Buy What You Want.(Column)(people have the right to buy sport utility vehicles)(Column)

Byline: Rich Ceppos

The CNN anchor led with a teaser for the day's hot news item. I'm paraphrasing: "He pumped iron, he conquered the movies, he drives a gas-guzzling SUV. Now we'll see if Arnold Schwarzenegger can win California.'' The film clip showed Ah-nolt riding in a big Mercedes-Benz Gelaendewagen. (What, no Hummer?)

As the Terminator's candidacy unfolds, I'm still chewing on the words that announced it on CNN. The implication was clear: The new candidate couldn't possibly care about the environment. He thumbs his nose at America's thirst for imported petroleum and would no doubt back legislation that allows exploiting every national park and wildlife refuge for more oil. After all, he drives a gas-guzzling SUV!

A sound bite-so small and yet so telling. Symbolic of the scapegoat the SUV has become. And wrongly so.

I am no lover of SUVs. In vehicles, I vastly prefer the agile, the lightweight and the efficient. Cars, in other words. The Ceppos garage is an SUV-free zone that houses only small-displacement, high-performance vehicles with engine sizes ranging from a mere 1.0 liter to 2.8. But I do stand firmly in support of freedom of automotive choice. Buy what you want, drive what you love! That freedom should extend to buying SUVs, if that's what you want. Who am I to tell you otherwise?

Not everyone feels that way. Not Arianna Huffington, nor the radical environmentalists who set SUVs on fire, nor the "What Would Jesus Drive?'' gang. They're all trying to kill off SUVs. Meanwhile, Mr. and Ms. America buy, buy, buy. According to industry bible Automotive News, carmakers are on track to sell more than 4 million SUVs this year-including car-based crossovers like the Lexus RX 330-about one of every four new ...