Eddie Engels of Chicago finishes pumping more than $83 of gasoline into his GMC Yukon, a large SUV model popular with many Americans. Despite rising fuel prices, sales of SUVs have gone up this year, bucking the premise that drivers would buy more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Related articles:

More people expected to travel this Memorial Day despite high gas prices

Other articles by Michael Taylor:

Computer-stabilized cars seen as lifesavers Some women dream of landing a husband living on death row Wheels for those rollin' in dough

Education
Assessment Technology, Inc
Social Studies Content Writer Health Care
Rio Salado College
PA's/Online Instructors General
CORT
Warehouse Supervisor General
CORT
WAREHOUSE/DRIVER Construction
Komatsu Equipment Co
Mechanic

With gas prices averaging more than $3 a gallon nationwide — and flirting with $4 in some places — a three-ton SUV that practically requires a bank loan to fill 'er up would seem to be a tough sell.

Americans, however, are not shunning these beasts. Far from it. Auto-industry figures show that after a two-year slump, sales of the gas guzzlers are up over 2006 — in some cases, way up.

The numbers for large SUVs rose nearly 6 percent in the first quarter of 2007, and the April figures were up 25 percent from April 2006, according to automakers' statistics provided by Edmunds.com, an automotive research Web site.

The bigger the guzzler, the better the numbers. Sales of GMC's Yukon XL were up a whopping 72 percent last month, and the totals for its Chevrolet sister, the Suburban, rose 38 percent. Topping off the tank on either one can cost as much as $120.

The turnaround comes after a 24 percent drop in SUV sales from the first quarter of 2004 to the same period of 2006. One explanation for the renewed interest is that U.S. automakers are selling a more modern fleet of SUVs, some of which consume moderately less gas than their predecessors.

But no one will confuse them with a Prius. The fact is that no matter how bad their mileage, SUVs have become deeply embedded in many Americans' lifestyle.

"We've always said that large SUVs are never going the way of the dodo," said Alex Rosten, an analyst at Edmunds.com. "There will always be a demand for them. No other vehicle provides such capabilities — the sheer cargo and passenger space, and the towing capacity."

The adaptations that U.S. automakers made for the 2007 model year included three large "crossover" vehicles introduced by General Motors — the GMC Acadia, Saturn Outlook and Buick Enclave — that are included in large SUV sales numbers. Crossover utility vehicles are similar to SUVs but, because their design is based on a car rather than a truck, they ride more smoothly and, in general, have better fuel economy.

Another reason people are turning to large SUVs is that General Motors has "abandoned the minivan," Rosten said.

GM spokesman Jeff Holland confirmed that the company has stopped production on all of its minivans except the Chevrolet Uplander, and it, too, will end its run with the 2007 model year. The vans, Holland said, are being replaced with the three crossover vehicles because they hold just as many people and get better gas mileage.

A typical SUV buyer is Dr. Reginald Fulford, an El Cerrito, Calif., orthodontist who recently bought an old-fashioned Ford Expedition. It weighs a bit more than 6,200 pounds, is nearly 3 feet longer than a sedan and, on a good day, gets about 14 miles per gallon.

He knows that to some people, especially in the greener-than-thou San Francisco Bay Area, he's something of a pariah. Occasionally he finds that someone has left a slip of paper under his wiper blade, asking him to buy a smaller car.

Actually, he has a smaller car, a 1997 Nissan Maxima, that he uses for some local runs because he knows the Expedition is a big, gas-guzzling vehicle.

Nonetheless, Fulford says there are many reasons why he bought the Expedition.

"I'm 6-feet-4-inches and I weigh 250 pounds, so for me, it's a comfort thing," he said. "It's a comfortable and convenient vehicle. I have a son who is 4 and a daughter who is 16, and we use the SUV to haul kids around, take them to parties. We use it to go to the mountains, and we pull a water-skiing boat behind it."

Fulford says he loves the car because of "all the functional aspects" of it, and his wife loves it "because of all the nice amenities," such as heated leather seats.

"It would be nice if they could get this fuel thing together," Fulford said of the Expedition's comparatively miserable gas mileage. "And as a citizen of the United States, I'm concerned about global warming. It's not that I don't consider those things. We try to do as much as we can. We try not to drive that far."

At the Union of Concerned Scientists, where global warming and fuel economy are on everyone's minds, vehicles engineer and consultant Dan MacKenzie said, "The larger point of all this is the need to raise fuel economy standards in this country. The automakers are not selling vehicles that take full advantage of the technology available today."