to take the piss out of 4x4s

[JoanBias]

Picked dd up from school today, she pointed at I think a Landrover Freelander (I'm not an expert) in the car park, and said 'why is that there?'

I said 'maybe they're a farmer'.

Said vehicle had clearly been the subject of regular waxing, leather interior, and so on and looked the shiniest vehicle in the car park, so this was obviously not the case, certainly not in this area.

DD said 'maybe they built that building there?'

'Maybe', I said.

I could say 'because some people make inappropriate and antisocial car choices'.

But taking the piss seems better?

I miss my 4x4. :(

It gripped the road like it was glued to it, you could virtually turn it round on itself because it had a minute turning circle and I could actually see out of it to park it properly.

I'm stuck with a stupid little economical city car now and I hate it

I love my Freelander! Live in the countryside, so 4x4 can become essential in bad weather conditions. No just snow but flooding too.

Mine is often covered in mud but does get washed and waxed every other week (ish) Leather interior is easy to wipe down. Fits dogs, kids and us in it. Is more economical than previous car. Has soft suspension that deals with pot holes very well.

No I'm not a farmer or a builder but you judge way! I'll just be enjoying the view from my superior driving position! [hwink]

I don't usually post on the 4x4 bashing threads but the Sanctimonious bleating from the op has really wound me up.

I drive a freelander, I live in a small hamlet and my horses are stabled about 3 miles away down a country lane, I have a dog and usually a car full of horse food, rugs, wellie boots etc, a 4x4 makes my life easier. I also keep it clean because I use it for work so if you saw me parked outside the school or at tesco it would look like it was never driven across muddy fields or dirt tracks when this is infact far from the truth.

It uses the same amount of fuel that my renault megane did, I can park and even reverse it back down the country lanes because idiotic drivers who use them for shortcuts are unable to reverse back to passing points

As far as I'm concerned I pay my road tax, drive consideratly and park legally so it has nothing to do with judgemental people what car I drive!

And for what its worth I am not middle class or loaded, I do however work bloody hard so that I can afford to drive whatever car I choose

I drive a Volvo XC90 and LOVE it (quite possibly a bit too much).

I could justify my choice, but you didn't pay for it so it's none of your business.

And please let me tell you that my CO emissions can't mask the stench of pathetic self-righteousness wafting from your posts.

WillSing - very well said:
"Why would the children in a white Audi Q7 be "bratty"? In my experience the brattiest children are those who have awful judgemental parents who make snide comments about things like people's cars in front of their children. Don't pass your own prejudices onto your children. "

What's the point in judging what car someone drives? Most people don't give a stuff, I would have thought.

I have owned Bertie an ancient Freelander for years. It has spent its life draped in dogs, bikes, guns, wellies and other oddments. It has been to Southern France and back on several occasions. It has towed people from mud and others from floods. It allows me to venture through the snow to buy my elderly neighbours Daily Mails when they would otherwise be without.

Recently we were in collision with an elderly gent who forgot how roundabouts work His car was written off while mine had a small scratch on the bumper and a tiny dent on the bonnet (we were both unharmed) Then a couple of weeks ago I hit a fuck off great sika deer on the dual carriageway. The deer bounded groggily away and I scooped my headlight off the road and trundled home. Light fixed the following day and DH and I have agreed that we will NEVER drive a small car again, as in both situations the outcome could have been so much worse in a smaller car.

So I don't care :o

I do think it's funny how people think that these cars are some sort of middle class signifier. I just mainly think they're naff and the people who drive them probably a bit naff and dim.

the type of middle class angst people feel a need to (pretend to) care about, such as my choice of vehicle, makes me regress to being about 5. I just want to poke my tongue out and take the piss out of your stuff. And if you called my called my kids bratty without knowing them (fair enough if you do) I would let rip with the insults back.

You assume people are dim because of their wheels?

I'd be happy to be thought of as naff and dim if it meant I could have my 4x4 back.

Sadly I'm stuck with my very naff sensible economical city car and feel really dim for buying it

Ooh, this thread's getting a bit tense

"people who drive them probably a bit naff and dim"

Naff is taking notice of other people's possessions and commenting on it.

I do not believe that the ops daughter was moved to point out a freelander as if an amphibious vehicle had been parked by the side of the road. Freelanders are hardly unusual.

Shurely if you drive something like this

2.bp.blogspot.com/-vTLAoOHV1Z4/Tprtuz1vWxI/AAAAAAAAAqA/-UE_6vI2pMc/s1600/1.jpg

the purpose is for other people to take notice of your possession?

It couldn't really be any less discreet.

No Chubfuddler but we don't get any 4x4s in the staff car park, so it was out of the ordinary.

I have an elderly (54 plate) freelander called Fifi, primarily so I can get to work from the arse end of nowhere to teach children like your DD throughout the winter. She has a leather interior because that's what she came with and a similar success rate against prangs and wildlife as her esteemed colleague mentioned previously.

Why does it matter to you what other people drive? And since when has making sure I can get to work in the winter and keeping my own family safe on icy twisty roads been antisocial? Get over yourself, dear.

4x4 threads always get tense :(

People like the OP usually blame the car and not the driver for bad parking etc. However this time the OP (and her daughter) have judged someone on the basis of a car parked in a car park! Absolutely ridiculous tbh

I'm sure that I could find things about you that I consider naff and dim, nit, if I could be at all bothered. . .

Oi a little empathy please OP.
Farmers, people with disabilities etc aside, those who use mahhosive great tanks to drive round towns are usually such crap, nervous drivers they need something where they can scrape gate posts, bounce off kerbs and maybe the odd pedestrian without even noticing

How about this then OP?

the purpose is for other people to take notice of your possession?

It couldn't really be any less discreet.

It's a micra

I don't like massive cars either, not unless they're necessarily that big because the driver is disabled/lives somewhere inaccessible by other means, etc etc

I do find them antisocial,
it's very hard to park next to them as they are usually very wide, and high

and visibility for 'normal', small cars is markedly reduced when they are nearby. It's a question quite often of everyone wanting to be high enough, and safe enough, and cars get higher and higher because 'normal' size cars just aren't safe enough, or can't see anything, any more.

Which I think is sad, as smaller cars tend to be more fuel efficient, more socially attuned and generally take up less space.

But once someone has a giant ar everyone else wants or needs one too. And everyone feels entitled to do it, because we have a free economy and people can buy whatever they like and with high demand, the prices come down.

I know what the OP is getting at. I don't judge too much as people often need a certain type of vehicle and I don't know their circumstances. But a lot of people just seem to buy one because it's fashionable, or they couldn't see anything from their smaller car, so wanted to be as high as everyone else. Or they just like the look of them.

I think it would be great if people thought more broadly about what is good for the world, before going for this type of vehicle - unless as I said, they have a really good reason for needing one.

Oh and often people cannot drive them properly - or park them. There was woman for instance at our pre school who drove one and regularly abandoned it across three spaces, because she just could not negotiate the car park in it. It's just so crap for everyone else when people do that.

Friends of our have a freelander and like us live in the middle of a town. However unlike us, they have jobs where they absolutely have to be on shift at their place of work regardless of the snow which has left us unable to use the cars the last 3 winters.

I drove my freelander from London to Holland and back recently, it cost me just under £110 in diesel to do almost 800 miles.. hardly a gas guzzler!