While I completely agree that, if you're going to make SUVs or any comparable vehicles, whatever you call them (crossover utility vehicles sounds as good as any other name), you should make them hybrids, my point was more about the direction of American car manufacturing. I do not doubt that there are people who need and use SUVs, who have business or personal considerations that make all that space necessary, useful and desirable in a car. I think a station wagon can be a really good thing for a family with a few children, for instance.

However, I think that one reason there are so many commuters on the roads now with ridiculously big SUVs is because of what has been on offer in the dealerships in this country, not some actual need for the product. It's cyclical, sure- the companies make what we want and then sell us ads so that we want what they make. But if you compare the size of cars in this country to other countries- where they often have more children per family by the way-, the difference is striking. They have more expensive gas, and smaller cars- so they consume less than we do. If we want to consume less gas, we too should have more expensive gas and smaller cars (although having more expensive gas would probably cause people to buy smaller cars, on the whole, so there's positive feedback in the economic system).

It seems to me that if Ford or another Big Three company is really trying to make a statement about a change in direction, they should have made a mini instead of a mega. Others have certainly made the case against SUVs before me and more eloquently. I just wanted to make the point that my frustration stems from their product offering, and FEH notwithstanding, the Big Three didn't/don't offer the right products for this country as a whole, even if some of their products are the right choices for some of us individually. Why not hold them responsible for thinking about the future of the industry and its effect on us all? How else will anything change?