Why do people drive big cars they can’t manage?

You get entertained by watching people struggle to park? Pretty dull life then.

Lots of smaller "compact" style cars in the US too these days. I presume people are meaning the big pick up trucks and 4x4 style vehicles, which are pretty common. But a lot of them are tradesmen's vans, farm wagons, etc. You tend not to see the huge ones in the city centres, but they're all over the more rural areas. But outside the cities, the US is geared up for larger vehicles, i.e. wider roads, bigger car parks with wider spaces, etc.

But they are normal in the USA.

That was me laughing at you in RR trying to reverse in the Exeter John Lewis carpark.

My fav spot though was the aggressive gesturing carried out in the Tesla charging zone in Gun Wharf when driver 1 parked but then couldn't get out because driver 2 nipped in and parked too close then driver 2 had to also pull forward because his passenger couldn't get out, then reversed back and stayed in the car whilst passenger set up the charger.

All while other EVs prowled the car park asking if they were leaving.

I was waiting for an ageist comment, but I stand by it entirely. So many nervous, slow, worried drivers around here who are elderly.

Great line, nicely delivered. 👏

Does anyone else remember a documentary about minimalist composer Michael Nyman, who wrote a piece of music that got used for a car advert. (Can't remember the name of the piece. Or the brand.) At some point the advertising peeps were raving to Michael about how perfect it was for their speshul cars. Michael helpfully said he couldn't actually drive. Great mic-drop moment.

Ageist much?

This is all interesting OP because in my experience it's exactly the opposite - maybe it partly depends where people live? In my experience it tends to be drivers in small cars who are nervous, poor and slow at manoeuvring, leaving massive gaps necessitating many point turns in car parks.

I had my driving assessed by my employer some years ago as my role involved driving to different venues. The examiner assessed my driving as "Excellent" at the end of the test, and said, " I knew you'd be a good driver as soon as I saw you were driving a Land Rover". So I think his experience kind of tallied with mine? 🤷‍♀️

Probably Max Verstappens driving instructor.

The assumption that you know the marital and financial status of women you don’t know but judge on your own prejudices is mental.

What should we assume about you I wonder? Shit car, shit job but my god she can drive? In which case, well done you for being morally superior.

Amazing.

Honestly! It’s like they went to the same school as OP.

Idiots.

Yeah that's what I don't understand. My OH has an outlander which is much bigger than mine but it's so easy to park etc with screens sensors etc

But women who drive RRs do???

To be fair, as someone who drives a huge 4x4 (not a range rover though) this does actually give me the rage too.

I have a huge 4x4 for a reason, equestrian/farm life and lots of towing! BUT I can park and manoeuvre my car, with or without a trailer on the back, through the eye of a needle or into a tight spot quickly and efficiently.

Women already get a bad name as poor drivers/being shit at parking - WHY are these women giving more fuel to the fire 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ just learn to fucking drive them or don't drive them!

Are you always this jealous and bitter? Plenty of shabby driving from people in shitty cars too.

I need a car to fit six adult-sized people, plus a wheelchair.

I much prefer small hatchbacks but short of strapping people to a roof rack, it just doesn’t have the space I need.

I’m another one who has no shame in admitting I’m shit at parking. I can drive in OK but I’m terrible at reversing and 99% of the time I wouldn’t even bother attempting to parallel park.

I did actually parallel park on my very quiet street the other day and no one was more surprised than me when it only took three attempts.

I only learnt how to drive when I left London and moved to a semi-rural location. I was perfectly happy not driving. When I learnt, I only did my automatic licence so I don’t even drive with gears 😂🤷‍♀️

I have shit spatial awareness and I had to learn to drive barefoot as I had sensory difficulties with the pedals.

I am under no illusions that I’m up for any kind of driving trophy 😂😂

I live rurally. I have encountered many a Gavin Banks.

I switched from a Golf to a Volvo XC40, which isn't huge, but feels pretty big. I don't really understand how people park even bigger cars in standard parking spaces and manage to open the doors. Cars have outgrown the infrastructure in the UK.

The last time we bought a car, not only did the car salesperson spend all his time speaking to DH, they put the car in his name when the paperwork was done.

DH doesn’t have a driving license.

👏 👏

My “full fat” with gadgets Toyota (not an SUV) has self parking. It’s shite, you need a taxi to get to the kerb it’s so far away from it.

The mode that does car parks is even more shite.

I have an extremely old and battered XC90 which I love to bits. It has no bells and whistles or sensors and that suits me just fine as I’m perfectly capable of parking it. I do a reasonable amount of rural driving (and spend a lot of time on building sites) and it isn’t the owners of cars like this that have issues driving them, it does tend to be the shiny new luxury SUV types who have problems both with parking and manoeuvring them. However I do think that’s a unisex issue.

YANBU in relation to people driving big cars that they can't handle, YABU in ascribing the problem mainly to women, and YABVVVU in referring to their hubbies. IME men in big penis extensions can be just as bad. It really bugs me in towns when there's one person driving a ridiculously large car that they don't need and are obviously struggling with.

When I'm dictator, there will be a law that you cannot drive big cars in towns with any less than four passengers, unless you can show that you've just dropped off your four passengers, and that everyone with a big car must also have a small car which should be their default vehicle.

I'm very jealous. I looked at that style of volvo but it's way out of my price range. I'm looking to upgrade from my Duster but I've got the right balance with it housing two dogs and it's an all round decent SUV. I'm going to trade it in for a relatively new model.