> Weird that heavy marketing would finally penetrate my brain the same year we had our first kid.

Nah, but that marketing, and the financial incentives which motivated it, and the arms race from a critical mass of larger vehicles affecting visibility because of it are why minivans and SUVs (the former popular first and then the latter later because of when each worked as a regulatory dodge) bevame the choice for those needs, which were once filled by station wagons.

I’m an SUV owner myself for very similar immediate reasons to the ones you cite. Nothing about that interferes with my ability to understand that the market context within which those preferences call for that result is a product of specific, well-documented interplay between regulation and profit-seeking business behavior over several decades.

You sound like you know what you are talking about but I am not following. As a consumer I had a choice of vehicle (I could have bought a sedan or a station wagon or a minivan) and I picked what I wanted.

You are not following because you are looking only at your decision at the moment of buying, and not everyone else's decisions over the past 35-ish years that have shaped, (even if we assume for a minute that the massive marketing investment has had no direct impact on your personal preferences):

1. The set of vehicles on the road and thus what your experience in different vehicles will be like, e.g., in terms of road visibility, and

2. The mix of specific vehicle models and features of each that are actually manufactured and available at the time you made thaf decision.

> Now SUV fan because it makes loading the kids in

You know what is even easier for loading kids in a vehicle? Sliding doors.

As uncool as they are, as a former minivan owner they are the most practical thing ever. From hauling kids to hitting home Depot for some DIY (with the rear seats removed), having two sliding doors and being able to swallow 4x8 sheets or a washing machine -they are hard to beat.

(person you are replying to)

I agree. I was "indifferent" between the Highlander and the Sienna which is its minivan counterpart.

The funny thing is for all the hate the SUVs get for being big and heavy, the Sienna is slightly bigger and heavier.