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.

We use ours for towing. But my estate car is longer than a Range Rover and hangs out of spaces!

Also, a top of the range 4x4 is lovely to drive, great position on the road to see everything.

Generally I agree with you, and definitely in relation to the bigger SUVs- nobody NEEDS one. But we just had a Grandlander as a hire car on holiday, and we liked it. It isn’t the kind of car I’d choose (couldn’t be more different from my MX5) but the ruggedness was ideal for bumping around some of the rough tracks we needed to take it down. And it wasn’t any bigger than a standard family car, just a bit higher up.

Trewser :o I'm a shit hot reverse parker and can get into tiny spaces. A university friend taught me many years ago. My favourite is when there are people watching and obviously thinking I can't do it, usually men. I give them a big grin and carry on as they wait for me to fuck up. I've had rounds of applause in the past :o

I can reverse park! Really well! I am SHITE at parallel parking.

The only 4x4 drivers I have an issue with are the ones who go front first into parking bays. Learn to drive!!!

I am shit not great at parallel parking and i only have a medium size car. I have no problems with marked out bays in carparks either driving or reversing (altho prefer to reverse into a space and drive out) I used to worry about the parking gestapo in my town reporting every minor driving misdemeanor onto the local fb page now i have to worry that half of mn are spying laughing at me when i parallel park!
For people who enjoy watching folk in small cars trying to park, what are you other hobbies??

We have a 4x4 to pull our caravan. DH drives it, but I’m perfectly content in my VW UP! on a daily basis.

@WTFdidwedo

DH and I have about 8 cars between us. Never been on Cribs 😭

@MrsBethel
The only 4x4 drivers I have an issue with are the ones who go front first into parking bays. Learn to drive!!!

Eh? How else should I park when I need to access the boot?

If you want to brush up your parking skills whatever the size of your car the Institute of Advanced Motorists course is great. I did my advanced test many years ago but the simple explanation of how to parallel park makes it very easy. Reverse parking should not be a problem if you use your mirrors properly but they will show you that too.

The only 4x4 drivers I have an issue with are the ones who go front first into parking bays. Learn to drive!!!

Surely that applies equally to all drivers though.

Shmithecat2 what on earth do you do with 8 cars!?

I have three little kids and car seats are a nightmare now. There is basically hardly any choice if I want at least one of them rear facing.

I have a ford s max. I don't know if that comes under your category OP. Looking at q7 or Volvo XC90 next. They probably do. Why? Dh is obsessed with nice cars and a bit of a badge s
Lover . He generally prefers German. It isn't as much my thing but I respect his love for them. He likes cars, spent his teens doing them up, likes car shows etc and now we can afford it he wants a nice car. So sue him.

There is a lot of reverse snobbery aimed at people who buy these cars on here. It's often bought by new money types. I guess we are new money. Both come form working class/lower middle class backgrounds. No family money to speak of. We earn all our own money. If we want to buy a nice big car we will.

Oh and I am terrible at parking so I will prob get more derision for Mumsnet. I try to park far away from things to hide my rubbishness.

I live in a city and have one. I love the visibility the height gives. When i’m in a non-SUV I feel I can’t see the road properly and that my bum is about to get gravel rash.

Then there’s the getting in and out. Much easier as I elevate and get my bum on the seat then turn the rest of me in. I can’t do the bending down movement required to ‘fall’ into the seat of a low car (that’s what it feels like), then I have to hoist myself out rather than just swinging legs down and plopping on the ground as I can with an SUV.

Next is cargo space. Lots. I often carry sports kit for a whole team of adults. I need the larger cargo space.

Finally, it seems safer if you are in a crash with another non-SUV/4WD, obviously you are going to come out of it better. Also puts you on an evil playing field if you have a crash with another SUV. I’ve brought my kids up driving them so that’s what they are used to.

Couldn’t give a toss what people think of me driving it around the city.

@WTFdidwedo

I have 2 - my LR, and an old Saab Convertible. The Saab isn't massively family orientated, so that's in storage until I can enjoy it properly. DH is car mad, mainly uncommon classics. He just likes to have them restored and own them. The odd track day, weekend drive etc.

Hmm maybe I meant parallel parking - reverse parallel parking.

2. We live in a valley (very steep) I couldn’t afford a car with 4wd at the time and this has a large wheel size so I don’t need it

That's hilarious - what do think 4wd actually does?

1. It’s classed as the most reliable used car behind a Yaris (it’s now 11 years old and other than its MOT I’ve never paid another penny for it, it’s never had an issue and my mechanic says even now it’s fine)

Eh? Not a penny in Servicing, Tyres, Brake pads/discs, bulbs? Amazing.

I find it a bit strange that BMW, a Northern European company who sell their cars in places where the weather gets rather more extreme than it does in southern England where there is this outbreak of huge cars, should be said to design vehicles which cannot cope in cold conditions.

Perhaps the fact that winter tyres are mandatory for all cars in Germany once the bad weather and snow have set in for the winter may have something to do with it?
www.uniroyal-tyres.com/car/tyre-guide/winter-care/winter-tyres-mandatory

In the matter of parking, I have never come out of a supermarket with my shopping and found that I couldn't get into my Mini because an estate car had parked beside me, even one that had parked over the line into "my" bay; generally I can wriggle in ok. During the past ten days, I have three times (at Tesco, at Lidl and at John Lewis) come out to find a large topple-wagon parked with complete disregard for the car next to it, and been unable to get into the driver's side of my car at all. Since it was their passenger side which was crammed up against my car in each case, I assume that the driver simply couldn't really see what he or she was doing: I don't think they would have done it on purpose. And since I was unable to get into my car to drive away (comes of being tall, old, unlimber, and unable to wriggle across from the passenger side), I was still there, and mentioned it to them, when they came out -- particularly the one with three foot to spare on the driver's side even with the door open, but about three inches on the passenger side! God bless all you big-car drivers who have learned how to park, the way I have learned for when I am driving the large estate car my husband has for his work and which easily fits into a supermarket parking bay.

Something which hasn't been mentioned in all the talk about the potholes: yes, people buy a big, heavy car because those deal better with the appalling British road surfaces (though the bushes on a big car cost more to replace when the roads have inevitably destroyed them). But I would have thought that big, heavy cars bought to deal with the broken-up road surfaces would do more than lighter cars to break up already-broken road-surfaces on all minor roads not designed for heavy lorry traffic, and contribute in very large part to the problem, anywhere except major roads where it's mostly the lorries that do the damage. Is that not the case?

I don't hate people who drive huge cars: that's up to them, and if they find the conveniences outweigh the drawbacks all power to them. (Do it while you can, because they won't be around forever any more than anything else.) I do very much dislike people driving any sort of car who think they bought the road when they bought the car, and behave accordingly -- and that seems to be a lot more common in the drivers of large vehicles than it is among the drivers of cars which don't have looking down on others as a built-in feature. Only it doesn't seem to be anything like as frequent in the drivers of vans and lorries, who also look down at all the rest of us, and I don't understand why that should be.

skinny when I can’t go anywhere because someone is blocking the way with a public display of their shit driving, there’s very little to do but watch. And being amused is more polite than getting out and suggesting they either learn to drive, or park somewhere secluded so they aren’t holding everyone else up while they fuck about.

Once the car in front of me was indicating for a space someone was struggling to get a Yaris out of in a busy car park. I spotted someone else returning elsewhere, waited, parked and went in the shop and was on my way back and the same yaris was still trying to figure out how to get out and drive away. Despite the gap they were reversing out into being big enough to 3 point turn a big estate car in. You either laugh or cry about the fact someone with so little skill is allowed to drive a heavy and deadly pile of metal around the roads.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

Its just because the majority are rear wheel drive. You can drive them, but they are more difficult and snow tyres are essential. You'd just have to drive more carefully, don't be so heavy on the accelerator or brakes etc. I mean you should be driving like that in snow regardless, but a slight twitch too much will send a rear wheel drive car spinning quicker than front wheel. I wouldn't have one because they aren't as safe, and I don't feel like fighting with the car. Prefer to be a bit more relaxed, especially on snow.

www.google.com/amp/s/content.autotrader.com/content/autotrader/ampArticle./car-news/why-doesnt-rear-wheel-drive-work-in-the-snow-228499

Hopping pavlova

Good that you don’t mind what people think but you do know that none of those are good ‘reasons’ right.

I mean wanting to be high and fairing better in a crash with an SUV are only issues because so many people drive them now when they really have no need to

@merrygoround51 what's need got to do with it?

@berlinbabylon
I loved my old style Yaris for comfort, driving position, reliability - it was a fab car (and still is, I sold it to my neighbours) even though it had a rep as an old ladies car but there came a point when it didn't fit the kids, buggies, bikes etc - tried out the next sized Toyota and it was just rubbish, ended up with a golf instead.

4x4 is our big car for family trips, going off road, towing, taking more people etc
Finding one that I could drive as easily as the Yaris was the tricky bit and knocked so many off our list of choices.

I'd never before heard the argument that smaller cars hurt your back. Luckily I'd already found a cheaper fix, free yoga videos on YouTube.

I don’t think smaller cars hurt your back. But I find less luxury vehicles certainly aren’t as comfortable on a long journey.
So I can understand why someone with a back problem anyway might find something like a corsa makes them sore, but a 4wd doesn’t because smaller cars are rarely luxurious and 4wd mostly are