareing SUV's with SUV's, a hybrid isn't hurting anyone, It's just like removing the roof racks, it might not do much at all, but you know it's helping. Sometimes you have to look on the bright side and see that we're never gonna get rid of the SUV, so might as well accept the hybrid ones.