This sure as hell ain't gonna be the last time THIS SUBJECT is broached!
I'll probably never buy an SUV, but I'd definitely buy one over a "supposed" economy car. Seems like a misnomer to me, economy car! Hah! They're economical to build, but not repair! The economy car uses mucho expensive CV-Joints instead of cheap as dirt U-Joints. Not to mention the higher cost of installing CV-Joints. The little hyper engines in economy cars have timing belts instead of chains, which need replacing before the vehicle is spent. They need 4 wheel alignments, which are more expensive. They need alignments more often, because their itsy bitsy suspensions are so fragile and abused by our pot hole filled, American roads. Components under the hood cost more in labor to replace, because they're so damned hard to get at. The FWD transmissions can't take the abuse that a rugged SUV transmission can.
What would be a mere bumper blemish of an accident in an SUV, results in a crumpled front or rear clip of an economy car. Not very practical IMO. Speaking of "clips", when an economy car gets a crumple, it involves the chassis, because the damn things are uni-body construction. Like I said, go-karts are economical to build. Short of fuel savings, that's about the ONLY thing economical about them!