Survey: SUVs need better mileage

February 17, 2003; Reuters reports that most Americans support better gas-mileage standards for sport-utility vehicles but reject activist claims that SUV drivers unwittingly support violence through their fuel consumption, a poll released Sunday showed.

About 70 percent of those polled Saturday and Sundayby CNN/Time magazine said they believed SUVs burned more fuel than other passenger vehicles, and the same number said Congress should mandate better gas mileage for the large vehicles.

Many also expressed security concerns with SUVs, most of which operate with four-wheel-drive systems considered safer in snow emergencies and other adverse road conditions.

About 54 percent of the 1,010 adults surveyed said they thought rollover risks made SUVs dangerous to their occupants, and 55 percent said their size made them a hazard to occupants of other cars in case of accidents.

Still, the vast majority -- 82 percent -- disagreed with recent arguments from groups like the Detroit Project, which has aired TV advertisements linking SUV driving, and its associated fuel consumption, to blindly financing terrorist groups and drug traffickers.

The survey results are considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, Time magazine said.