I’m no expert, but I know that when it comes to choosing a type of vehicle to drive, a lot of different factors are considered.  Safety and fuel efficiency are probably two of the largest deciding factors. 

Is it more economical to drive a gas-guzzling vehicle or purchase a brand new fuel-efficient car?  According to a commuting cost calculator (http://mpggenie.com/), back when gas prices were under $3 per gallon, if you were to commute 50 miles/day, 5 days/week driving an Dodge Durango, you could accumulate gas expenses of $3,000 a year.  If you were to do that same commute in a Toyota Prius, you would only be spending $600/year on gas and could be using that $2400 savings on a down payment for a new Prius. 

Obviously if you were only looking at cost savings alone, you would choose a smaller more fuel-efficient car over an SUV.  However, if you were looking to purchase a vehicle based on safety, you might buy an SUV instead.  Here is a video of a crash test that shows what can happen when an SUV collides with a smaller vehicle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXeKSDpFjlg

As I’m sure you have probably guessed, the results are not good for the passengers in the car.  When a mismatch of car type occurs in a collision, the car whose center of gravity is higher will sustain less damage than the lower-riding vehicle.  Between difference in height and difference in weight of the vehicles involved, a car would be crushed and the results to its passengers would be fatal, whereas the larger vehicle and its passengers would turn out much better off. 

Relating this back to the Hawk-Dove game, I would label the SUV as the hawk, the car as the dove, and the payoff matrix would be the same.  In a car vs. car situation, the payoffs would both be 1.  The drivers would be happy because they are saving money on gas and if they were to get into an accident, it wouldn’t be too severe because they are of the same vehicle type.  In an SUV vs. SUV situation, the payoffs would both be ½ because they are of the save vehicle type and so a collision wouldn’t be terribly damaging to either vehicle, however they are each paying a lot for gas, giving them a lower payoff than the car vs. car scenario.  However, when you put a car up against an SUV, the car doesn’t have a fighting chance.  If a collision were to occur, the car would be demolished (payoff of 0) and the SUV would come out practically unscathed (payoff of 2 for being smart enough to have selected a safer vehicle).  This link shows pictures of an SUV-car collision.  (http://retardzone.com/2007/06/13/suv-vs-compact/)

Although we would like to believe that the rising gas prices would deter consumers from purchasing and continuing to drive SUV’s, as long as they are still on the road, it is unsafe for smaller vehicles.  Thus, driving a smaller car is not evolutionarily stable.  That’s something scary to think about.