By Sean O'Grady:
I have just spent a few days in what may well be the most environmentally unfriendly car in Britain today: the Dodge Ram SRT-10.
As you might expect, it's from the United States and conforms to all the stereotypes of the modern American car. The double cab pick-up is, by European standards, huge in every respect.
I decided to stick to bus routes because it's about as wide as a bus and almost as long.
In order to give its vast bulk some semblance of performance, it has been fitted with the 8.3 litre, 375kW engine usually found in the Dodge Viper. It has 22", polished aluminium alloy wheels, the largest I've seen on a "car".
And why did I decide to give this behemoth a run on British roads? Because I'm a bully.
Let me explain. My usual motor is our long-term test Toyota Prius, the diametric opposite to the Ram: hybrid petrol/electric power, highly aerodynamic, geared to squeeze every last kilometre from your litre of fuel.
It's a technological marvel and performs better than you'd expect. It does, however, have a drawback that I've noticed in the few months: it doesn't command much respect.
You get the impression that, on seeing the Prius profile, other drivers think, "right that's one of those idiots in a stupid, slow electric car; let's squash him". The bigger the car, the worse it gets, and I had grown tired of being intimidated by Land Rovers, Land Cruisers, BMW X5s and all the other oversized SUVs we find on our roads.
So I decided to turn the tables. A bit like a bullied schoolchild going home to enlist the help of his big brother, I chose the Dodge Ram as my protector. It dwarfs Range Rovers. It puts Jeeps in their place.
Soon I began to realise precisely why it is that people drive around in SUVs - they like the feeling of invincibility. Maybe they'll draw the conclusion that they, too, need something the size of a Dodge Ram to keep up.
It's like it was in the Cold War. When the Russians invented a new intercontinental ballistic missile the Americans got a fright about the "missile gap" and had to build more, bigger and better nuclear weapons.
Then, of course, the Russians would add some more to their armoury, the Americans would follow suit and so the spiral of the arms race went on. So it is now with elements of the motoring public.
Once it was the Volvo estate that was the urban weapon of choice, until everyone got one of them. Then it was the smaller SUVs, until they too became commonplace. Now it is the large SUVs, but they too are ubiquitous.
If you need something to protect you and yours in a collision, you'll need some American weaponry such as the Dodge. It's got bling, too. It even has a daft spoiler on the back that severely compromises its usefulness as a pick-up, so telling the world that actually you're not a plumber and you don't need it to carry ladders.
The Dodge Ram has arrived. The carbon dioxide from a single trip to the shops will melt an ice cap.
You have been warned... - The Independent, London