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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

If you buy a massive 4×4 SUV...

518 replies

bravefox · 15/02/2025 14:34

... to ask you to practise parking it in a single space? Saturday afternoon in the town multistorey and the number of huge cars parked half in a second space is 🤯

OP posts:
REDB99 · 15/02/2025 16:24

Lemsipper · 15/02/2025 14:39

Yes I am! I have a food baby onboard 😌

Food baby? So you’re fat and inconsiderate. Got loads going for you then 😂

Ezzee · 15/02/2025 16:23

I live in the country but work in a big city, I drive a really lovely car size car that is also 4 x 4.
IF the weather is that bad we do have a proper 4 x 4 to be able to get out but I would never just take it shopping etc. There really is no need.

bravefox · 15/02/2025 16:22

Toddlerhelpplease123 · 15/02/2025 16:18

Because what OP is saying isnt true half the time and its demonstrable with a quick google.

What car have OP got? What car have you got?

Since you ask, we have a mid size SUV and a 7 seater minivan. I've never been to a carpark where the spaces were 'too small' for either of them.

Space size is a total red herring. Just buy a car you are competent parking

OP posts:
JasmineTea11 · 15/02/2025 16:21

Lemsipper · 15/02/2025 14:39

Yes I am! I have a food baby onboard 😌

I hope you're taking the piss.

chocorabbit · 15/02/2025 16:21

madamweb · 15/02/2025 16:13

And of course the driver doesnt just skip away if they kill someone.

You would think incidents like this one would give people pause.

If the driver had been driving a sensible sized car it would have caused anywhere near the same scale of tragedy

They are literally killing machines

https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/driver-of-suv-involved-in-crash-that-killed-two-girls-at-wimbledon-school-arrested-13298106

That's exactly what I thought when I saw the tragic news. DH had shown me a study saying exactly this a few years ago. Normally you will go flying on to the car but not with these monsters.

LongDarkTeatime · 15/02/2025 16:21

HelplessSoul · 15/02/2025 16:19

Fuck France 😂 Who'd want to visit that dump anyway.

We need more SUV's frankly.

There's a simple reason why they sell - its demand.

People want them, OEMs manufacture them. End of.

What an appropriate user name.
Have you been flagged as a troll already?

BejewelledCat · 15/02/2025 16:21

I have a small sporty car with 2 doors. I park it at work dead centre in a parking space and invariably when I leave to go home, there will be an SUV either side of my car so close that I can't get my flipping doors open. Yes, I get that you need more room but why park in such a way that you stop me getting into my car? Definite case of I'm alright, Jack. Nobheads, the lot of them.

HRTQueen · 15/02/2025 16:20

Wont be long until they shall be highly taxed in cities

as other cities in Europe and many parts of the world have done

should have happened years ago but better late than never

LongDarkTeatime · 15/02/2025 16:20

As a point of principle if a large (clearly status-symbol, not working) SUV wants space to join/merge I’ll never give way.
Any other vehicle, yes, of course, it’s courteous to let them in. But as someone has decided to fuel the unneeded moving around of so much metal just because …. nah, you can wait.

HelplessSoul · 15/02/2025 16:19

AlwaysPerplexed · 15/02/2025 15:10

In France, there is an enormous registration tax - it's called a malus (up to 70,000 euros - the new Land rover grenadier fits this group) on the largest gas guzzling cars - hence we don't see that many of those over here.

Mind you in our supermarket even normal sized cars seem to like to spread themselves over 2 spaces.

Fuck France 😂 Who'd want to visit that dump anyway.

We need more SUV's frankly.

There's a simple reason why they sell - its demand.

People want them, OEMs manufacture them. End of.

madamweb · 15/02/2025 16:19

ashamedtramp · 15/02/2025 16:17

perhaps if parking companies, car parks and supermarkets actually moved with the times as far as parking is concerned, they would make the spaces bigger and then this would not be an issue? if you take a minute to look at 'traffiic' you will notice that more and more cars are small SUV size and above.. yet the car parks still provide spaces aimed at little cars.

i have an SUV, i admit to 2 things.. i'll take up 2 spaces if i need too, and my SUV has never ever been off road or near mud!

So we should just concrete over more and more space so plonkers can drive around in oversized status symbols?

It's like people don't give even the tiniest fuck about the planet

Toddlerhelpplease123 · 15/02/2025 16:18

DeepFatFried · 15/02/2025 15:58

These threads also always trigger the conclusion that it is jealousy or some sort of feeling of inferiority that causes people to be exasperated at the impact of massive cars and the behaviour of some of their drivers.

Is it a sense of entitlement that makes people shout ‘jealousy’? Not sure. Funny though.

Because what OP is saying isnt true half the time and its demonstrable with a quick google.

What car have OP got? What car have you got?

vitahelp · 15/02/2025 16:17

madamweb · 15/02/2025 16:15

When I see someone on the school run in a huge SUV I usually just chuckle to myself as they have usually either got their 30 minutes early to try and find a space or they are endlessly circling because they can't find a space to fit into.
I can fit my car into half a space and I love it!!

I suppose it does present an issue, but then I have a large saloon which is as wide and long but just not as tall, so have all the same parking issues as them!

ashamedtramp · 15/02/2025 16:17

perhaps if parking companies, car parks and supermarkets actually moved with the times as far as parking is concerned, they would make the spaces bigger and then this would not be an issue? if you take a minute to look at 'traffiic' you will notice that more and more cars are small SUV size and above.. yet the car parks still provide spaces aimed at little cars.

i have an SUV, i admit to 2 things.. i'll take up 2 spaces if i need too, and my SUV has never ever been off road or near mud!

thismuchwould · 15/02/2025 16:16

We live in the country too. Lots of people have massive 4x4s in the countryside who really don’t need them. Plus they tend to be the worst drivers who take up the most room on narrow lanes not wishing to scratch their darling status symbols. Whereas people who use them for work purposes know they get scratched and pull into hedges appropriately

I can vouch for this too. My H used to have to travel a distance down a single country lane to take our youngest to nursery. He often met parents ( sorry it was usually mothers) taking their kids to school in their massive fucking SUVs (not farmers' working cars) and he said not one of them once was able to reverse their car out of the way. He was always the one having to reverse.

Redpeach · 15/02/2025 16:16

Lemsipper · 15/02/2025 14:39

Yes I am! I have a food baby onboard 😌

What's a food baby

madamweb · 15/02/2025 16:15

vitahelp · 15/02/2025 16:14

I think a lot of people aren’t really thinking anything about it. When I see a big SUV on the school run I just think ‘there’s someone on the school run’. I’ve known so many different people who own them that I couldn’t possibly make a generalisation about them all.

When I see someone on the school run in a huge SUV I usually just chuckle to myself as they have usually either got their 30 minutes early to try and find a space or they are endlessly circling because they can't find a space to fit into.
I can fit my car into half a space and I love it!!

vitahelp · 15/02/2025 16:14

YesHonestly · 15/02/2025 16:06

😂 What’s to be jealous of?

No matter what you may think, when most people see drivers in their huge SUV’s nipping to the shop or on the school run, they are definitely not thinking how jealous they are!

Edited

I think a lot of people aren’t really thinking anything about it. When I see a big SUV on the school run I just think ‘there’s someone on the school run’. I’ve known so many different people who own them that I couldn’t possibly make a generalisation about them all.

madamweb · 15/02/2025 16:13

chocorabbit · 15/02/2025 16:11

I agree plus these cars are even bigger! And if they hit you you won't have a chance.

And of course the driver doesnt just skip away if they kill someone.

You would think incidents like this one would give people pause.

If the driver had been driving a sensible sized car it would have caused anywhere near the same scale of tragedy

They are literally killing machines

https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/driver-of-suv-involved-in-crash-that-killed-two-girls-at-wimbledon-school-arrested-13298106

EmeraldShamrock000 · 15/02/2025 16:13

Oh but be fair, they need a large vehicle to transport their XL bullies in.
I don't think so, the trend started with MC mummies, then wags, now anyone who has access the finance loans of 50,000.
Not a typical xl bully owner.

notnorman · 15/02/2025 16:13

We bought an xc90 outright as we needed 7 seats and a boot.
The amount of bitching and cattiness by other women who I had considered friends was unreal.

chocorabbit · 15/02/2025 16:13

madamweb · 15/02/2025 16:11

Why would they be jealous?

Plenty of people who could easily afford them still don't buy them

Most of the people I know who have them have bought them on credit and pay through the nose for the privilege of having to panic about finding a parking space wherever they go.

That's why they buy them. It's all about status and they are absolutely deluded to think we envy them!

SpryUmberZebra · 15/02/2025 16:12

Lemsipper · 15/02/2025 14:35

Thats why I normally just park in the adult & child bays! (Despite no child) its not easy parking this beast 😜

Shots fired 😅😂

thismuchwould · 15/02/2025 16:12

Chipsahoy · 15/02/2025 15:21

I agree city dwellers and even town dwellers don’t need them. But sometimes us farmers have to go into the city. You can usual spot us though, truck or suv will be covered in mud.

I live in a semi rural area and can vouch that you can spot the working vehicles from the arses who just want stupidly big cars very easily.

LongDarkTeatime · 15/02/2025 16:12

TagSplashMaverick · 15/02/2025 14:50

I have one. I live in the country. I also have to frequent the city. Am I supposed to downsize to a ghastly little Geewhizz when I hit the city limits? 😂

If there’s a shitload of free spaces in a supermarket car park, I’ll often straddle two spots because it’s too big for a single space without being damaged by other parkers. I do park far away from the shop though, I’m not a lazy decker trying to park on top of the door.

Interesting you say ‘I live in the country’ and not ‘I’m a farmer (or other reason to need such a big vehicle)’
We live in the country too. Lots of people have massive 4x4s in the countryside who really don’t need them. Plus they tend to be the worst drivers who take up the most room on narrow lanes not wishing to scratch their darling status symbols. Whereas people who use them for work purposes know they get scratched and pull into hedges appropriately.

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