Why all the hate for SUV’s/4x4 vehicles?

[FluffyRabbitSocks]

Why do so many people on mumsnet hate SUV and 4 wheel drive vehicles? I don’t think it’s a correct reflection of the UK publics preference because you see so many of this type of vehicle on the roads and in car parks these days. I couldn’t get myself so worked up about what car a person chooses to buy and drive and really don’t think a hybrid Toyota Rav 4 or Honda CRV is any worse for the environment than a diesel MPV like a Vauxhall Zafira.

Lol. Yet another ‘study’ based on supposition and assumption. We haven’t even had the first generation of EVs reach 50% of their lifespan, let along any developments in technology. Nor is there any allowance for electricity consumption that continues to come from gas or coal (US and EU). And no allowance for disposal of the machine afterwards. Both vehicles contain metals, rubber sand oils, but only one contains a mass of lithium ion batteries.
The usual pro-climate change nonsense I’m afraid.

I do it everyday, but I’m slow on my feet and walk with a stick. I cross at junctions where I can see the cars coming, and where drivers expect people to be crossing the road, like I was taught by my parents when I was young.

At junctions you don’t need to cross between parked cars you see. They are pretty useful in that sense. They also have the added benefit of slowing traffic down. So I’d encourage everyone to cross the road sensibly, teach their children to do the same, and don’t blame others for giving in to ignoring road safety and crossing between parked cars. That’s just tempting fate. An accident waiting to happen. That’s why they came up with the green cross code in the first place. It really used to be quite the thing to teach kids in the 70’s.

It’s called modelling…. It’s a basic tool in research. And in climate research it’s been very effective. ‘Pro climate change nonsense’… I mean, honestly!

Would that be anything like the economic modelling they’ve been developing since the 60’s. The most advanced modelling in the world, with more money behind it than anything else (for obvious reasons). Look where that got us. They didn’t predict that inflating the money supply would create price inflation. Like it’s happened fifty times in the past 100 years, but their modelling couldn’t predict it, because it was too sensible a conclusion to draw from inflating a money supply.

Sure, guess away. Attach your belief system to a completely unknown lifespan, which is not stated or defined in the study, and ignore the impact of processing and incineration of batteries. And ignore the use of coal and natural gas to run the cars. And you think that’s a scientific study because MIT printed it?

Im a layman and I can see the blatant errors in the convenient was the study has been limited in order to fit an agenda, and you’ll disregard it because it’s convenient and fits your narrative.

I've driven 4x4s (proper, 4wd) for nearly 15 years. Never had a rolling situation. Again, this is a driver issue, not a vehicle issue.

I have a diesel AWD Sportage cheap and cheerful - good when the weather is rubbish (live very rurally) so do rely on it when the roads are crap. I do miss my little fiat panda though! So not a status symbol for me.

So many car manufactures are reducing their range of ordinary cars & only making SUV, Ford are stopping the Fiesta & have already stopped the Mondeo. We soon will only have the choice of SUV.

That was me 🤣 I'll be honest all these ugly inflated cars look the same to me: like someone has pit a normal car and put it on stilts, then moulded some pointless extra plastic and metal on to them!

Honestly I couldn't really care what other people choose to drive. I just wish they'd learn to bloody drive them properly!!

This is because this is what the public want to buy.
The days of people buying small hatchback starter cars is over.
Kids these days don’t have the money to buy their baby cars, so they buy second hand.
Established buyers from new want big family saloons or big SUV.
The big SUV is the urban mummymobile. The Evoque. The Juke before it. Anyone remember the RAV4?
Second hand SUVs are going to be so cheap that’ll become the starter car market.
We are just doing what the Americans have been doing for decades.

American roads are very different though, they are on the whole much wider, less bends and roundabouts, parking spaces are bigger- british roads can't cope with these big cars as well. People tend to drive longer distances there too- when I lived there people wouldn't think twice about 12 hour plus journeys so can see the appeal.

Think about it everyone swapped their small car for an suv. They take up that much more space that would be 50% more congestion, traffic, more time to get from a to b immediately

meanwhile car parks will have to be adapted to either have bigger spaces, so less spaces overall.

fully accept this is the way we’re all heading.

i’d admit that if transporting families long distance it would make sense to have a chunky comfy vehicle. But SUVs round here are generally seen with one person inside doing the tesco run.

Some American freeways have 6 lanes , they are twice as big as a our motorways even standard roads over there are bigger than our motorways. We don't have the right infrastructure for massive cars we have a low amount of land and high population density.

This is why I think we need some kind of regulation to discourage the car manufacturers from pushing ever bigger cars.

You’re right. British motorists are lousy drivers. But we’ve been driving 4x4s for two decades, and if drivers of any kind can’t figure out how to drive with other road users on the road, it’s a problem with the education of drivers, not the vehicles. British roads have been used by panel vans for half a century now. I realise they are bigger than 4x4s, and trucks and lorries and buses too. But seriously, as someone who has driven commercially for a living, the problem is the sheer incompetence of drivers, not their vehicles. Some drivers are just dumb, and they drive all sorts of vehicles.

Maybe if everyone re-sat their test every five years, we would lift the competence level and consideration of drivers in this country. It needn't cost the Government any more money either. You could hire the staff with the revenue from the test fees. So it created jobs too as well as giving people the confidence and ability to drive safely on the road.

StillWantingADog · Today 09:52
But SUVs round here are generally seen with one person inside doing the Tesco run.

The congestion problem is more often than not the sheer bone idleness of people though. How many complaining on this thread are households with multiple cars. The believe that they should as a family be allowed to pollute as much as they like, but people shouldn’t have an SUV. That’s hypocrisy.

Maybe households should have to pay higher taxes for a second car, and a third car, the way people pay higher interest and taxes on second and third homes.

I used to walk 3 miles to school, because we lived right on the edge of 5he 3 mile limit for the free bus pass. Our choice was we either spent money on the bus or had money for a snack and a better lunch. There was no such thing as school runs and queues of cars and traffic congestion, because parents were not bone idle. They believed in walking, and cycling, and they walked their kids to school.

Maybe it just didn’t rain in those days. I don’t remember.

I don’t have a car @WillowBeeT so no hypocrisy here. I’m campaigning for school streets, better public transport and initiatives to reduce the number of private cars on city streets.

@WillowBeeT
I don’t have a car either. No-one in my household has one.

And to be honest, even if you were doing 12-hour long journeys, I wouldn’t say an SUV was particularly well suited to them. Plenty of other vehicles would be more/as comfortable, without needing to be so high and wide.

@theycallmestacie, car parking spaces on some car parks are very narrow and are fine for width of normal width car but SUV is a bit wider and even if exactly in centre of your space if a SUV parks next to you space can be too tight to get into especially if SUV parks slightly off centre of its space so closer to your side.

People driving SUVs down country lanes and then making me in my small car slither and slide up onto the muddy bank to let them past is what I can't stand!

YOU'VE got the 4x4! YOU go up onto the muddy bank! But nope... EVERY time, I have to go onto the muddy bank and then sit and wheel spin to get back onto the road while the 4x4 driver whizzes past.

If you're going to drive a 4x4 use it for what it's intended for!

Well yes I agree driving standards generally aren't great, but it's still the case that American roads tend to be wider, straighter and designed around larger cars and ours are not. Sure some roads are fine, motorways are fine, but many villages have narrow roads and many country lanes are single track where I am and passing large vehicles is really hard even if in the pull over and right up into the bushes!

But SUVs round here are generally seen with one person inside doing the Tesco run.

Isn’t that true for most cars doing the Tesco run?

Interestingly on the narrow lane I drive up daily it's drivers of the smallest cars that seem to struggle with driving to the side. They nervously drive up the middle of the road. I think that's why they drive such small cars. They are scared of hitting the curb.

What curb would that be, then?

But most SUBs are narrower than some BMW, Bentleys, Mercedes and Teslas (to name a few) estate and sedans

Yes of course. My more general point is people seem to buy huge SUVs whether they actually need them or not. If you are actually generally out and about doing long distances with the family fair enough. But I bet a lot aren’t.