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I'm sure most of the millions of SUVs are not used to capacity (which can be beaten by a minivan) or off road use. Most I see are suburban commuters that think the dirt driveway to their camp is off roading (the kind of roads I could do 60+ down in my old Legacy wagon). SUVs before they were called SUVs (anyone remember The Goonies when Chunk describes the Jeep as an "ORV"?) sold to a small market of people that used them for their intended purpose and I don't see a problem with that. The stupidity is with the ones that aren't. Like the idiots I see on the other end of the spectrum sitting in traffic in their Lamborghinis and Bentleys (and most likely getting worse mileage than the much maligned SUVs). I guess at least the Bentley has a nice interior when you're sitting at lights, stuck doing 20 mph, waiting for the cop to return your license, or the ever-fun 70-30-70 dance regulated by morons that can't drive steady speeds.
30 mpg out of a vehicle like this isn't bad at all when many mid-size sedans struggle to reach the same.
One of the biggest obstacles to fuel efficient vehicles is the majority of people controlled by their lizard brain—they live in constant fear of collisions and so dictate ever more safety equipment, which adds weight. And then they don't want a car that's too slow (or at least slower than the previous model. My God, how could the poor marketing people ever sell such a thing?), so the horsepower has to go up to compensate. Engine technology takes up some of the slack, but only so much. Then of course there's aerodynamics and marketing-led consumer styling expectations, but that's a whole other rant.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I like older cars because they are generally much more fun to drive being lighter, less isolated, and much more available with manual transmissions. New cars have also gotten less reliable as the level of extra crap has increased. I think the late '80's to early '90's was the golden age of cars—aero was at least considered, fairly advanced and reliable MPFI and distributorless ignition systems were coming in, many were still easy to work on, and rustproofing advancements were most welcome. I'd love to buy reissues of old cars with updates for current emissions. I'd pay $20k for a reissued 1984 Subaru hardtop with an EJ22 (wouldn't be overweight so it wouldn't need that garbage 2.5 they replaced it with) and some better rustproofing. Some extra chassis rigidity would be nice, too, but restricted to extra welds so as to keep the weight down. They wouldn't even have to upgrade the joke headlights as I'd be glad to do it myself as long as they built it. Come on, I'll sign any legal waiver you want and don't even need a warranty!
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