Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Bear in mind that most "SUVs" now aren't SUVs. The original SUVs were big people-carriers built on truck frames. Basically even some of the smaller ones were body-on-frame types like a Ford Ranger (Explorer). Basically they were ALL pickup trucks with a full body and 2-3 rows of seats instead of an open bed.

Now even the Explorer is a unibody, car-chassis, FWD platform. It's no longer what we always thought of as an SUV. It's a crossover (SUV styling, car platform). 

The bulk of what we call SUVs today are just tall cars. Which is a good thing IMHO, because it solves many of the issues that made SUVs impractical for most drivers (poor fuel economy, high weight, bumpy truck suspension, etc). 

Which is exactly the route that "van" to "minivan" took--vans used to be based on truck chassis with big slab sides, and someone got the idea that if we put a van body on a car chassis, it means we don't need RWD, it'll drive more nicely, it'll have TONS of people/cargo room but be docile enough for a housewife to drive her offspring around without breaking the bank on gas. 

I think the minivan is still a FAR more functional and practical auto than most crossovers, but it's not like the difference is the same as when SUVs first really took off. Most crossovers now are basically minivans with doors that open OUT rather than slide backwards. 

SUVs are much less efficient and offer less interior room than a comparable station wagon.  Minivans are even more practical.

Compare the gas mileage and interior volume of a minivan with any comparable SUV of equal price.  The only advantage of some SUVs is they can tow.

Well, some can off road better, if that ever is tried.

I don't think many Americans care about "efficiency" in their cars, hence the explosion of SUVs in the first place.  And it's possible that a station wagon offers more interior room in some cases, but it certainly doesn't offer more height in the cargo area compared to the rear of a medium or large SUV, so what you're loading affects that equation.  And as you mention, SUVs can tow, which is the main reason I have one, although I doubt the majority of people that own them use that feature.

People want what they want and they like what they like.  Railing against them for that, doesn't make much sense, but there you have it.

Honestly, I prefer towing with an SUV over a pickup.  For longer trips, I like having all of our gear inside the vehicle rather than in the bed of the truck.  Once we reach our camping destination, if we venture out from home base, again I prefer to have the gear inside the vehicle rather than in the bed.

And on a slick boat ramp, I'll take the better rear traction of a 4x4 SUV, over the lesser rear traction of a 4x4 pickup.  You can of course load extra weight into the back of the pickup, but that's an extra step that's unnecessary with an SUV.  Tire choice makes a difference here too, though.  Many pickups are rigged with more off-road style tires, which have less grip on the wet ramp, while SUV tend to have more car-like tires, which also provide better grip in the wet.  

The first car I can remember my mom having, was this:

[img width=500 height=280.966]http://topclassiccarsforsale.com/uploads/photoalbum/1976-impala-station-wagon-3.jpg[/img]




Later, we traded in for this:



Never really thought about it, but I guess my mom liked blue cars.

This is the first car I can remember being in back in the day.  No seat belts.  Two speed transmission and 283 CID engine (I think).  And it was red and white on top.

The first car I remember being in was a 1948 Hudson we had in Okinawa, 1957-60.



That's not our car, but it was green.  It was a beater that had been passed down from one Air Force guy to the next.  It had a hole the size of a quarter in the back floorboard, and I would watch the road go by.

When we got back to the States, we got one of these.

[img width=500 height=341.989]https://live.staticflickr.com/2818/9349143882_05dd0d4132_b.jpg[/img]

Aquamarine and Oyster White ours was.

4 doors, seated 9 (the rear 3 faced backward), V-8, A/C, tinted glass, pushbutton transmission, and a speedo that was like a ribbon that advanced left to right by filling up one little segment--bottom to top--at a time.  I don't remember seatbelts.

My dad is a car guy, but he's also a guy who didn't have a lot of spare time or money when we were kids. My parents' first car with air conditioning was a 1995 Ford Explorer (their first new car since 1979). I was a junior in college when they bought it.

My first car as a kid was a '71 or '72 VW Microbus. I remember (as a five year old) shopping for our brand new 1979 Microbus. It had a 2.0 liter, air cooled engine, and it struggled getting up hills in the Sierra (not as much as the older one did, though). Right around that time (just after) both the Chrysler minivan and the Jeep Cherokee got very popular. Of course, ten years later, the SUV began taking over. My dad bought a 1950 GMC 150 (3/4 ton) pickup in the early 80s. That was the car I learned to drive on. You started it in 2nd gear because 1st was too low for any practical application on roads. 228 straight six, I think. Max speed: 56 MPH, and that was with a lot of lead time. Brakes and steering were horrible. Had to use a starter pedal to get her running. The cab had a rust hole on the passenger side, so you could watch the road go by. It still does, and you still can. Dad put seat belts in sometime in the late 80s. He upgraded to a 12V system about 15 years ago, and I think he had the brakes upgraded, too. As he nears his retirement (should have retired a while back, but he loves his job), he wants to finally really restore it, but most body shops want nothing to do with the cab. The engine serial number matches the frame, so it has that going for it as restorations go. 

Right around when I was learning to drive, my grandfather gave my parents his 1973 Dodge Dart 2-door Swinger. When he bought it, they were only available in automatic, which--to him--was impractical, so he had a three speed manual installed, with a Hurst floor shifter. With the 225 slant six it wasn't speedy, but it had decent torque in the 40-60 range, and it was fun to slam the shifter around. Max speed somewhere around 105 (I had it there once, briefly, on an interstate, and in that car it terrified me, so it didn't last long, and that was as a teenager! I had an Acura up over 115 once around the same time and relatively speaking, it was smooth as glass). It had lap belts in front, and a shoulder strap you could connect (and should) from above the doors.

The Dart developed some cooling issues, and during one summer whenever I drove it to Sacramento, I would have to nurse it at about 55-60 MPG with the heater on full blast to keep the thing cool enough. Not a great way to drive in the Sacramento valley in the summer time, but normally when I was headed out there it was at night, so at least a little cooler. Pretty sure that turned out to be a blown head gasket. Dad and I also went to check out another GMC down near Bakersfield to see if it was worth buying and we blew a radiator hose south of King City (which is kind of the middle of almost nowhere). With no auto shops open Sunday morning, we duct taped that sucker, and it got us where we needed to go. The Dart and the Jimmy were great cars to learn on, among other things because they were so easy to work on, and thus understand how cars work.

Mom and dad were going to give me the Dodge when I graduated college, and my buddy and I were thinking seriously about how we would get a 318 V8 into it. Alas, the week before I graduated, mom was in a wreck and the car was totaled (she was ok, though pretty shaken up). Instead, I bought a 1990 Honda Accord 4-door, which was a much better car, but no where near as much fun (it did have AC, though).

My favorite car (that I've owned) to date was my Honda Odyssey (2006). Owned it for 13 years. Did its job remarkably well. Not at all cool, but I've moved on to wanting my car to do its job and nothing really more than that. And my personal leanings being what they are, the gas mileage is important to me. For a while I thought our replacement would be a Toyota 4-Runner, but in the end logic won out and we have an Accord Hybrid--another great car. Whenever we need a 4WD vehicle, we rent one (about once or twice a year). That works great, and saves us all kinds of money.