.. 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?

As far as driving wankerdom goes, in my experience drivers of expensive German cars (especially BMW's) are worse than 4x4 drivers overall.

Yes! Mercedes, BMWs and Audis are generally driven very annoyingly indeed, especially of they are black/dark blue and very shiny.

What about Mercedes/BMW SUVs? Are they doubly wanky?

Oh yes. Definitely double wanky. And if they have a personalised number plate....well.....

Compos triple wanky and they don't come with indicators.

I had to brake sharply this morning to avoid an oncoming car swerving to my side of the road to zoom into a parking space on my side.

It was a white BMW with flame decals all down the side and an extra spoiler fixed to the back.

I suspect it was not driven by a MN-er.

Only in the UK could such a discussion take place.

Here (US) many ordinary folk drive SUVs, they all drive well.

There is no typical 4x4 driver here

I still don't know why its claimed they are harder to drive...its easy!

If you lot think 4x4 are a pain..try watching out for massive HUMMERS

You do see the occasional hummer around here. I've never driven one!

Why does everyone in america have one? Aren't all your roads straight?

Roads straight, no parallel parking, no roundabouts to cut people up on, and no winding narrow victorian residential streets.

It's all point and shoot with U.S drivers, isn't it?

why would you need parking sensors to park?

Only in the UK could such a discussion take place. Here (US) many ordinary folk drive SUVs, they all drive well.

Oh absolutely - I've lived in the US, the roads are a LOT wider and apart from the big cities there are far fewer cars on them. The US equivalent would be if a rash of Winnebagos broke out :o

I lived in the US and there's equally bad drivers there too. But many more had SUV's. Those were the idiots who wouldnt move over for me on a bicycle despite the town road being 3 lanes wide.

You can't not be able to park an suv, I have a discovery which (especially after this last week) I love utterly. It is however so overloaded with parking sensors etc that if a fly breaks wind in the vicinity they all bleep madly to let you know, so you would need to be stone deaf, blind and have no spatial awareness whAtsoever to hit something while parking.
I can park it in spaces that my mother can't park her weeny Renault Megane in. I do have a private plate for it, because I want one, but it's not at all shiny, it's covered in mud and horse shit, inside and out.

I was stuck behind a Fiat Punto which tried for 12 yes 12!!! minutes to get in to a parking space. They eventually gave up and drove off elsewhere. I moved forward and reversed my volvo estate into exactly the same space with no problem. Some people just don't know how to park. My DH admits to being a carp parker.

Was it a new Punto and was it a 3 door? The reason I ask is because some spaces were too small for my Peugeot as it had HUGE doors but would be fine for someone with smaller doors.

My DH admits to being a carp parker

Now that is a profession i have never heard of :o

my dh cant park a carp either

Boomerwang this was on street parking so it was the length of the car not the width that they seemed to have a problem with.

I'm just too polite to say crap :o

like feminine, i'm always fascinated by these threads.

i live in the rockies, and we have snow and ice for about 6/7 months of the year. the roads are bigger. parking spaces are bigger. you know the cliche. everything is bigger.

in the uk i drove a secondhand ford galaxy - for kids and dogs and wheelchairs. over here we bought a similar people carrier. last winter i came off the road because of sheet ice. i now have a long wheel base tahoe. and a rack that can fit 5 bikes on the back, and one that can fit dd2's sn lowrider trike on top. and a roofbox for the skis.

i still can't park or reverse. am a truly shite driver and always will be, but needs must with hospital appointments and whatnot. but at least i can manage to stay on the road now, and my inadequacies are largely covered by the space available for me to execute my shenanigans and the lack of traffic.

actually only about 10% of the drivers i know own cars. everyone else has trucks/ suvs. dh has a vw golf diesel for his commute (with winter tyres) but the engine freezes even when we plug it in some nights when it goes below about -22, it copes until then, so he has to take the tahoe to work. and we can't fit all the kids in it. it's treated as something of a curiousity by the locals.

OLS it just goes to show size matters

Currently parked outside DD's school (my turn to do the school pick up) Witnessed a mum in her CRV trying for 2 min to park in a reasonable sized slot before giving up and parking in double sized slot 2 cars down.

Don't ask me why she didn't go for the double slot in the first place.

YANBU anyone who can't park shouldn't be allowed to stop on city streets at all. Driving ok if they insist but no attempt at parking as this causes unreasonable behaviour amongst otherwise right thinking road users