Why does everyone need a massive car these days?

they used a roof rack

I apologise - I did write suitcase, meant bags.

The boot has a hidden part underneath which houses quite a few extras.

We can get a double pushchair in the boot - but not much else so need to use the foot wells for shopping etc.

I get 64mpg on a trip - but not fully loaded, It cost £5k 8 years ago, its £250 a year to insure and £20 for car tax atm. So its cost me £78 a month

It sits on the drive or in a car park 90%of the time, as most cars do https://www.racfoundation.org/media-centre/cars-parked-23-hours-a-day#:~:text=Steve%20Gooding%2C%20the%20director%20of,does%20have%20one%20silver%20lining.

Im not paying out over £100 a month and certainly not £800 a month for something to sit idle for 23 hours a day

Digdongdoo · Yesterday 09:07
2 car seats, suitcases plural and a pushchair? In a VW Up? No you did not.

where did I write suitcases? we took bags, not suitcases

2 cars seats, and 2 pushchairs and 2 adults, 2 children and we went on holiday 170 miles away for 7 days holiday in a caravan - yes we did.

It’s frustrating they often take more than one parking bay, so everyone has the consequences of someone liking a bigger car.

The safety they bring is potentially at the risk of others in a crash. Pedestrians and cyclists particularly.

I think if you’ve got a car that is costing everyone (and the environment) more than it should be taxed to alleviate that and pay for the infrastructure needed for them.

I fail to see how anyone genuinely ‘needs’ one on a school run. Lots of near misses at our school. Disabilities aside, completely appreciate a larger vehicle will be needed for a wheelchair or similar.

It’s a status thing mostly I think. You can fit dogs, bags, scooters and kids into estates which aren’t so huge upwards and outwards.

I can go back to the days when my father had a Morris Oxford. I have never seen boot so big as they were in those cars - 4 suitcases went in the back when we went on holiday as kids. There was never anything in the car with us.

Then it seemed that boot space suddenly got smaller

You mean that you don't use period transport?

I don't know how families coped when cars were smaller! In our car we usually have 2 adults and 2 little ones in car seats, then day bags on the back seat in the middle and the kids' footwell (nappy bag, handbag, food bag, etc). In the boot we then have the double buggy, DS' bike or scooter and helmet, a change of clothes, big winter coats, walking boots/wellies, then a couple of suitcases if we're staying overnight at my parents'/in-laws/siblings/friends houses (probably 2 weekends a month). Often also need a potty/highchair/bed guard/travel cot. We are full to the brim even in our SUV!

Road wear works to a fourth power rule. So a Range Rover causes 16 times the road wear of a Kia Picanto.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law

And it’s chunky enough to make me feel safe when I’m driving on the motorway every day.

So it's an arms race. At the expense of pedestrians and cyclists.

Trades in London use vans. The only situation I can think a backpack of Stanley would do for is if they’re travelling to a building site which holds a variety of equipment already.

a trade coming to your house -
perfectly common to come in a van. I Have worked for construction and building companies in central London for a long time

That was my point. Tradesmen DO work out of a bag in central London. They have to work differently.

Get the infrastructure and regulations right and nothing is inevitable.

I don't! I love my Citroën c1......I can turn it on a sixpence 😁.....yanbu OP.....

In the school car park…? DD is an only child so minimal fuss - out of car, grab satchel & sports bag, hug goodbye and off she went. All in all about a 30 second ordeal and then I raced off to work. When she got to secondary school age I just dropped her out on a side street beside school.

We must be polar opposites as i can’t think of anything worse than having to drag a tired, cranky child to school on foot in British weather.

No tradesmen can work.out of a bag.

You might live five mins from work,.not everyone else does.

Some big SUV type vehicles are status symbols, not strictly just a mode of transport. You could buy a Nissan or you could spend an extra 100k and buy a Range Rover.

Nothing wrong with that, If you have the money, go for it!

@SlaveToAGoldenRetriever Where do you park though? Is there a car park? Do you drag the other kids with you, so you have to faff about getting everyone out of their car seats? Sounds like it would take forever and be really chaotic.

DS is 5 and can't undo the straps on his high-back booster, so barely slowing down wouldn't be an option.

www.carwow.co.uk/small-cars/high-driving-position?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_account=6984742135&utm_campaign=12365861913&utm_group=113090377850&utm_keyword=&device=m&campaignid=12365861913&adgroupid=113090377850&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAw5W-BhAhEiwApv4goKYkPg2jsQ4Af3PJPAkOr6yRi8h01-QuNN1RJCgmUde9wRYrIfnBchoCXnkQAvD_BwE

In part they are scaling up so that they can have one model whether electric or petrol, so there is less variation across production lines. The extra space is needed to accommodate the battery.

It's difficult to find small ones! I drive a (very ) small SUV. Tiny boot and easy to park. Love it. Went to upgrade, same car, newer model, 9 inches wider and a foot longer. WHY?

So don't always blame the driver! I need a 'high' car as I struggle getting out of a low one. No small cars allow this.

I totally agree with you @Britishsummertime22 - and worse, the car manufacturers are responding to this trend by making cars gradually bigger each time they do a redesign so even the "small city runabout" in each brand's range of models is now about 50cm bigger than it used to be.

I’ve got a VW Sharan as someone on MN told me it would be shitty step mothering to put DSD (5”8 in socks and still growing!!) on the roof when we have her and normal cars don’t have proper middle seats so…
I’ll be running this car into the ground though as when we were looking, all the SUV type cars seemed to have next- to- useless middle seats too, taking an infant car seat on each side into consideration, and MPVs have now mostly been discontinued.

The rise in number of SUV type panzer tank cars is the most irresponsible thing the car industry has done in recent years, given all the information we have about climate change. If you own one perhaps you could learn to drive it properly as well, thanks a mil.

Before we bought our first Discovery, it was about 28 years ago, we had it for a half days test drive so again I don't know if they do this anymore, we took it to a pub car park and I learnt that the best thing to do is to reverse into a car parking space.

Off road day I remember driving down a small river which proved invaluable as we regularly got flooded where we lived so I learnt the correct way to drive through a flood.

You are correct I think the trainer with us parked the car when we got back to the centre.

But it’s not off-roading that makes these cars an issue for other road users - it’s the on-roading. Parking. Being unable to gauge the width of your car. Being able to reverse your car down a hill between parked cars (this happened once - we were coming down the hill and were towing another car so couldn’t reverse, driver of 4x4 first thought there was room for both cars to pass so started up the hill while we were coming down, and then flapped when she realised there wasn’t room and we couldn’t reverse. Eventually, DH, who is as mild-mannered as they come, got out, yanked her door open, told her to get out and did it for her. She shouldn’t have been behind the wheel of that car. She was a danger to others.)

They still do new or approved used gets you a half day off roading. I’ve done it, it was quite fun and although I was not the Landrover owner in the car, some of the obstacles really showcased what the cars can do. Sadly no lesson on how to park at Tesco.

In past years Land Rover used to include a free off road training session whenever you bought one of their cars. This included a lecture beforehand on how to drive one the road safely. I presume other manufacturers offer the same.

You can also buy off road experiences and I would expect talks on how to drive these vehicles on road to be included in these training sessions.

Edited for punctuation and sense