Glen just picked up a Lexus NX350h hybrid loaner vehicle.
Exactly the same width as the Lexus 300h sedan, which is important to us with a narrow driveway.
But in the larger SUV hybrid they're able to pack in a lot more power than in the sedan hybrid, but with almost the same gas mileage 41 city 37 highway as the ES sedan 43 city 44 highway. I understand the sedan will also receive the newer more powerful and more efficient hybrid power train in a year or two, but there's parts they have to shrink. The NX AWD is a simpler hybrid concept with gasoline powered front wheels and electric motors on the rear wheels, eliminating a drive train and transmission gears for their super-reliable chain driven CVT.
I think it's side crash safety standards that have made SUVs preferable. In order to better secure passengers the bottom of the side windows is about 2.5" higher up and the roof pillar had to come back giving a much smaller window on a sedan with more limited visibility. Cars are also 2 inches wider to accommodate the side airbags. These changes created less visibility which in turn necessitated blind-spot sensors on the side mirrors and the backup camera which is now mandatory on all cars.
This explains why at parking ticket machines I see many people in newer sedans have to undo their seatbelt and climb up to lean out of their drivers window to grab a ticket - the bottom of the window being 2.5" higher is a challenger. In an SUV the bottom of the window relative to the driver and passengers is where they used to be in sedans. Your eyes are also higher from the ground in the SUV, but I personally see as many disadvantages in that as advantages.
We've run out of other people's Social Security taxes needed to subsidize our low income tax rates.
