...if you live where I do, in a remote part of a Western state where most of the roads are unpaved.

Elsewhere, they're not so useful.

What's wrong with minivans, exactly? They are built on auto chassis and are better in most ways.

Buying any car that gets less then 30MPG is just a bad idea.

When oil prices come back or the money continues to run out you will regret that vehicle.

Unless you have clear commercial needs it is just wrong regardless of the up front cost.

But there really are no good cars. They just don't design them to hit a real fuel number but still be useful. They are all designed to pass people at 80 going up hill into the wind.

We need people movers. Heck you could have gotten a sprinter van with 3 rows of seats for a little more and had way better gas millage. But maybe those aren't legal in cali....

Looks like not a bad "crossover" you got. We have a Honda Element with 4WD and that good ole reliable Honda V6 -- it hauls an incredible amount of stuff (which we sometimes need to do) and gets 24 MPG highway miles.

Personally, I'd prefer a 4 cylinder (or 2 cylinder boxer, in my dreams) for better gas mileage, as Mark got -- but we're happy, and this category of car is very useful (though who knows how the Element is categorized?).

A small economy car won't satisfy all your needs, keep the

SUV miles down, use the bikes as much as you can, and only Laurie David will look down on your efforts (from her private jet plane).

I never know whether to laugh or cry when people who use planet-killing steel wheelchairs claim to be environmentalists. Face it Mark, it doesn't matter if you use a bike on occasion; if you drive enough to consider buying a fossil-fool powered wheelchair, you are most certainly NOT an environmentalist.

It's okay, Mark. As long as you sheepishly write a clever and mildly humorous mea culpa (one which somehow manages to luxuriate in your SUV-induced guilt), you're absolved of any personal responsibility! We get it and support you because, hey, who doesn’t like to have things both ways in life!? The freedom to buy and consume whatever we’d like, coupled with the knowledge that we’re still far better than those silly mouth-breathers with their wasteful Navigators or unsightly Caravans – it’s the American dream.

I hope that the two kids mentioned in the article were adopted, because procreation is way more environmentally destructive than driving an SUV.

Or at least what I find funny is you drove a Volvo for 10 years, yet think a Minivan is too middle class. That's hilarious.

For God's sake nothing screams middle class crunchy like a Volvo, unless it's riding a SUB.

You should have gone with the minivan with better gas mileage and swallowed your self image, At least that way your environmentalist creed would still be intact.

More than fuel economy, SUVs are terrible in many ways:

1) They are much more dangerous to others on the road (in a collision or even parked, blocking other drivers' views) in MANY ways

2) They take up more space in parking lots (requiring larger spaces and fewer spots ... aka more land paved over and more circling for non-compact spots)

3) They hide smaller cars in parking lots, again, requiring more circling around looking for a non-filled spot

4) More steel, more alloys and more size = more environmentally damaging

5) SUVs are harder on the roads, requiring your municipality to spend more money on petroleum products (asphalt) to keep the streets in good repair

6) and back to fuel economy -- your new SUV's MPG being better than your Volvo's is a straw-man. Once you decided to get a new car, your Volvo's MPG doesn't mean anything -- you have to make the comparison to relevant alternatives.

Mini-vans are lame, I agree, but there are alternative wagons that DO have a third row of seating, are plenty safe, and offer more than enough space for 95%+ of the time you are using the car (what? you take your kids, their friends, your dog and groceries with you everywhere?). In that 5% or less amount of time that you do NEED the extra space, you could rent something bigger. Ahh well. So much for thinking outside the box.

Consumer Reports got 22mpg overall in their testing of the 4 cylinder Outlander. You can get a fairly quiet safe ride in a Toyota Matrix / Pontiac Vibe, along with 27mpg.

Aghast! Jeepers Creepers! Holy Misunderstanding Batman! This is about as interesting to read as an one of those 'Last Word' essays in the back of a Time magazine.

The devil hath the power to assume a pleasing shape

...as minivans are considered acceptable penance because they are ugly. That is the appropriate course of action.

Oohh, minivans are LAME. Bullshit. They hold a lot more in cargo and people than an SUV, and get better gas mileage to boot. You're just too cool for one.

Cept you're not, You bred. You have to haul kids and groceries and dogs around. You were driving a VOLVO WAGON fer chrissakes.

I'm tired, oh so tired, of hearing about how horrible minivans are. They're practical. Worrying about your image based on the vehicle you drive is silly--and trust me, everyone's already got you pegged anyway.

I hate to tell you, but gas will shortly go back up again, and unless your SUV gets great gas mileage you will soon be as screwed as the planet. Oh, did you notice that Glacier National Park will have no glaciers in about 15 years? Never mind, keep working on those rationalizations. Soon you'll be as adept as those who voted for George W. Bush.

For men who can't admit to themselves that they drive a minivan.

>Mini-vans are lame, I agree, but there are alternative wagons that DO have a third row of seating, are plenty safe, and offer more than enough space for 95%+ of the time you are using the car <

Where? We looked, but didn't find them. Used cars with third rows were giant vans. It's illegal for me to toss them in the back of an old station wagon, if I could find one to buy (which would be an milage/emissions nightmare, I'd think). We've got people to transport, and so we got the highest milage, cheapest minivan we could. All the time, we'd think something was three rows (Dodge Magnum) and find out it was two.

Minivans are lame. So is getting up at 7am, diapers, kids misbehaving in restaurants, and telling your teen that he's not indestructible. We survive.