SUV's are the new minivan

Once upon a time, the Sport Utility Vehicle was a creature made for off-road travel, found in the back-country of the American Southwest or on the African Savannah. They were a rare sight.

Now, they they jam city streets, clog highways, and cram mall parking lots.

The minivan fell out of fashion as being too unhip, too uncool, too square - too tied to the mundane activities of life. Soccer Moms and Business Dads wanted something flashier to keep ties to their youth - to keep alive the fantasy of adventure, like off-roading in the Desert... They've chosen the SUV.

Unfortunately, it's not the form-factor of a vehicle that defines it's "cool-ness", it's what you do with it: grocery shopping for the week, loading the kids off to soccer practice, moving your daughter to college, cocooning into a protected environment detached from the world outside, pacifying the children with the built-in flip-down DVD player... the mundanities remain the same. Real adventure is rare if the family car can't afford to be put at risk.

And that's why a Boxter, Miata, or any other 2 seat roadster convertible is still "cool": you can't do ANY of that stuff in it - you can only drive from point A to point B with the top down, enjoying the real world as you're living in its elements.

The fact of the matter is - SUV's are the new minivan.