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)?

Where I live, most of the SUVs are actually owned by townies. They come in for the holidays. The roads around here and the supermarket carpark become clogged with them. There is a massive difference in off-seasons.

Yup, same here. They're massively impractical for the narrow lanes.

Even the smaller crossover SUVs are heavier and more dangerous to other road users than equivalent standard cars though. Not as heavy as a larger SUV obviously, but still a consideration when choosing which car to get potentially.

Yes, that's the thing, people claim they have them for countryside but we live down little lanes and I love my tiny car, it's so much less stressful than trying to squeeze a huge vehicle down the lanes

I've literally posted evidence that they are not. Small cars are lighter than big cars but being an SUV in and of itself does not make it heavier. Mumsnet seems to have this completely unexplainable hatred for SUVs that is based on some half understanding that rich people have RR and that must be a bad thing with zero other context.

I did have a Range Rover but was worried it would get stolen so charged it for a Mercedes. My Mercedes was stolen after thieves broke into my house for the keys

As far as I'm aware it's EVs that are the heavyweights: you don't want to get hit by one of those.

I knew someone who attended countless car crashes as a local news journalist and when she had children she bought an SUV as she had seen too often how the people in the small car are almost always the ones who come off worst.

I have a small SUV (Jag E pace) and love it, can reverse it and parallel park, reverse park etc comfortably in seconds. It fits the babies giant car seat in well and still has room so a person can sit in the front passenger seat. We can fit the pram comfortably in the boot. I used to have horses and its handy for transporting bits and bobs. Very happy with mine, I'm always very considerate when parking, make sure I'm in the middle of the lines so me and the baby can get out comfortably. Me and my partner are also tall (5'10 and 6'2) so a big car is comfortable for us and I feel much safer being high up.

EV are very heavy. Lots of multi storey car parks will not be able to support the weight of them.

A Jaguar E Pace is not a small SUV. I have travelled in one and it's large. Maybe not quite as big as a Disco, but it's not like a T-Cross.

you don’t want to be hit by any, I’m sure, but if you were choosing 🤣 yeah my hybrid is so heavy it’s brakes don’t handle it well at all.

Large would be the f pace. E pace isn’t large.

@Pluvia The E pace is a compact SUV, it's the F pace which is the bigger one 🙂

I have had a Range Rover and a Lexus SUV. They are too big for some women drivers and I have seen many women struggling to park them or find a big enough parking space that their large vehicle will fit in

Either they live on a farm/ up a dirt track, or they're pretentious tossers.

I don’t understand why mumsnet thinks everyone with an SUV is pretentious or shallow. Cars like Kia Sportage, Ford Kuga, even Dacia Duster are technically SUVs and I doubt you could argue that people buy them for their image?

It's also the height of suv's that make them more dangerous to pedestrians.

https://etsc.eu/suvs-and-pickups-make-the-roads-less-safe-for-car-occupants-pedestrians-and-cyclists-belgian-study/

Has anybody defined what an SUV actually is yet?

I’m struggling with the concept that my 70 year old neighbour with her 61 plate Nissan Qashqai may be a pretentious tosser.

Because they're reacting and ranting without any attempt to really think about what the issue is.
Partly because they're not listening and partly because lots of them seem to be quite stupid and are just enjoying the bandwagon.

So every time there's an argument or even clear evidence around one of their objections, another pops up like whack a mole.

Too long and wide
Too heavy
Too polluting
Too high
Attention seeking
People can't drive/park them
People that drive them are twats
I've decided people don't need them

And on and on it goes. I think it really damages sensible conversations about cars and why people are not being tempted away from private car ownership and why all cars are getting bigger.

No because it's almost impossible to define. It's not even as easy to define difference between a hatch and saloon, hatch having a 5th door that opens into the passenger compartment of the car. A saloon having a boot.

A suv is higher.in seating position than a car but where's the line between a car seat height and a suv seat height?

You can also throw into the mix MPV, or people carriers, a Renult Modus was classed as MPv as was the Nissan Note, both had rear seats that could slide giving either a few inches more boot or leg space depending on requirements. Neither were big 7 seaters.

We have had SUVs for the last 15 years, but not necessarily big ones. We have just changed to an ordinary electric car. Benefits of an SUV, for me. Higher driving position, easier to see the front of the car, easier to see oncoming traffic, easier to be seen. Easier to get in and out of (I do struggle with getting in to our new car). Much better cornering - wheels on each corner make for a smaller turning circle - our Nissan Leaf has a much wider turning circle than our previous old Suzuki Grand Vitara.

Ideally, if we could afford it, I would get an electric car with the styling of an SUV. And for those who say SUVs are big cars, our Nissan Leaf is actually longer than our Suzuki Grand Vitara was. It is just lower. Our previous SUVs (Daihatsu Terios and Suzuki Jimny) were both smaller.

Ironically I find it's often drivers of the teeniest cars that can't drive or park. They spend forever trying to park their little hatchback in a space big enough for a bus and drive in the middle of country lanes with no idea how far over from the edge they are.

You sound scary and like someone best avoided

@Thebellofstclements

And yet our parents managed to tow horse boxes with Volvo estates back in the 90s
They are so long though. Annoying to park. And in all honesty, why is a Volvo estate ok but an SUV not? Genuinely don't get it