[esquire]

Part of the popularity of trucks and SUVs/crossovers has to be the arms race mindset. If you drive a regular car, particularly a smaller one, anywhere outside the central areas of the big 3 cities, you can't help but feel a little vulnerable on the road... there are just so many big trucks and SUVs out there.

For example, a friend of mine was in a head on collision recently with his kids in the car... he was driving a Toyota Corolla. They were scratched up a bit but fortunately no serious injuries. However, it was frightening enough that he went out and bought a SUV as a replacement... he won't go back to a car.