WASHINGTON - The bad habits of gas-guzzling, road-hogging sport utility vehicles are a red-hot topic, but consumers bought 4 million of them last year, and the Bush administration is unlikely to impose safety and environmental changes that could kill the market.
America's infatuation with the off-road behemoths that became a suburban creature comfort doesn't seem headed toward a rejection of SUVs - only a desire to tame them by making them less prone to flip over or crush cars in collisions, and somewhat less wasteful of fuel.
The government's top highway safety regulator, emergency room physician Jeffrey Runge, recently sent auto executives into a panic by saying he would never let his kids drive some SUV models that are more likely to roll over.
But Runge also noted that he would rather the industry tackle the safety issues than try to solve them by federal fiat.
"We cannot regulate fast enough to keep up with technological innovations, nor would we want to," Runge said in a speech last month in Detroit.
Runge's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is completing a rating system that will tell consumers how likely SUVs are to roll over in emergency maneuvers. The agency also is exploring new safety standards to reduce injury when SUVs and pickups slam into the sides of cars, but officials say it is unclear whether a regulation will follow. The process could take five years or more.
The marketplace might get there faster. The evidence is in showrooms. A couple of years ago, tanks such as the Ford Excursion epitomized the SUV craze. Smaller, carlike "cross-utility" vehicles such as the Honda Pilot are now the rage.
"I think that we are going to see more of what are called crossover designs - SUVs that are less trucklike," said Brian O'Neill of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a longtime critic of SUV safety flaws.
Consumers bought nearly 3 million traditional SUVs last year, and the Ford Explorer remained the best-selling model of any size. But while demand for bigger SUVs remained flat, sales of smaller cross-utility vehicles surged by 23 percent, to more than 1.2 million, according to WardsAuto.com, a leading source of industry statistics.
A Harris Interactive poll released last week captures the mood of consumers. While 82 percent reject columnist Arianna Huffington's contention that SUV owners indirectly support terrorism by hogging fuel, 70 percent believe Congress should require SUVs to get better mileage.
