The Toyota Hybrid Highlander is one of the new breed of hybrid SUVs that hopes to take the market by storm in the current gas situation.

Others include the Ford Escape, and a new Lexus version.

Toyota is probably the one to beat, since it has the highly-regarded Toyota "Synergy" hybrid technology in it. Lexus is a division of Toyota, and they use the same tech.

Ford is coming on strong, though, offering a "full" hybrid system, meaning that it can run on full electric when possible, increasing efficiency especially in stop-and-go traffic.

35 mpg in city driving doesn't exactly suck in an SUV.

The popularity of hybrids will give electric drive and battery technology and production scale the kick in the pants no government program ever could. This will feed into economical and effective pure electric cars in the very near future.