To think that 90% of Range Rover owners

[Dinosauratemypudding]

Don't need such a big fucking car and should buy something else amd stop taking up most of the fucking road.

OP I felt like some of you do about the pointlessness of SUV's in town, but then I bought one and I really enjoy the space and the height.

I saw an article that said they're arguably safer because of all the parking sensors and clear video monitors when reversing. I know when I park I'm usually miles off the closest car but my alarms have been screeching at me to keep my distance!

Rather than intimidate people with ™ large vehicle I have become more considerate and cautious because I drive it differently. Hard to say if it's because I recognise it's a heavy beast or whether it's because it just lends I tales to be driven differently, or maybe I'm just old now. Oh, and, although I am naturally blonde, I'm slim rather than fat, and only wear sunnies when it's sunny!

"nouveau" = vulgar and lacking in taste

Is "nouveau" the new way of saying "chavvy" or something?

I think it is. Someone was using it the other day and I pointed out that DH and I would definitely fall into that category (ie as per the old fashioned definition, people who hadn't inherited money). I was told that I didn't count as I was very cultured!!

Exactly Natalie unless you are fucking landed gentry you are fucking nouveau. To think otherwise is to be totally kidding yourself.

Nouveau my arse.

To be honest I kind of like the range rovers

We live in quite a posh area and the school is swarming with them - but I think they are the best of the 4x4 if j had the cash - personally the ones I really don't like are the Porsche 4x4s of which there are several during our school run - especially the white ones with personalised plates - I have an irrational dislike to them

Unless you have inherited money ( and I can't see why that is seen as superior) most people with a bit of cash are nouveau riche.

My husband and I have been incredibly lucky but we have had to work for everything we have and have spent most of our lives battling from the outside against some of the sneery attitudes in this thread.

I am not ashamed that we have been fortunate and will never take for granted anything we have. I still have to pinch myself that somebody like me can have nice things. I am sorry but if you feel the need to sneer at the car I drive or the house I live in that says more about you than me.

I think the word nouveau says more about the person using it than its intended recipient.

I've got a Freelander. I covet a Discovery. Pretty similar to the Freelander but with a much bigger boot. My boot is tiny. My lab can just about turn round and we're probably going to have another lab from the breeder. They'll never both fit in the Freelander. Unless you're obviously fabulously wealthy and used to luxury then a RR is just a bit try hard.

My dh drives a Berlingo. He loves it. He bought it so he could cart all his fishing gear around in it, it's enormous. I think it's ugly and drives like a rattley old van. Which it is, essentially.

*Nothing wrong with private education. Nothing wrong with 4x4s either.

I know. We're guilty of both.

I just loved the way things went. Two MN pet hates in one thread. It was a double whammy of laughs.

This thread isn't even funny any more: it's just plain nasty and quite pathetic

I wouldn't take it so seriously.

I generally find with these threads that if you read the posts with a bit of humor, then try to reply in kind, you can turn things around and be thankful everyone on the thread is someone else's friend.

I would love one. I would love any 4x4 really. I hate trying to drive up the hill to our house in the snow and I grew up, in New England so am well used to snow driving. grin

I want one for the dog and all the muddy tracks I drive along taking him out for walks or to doggy daycare or to go hillwalking. I want one for the snow so I don't have to worry about getting DC to their school bus.

I am amazed at how many I see around here. There are a few at DC's school (private), but I see a far higher proportion just driving about town.

I would like a RR, purely because of the height. Also you're secure in the knowledge that you can take it anywhere, pull anything and fill it with six foot drunks. Failing that, a crewcab Barbarian with a wading pack.

Whatever you are driving, if you are being inconsiderate, others are going to have trouble. It is not the brand of car you are in, it is you common sense most of the times really.

nouveau" = vulgar and lacking in taste

Sounds like a Berlingo

I just had a look online at a Berlingo. I dont understand why people are taking the Mickey.

I am obviously joking hence the grin. I don't judge people by the car they drive.

RR drivers and their cars have been called many things on this thread but it's actually those people who are acting like they are the people they despise. Us RR drivers really don't give a shiny shit what other people drive. Maybe the 'other' car owners should do the same. Everyone should mind their own business

waits for an alleged incident with a RR destroying the Big Ben and killing 7263 children in the process

Is this thread serious or a joke? I cannot believe some people are actually bothered by the vehicles other people choose to drive. it just seems, well quite nasty and judgy and either sour grapes or stealth boast ('we could afford one but we would never buy one').

Honestly, get a hobby or a job or volunteer or do something that occupies your mind more gainfully than bitching about others. It's someone else's car FFS!

I am obviously joking hence the grin. I don't judge people by the car they drive

Ah ok. There had been quite a few posts where the were mentioned and I wondered why.

Re RR Drivers not really being interested in the cars other people drive - thats very true but we dont half seem to bother others.

I used to work for Land Rover and got to drive all models/range. Bloody great fun, especially off road driving. Would love a RR . Or a Defender.

You could complain about size of any 4x4. The X5 is rubbish off road but loads of them about. And those big volvo things. Why pick out the RR?

I'm late to this but I did snort at "prestigious"

Why pick out the RR

Probably because it is most well known and established of the flash, lifestyle orientated 4x4s. I suspect people mean 'a range rover type vehicle' much as people would use Coke as a generic term for fizzy colas or Hoover for a vacuum cleaner regardless of who manufactures it.

Well I took my fake 4x4 to the supermarket this morning. Reverse parked, smashing bit of parking. And was parked in by a woman in a volvo estate.

I almost drew a diagram for this post my incredulity was so great.

I had a minor case of road rage recently involving a RR! I was coming up the hill, the road has cars parked on one side so two cards can't meet. I was half way up when this RR started driving even as she must have seen me and she was going down hill and had the cars parked on her side. It was a typical case of my car is bigger than yours, move over. I didn't and we had a short stand off before she reversed up and got a very dirty look from me

'But we need the 4x4 for.... (insert spurious reason insinuating living in the UK is akin to living in the arctic or the school run is circa 80's Beiruit)'.

Cry me a river, the most 'off road' usage I see from the 4x4's near me is when they have to park on the grass at Blenheim palace for battle of the proms or the latest artisan 'cheese' fayre, I can almost sense the relief from Cressida and Flynn they were able to traverse the hellish flat grassland of the overflow carpark unlike those poor Golf and Leon drivers. I know farmers have a genuine need but i don't buy it that most people get them for 'survival or safety etc'. They're bought as a status symbol, something to show off to their mates (sorry..."chaps"). Otherwise these people would buy proper 4x4's, not fashion accessories like the Evoque.

There's nothing inheriently wrong with a 4x4, but their image has been ruined by the ringpeice behind the wheel and the general wanky behaviour that goes with that type of 'lifestyle' driven purchaser (don't worry Audi driver's especially Q3-Q7's drivers, you're in this bracket too, don't want you to feel left out).

What I will say though is if a car is right up my arse to the point I'm thinking they want a reach around it's gonna be an Audi or RR.

If a car is impatiently sat behind me (ie up my arse) on the M-way at 80 mph and goes for the undertake, it's 9/10 a RR or Audi.

If a car is parked over two spaces, and even more cunitshly reversed parked across both spaces (to ramp up the middle finger attitude naturally), 9/10 it's a RR.

If a car is queue jumping when everyone's trying to exit the same overflow car park (When said battle of proms has ended), it's a RR.

I don't see many blokes driving them near me anymore, they tend to be 30-50 something women on the school/shopping run and invariably comform to the stereotypes, either housewifes or recuritment consultants etc, bleached hair and shades optional.

As for Qashqai's all of the above apply, except people aren't fooled, they know you wish you had the dollar to buy a 'real' 4x4 but you want in the club no matter what it takes ;-)

Disclamier - All opinions subject to change and often will do with no sound factual basis and a good old dose of snobbery. Opinions created after years of observation and putting up with general cuntery.

We could afford one, but they're just too Footballers' Wives for me. Plus having been on a RR driving course, putting one properly through its paces it would seem tragic just pootling to Sainsbury's in it.