Balitmore aureole and trapdoor, I did a little reading and it looks that you are both right. Car weight went up over the years (although I think a lot of models like the Civic got bigger at the same time), the little Toyota Yaris weighs 2300 lbs (and even the smart weighs 1600).

The pollution issue is much trickier, is in constant change and varies from state to state. It is wrong to say that standards are generally lower in the EU. It is true that Diesel vehicles in Europe are allowed more NOx than some US states, but most states had no problems with European Diesels, there was just not much interest in the US before fuel prices went up (and VW was the only one selling Diesel sedans in the US for quite some time, those became quite popular - try to find a used Passat TDI getting 50 mpg + on the highway).

Trapdoor, I don't think that anyone here - neither Stevenson nor the other posters - called you or other SUV users a villain. Do you maybe feel a little like a villain because it would not look good when a gas guzzling SUV crushes the little smart, resembling an act of physical violence? BTW, it seems that most experts state that the safety of SUVs is over- and the safety of modern subcompacts is underrated.