SUV Insanity

First, there was the sport utility vehicle. And it was bad. Gas guzzling, overgrown Jeeps that were and are driven as status symbols. Because, let's face it, you have to be rich to put gas in one.

Recently, the "Sport" part has been dropped to create the luxury utility vehicle, for which the principle is the same but without the pretext of being able to go off-road.

Then, the was the SUV hybrid. Sure, a gasoline-electric hybrid drive is easier on gas while still giving reasonable performance. But really, putting one in an SUV just takes some of the guilt away, since it will now use "only" as much gas as, say, a typical American sedan. And hybrid SUVs are by far the most common type of hybrid vehicles.

Have a quick look at caranddriver.com, you will see that only Honda and Toyota offer a hybrid compact, while only Lexus and Nissan offers a hybrid mid-size. Ford, Mercury, Lexus, Saturn, and Toyota all offer a hybrid SUV. This compromised hybrid is becoming disturbingly common at the expense of putting hybrid drives in cars were the switch would actually save gas, rather than just compensating for innately poor fuel efficiency.

I was considering going hybrid for my next car, but unless some selection actually appears in the small and mid-size ranges, I'll have to opt for a car like the current Honda Fit or Toyato Yaris, which give similar mileage by simply being small and using highly efficient conventional engine. The lack of technical advances is getting a bit old. Hopefully Volkswagen will continue to make the desiel version of the Jetta, because with only a few exceptions nobody seem willing to do any better.