The trouble with SUV's is that there's a need for large vehicles (I didn't say everyone who has one needs it, just that some do), and the
CAFE regulations that the U.S. passed in the '70s somehow made it prohibitive to keep making station wagons (I don't understand the details, I'm afraid). That may not be too much of a loss, considering most station wagons were ugly enough to qualify as pollution just on looks, but I digress.
I've wanted a "larger than sedan" but "smaller than a grocery store" vehicle for some time, but the choices for such just haven't been there. I was hopeful that the Chrysler PT Cruiser would fit my needs there, but they seem to have done everything they could to minimize internal space on that thing (it would've helped if they hadn't piled it on a Dodge Neon frame like a hay bale on a skate-board). These days I'm quite excited about the Chevy HHR, it's not huge, but it has a surprising amount of internal space for its size, and it's pretty fuel efficient (we rented one for a trip to the mountains last year, and it got ~35 MPG on the highway, and ~29 in the mountains, not too shabby). I've been a Saturn driver since fall of 1993 (I'm on my second one
), and I was a bit unenthusiastic about the idea of going to a Chevy, but then I found out that the HHR and the Saturn Ion have the same frame, power-plant and drive train, so it's really just a Saturn with a different body style.
So I plan to go that way when I wear out my current '96 Saturn SL2, which may take a while: it only has ~45k on it (I bought it from a little old lady who only drove it to church on Sundays).