Have you ever driven with children?
You're not allowed to put them in the front seat. They have to go in the back, and until they're about 8 they have to have child seats or booster seats.
And they need strollers. And diaper bags. And then you go to the supermarket with them and buy food, and you need space for that. Or go to soccer and give a ride to the neighbors kid, so you have 3 kids, none in the front seat, and their stuff, and maybe soccer equipment too.
Sure there are some people who have SUV's because they're big and powerful. Like Arianna Huffington. But there are a whole lot of us that would rather have a good, full size station wagon. The problem is they don't make them anymore, the last one was the 96 Buick Roadmaster. So instead of a station wagon that would get 18 mpg and hurt the CAFE ratings, we have to buy stupid SUV's that get 14 mpg but are listed as trucks, so they DON'T hurt the CAFE ratings.
I drive a cheap-butt Tercel that gets 35 mpg. It has absolutely nothing to do with my self image. But my wife has to have a bigger car because she has the baby during the day. It's a small wagon, a Saturn. If we have another baby it WON'T be big enough.
