Yeah, I never had anything against the 55mph but now we have another generation raised to go fast, and they would hate it.
Your Suburban, using turbodiesel and hybrid technology could easily get 35mpg... if Detroit wanted to build them that way.
Maybe some day they will get the message.
As I said earlier, VW plans on being the biggest car company in the world, with a fleet of vehicles getting 80-100 mpg on clean turbodiesel technology.
You would think
someone in Detroit might get their head outta their...
But that's why they have lawyers, so they can sue instead of think.
Actually, Detroit markets large cars to us because Detroit does NOT KNOW HOW to make a profit on small cars, they never have; which is why they have been losing so badly to their competitors. That is what is going to have to change in the next couple of years if they want to survive. They limped along giving away the small car market so long as they could sell you a Suburban... that thinking won't work anymore.
Regarding your 'defensive' purchase of the Suburban; that argument (for the safety of my family) has some problems IMHO... let me explain...
My sister, about fifteen years ago, when she had three young kids, clinically suffered from depression. One of her symptoms was that she would go on shopping binges because they made her feel better (I don't remember the clinical name but I'm sure you do, it's pretty common). Her argument was always the same ... she would buy stuff "for the kids" and "for their safety" (she spent a lot one summer on fire alarms and new doors etc, all for better "safety"). And then she purchased a new Volvo wagon she couldn't afford, for the 'safety of the children'. We ended up - literally - doing an intervention, because she had maxed out her cards and was borrowing from other family members who didn't know what was going on...
My point being that there is ultimately no end to the 'defensive' argument... if a Suburban is safer for your family, then a Rolls-Royce would be safer yet, and best of all... a M1A1 tank would be a better, more logical purchase.
All I'm saying here is that there ARE other factors that need to be weighed in; and as a parent I know we all have to make tough decisions ... and there were times (winter driving in Maine) I was uncomfortable driving my child to school in my little Toyota... but I couldn't afford anything else, so that's what I did. I've driven in Phoenix and Boston and NYC and SF and LA and Miami in small cars, and myself - and my daughter - survived happily. I could argue that small is equally safe in many ways - it doesn't JUST come down to crash tests after all, there are issues such as manoeuverability to consider as well. (My little AWD car certainly avoided accidents where I saw trucks flip and roll) Then of course, small targets are harder to hit ... and ultimately, a tanker truck will flatten a Suburban just as flat as a Prius.
I'm not saying that you are wrong - I'm merely saying there are other factors, and I am sure there are Phoenix famiies driving to school in hybrids and biodiesels who would argue that in the biggest sense, their choice is the safest of all... they are doing something to give their children better air, for example, and isn't that, really a safety issue too, in the long run?
Hope this hasn't sounded offensive, it wasn't meant to be.
And maybe a new Audi diesel might have a better crash rating than a Suburban, you should look into it
And as I said right at the start... there are no technological hurdles to building a Suburban that gets 35mpg or better using turbo diesel and hybrid technologies... Detroit just hasn't been bothered, because they are dominated by a lazy, overfed, overpaid 'muscle car' CEO/engineer mentality that has consistently looked to big car sales for their profit margin, ignoring the more difficult challenges of small car profitablity - something no other car makers have ignored...
I've got nothing against big cars. Many people need, them, after all, not just for safety but to pull trailers and work on ranches and so on. My argument is there is NO reason they can't be EFFICIENT big cars. We could easily have 45mpg Escalades and 35mpg Tacomas and Tahoes... and pretty soon, if VW has its way, we will.