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Do you think hockey mom Sarah Palin drives a hybrid?

Not likely, primarily because the hybrid is sure to be popular with Californians and the Washington power elite.

Reports on the Internet have her in a state-provided Chevy Surburban and a 1980s-era Volkswagen Jetta diesel.

But if she did choose a hybrid, you can bet she'd drive a big, honkin' American beast of a hybrid that proves she's the ultimate hockey mom, one who has not only the future of her children at heart, but the future of the entire American nation.

Palin wouldn't choose the Toyota Highlander hybrid: That would appear unpatriotic.

And the Ford Escape hybrid? It doesn't look big enough for Palin's personality or her updo (it is, actually), let alone her unusually large family.

Surely Palin would drive the Chevrolet Tahoe hybrid, the American Green Car Journal's 2008 Green Car of the Year, and sister vehicle to the Chevrolet Suburban.

As soon as you open the door and see the "Arlington Assembly Built With Pride" sticker, you know you're in a true-blue American automobile.

Good thing there are running boards, as you definitely have to climb in. Once in, you'll be wowed by the height and size — but you'll wonder how, with all that heft, it manages to be deemed green car of the year. What does Chevrolet know about hybrids that Ford and Toyota do not? How can it build a green vehicle that is supposedly both better and bigger?

The Tahoe feels bigger than anything I've ever driven. It feels twice the size of our Jeep Cherokee and bigger than our Oldsmobile Silhouette minivan — and that's a minivan with weight.

A few times I caught myself looking to see what jerk was tailgating me, only to discover that the presence catching my eye was, in fact, still me. This is a big vehicle.

Sounds like the ultimate hockey mom vehicle, right?

For $73,810, it should be.

For that much money, it should load and unload the hockey bags, clean the mouth guards and air out the equipment by itself. It should give me a pedicure while I'm stuck in gridlock. It should grind the coffee beans, make the coffee and steam and froth the milk, not just offer adjustable cup holders for the driver and passenger.

The Tahoe does offer comfort up front, with adjustable heated seats for the driver and front-seat passenger, dual climate control, and a giant console that makes for a great armrest and is big enough to hold even my purse, which must weigh as much as a Timbit (the hockey-playing kind). The Tahoe offers a commanding view of the road and countryside beyond, and a feeling that no matter what Mother Nature throws your way, it will plow through.

And it comes with some of the amenities that make a long drive more pleasurable: an entertainment system for the kids, sunroof, satellite radio and multiple CD player. It has OnStar and a rear-view camera for backing up, plus a graduated warning beep that sounds as you get close to hitting something (the beeping gets faster the closer you get). It also has a warning light that you can see if your head is turned (and you're not using the camera) and, say, the music is jacked up too loud.

But it doesn't have a feature that, with this price tag, should be a given: a power rear door. If you're like many hockey moms, you're racing from work to practice to groceries to games, and you don't have time to change from your dry-clean-only winter coat and gloves into hockey-rink appropriate gear. You're in a hurry and you want your vehicle to get you there without getting you dirty in the process.

You don't want to have to grab a salty, road-stained back door handle and, in the process, get your nice gloves dirty and have the gate drip February road detritus onto your good coat. It's not that you're vain, you're just busy and you don't have the time or money for extra trips to the dry cleaner.

(Palin probably wouldn't be bothered by that, but lots of moms are. I don't mind in my second- and third-hand vehicles, but if I'm spending more than $20,000 on a vehicle — let alone more than three times that much — I'm getting heated seats and a power rear door.)

The lack of a power door is just the start of a hockey mom's problems with the Chevrolet Tahoe's back end. Remember that this is a seven-seater beast and, unlike the intelligently designed seven-seater Highlander, Hyundai Veracruz or Dodge Grand Caravan, the seats in the Tahoe don't neatly fold into a well, thereby creating a smooth, flat surface to toss (ha!) hockey bags onto.

You can try to "flip" the seats forward. The manual shows you how to do it. I tried, three times (once in the pouring rain), and gave up.

Try lifting a bag of heavy goalie gear up, way up, onto those folded seats. Not an easy task. You'd have to remove the extra row of seating to make this at all practical. And then you don't have the smart dividers that the Honda CR-V and Dodge Journey offer to keep your hockey gear separate from your briefcase and groceries and that bag of hand-me-downs for your son that you gratefully received from one of your best girlfriends.

Sure, it's a great workout, but I don't want a $73,810 workout.

The fact is, if you need the extra seating, you should get a van. The cargo space those seats eat up is worth more in convenience than the extra seating any day.

Still, it's a hybrid. So it's got to be good on gas and therefore good for the environment, right?

Considering we add tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere so our eight- and nine-year-old children, most of whom will never play professional hockey, can compete at a higher level (why don't we have rep players simply play up a level in their own communities like they do in soccer?), our hockey footprint should be foremost in our minds.

The Tahoe hybrid holds 98 litres of regular, unleaded gasoline. I travelled 517 kilometres of highway and city driving on 65 litres. Compared to the Highlander (7.4 city/8 highway) and Escape (5.7 city/6.7 highway), both of which surpassed 550 km on closer to 50 litres of unleaded gas, the Tahoe (10.5 city/9.8 highway) fails to impress.

Those glares you get from other drivers who didn't notice the hybrid markings and assume you're a gas-guzzler who puts your own needs ahead of the rest of the world? Maybe they're not so far off. Still, compared to a Suburban or Avalanche (both 15.4 city/10.4 highway), a Ford Explorer XLT (15.9/10.8) or the Yukon (15.4/10.4), you're definitely ahead in the hybrid Tahoe.

But green car of the year? By Canadian standards, only if the green in mind is the kind in your wallet. But this hybrid is built in Arlington, Tex., with pride. The good people of Arlington — and Oshawa, Ont., and Wasilla, Alaska — need a green vehicle that does much better than that.

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Mom's checklist

2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid

Base price: $69,125; as tested $73,810

Fuel economy (litres/100 km): 10.5 city/9.8 highway; regular gas

Amenities for kids: Spacious second-row seating; cup holders in fold-down console in middle seat useful if travelling with two children, poorly placed in pullout at bottom of console; better cup holders for sixth and seventh passengers, but then you can't carry hockey bags

Amenities for mom: Rear-view camera; heated seats; giant console, great dry-cleaning handles

Drawbacks: Poorly designed extra row of seating is hard for a shorter woman to manipulate; disappointing fuel economy for a hybrid