.. 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?

I must be missing something. Other than when you are towing very heavy things, or live down a long unmade track - when do you need a 4x4 to travel on the roads in the UK?

There you go again, patronising me and now calling me stupid...massive sense of humour failing on mumsnet today. Come down off the horse eh?

Exit, really? Why? Are you HGVing? Transiting? What kind of journeys are you doing?

As long as you're alright Jack, eh?

YANBU - Spent ages this morning staring at a giant SUV trying to park, blocking the whole road. Nearly made us late for school!!

You don't need a 4x4 to travel on the roads. Sometimes you need a 4x4 to travel around when you get to where you are going. How do we manage that then. Leave the 4x4 where you use it and buy a small car to reach it?

The need for a 4x4 can only be determined by the person buying it

oh the irony of "as long as you're alright, Jack' (assuming that was aimed at me wanitng to choose what car I drive.

if i was 'alrigth, Jack', I wouldn't be living in the town I currently live in (forced on me by my daughter having a statement issued by this county)

I wouldn't have a stupid school commute each day (again, forced on me by her statement and needs)

nor would I not be able to go back to work, because of the stupid school commute, coupled with the lack of any suitable childcare etc etc.

I think you need to take a step back, tbh. you are reading all kinds of things into my posts that aren't there (possibly due to your assumptions about 4x4 drivers )

my position all along has been that everyone needs to be able to drive and park. whatever size car they drive, wherever they drive it.

"i'm alright JAck' is not the attitude in this house, I can assure you. I would love ot have my nice little car back (an A2 - so tiny). not currently possible. I can be happy anyway.

And this morning on my school run everyone was held up by a guy in a Corsa who would not reverse back down a narrow road despite the fact there was no one behind him and he had driven up at excessive speed to try and get past the school and had failed. The type of car in a red herring imo. It is the type of driving and attitude of the driver that matters. It was a narrow raod. he was a wanker. Would have made no difference if he had been in a 4x4, van, KA or motorbike.

Well - I would need a 4X4 to get to the stables in the morning to do the horse.
But I would only need something small to get to the shops.
But I would need something with 6 seats for picking up DCs and friends.
An estate car for taking the dogs out.
Something with huge boot space for collecting horse feed and bedding
And I live in a very hilly area so when it snows I would need something to get me up the hill to the main road.
Any suggestions, or shall I just stick with my Toyota Land Cruiser which covers all bases?

Exit, just to extrapolate a little further & honestly not to have a go, but just curious. If you could not afford your land cruiser - or lets say 4x4s didn't exist, would you change your lifestyle or would you just make do as best you could with a normal car?

Post There would be many occasions when I would not be able to get to my horse without my 4x4, so she would starve, I would be prosecuted by the RSPCA

Obviously, if 4x4s did not exist, my life would be different.

I could always use one of DHs 8 HGV tractor units I suppose.

Just get a twin cab pick up. Nobody moans about them. It's only the 'luxury' 4x4's that get people all worked up

Fuck me there's a lot of frothing on here. Nope, I don't silverfrog:

I was trying to be light hearted about it (a tax based on weather ffs) but you took it seriously and frothed at me.

I live near a private school where people drive in from miles around to deliver their offspring to directly outside the front door. A few years ago it expanded (and will expand again as it seems to have bought another entire street)

Our narrow street is chaos because of these enormous white BMW/black audi things - the mothers stop to let kids out, put hazards on and the traffic streams back for miles, or they park on the pavement meaning you cannot walk down the street (to the local school with your three children and a buggy) without walking into the formula one racetrack road which is an endless river of 4x4's and the odd normal car. and these women - they don't look at what is going on around them, they are too busy trying to find a parking space/ place to stop.

You end up jumping up and down, waving at them.

It's really bloody dangerous.

Why do you all talk about 4x4s when you mean 4WD?

But they'd be the same whatever they drove.

Selfish drivers are selfish drivers

I think those BMW 4x4s look like inflatable saloon cars, a bit like a kid's helium balloon - it's a particular one, can't remember the model.

People who can't park shouldn't have cars. Full stop!

Had my pick up stolen

The white BMW ones are very tacky. Ditto those audis and the Alfa Rmeo monsters we see.

There are some beautiful saloon cars being driven to that school and I have no issue woth those as they are a sensible size, they don't need to occupy an entire pavement and their owner clearly has some taste.

YonSeaCow - 4x4 / SUV threads always lead to frothing. It is guaranteed!
Fair enough Exit.

I always struggle with the whole "have to have one" having grown up on a farm in the middle of the countryside & never had anything more substantial than a volvo. Pulled horse boxes, sheep trailers, huge logs across fields. The farm was down an unmade track, the local roads were tiny, narrow lanes. It was hilly. We had dogs, chickens, feed - even dead animals in the boot of various cars- never at the same time I should add & somehow it was fine. Most of our neighbours were farmery types & very few of them had 4x4s - they just weren't around so much then. Obviously there were tractors - but we all made do with the crappy old vehicles that we had. Different world I suppose 25/30 years ago.

Well I live on an unmade track and need my (filthy) 4x4 however you wouldn't necessarilly know it for many of the journeys I do so you really can't tell just by seeing someone making one journey.

Incidentally I struggle to park (I couldn't park the Golf I drove before it either), it is a skill some people are better at than others. The important thing is how you respond to that. My response is to always bugger off to the back of the car park or further away than the main throng so I have more space/time to perform the manouver.

The important thing is that people have consideration. Of course parking on double yellows or using two spaces is inconsiderate, especially when people could often park further away more easilly but are too lazy to do so, but I don't believe you can make that accusation simply at drivers of a certain type of vehicle, or that you can judge someone's need for a certain car just by their postcode or because they happen to be driving in town in it on a particular occasion. If they just have one car it will need to be driven in town as well as in the country.

Fair point up thread about obsessively washing cars. I never wash my car as I'm lazy how about a coloured badge system?

My biggest problem is being blinded at night by the car behind me who has lights higher so they shine in my rear view mirror. Or halogen lights! Aargh!

Agree that its not the type of car that's tthe problem its the poor driving skills.

I have a freelander that has been converted to gas and imo need it, I live. In a tiny village, I work in a village and I have horses that are in a different village, I have a dog that comes everywhere with me and apart from that - love my car

I can park without any problems and am always getting comments from sarcastic gits men in carparks about how imprressed they are that a women can park such a big car (I have a whole reportoire of biting replies) but lastt week when I had to use my DP's corsa I found it almost impossible to park straight, its about knowing your car

I admit that I managed with a smaller car before but my life is much easier now that I can look out the window, see snow and not know that my entire day is going to be spend walking to and from the stables because the horses need fed and its a bloody long and difficult walk

Dunno about the car washing. My "road" is pure mud when it's wet and pure dust when it's dry. I could wash it, but it would be filthy again the minute I set off on my next journey (or before on very dry days) so what's the point (I do clean the bird shit off though)

I have a problem with those big pick up trucks things too whilst we are all "having a froth" and personalised number plates.
Could somebody just tell me why with the number plates? I don't understand it.