Read the post from some BBS members here, they have cars which have the same or more room and cargo carrying capacity inside than the average SUV, drive better, handle better, get much better mileage and cost a lot less than the average SUV and have modern safety features for Africa so that in a crash they don't roll over and they are designed so that when they crash, they deform the chassis, not the people inside.

It's great that these people are happy with these vehicles, however; it's also obvious from the rising popularity of SUVs that there is also a large group of people who do not want to drive these vehicles for whatever reason. If these cars were indeed suitable replacements(not that these are great cars) then I don't think we would be having this discussion because everyone would own them. The fact that SUVs are popular says a lot about what a certain segment of the population chooses to drive. I would love to see increased regulations and voluntary changes to reduce emissions of SUVs and all vehicles for that matter the same way I would like to see tougher requirements in other areas dealing with pollution control as well. I agree with you on many of your points but still believe that SUVs have been unfairly targeted for problems that have been with us well before the onset of the SUV. Due to their popularity I cannot see them fading away soon so I believe the realistic answer is to push the manufacturers to continually make them safer and more efficient.