Wheels06 Test-Drive: This Year's Models

Rise Against are the long-haul truckers of punk. The Chicago hardcore outfit spent the summer traversing the U.S. as well as hitting the charts with its fourth collection of shout-along anthems, The Sufferer and the Witness. This month, the quartet will kick-start another cross-country trek headlining its own tour. So it's no wonder three of them own SUVs that double as equipment trailers. "Our guitar player made the mistake of trading in his old Highlander for a Mini Cooper, because it gets better mileage," says bassist Joe Principe. "Now he can't move any of our gear."

Perhaps he should have waited. The Highlander hybrid is the latest in a series of eminently practical gas/electric rides. With its two back seats folded down, the Highlander is roomy enough to haul drums and Marshall stacks, while the SUV's engine gets a passable 27 miles per gallon on the highway. Drummer Brandon Barnes takes the wheel on an L.A. side street and nails the accelerator. "Wow," says Barnes, startled by the car's 268-horsepower engine. But those horses are remarkably polite -- thanks to the car's electric motor, which, unlike a gas engine, hits full throttle the instant you press the pedal. "It's like driving a glider," says Barnes appreciatively.

He and Principe have just flown into L.A. to hook up with bandmates Chris Chasse and Tim McIlrath for KROQ's Inland Invasion concert the following day, and the two are beat. "I think we could get a better handle on this vehicle if we pulled into a Starbucks," says Barnes. As we prowl a maze of minimalls in search of caffeine, Principe messes with the car's funky center console, the only outward sign that this is indeed a hybrid. The navigation screen includes nerdish touches such as an "energy monitor" that diagrams how the engine stores juice during braking. Principe eyes a button next to the bulbously phallic shift knob. "Heated seats," he says. "Nice."

Barnes ponders this for a moment, then offers a bit of jet-lagged logic: "If you had a frosty drink on your lap, and you were freezing your balls off, the seat would counter the freezing." ANDREW VONTZ