To not understand the obsession with SUVs/4x4s?

[GinDaddy]

I'm genuinely curious to hear people's views below. Nearly every parent I know in my area has a 4x4 car of some sort. That's dozens of folk. The car parks at our local supermarket are covered in the things.

My AIBU is to ask, what is the obsession with these things? Why are they the "default" choice for parents now, considering so many folk can't park them properly, and our roads aren't set up for them?

I watched in amused horror yesterday as a lady with a Vauxhall Grandland X (yep...me neither) tried to park head-first in a bay in our local supermarket. The width of the thing was the issue, but once "parked", the rear of the car was practically touching the front of the neighbouring vehicle.

It was just absurd. Why is this car any better than an Astra estate, or in the same price category, a Skoda Octavia estate, both of which are narrower and better on fuel, and the Skoda which has extraordinary amounts of luggage capacity and legroom?

I think the answer is simple, it's an image thing. People feel their life is more exciting with DCs if they're in something that looks like it could climb a mountain at the weekend.

Only problem is, my DW and I find public car parks absurd at the moment as I find more and more of these hideous things parked terribly at every juncture.

The beauty of living in a capitalist economy is the prerogative of choice, helped by dollops of PCP finance handed out by every car dealer, meaning anyone can get into a boxy car on stilts.

But for goodness sake can people learn how to drive and park these things if they're going to be bought by everyone? Driving down streets with parked cars on either side is a game of "my car is bigger than yours, so move over", which is just embarrassing.

NOTE: I have no issues with envy here; we have a 6-year old estate car from a well known Bavarian marque with a three letter acronym. I don't ride 2mm off people's bumpers, and it serves our family's needs well.

it’s my money that pays for it so therefore my choice; funnily enough

I'm not sure if people are going to be able to defend climate-destroying choices on the basis that it's their money so their choice, for much longer.

I've a jeep renegade, because it was the only thing I found that was as fun as my beloved mini, which I had to give up when we had DD.

On the plus side, it's seats are perfectly at bum height, the boot and roof rails combo mean a huge amount of storage and lugging capacity including when we travel back and forth from the woodyard full of goods and handles the grass verges from the single track country roads when you come face to face with a tractor beautifully.

I only wish they'd make it in a plug in...

Thing is if these great big motors hit a child they are more likely to kill than a lighter car. I saw an experiment on the telly once where a bloke in a 4X4 sitting in his car was unable to see NINE small children standing behind the vehicle. They are a danger to other road users, particularly children.

I'm with you Op. I think they are dreadful cars and bar needing one for a rural environment I'm not sure why peole have them. Most of them don't leave the city and they take up half the road and parking bays. They are also high up so the headlights beams straight into my real view mirror (yes I do know I can tilt the mirror). As our streets get narrower with parked cars and more congested with the volume of traffic, car manufactures are producing bigger and bigger cars. Seems crazy to me.

I need 7 seats
I need a vehicle capable of towing horseboxes and livestock trailers, not fannying around with a car for that.. its not safe. You need good vehicle weight and pulling power.
I live in the sticks

We’ve just bought a Freelander.

1. We live rurally on roads that are potholed to shit and get dangerously slippy come winter due to not being on the regular gritting route.
2. DH uses the car for his work on farms and other hard to access areas such as woodland. He drives up and down tiny tracks, multiple times a day.
3. We have 2 kids and a big dog and we like going places together. We travel a lot in the car and often take a 8m bell tent with us.
4. We’ve had an old Vauxhall Astra for a decade now and we’ve finally totally fucked it after 3 years of DH’s new job, new rural location and an active growing family. The tracks were the final straw though. We need something that’s going to last with our lifestyle as there’s no way we’ll be able to afford to keep replacing a car every few years.
5. We’ve paid for it outright in cash.

I know you didn’t want a ‘roll call’ but seriously, what’s the point in generalising. You’re obviously taking offence to some SUV drivers that are in the minority. This thread has pretty much proved it. I mean, I have friends that live in the leafy suburbs of Surrey and work in the City, they have an SUV and I rolled my eyes when they got it but ai wouldn’t generalise about SUVs being an image thing and bad drivers driving them.

You’re starting to sound like Jeremy Clarkson btw and he’s a tiresome twit.

I bloody live mine and it’s a downgrade from what I had before
Elevated seat position
Additional space for all the kids crap
Live rurally- better in winter
Ideal for bike racks etc
I just like it...
And hybrid too

Does that include just up to the parcel shelf though @Shmithecat2?

The berlingo is much higher at the back than many cars. I’ve not heard of the cars you’ve mentioned so don’t know what they look like, sorry.

My point being anyway that you don’t need an suv/4x4 for boot space or rural living.

@Itsfineactually

No, 775l is the capacity of the whole boot. The XL is the longer version of the Berlingo. My car is a Landrover Discovery 3. I searched high and low for another car that had the bootspace I wanted. Nothing else had it. The Volvo XC90 came close, but it wasn't pleasant to drive and cabin was just plastic crap.

No, they're not 'needed' for rural living. Not that my mercedes A class was much cop when it snowed when I did live rurally. Couldn't get to work for 3 days. Anyhow, I've said up thread, without apology, why I have a 4x4. Because I like them. That's all.

Don’t like bending down. Like being higher up on the road.

Status and credit. Any old joe can get one now. DH wanted to get one. I felt embarrassed at the idea of it.
“It might have snowed once in the area in 1977 so I need this car” bullshit reasons for things on mumsnet #2445. Always this on mumsnet, millions of posters claiming to have the most extenuating circumstances...to be living on a mountain whilst in reality probably living in Orpington

And after a member of my family got killed in a car accident with a Kuga whilst driving a little hatchback, there's no way I'm driving my son around in anything smaller tbh.

Me neither, OP. I live in the wilds of Scotland, on a private road, off a single lane road, and zoom around in a tiny tin can. Because it's small enough to squeeze around other traffic, because I can always find a tiny space to park, because I can turn on a sixpence, because the thin tires are better in snow than fat slidey tires, because it's incredibly cheap to run and fuel-efficient.

The only thing I don't like about it, is that I can't see what's coming further up the road due to the fat-arsed shiny SUV hogging the entire horizon in front of me.

We needed 7 seats, I work on construction sites, and I really really didn't want a mum-van 😁 We're also in the process of renovating a house and the ability to fit 4 reclaimed doors in the back is an added bonus.

Oh, and I can park and manoeuvre mine. I get really pissed off with school traffic shiny 4x4s which snarl up the roads as they won't go past stationary buses where there's clearly bags of room 🙄

@cacklingmags that was a long time ago. Modern SUV vehicles are designed to take into account of the dangers of the higher up bonnet area for children and other pedestrians. So now the pedestrian impact protection and crumple zones mean that the old issues with SUVs have been near enough eliminated. My CRV for example has an ncap 5 star rating overall with the passenger and children passengers sub categories being a 5 and pedestrians being a 4 it is among one of the safest cars under NCAP. The visibility in my car is much better than it was in hatchbacks I have had before it.

We have a few kids and dogs, and a few years back the whole area flooded, and one of our cars was floating in the flood water, when cars passed, took 3 hours to do a half hour journey, and I’d prefer not to be floating again.

Ooh I would love a Grandland X

I have a new Subaru Outback which is a cross between an estate and a suv.

I need it though, I could do with someone bigger and more rugged really.

The amount of people I saw with massive cars on the Chelsea or Hampstead school runs was ridiculous. A large percentage couldn't drive them for shit either.

I need a 4x4 about 3 days a year when it snows as i live on a hill. Sadly, I only have a non 4wd SUV which is fairly useless in the snow.

I prefer SUV to cars because I'm short and feel I drive better in the higher driving position. I cant stand Range Rivers as they are just too big imo. I dislike estates as they stick out too much and are hard to park considerately. I like mid size, mid range SUVs - fit all my kids, good visibility, good boot space. I would never buy a non SUV now. You sound so chippy.

We live in London but have an volvo XC90, we wanted the boot space & the option of extra seats (it has 7). I'm comfortable with the brand because my parents had the estate version growing up & I like the safety aspect.
Plus my parents aren't from England & most years we drive to the South of France & often transport furniture. We had a BMW estate before but I prefer being higher up as there are so many other cars high up. I also had a fiat 500 which I loved for zipping to the shops in.

Oh & where we go to France is very very rural & we often use dirt tracks.

They are soooo much easier for getting in and out of I had a couple of Tiguans for yonks before having kids. After having a Fiat 500 and a mini. For me the plus points are. Just really easy to get in and out of. Bloody great for garden centre DIY visits - I’ve spent most of my adult life renovating. It’s also much easier for me at ticket barriers - I’m a complete short arse and regularly had to get out of the mini!!! Now I have kids I couldn’t imagine having the wrangle them into a hatch back or something like a Fiat. They’re also really comfortable. My DM has just bought an A1 and I felt like my bones were being shaken when I went out in it!

DH has had various lovely/stupid coupes which are a nightmare, hideous to park all my SUVs have been easier, impossible to get in and out of and really terrible visibility in comparison.

I never thought I’d give up the mini once I got one but I’m a convert to the 4x4! I have a Volvo now and it’s great!

We have an SUV and I'll admit the reason I wanted one.... We needed a bigger car with the kids, but I'm short and with a long low down car, I feel like I'm going to crash it into everything. I can see the whole road so much better being slightly higher up and the "boxy-ness" of the car means it's actually alot shorter than alot of estate care, making it easier to park. Ours has a very boxy front too, so I can see exactly where the front ends, unlike in some of these estates where the front slopes down for miles.... I'd smash it into everything. I'm not winning any awards for my driving, quite obviously, but I feel safer and more in control being higher up and having a better view of the road around me, and have never had an accident. I literally feel like I'm sat in the road when I get in a normal car now, as I'm so used to sitting higher up.

I don't understand the popularity of Chelsea tractors 4x4's either; the Juke is probably the most uncomfortable car I've ever driven. But in fairness it's not just 4x4 drivers who can't park properly - I took this yesterday. SMH, I believe is the official terminology.