AIBU to think that people should only be allowed a 4x4 if they actually need one?

[boomting]

They are ridiculously fuel inefficient, and given the finite supplies of oil and the effects on climate change (and no this isn't a climate change thread!), I think that the government should only allow you to own a 4x4 if you have a demonstrable reason for needing one. You would have to submit a form and be issued with a special licence to own one. Reasons could include being a farmer, or having to tow heavy trailers that cannot legally be towed with a smaller vehicle. This isn't an exhaustive list of acceptable reasons, but people who only use them for the school run and going to the supermarket shop should not be allowed to use them.

AIBU?

This is one of the top threads for annoyance. But I am drawn to them like moths to a flame. Not been a thread for ages tallking about reserving seats in a cafe before you sit down. That seems to get everyone going!

And men over 60 wearing pastel sweaters shouldn't drive jaguars or any other massive long saloon car.

Oh aye, and my aunt is a farmer and manages to get 2 dogs and her 2 kids in a Peugeot 107. She hates driving the Landy

Threads like these also bring out all the usual cliches about driving Chelsea tractors.

I live rurally, there are so many 4X4s driven by so many different people in all sizes, conditions, age etc, slapping on a crude cliche is just a bit lazy.

Simplesusan not polish, giant 5 foot+ sprays of flowers to go on coffins

which planet are u on

To be fair, You have to pass a test to drive a van. What the OP is proposing is not much different from that.

You could apply to 'we should have choice' argument to anything.

Personally, I don't give a hoot what you drive, As long as you can actually drive it decently, whether it's a mini cooper or a hummer.

People should be allowed to chose themselves. I don't want to live a society where the Government get to chose what car I drive.

Where would it stop?

Sports car - only if live on a speedway/race circuit
Van - only if job required it
MPV - only if you have 4 or more children

In fact maybe everyone should only be allowed just one brand of car, issued by the Government, in regulation colour, with only the number of seats required by your family. Oh, and of course - only 1 car per family.

Also, If you're a cunt in a 4 x 4, You're going to be a cunt in a bog standard 5 door 1.4 jobby. Ban cunts from the road. Not 4 x 4s.

Also - still a bit confused if you mean all 4WD cars. DH's car is 4WD - but it is a Golf. It is entirely fuel inefficient tbh - but it is only normal car size.

MPVs are no different to me - still huge monsters of cars, normally drived by people who haven't got a clue how to drive a big car or know how long or wide the thing is.

Mind the car that was causing most misery to me n the school run this morning was the banged up old salon car that was parked half on and off the pavement, and nose into the road - road was icy, it was snowing, was just holding up everyone on the path and the road.

So maybe just ban poor drivers, poor parkers and anyone who doesn't know their own car regardless of make/size/etc.

Golfs should definitely be banned from the road and anyone who thinks they are nice dragged to the nearest opticians for an eye test

If Ken and now Boris can charge us an extra £10 for driving in Central London, I don't see why people who drive uneccessarily wide vehicles through small residential roads of S London shouldn't pay a Congestion Charge for blocking the road. It's a nightmare waiting for 2 Range Rovers to manouvre past each other in a victorian side street, especially when both are crap at reversing and manouvering.

You just don't need something built for crossing the desert in order to negotiate Dog Kennel Hill and pop to Sainsbury's.

"Of course they polarise opinion - they are a symbol of excess to those who can't afford them"

I could afford on if I really wanted one. But in an urban environment, when many trips are done on residential roads, and when I pay for the council to grit and salt those roads, it would be a sheer waste of money to get one. The running, servicing, insuring, repairing , taxing costs are high. They don't even have any extra luggage space, half the time. IMO they are a symbol of excess in a town because the expense and size and performance is way beyond the function required of them. Aesthetically many look very crass, I hate the white RRs, the new RR, they just say 'brash excess'.

I don't really think people should be restricted in driving them, but drivers of big wide 4x4s should realise that they do actually have an impact on other drivers in terms of parking spaces and causing jams in narrow roads.

It's that elusive trait we refer to as 'common sense' again. As in, a good percentage of people are incapable of gaining a clue and using common sense to decide what vehicle suits them and their driving ability best.

Nothing good can ever come of these anti 4X4 threads.

I covet a brilliant white Evoque Carling

Well at least all the 'I neeeeeed my sparkling black range rover with personalised number plate and plush leather seating, as I live on a hill and we get snowed in' brigade have got proper use out of their cars today and maybe even tomorrow!

Why do people keep persisting in equating 4x4s with gigantic cars? They are not the same thing.

I love the Hard Knott pass.

It's a Hard Knott Life.

I think that the government should only allow people with more then 2 brain cells to post on forums.

I have a lovely 4X4, there is only DH and myself. Oh and 2 lovely pups. I love driving it, it is so comfortable! We were actually thinking of getting one each!

At 4L petrol engine, it is not cheap to run. But very comfortable on a long drive.

Fwiw, I can't summon the muster to get huffy, or even think much about other people's cars. I find it slightly odd that other people do.

In an ideal world, people would only drive cars that they have the spatial awareness to manoeuvre and park. This would disqualify some Nissan Micra drivers and my mother entirely

FWIW I drive a Smart, but it's a 2nd car. Bad ice / high winds and I'm working from home. Now that you can get a properly sized car with decent fuel consumption I wouldn't buy another.

Can't understand why people can't park Landies though. The visibility is fantastic, especially if you're shorter (as compared to the average family saloon). Have already decided my next car will be a 4x4

Landies have a dreadful turning circle though

But I have a Landy (7 seats i have 5 dcs) and a Range Rover (with unfeasibly large petrol engine....) and I am the fucking QUEEN OF CLEVER PARKING!

Can you imagine the drabness of a world in which one could only drive a car fit for purpose. How utterly dull.

I don't care what kind of car others wish to drive & spend their money on- so long as they are capable of parking/manovering them competently.
It makes me laugh watching a 4x4 driver who has no concept of width when driving in traffic, causing delays as they gingerly move forward. Then trying to park in the supermarket, painful to watch.

Honestly, if you want to drive a big car around, fine, but at least to drive it and park it properly!