small vehicles aren't inane.. as an ase certified, and toyota/hybrid certified tech, they might be inane for the ridiculous lifestyle that perpetuates so much vehicle ownership, but they make sense for population centers, i live in chicago, and our expwy's are parking lots every day. parking is a constant issue, but instead of meters we're switching to ticket boxes, making more space for more vehicles, and most people have started buying smaller cars over the past 10 years, because it just doesn't make sense to cart your children around with all 3 of your cars. i also hail from an incredibly wealthy suburb where the price of gas is completely unrelated to the type of vehicle you buy, simply because status is more important than function. it really is absurd to believe we're gonna run all of our cars off of algae or green-er biofuels when electricity is the easiest thing to create as far as energy goes. why do we have kinetic watches, and solar charging stations for small electronics. the only legit counterarguement is that we burn coal for a pretty high percentage of electricity, but that can change over time, and people are using the grid less and less everyday, every new building that goes up is greener than the old resource hungry 70s and 80s era buildings, at least in this city.
at any rate. YES. thousands of people every year trade one or two of thier large vehicles in on smaller models, they may retain one for towing thier boat or carting thier kids, we might not be ready for an electric suv yet, but these cars will be the standard in 20 years. unless of course you prefer to pay thousands of dollars a year for fuel, instead of hundreds for electricity.
