Why do people buy SUVs?

[MuskIsACnt]

I need a new car and I’ve always had a small car but it seems every other car now is an SUV, so I’m wondering why and whether I need one.

The boot space is often the same as smaller cars, they’re more expensive and arguably harder to park. Am I missing some great benefit that I should be considering? Or does driving a big car just make people feel big (I used to drive a Luton van and that made me feel big)?

@Gnomegarden32
Again - you have not defined "SUV" or stated which vehicles were tested. Cars sold as SUVs range from the size of a mini to the size of a small truck. They also include a large percentage of disabled access vehicles because of the better accessibility features (which seem to attract the label "SUV").

Kerb weight is also a big factor in accidents - this can be greater in electric saloons than say, hybrid vehciles labelled as SUVs.

If regulation is proposed it needs to be able to describe the object of legislation.

UK roads and parking spaces are not built to take these US centric vehicle designs at scale.

Also Americans drive everywhere. The UK is fortunate to have walkable streets, but this leads to far more pedestrians proportionally, a lot of whom are children and young people. SUVs are more likely to harm / kill pedestrians.

Since we aren’t going to be changing our infrastructure, their use needs to be discouraged, with road tax set beyond the means of ordinary families, and concessions for businesses that need them such as farms and blue badge holders.

You are right that there is a dearth of information on smaller SUVs vs larger ones - I searched for this myself when I was choosing what car to buy. It was stats like this that convinced me to get a hatchback instead:

Raising the front-end of the vehicle by 10cm (4in) was linked to a 22% increase in pedestrian fatality risk, the study found.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240207-are-cars-getting-too-big-for-the-road

If they are all so dangerous
How can we justify any concessions at all.

Which also brings us to the drivers as well. Anyone that causes an accident is currently allowed back on the road at some point. So they should really be banned from driving permanently.

Im assuming vans, buses and larger trucks etc of all sorts are also more deadly….so they should be banned too.

We got ours primarily because DP struggles with his back, and getting in and out of a lower car is much more difficult. But oh my goodness it's changed my life. We have plenty of boot space, so no more putting the back seats down. There's enough room in the back for passengers, without having to sacrifice space for those in the front. It just feels amazing, comfortable, spacious.

Switched from a Clio, so there was a big difference.

I will admit I struggle parking in tight spaces, but I just park further away and walk. Doesn't bother me. It does have reversing cameras though, which helps.

I should add, they have managed to legislate in Paris.

We need vans, buses and trucks. And some people need SUVs. It's about unnecessary risk in rural areas.

@AIBot our infrastructure has become very American. Everything is 'out of town' from industrial estates, shopping centres, office parks, leisure parks (then they moan the town centers are dying).

Which in turn encourages more people to drive because public transport works by taking people to central hubs, towns and cities. Useless if people's commuting habits are like spiders webs.

*I meant to say in urban areas

We didn't expressly look for an SUV, we had a zafira previously. But to get the same space (not just boot but rear passenger as well) we had to look at SUVs as that's what there was in our budget, unless we wanted a diesel, which we didn't as we don't do sufficient miles.

Agree
and people are posting their needs on this thread.
Agree driving rurally is very dangerous, particularly in adverse weather conditions that can often leave people isolated without the means of appropriate transport.
Tbh even in hilly towns it’s dangerous to drive in certain weather without appropriate vehicles.

That is exactly the kind of emotive reporting with a mish mash of selected "facts" which I referred to. Just look at the picture - one of the smallest models of hatchback on the road next to one of the largest vehicles commonly labelled SUVs. If you picked the cars differently you could find a large hatchback with a bigger footprint that most small "SUV"s.

Its easy clickbait - shock horror SUVs are evil! However most of the labelled SUVs on the road are the smaller models without that high gap between ground and lower edge. There is also data on safety from the better all round visibility which comes with a higher seat position.

Its simply not accurate to say that all cars under a particular marketing label are "bad" - most in the UK are used as small, practical family cars but with better accessibility to people who struggle in the traditional low/restricted movement driving seats. (which may be for mobility reasons but also simply due to being tall or small).

If you want to legislate about the external size or kerb weight of cars - go ahead, you can define both of those and map the limits to independent safety data from research which makes that data available. You could certainly make a case for eg requiring cars using parking permits to be below certain external size so that they fit in allocated spaces. Of course that would apply equally to the very large Range Rover models and the larger family saloons and equally leave small saloons and SUVs fitting quite happily into the existing spaces.

I like the height, it's a really comfortable drive. It also feels a bit safer but that might just be made up in my mind (I've got a non exciting qashqai)

I have a VW Touareg because I like it. I find no issues with reverse parking, etc. despite being small myself.

I said earlier there are good reasons why some people drive SUVs - mobility/height/rural location etc. It's a bit silly and indeed emotive to characterise safety and environmental concerns as saying SUVs are 'evil'. I just want people to have the facts so they can make an informed choice - I certainly didn't know anything about the risks until I looked into it.

The legislation in Paris only refers to "visitors" in its PR and is not yet enacted, partly due to issues of definition. Currently the working definition is vehicles (not "SUVs") with > 1.7 or 2 ton (depending on whether petrol or electric) and its still not finalised.

The Paris intiiative is also as much about politics as vehicle safety which is why the draft legislation is badged as "anti SUVs for rich people" but actually will have to be based on simple size and weight of vehicle which are the only criteria applied successfully in other cities (Tokyo springs to mind).

Its also worth noting that Paris in terms of size and car ownership is the equivalent of inner London/congestion zone with excellent public transport and services largely within walking distance.

Outer London is very different resulting in higher car ownership and more domestic mileage.

I agree, though, that 'SUV' isn't the best word. 'Stupidly Big Car That Makes You Look Like A Massive Knobhead' (SBCTMYLLAMK) might be better.

Speaking of people who are insecure…

So, it's difficult to do so we shouldn't bother?

Really? That is what you take from that post?

Read it again.

Well, I do feel quite unsafe when some pillock speeds up a road that could fit two sensible cars but can't fit their bloated wanker-mobile and a bicycle.

Or when I have to take the pushchair on the road because some arsehole has taken up most of the pavement for their bloated car...

Who gets to define “sensible”? Cars have got much bigger generally, even the small ones (look at old/new mini or Fiat 500) because that’s what people want. If there was enough demand for smaller cars manufacturers would make them.

We have 2 cars, a large Audi SUV and a smaller Golf GTI, out on my own anywhere at all the Golf is my absolute favourite and i would move 3 cars 2 get it out just to drive it (if i had to). Audi - 3 x adult kids, 2 over 6ft, motorway cruising, paddleboards, camping, holidays, long distance travelling, and very important is motorway travelling in the rain the elevated seating position makes a huge difference. So basically, not a pride thing but as an all round family car an SUV makes loads of sense.

I guess the best way to do that would be to raise fuel excise duty, which I'm all in favour of.
And tax SUVs, probably via vehicle excise duty.