ROAD HOGS; DETROIT'S BIG CARS ABOUT TO GET HUGE.

Byline: Keith Bradsher The New York Times

Big is getting bigger on the American road.

American carmakers, inspired by the recent popularity of big cars and trucks, are planning even larger models with equally gigantic sticker prices. Take the behemoth being tested by Ford Motor Co., which, at 19 feet, would dethrone the Chevrolet and GMC Suburban by a foot as the longest mass-produced family vehicle ever built.

At more than 3 tons without cargo, or about twice the weight of a typical family car, this station wagon on steroids also will be one of the heaviest. It will have an optional 6.8-liter V10 engine, twice the size of a typical mini-van engine. And it will seat eight adults in three rows and still have a sizable cargo area.

There will be no question who is king of the hill, said one person with knowledge of Ford's product plans. Its customers, this person added, will be people wanting to tow a boat or have the biggest, baddest one on the block.

The Ford vehicle is so large and heavy, in fact, that it exceeds the government's weight limits for classification as a light vehicle. And that provides two little-known benefits for Ford and its customers: The vehicle would be exempt from the federal luxury tax on high-price cars and trucks that kicks in for vehicles costing more than $36,000 and from federal fuel economy regulations that were written to discourage just the kind of gas guzzler Ford has in mind. (The vehicle is two years away from mass production, and Ford will not discuss it.)

In the meantime, the march of the road hogs will only get bigger.

Chrysler is about to roll out a new Dodge Durango sport utility wagon that is roomier and more than a foot longer than the biggest Jeep. It is also planning an even bigger sport utility for the Mexican market, prompting whispers here that Chrysler also may sell it in the United States. But Chrysler says that is not planned.

Not to be outdone, General Motors Corp. is planning to redesign the Suburban over the next two years to make it more appealing to families who want to treat it as an oversize car rather than a truck for towing boats and horse trailers. Also, BMW apparently is testing a design for a sport utility wagon it may offer in a few years derived from its 5-series sedans.

Ford has expanded on its successful Explorer sport utility vehicle by building a larger Expedition model that went on sale last fall. And a big, plush sport utility version of its Lincoln luxury brand, called the Navigator, will go on sale in two weeks.

Safety groups already are expressing concern about Ford's plans to build the even bigger, heavier vehicle two years from now because it could inflict a lot of damage in collisions with smaller, lighter cars. ``From a public health vantage point, clearly it's better not to have such a weight mismatch,'' said Adrian K. Lund, senior vice president for research of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group supported by insurance companies seeking to reduce the cost of accident claims.

Ford has long made a point of designing vehicles that meet or exceed government safety standards, but those standards are being reviewed as more Americans are being killed in collisions between cars and heavier vehicles.

Automakers say they are simply meeting demand with supply. What sells these days are the biggest things in the showroom. Since 1990, sales have climbed more than 60 percent for Suburbans, and there are waiting lists to buy them. Since Ford introduced the Expedition, its largest sport utility vehicle, it has doubled production and still cannot satisfy demand.

People buy the big vehicles because they think they are safer, they want to ride above the traffic, intimidate others or simply want something bigger than what their friends have.

Automakers love to sell them because the vehicles generate huge profits; for example, up to $10,000 each for a Suburban whose development costs have long since been recouped, analysts say.

The gigantic new models scheduled to roll out over the next two years are likely to have their devotees and detractors. The Transportation Department released a study June 10 concluding that big sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and mini-vans posed a growing danger to the occupants of smaller cars sharing the same roads. And with fuel economy ratings of 14 miles a gallon or less and generally dirtier emissions, the new sport utility vehicles will generate more pollution and raise the nation's reliance on imported oil, environmentalists warn.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, death rates in Chevrolet Suburbans are among the lowest for any vehicle on the road. But the institute is beginning a study on whether the proliferation of such large vehicles is increasing death rates in other vehicles that they hit, Lund said.

Because large sport utility vehicles typically come with four-wheel drive and high bumpers, they also tend to override the strongest sections of a car body and drive into the passenger compartment during collisions, the Transportation Department study warned last week.

Auto industry representatives emphasize the greater protection for occupants offered by heavy vehicles and reject suggestions that their big vehicles pose a safety problem or are impractical, noting that many of them are never used off roads. ``A lot of people don't use all six seats in six-seat cars,'' said Barry Felrice, the director of regulatory affairs at the American Automobile Manufacturers Association in Washington.

For Ford, the safety of its crew wagon may even become a selling point. ``If you happen to get into a crash with a car, you probably won't even feel it; the car will run into the tires,'' said the person familiar with the vehicle. ``That's kind of a comforting perspective, particularly if you have all your kids inside.''

With a gallon of gasoline now selling for considerably less than a gallon of bottled water, the cost of gas has largely disappeared as a worry for buyers of big vehicles. But even if gas prices rise, the Suburbans, Ford crew wagons and other rough, tough land yachts may not disappear.

The reason is simple: the people who can afford to pay $25,000 to $40,000 for a big sport utility vehicle can usually afford to fill their huge fuel tanks even if prices rise.

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Chart; How Ford's giant new sport utility vehicle compares in size with some popular competitors.