Bill,

That's a sensible strategy. Only use the SUV/Pickup when you need it. But you must be able to afford it to have an SUV or pickup as a second car only when you need to tow the boat. By the way, shouldn't a boat be floating in the water ;-)

I think the disapproval is directed towards people that buy these SUV's/pickups and use it for everything and never tow a boat or haul stuff or transport a large family.

@Joseph et al,

I think the choice of car is nearly 100% determined by personality. I am really convinced that people driving big SUV's/trucks (without an obvious necessity) do that for exactly the same reason that my cat makes herself as big as possible when the neighbour's cat enters the garden: to impress. A simple matter of primitive instinct. Like it or not, there is still an animal inside us humans.

Bill,

Don't you know?

"Driving a wasteful vehicle is a crime for humanity."

In fact, owning a boat is a crime against humanity. Sell the boat and your SUV. Failure to comply means automatic arrest and seizure of your criminal goods and immidiate placement into the new re-education camp for people like you who have fun in life. Fun is no longer allowed. It is against the new order.

This has been a report by the Red... umm, Green Committee for the Betterment of Mankind.

@ Bill Young:

As long as you rarely drive your SUV, I suppose you aren't really wasting much. Now, apparently, you have garage space for three vehicles. Not everyone has that.

We need a large vehicle on occasion. My wife might buy a piece of furniture, or I might be working on the landscaping in our yard. When I need the behemoth, I RENT it at U-Haul.

The problem is that most people won't, or presently can't, make a decision like yours or mine. Most people do not have a three-car garage. And the temptation clearly exists to buy a vehicle which will handle the biggest job one can imagine oneself doing -- and then, to use that vehicle for every job, big and small.

Maybe people who gave in to that temptation have realized their mistake now. But with gas prices so high, the used SUV market sucks. So they can't get any money on the trade-in. And thus they can't afford to dump their SUV and get an appropriately-sized hybrid car. They're trapped.

I do wish that people would consider the renting option a bit more seriously. Think about it the next time you have to shop for a new car.

Our family's two current vehicles are a 2004 Prius and a 1994 Civic. The Prius replaced a 1989 Mercury Tracer hatchback. The Prius is the LARGEST vehicle I have ever owned.

Bill, I have an old pickup, too. It sits all but two or three days per month, when I actually need to haul something too big to fit in the Prius or Jetta. The problem I have is with all the shiny new 6000 lb 4WD monsters I see everyday on dry paved roads, hauling nothing but the driver. Are there people who need to own trucks and SUVs? Sure, I'm one of them, but I doubt that people like me make up anywhere near the percentage of the population which have given "light trucks" over 50% of the LDV market share over the past 15 or so years. Of these, I'm sure that a much smaller percentage need such a vehicle for everyday use, and to be honest with you, I can't remember the last time I saw an SUV pulling a boat. I think I can speak for most posters here when I say that I'm not categorically against trucks and SUVs any more than I categorically oppose dump trucks and road graders. I just don't think that it would be responsible to use them for one's daily commute.

Funny thing...I doubt you have 4 children in infant seats. Even though the forward facing seats for toddlers are large, booster seats are small and I EASILY fit 3 booster seats side by side in my sub-compact 99 Mitsu Mirage.

How many US households have more than 3 children who are all in infant or forward facing toddler seats? I am willing to bet that the numbers are FAR smaller than the number of SUVs sold in previous years.

Aren't sales of trucks and suvs down too? Just maybe it's the economy and people can't afford to buy cars like they did prior to the sub prime melt down. It's probably that simple.

We need an auto czar to dictate what we drive. And maybe, like China, even have a quota on how many kids we have.
Seriously. Judging people by what they drive is really, really shallow.

"Judging people by what the drive is really, really shallow."

Perhaps - but people do. When I see someone driving a large SUV - I immediately think they are a selfish pig. Sorry - can't help it. They might be the nicest person in the world but the truth is the vast majority of people driving a large SUV are selfish pigs with no concern about their use of resources.

We have an auto czar that dictates what we drive. The only problem is that the emphasis has mostly been on safety. But we submit our vehicles annually (mostly) to make sure that it still meets the czar's standards. The czar is gradually ramping up the economy standards (finally).

A quota on kids is not a terrible idea.

Sorry but wasting resources is a crime against humanity (I would put a motor boat in that category). When the use of fossil fuels kills millions of people, then doing so is a crime. The food prices of the last year will probably lead to the starvation of millions of people. While the causes of the food prices are multifactorial; if petroleum was in excess, the prices would be lower and at least some would be saved. Now - project out 10 or 20 years and it is easy to imagine increased famine and military conflicts because of petroleum. Heck - would we have invaded Iraq if everyone in the US drove a sensibly sized and powered vehicle?

To go further - probably 5000 americans die each year because of pulmonary ailments contributed by local pollution. Far more than 5000 die each year but the is the amount that could be "blamed" on pollution. Again - sensibly sized and powered - and that number would be 1/2 what it is. Crime? You decide.

"For the calendar year through the end of May, GM has sold 3,227 hybrid vehicles—i.e., May’s 1,247 units represent 39% of the hybrids sold so far this year"

PATHETIC!

The urge by some people to run other people's lives is utterly amazing. Talk about religious intolerance. Anybody who doesn't follow the religious dogma of Gaia, should be punished.

Crime Against Humanity?

We need someone to regulate life as the Chinese do with Infanticide?

Well at least Obama has voted to support your program. He has voted to allow the infanticide; after all, that's only "partial life" or ex-womb "extended abortion".
I presume deportation to the Gulag, would only be "extra-extended abortion".

You really ought to step back and listen to yourself.

Please grow up or move to China; and become an ant in the colony. Don't volunteer me to participate though.

Everyone is focused on everyone else's consumption. Cannot everyone mind their own business and stop judging and pointing fingers at people having what they have and do?

Who are any of you to say one person cannot have what they have. Or enjoy it. Or stick up for it? I think living in a poorer, communist country would suit those of you who criticize others to the death yet offer no help.

It sure is easy to point the finger. But what about helping someone out instead of judging them by what they drive or what they do? You are showing no love for anyone but yourself when you point a critical finger.

Stop critiquing everyone else. Start doing something productive or be quiet and humbly wait for someone else to do it for you.

Nate H.
Dover, Ohio

Toyota Struggles to Keep Up With Battery Production for Hybrids
Associated Press
June 16, 2008 5:52 a.m.

TOKYO – Toyota Motor Corp. is struggling to keep up with booming demand for hybrid vehicles because it is unable to make enough batteries that are key parts in the hit "green" cars, a senior executive said Monday.

The crunch on battery production is likely to stay for the rest of the year, as new lines can't be added to boost production until next year, said Toyota Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada, who oversees production at Japan's top auto maker.

"Hybrids are selling so well we are doing all we can to increase production," he said. "We need new lines." Battery production is critical in determining how many hybrid vehicles Toyota can produce, Mr. Uchiyamada said at the company's Tokyo office.

Hybrids, including Toyota's hybrid top-seller Prius, offer better mileage than comparable regular cars by switching between a gas engine and an electric motor.

Toyota leads the world's auto makers in hybrids sold at about 1.5 million vehicles since coming out with the first mass-produced hybrid Prius about a decade ago. Prius and other hybrids are soaring in popularity around the world amid surging gasoline prices, and other automakers are also rushing to produce hybrids. Hybrids also boast a green image in reducing emissions linked to global warming.

But Mr. Uchiyamada, who is spearheading a widespread effort at Toyota to make auto production greener, acknowledged such efforts hadn't yet extended to battery production because of the sheer problems in keeping up with demand.

"That has to settle down first," said Mr. Uchiyamada, an engineer who played a key role in the development of the Prius.

Toyota said last week its hybrid-battery joint venture with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic products, will begin producing next-generation lithium-ion batteries in 2009, and move into full-scale production in 2010. Toyota also said it is setting up a battery-research department later this month to develop an innovative battery that can outperform even that lithium-ion battery.

Toyota has also announced its third plant in Japan for producing current hybrid batteries, called nickel-metal hydride, packed in the Prius and other hybrid models on sale now.

Lithium-ion batteries, now common in laptops, produce more power and are smaller than nickel-metal hydride batteries. Toyota has said lithium-ion batteries will be used in Toyota plug-in hybrids, which can be recharged from a home electrical outlet.

Other auto makers are also revving up hybrid production. Honda, Japan's second-biggest automaker, said it will boost hybrid sales to 500,000 a year by sometime after 2010. Honda said it will introduce a new hybrid-only model next year for a lineup of four hybrids.

Nissan Motor Co., which still hasn't developed its own hybrid for commercial sale, said it will have its original hybrid by 2010. Nissan says its joint venture with electronics maker NEC Corp. will start mass-producing lithium-ion batteries in 2009 at a plant in Japan.

Toyota plans to sell one million hybrid vehicles a year sometime after 2010.