Your reasons for owning an SUV:
>>1. Comfort

SUVs ride like a truck, I can see your problem with size though. Ford fought that problem by underinflating the tires below spec. Very clever. See note on rollovers below.

>>2. Interior Storage ability (about every 2 weeks)
>>3. Being up high above the crowd
>>4. Towing ability (about every 2 weeks)
>>5. Knowing that if I get in an accident, it is the other guy's car that gets >>crumpled.

Yep, your bumper may end up going right through the trunk of a smaller car and cause lots of damage since the bumpers dont come close to lining up. Keep in mind since you have a higher center of gravity, your vehicle is much more likely to roll over in the event of a accident or tire blowout.

In my research on this issue, I found that ford made a lot of poor stability related decisions on the Explorer, despite the advice of their very own engineers. The internal memo went something like this: we need to widen the vehicle and make stiffer some other chassis components to make it safe. Im sure other companies make decisions like this all the time (statistical analysis of death and lawsuits for not replacing $10 worth of parts to fix a safety problem, etc)

>>6. Offroading ability. I go totally off-roading about once a year, although it is nice >>to be able to jump curbs and other obstacles much more often.

Rent a hummer ;-)

Another problem which is somewhat unrelated is that I see people driving SUVs like cars. SUVs are trucks! SUVs don't stop as fast as cars, they shouldn't be changing lanes like they are in a NASCAR race either!