.. to think that drivers who can't park shouldn't buy giant SUVs

[PushyDad]

I live in a relatively affluent area so M Class Mercs and and other giant SUVs are fairly common on the streets. This morning at the train station car park I watched a driver struggle for 5 minutes to park her giant Range Rover. On Saturday I saw another driver nearly taking off the wing of a parked car as she struggled to park her M Class at a meter bay.

If you drive a people carrier then one can argue that you need the extra seats for the school run or after-school activities. But a SUV seats 5. The only thing you are getting over a 'normal' car is a higher driving position and a bit more boot space. And don't get me started on my eco rant.

Your money, your choice. But you would think that if you struggle to park such a monster then perhaps your should trade in your giant SUV for something smaller or is the SUV required for maintaining your School Gate Creds?

Can someone please tell me the attraction of 4x4's in the city? Is it because they are expensive? Bigger? Driving position enables you to literally "look down" on the plebby cars nearer to the ground? Appropriate transport to use during weekends away to one's country estate? All of the above?

We have a "medium size" 4x4, had it when we lived in ruralshire, kept it when we moved to the big city as it was worth more as a going concern by then, selling it would not have bought a tiny Fiat.

The high driving position is nice, you can see traffic coming from all sorts of blind spots. The width is a total pain in the arse. Dunno about the country estate, but a big car is always nicer on the motorways with kids and baggage.

some people are crap drivers, whatever car they drive.

True, but sticking crap drivers in Giant SUVs just extends the influence of their crapy-ness :)

"True, but sticking crap drivers in Giant SUVs just extends the influence of their crapy-ness "

Absolutely agree. I know someone who gets to school 20 minutes early so that she can park her car (and avoid getting it dirty by parking on the grass). I also saw someone reversing (with speed) her huge Volvo XC90 in the school carpark. She kept going, straight into another car with such force that it shunted it into the post behind. When the driver got out, her excuse was the the car didn't beep to let her know there was something behind her . Just as well it was a car and not a person behind her.

Hold hand up to being SUV driver (Smax) - can park it fine though, esp as has parking sensors. I have only come on this thread to say that, where I live, despite the abundance of Range Rover sports, BMW X5's etc, some of which are driven by obnoxious self important twats, for sure, I have to agree that I see far more blatantly dangerous driving done by small cars.

I think this is because they are predominantly driven by younger / learner drivers and the local students - who are inexperienced drivers at best and self-absorbed teenagers with no thought for other people at worst (I of course used to be one of these - I am a far safer driver now).

Or, they are an elderly person in the same tiny Rover they have driven for the past 22 years that has no mod-cons like parking sensors or power steering and their sight and reflexes are failing them but they won't admit it.

I realise I will now go on someone's spreadsheet as a poster to be avoided at all costs as I dare to drive a 4x4

You've been inserted into Row 9789. Higher positions are currently being held by posters who are proud that their DCs have learned how to do an axe kick on other kids but don't want DC to play as an SAS operative out to stop Chechen rebels from detonating a nuke.

Living in Manchester I see a lot of pristine SUVs with tinted windows and assume the driver is either a footballer or a drug dealer. Unless your 4x4 is covered in mud you probably don't really need one!

The driving test really should be tailored to individual circumstances. You should be made to fill out a questionnaire before taking the test:

Do you intend to do any of the following:

1. Drive in London
2. Drive an enormous vehicle
3. Drive down country lanes with passing places
4. Drive down width restricted roads
5. Do the school run
6. Park in small carpark

And then there should be modules on these things which you have to pass.

4x4s are generally too wide for standard parking spaces I find, creating the pinched in effect. I agree you should have to pass a test on car width, but this applies to more than just 4x4 drivers. I've seen KAs drive practically on the other side of the road to avoid a car bumped up the kerb.

If you depend on parking sensors to park, there's something wrong with your driving.

YANBU. Whenever it snows I get 4x4 envy and think maybe I could get an old cheap one when my car dies. I go on the second-hand landrover site and everything .

Then I remember I'm shit at parking my current smaller car and there's no where to put it around here. And the cost of petrol would bankrupt me.

Please be gentle on those of us who genuinely use 4x4s every day in the country but who occasionally have to come into town for supplies.

I can park beautifully in an open field but in town, find parking spaces tiny plus visibility is limited due to a carload of overexcited children, dogs licking the windows, mud on the windows, etc and old Land Rovers are not the easiest of cars to heft around in tight spaces.

befuzzled - the Smax seats 7 so at least you have a practical reason for driving a big motor.

I think this is because they are predominantly driven by younger / learner drivers and the local students

Judging from what I can see from my lowly position, the Giant SUV drivers around here tend to be immaculately made up mid to late 30s Yummy Mummies on the school run (the kids in the back gives that away, my dear Watson).

It's actually easier to park a proper 4x4 with proper corners because you can see where the car is. These new fangled curvy 4X4's must be just as impossible as the cars that have edges that you can't see.

If you can't park or drive it, don't buy it. Simple logic that seems to be lost on many(not all) SUV drivers. Although I may get one to make life easier as apparently if you have an SUV, things like double yellow lines and yellow zigzags outside school don't apply to you.

I disagree that unless your 4x4 is covered in mud you don't need one.

I have owned/driven a lot of cars, from some of the smallest on the road, to some of the largest.

all of them ahve been nice and clean (because dh is obsessed prefers the cars to be clean)

in fact, when we lived in Africa, and certainly needed our 4x4s, they were never dirty for more than an hour or so - always cleaned, and waiting, sparkling, for the next journey (or, more likely, to get filthy when the monkeys threw fruit down on them!)

dirty does not equal necessity. it means you don't care whether your car is clean or not (or don't have enough time to wash it regularly).

I need my 4x4. I don't live on a farm, I don't need to tow a horsebox or simialr. but I do need my car, for perfectly valid reasons (quite a lot of which involve people in small cars not being able to drive, or engage reverse, or park )

people notice badly driven and parked 4x4s more, sure. but I am inconvenienced far more often, and in more dangerous ways, by small car drivers who simply cannot drive than I am by a 4x4 driver who doesn't know the width of the car, or who relies of parking sensors etc.

Well I have 4 children to transport around is that a good enough reason? It seemed like the lesser of 2 evils to me as is not as long as an estate which I would have trouble parking (without sensors) as I am also short. Also I couldn't face being yet another late thirties yummy mummy doing the school run in the ubiquitous Range Rover Sport / BMW X5 - my hair is not well maintained enough.

You are right about over reliance on parking sensors though. I have to remind myself when occasionally drive DPs ancient old Ford KA (my original learner car in which I was, looking back, not a very good driver). I can definitely park the smax easier though - it is more maneuvourable strangely.

Isn't it ridiculous that those who have 4x4s are all saying smaller car drivers are the worst at driving, and small car drivers are saying the opposite?

A bad driver is a bad driver!

I always see them in packed car parks straddling two parking spaces either because they can't park or the car is so stupidly huge it won't fit in a parking space.

to be fair, the thread title shoudl really be 'AIBU to think that drivers who can't park shouldn't be driving '

I did point out earlier that bad drivers are bad drivers, irrespective of type of car.

A lot of parking spaces are stupidly narrow, I drive a pretty big van and often have no choice but to straddle two spaces as otherwise I physically wouldn't be able to get in and out of the vehicle. Parking in the markings of a narrow space would render the spaces either side of me unusuable to other drivers so I'd end up taking up 3 spaces instead of just two. Not commenting on the talent of SUV drivers, but a lot of people do need bigger vehicles and it's stupid that normal spaces aren't wide enough for them.

But a bad driver in something the size of a transit van will do more damage/cause more inconvenience than a driver in a Ford Ka.

And you don't need a 4x4 for bad/winter weather - you just need winter tyres on your car (as proved by mine on my C-Max at the weekend when, for the first time since we moved onto our estate 9 years ago, I was finally able to get my car up the hill and onto the cleared, main roads).

I agree with PushyDad: bad parkers are bad parkers, no matter the car. I used to borrow a Landrover Discovery occasionally and could parallel park that the same way I could parallel park my own Peugeot 306.

I bought my Landrover because I needed 7 seats and we spend a lot of time in the country.

However I live in a town and because of the reputation 4x4s have I am extra careful when in a carpark and extra courteous about letting other drivers go first so it has the opposite affect here.

I rarely fill the tank and also don't use the car that much as I prefer to walk and my car is also really old and not showy offy at all.

There is a dad at school who pulls in late in his RangeRover sport every morning and parks over the restricted yellow zigzags every day! It's drivers like him who give the rest of us a bad name!

not necessarily, Compo.

the driver yesterday morning held up a huge amount of people at school drop off (queued back onto the road, main trunk road into town, so busy at that point) - would not have been any more inconvenient if it had been a 4x4 or a huge van holding us all up.

and, for me, I am inconvenienced far more often by drivers of small cars refusing to accept that they should occasonally reverse when I meet them in a narrow lane (it is more often my right of way, but yet me who ends up reversing half a mile round blind corners because the other driver can't/won't). when I meet larger vehicles, it tneds to be more of a 50/50 split as to who reverses.

I once came across the ridiculous situation where a driver in a C1 was refusing to reverse (admittedly there was a blind corner, but there was for the other driver too) about 50 yards to a wide passing spot, and instead 3 removals and builders vans had to reverse about half a mile in convoy, to let the smaller car pass. and sadly this type of situation happened almost daily.

bonkers.

Yes the higher driving position of a 4x4 must be nice, there aren't as many blind spots and it is a nicer driving experience on the motorway etc. etc. but bear in mind that until everyone is driving at the same height there will still be people in small cars who cannot see around your great width from behind, or through your tinted bloody windows (if you have them).

And you will not always see the small car you are about to back into as you are leaving your parking space (thankyou lady at Ikea, last weekend). It was almost like a skit, inspecting our crunched in back light and asking her if she had any damage. She just glanced at her monster truck and said "Probably not..."

Not only do I have a 4x4 I also have CARAVAN in which i eat and drinks lots of at the weekend :o