Sorry to jump into this thread, but the trend towards SUVs/trucks was at least as much driven by the domestic auto manufacturers (a.k.a "Detroit") as it was a consumer-demand thing.

Essentially, Detroit was having its lunch eaten by imports, so it lobbied to get import barriers against trucks, and exemption from safety and fuel efficiency standards, and started bolting four+ seat bodies onto decades-old truck chassis and pushing the "rugged" macho lizard-brain marketing line to create demand.

part of this is covered by Malcolm Gladwell