I, as much as any American, have suspected that the death of the SUV as we know it, was imminent. Killed off much as the 60s muscle cars were in the early 70s the FIRST time gas prices went through the roof, SUVs are victims of their own leviathan selves. Frankly, if you ask me, though, it couldn't have come soon enough. Because unlike the 60s muscle cars, SUVs were some of the most character-less contrivances ever to come out of anywhere, Detroit, Japan or any place else. Word is that Bentley is now at work on an SUV based on the Porsche Cayenne, which to my mind should have been still-born to begin with. Bentley has never been on the cutting edge, and I suspect the plug will in all likelihood be pulled on this one before one is ever sold. And even money says it is the very LAST SUV you will see in development from any company. The market has shifted to crossovers, and come back around to cars, and admittedly, we're on the bandwagon with that one, with our Ford Freestyle. It comes as no surprise, thank God, that we have never seen a Ferrari SUV, and Lamborghini's outrageous LM-002, which is in spirit essentially an H1 Hummer in an Armani suit, is no more of a force in the market than the itself-soon-to-be-gone H1 Hummer. Good God, no H1?! What on earth will Arnold Schwarznegger drive?! My bets are the Governator will just green his way down the Hummer lineup a bit, into maybe an H2. He could embrace his Teutonic self, and opt for one of Mercedes' equally slow-selling Mclaren SLRs, but I can't really see it. Expensive. Slow-selling. Ugly pattern we're seeing here. Us? Martha and I are talking about the Mini, which fits her (divine-to-me,) 6'3" frame wonderfully. Odd how that works, that a little spridget like that should be tall-friendly, but there it is. Given a choice? I love the new Dodge Challenger, which DCX has promised us by 2008. Good as to be another addition to the infamous lust list, at this point. If ever a car was worth savin my pennies for, this is surely it. But more crucially, I think the upcoming crisis ANY given situation in the Middle East is going to cause, I think a green revolution in cars could spark some REALLY interesting, and earth-friendly new products. Understand here, I don't honestly think full electrics are anywhere NEAR practical enough to ever be viable for anything beyond a golf cart, diesels still have their issues, although the prospect of bio-diesels, being able to run on recycled deep-fryer drippins, practically, is one that could sincerely take hold. And I hear synthetic diesel fuel, produced from soybeans, is just awesome stuff at the moment. I myself think the next big wave is indeed in alternative fuels, like ethanol. The tecnhnology's essentially all there, we just have to get it together sufficiently to make them right. Hybrids will have their place, beyond the Toyota Priuses and Honda Insights, as proven by the Lexus GS450h. Imagination in the auto industry is not gone, although it will have to be redirected and revived somewhat. And the gasping end of the SUV, to me, is the proper first step.