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.

@XingMing I was fit as fiddle half marathon running gym bunny before I had kids and exercised through borh pregs - they literally broke my back, knees and feet but not really sure how I could be any fitter 🤔

@Ronsters it might be and SUV without 4 wheel drive, my first Tiguan didn’t.

@Untamedtoad the visibility is brilliant you don’t realise how much easier and more reassuring it makes driving. I tried one quite by accident and was hooked!

underperformingseal the Juke is mostly a front wheel drive car, it is just dressed up to look like a 4x4.
I think there are the odd 4x4 example but they aren't the norm.

@GinDaddy irony indeed!

For the record, I don't drive an SUV now but I used to and I am now that person sitting in three lanes of traffic, unable to see past or above all the SUVs.

@pumpkinspicetime the number of driven wheels wasn't relevant to my comfort level. It's still an SUV.

I drive a large 4x4 because....

1. I dont have to bend getting in or out, I am 6ft with severe arthritis in my knees and hips.
2. The boot is ideal for my 2 large dogs to travel in. We also have 3 sports type cars. Which cripple me to get in and out of, so close to the floor. So. No, it's not an image thing for us.

Seal it really matters,
Meaning of suv

• An SUV is a powerful vehicle with four-wheel drive that can be driven over rough ground. SUV is an abbreviation for 'sport utility vehicle'. www.collinsdictionary.com › ...

Fake SUV's are going to be more uncomfortable than the genuine article.
In the same way that a front wheel drive sports car is never going to handle in the same way as a rear wheel drive one.
The engineering is what makes a car, the rest is just window dressing.
Because SUV's are popular there are plenty of fakes out there.

I used to find these cars embarrassing as an American, and imagined that foreign visitors must feel great contempt for our wastefulness to see how many people drive these ridiculous vehicles. But now I see the nonsense has spread to your shores as well! What a pity!

We have a 4x4 as a family of 3
We have a boat and caravan that need towing, we collect wood in the trailer
We like space and comfort plus it has all the safety bells and whistles
We live rurally but its the car we take to the city, its fits our shopping and dog
They safer, we higher off road, can see more which a real advantage on the highways
We like to go bush with it

I get it if you live in the sticks on a farm but otherwise no.And terrible for the planet.

Why do so many people need a 4x4 to get up a hill when it snows? I have never had an issue with a small car to get up hills even with deep snow on them. And trust me, one place I've lived in is like bloody narnia.

I don’t feel I’ve done any “mansplaining” in this thread, neither have I “railed“ against SUVs like some sort of “boring Clarkson”.

I’ve quietly tried to start a debate about the huge explosion in their usage, and the effects it can have on non SUV road users; some get bullied by people who can’t properly handle such a big car, we see it all the time at school gates etc. Others decide if you can’t beat them, join them, and end up in one themselves so they can be “high up” too.

At the end of the day it’s all personal choice and I’m not belittling personal choice. I would like however to be able to put forward my point of view after reading pages of bullet-pointed reasoning for owning one.

For example re the poster who said “For short journeys it may be a saloon, but longer journeys our execs would be in a Merc 4x4/Range Rover”... fair enough if that’s your experience but I’ve worked for FTSE 100s for over a decade and the S Class will regularly ferry senior execs on 200/300 mile journeys without issue, that’s what it’s built to do. It’s the standard airport pickup car for first class for a reason. It just isn’t true for all companies.

Also the poster who said BMWs and RWD drive don’t work in snow and tyres make little difference... again, I will be accused of all sorts but I’m saying from my direct experience that this isn’t the case. My car on winter tyres has got going, stopped, turned and braked very well on snow thanks to winter tyres, it’s real, it’s my experience, and apologies it doesn’t fit the general narrative.

Apologies if that last post seemed defensive, it’s just that I’m very keen not to come across poorly as appreciate the ability to debate things on this board.

I have two kids and drive a massive 4x4 (Mazda CX9 which I don't think is available in the UK) My reasons are two fold- firstly that my husband is very tall and with two car seats in the back he can't fit in the front of most cars, even some smaller SUVs. Secondly I bought a 7 seater as I have visitors at least 3 times a year and need to be able to transport 4/5 adults and two kids.

Maybe all those other SUV owners have their own reasons they need one, or maybe they just want one, so what? As for the parking, I will accept that I've had to repark mine many many times but I never leave it badly parked

@Ohwhatbliss

Sounds like your car perfectly fits your needs and absolutely, everyone has their reasons for owning whatever they own.

“ As for the parking, I will accept that I've had to repark mine many many times”

Respect to you for actually doing this, and it sort of proves my point that with this huge surge in wide large vehicles such as this, if people don’t take that kind of care and attention, the knock on effect for others is going to be that much greater than before the SUV craze

I totally agree with your parking point, I can imagine in some towns in the UK it causes problems. I would say here in Aus every other car is a BIG 4x4 and parking spaces are a decent size to accommodate that.

@Ohwhatbliss

I can imagine; and sounds like the perfect place to own one in terms of terrain and parking provision.

I noticed similar when I was in Texas a few years ago, the parking spaces were amazing! Our work team had a Ford Focus saloon (random but “sedans” are more popular than hatchbacks over there) and the space seemed gargantuan. Then when we picked up the Ford Expedition truck and I thought we were actually piloting a land yacht, it still fit into spaces with ease

Perhaps we are indeed a small island with narrow streets, and there comes a point where some vehicles are going to find day to day interaction with our traffic levels and parking, difficult to navigate. Not impossible but certainly more challenging in a large wide vehicle

They do appear to take up more road space, so there is an argument that larger vehicles are more inefficient for the road network too. Unfortunately it is the case that it is a personal choice though, and many don't consider the wider impact.

@GinDaddy

Maybe your BMW is one of the few that aren't rear wheel drive. But all of the ones I was looking at were, and rear wheel drive is just not what you want on snow or ice, makes it so much harder to control. Our last truck was rear wheel drive normally, but could be changed into 4x4. In rear wheel drive though, the back end of it would slide even when it rained if you weren't careful. It was handy for snow though when it was deep, but I trusted my smaller car much more than that. The only positive with the truck was I knew if I started sliding and crashed, I would definitely survive as nothing could damage that thing.

We used to have a BMW 5 series estate and it was treacherous on snow and ice

My hip is buggered meaning I struggle to get into lower down cars. My parents live down a dirt track (it's technically a footpath with right of access by vehicles for getting to the isolated properties down it) and so I need something higher up off the ground - quite a few conventional cars have issues when the track is at its worst bottoming out on it. It was the right kind of price/mileage/age when we were looking for a car to buy second hand. Also needed something that could fit a very tall DH in it comfortably as well and it fitted that bill.

Live at top of hill which is impassable it snows, have lots of heavy, cumbersome stuff to lug about for my job, have 3 kids and always have at least one if their friends with me and it's nice to be able to get 3 proper car seats across back and still have 2 more isopod seats in back.

DH has one for no reason though.

I have a ford Kuga for my family of three (DH, DS and I). I have it on PCP too.
I have it because I like it and I wanted it. Yes when I first got it, I had to get used to it and parking was a bit more difficult, but that's because I had never had to park something this big before. But the only way to learn is to practice, which I did. Fortunately my town more or less empties every evening from 7 so I went to a car park to practice reverse bay parking and driving into bays (easier for me when doing a big shop).
Yes I might not get it right every time in one go, even now, but as long as I don't damage anyone elses car or prevent anyone else from parking or park dangerously, does it matter how many tries it took me to get parked?

We have one and I love it.

Pros: I can see very well and feel safe driving it because is has much smaller blind spots than our previous estate and a great rear camera; 7 seats so fantastic for family trips; big enough for skip runs; safe in bath weather on icy roads; used for multiple house moves and borrowed by many family members; we tend to staycation so it’s perfect for rural trips; very comfortable and lovely to drive- basically my favourite vehicle!

Cons- not great for parking in tight spots; not as fuel efficient as I’d like (I’m hoping we can upgrade to the more fuel efficient version soon); getting judged by mumsnetters for driving a big car.

We are a one car family which means I probably look ridiculous driving it around town as I don’t have a little runaround.

Why do mumsnetters assume people go into debt to buy suvs? I’ve heard this on here before. We own it outright.