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.

The boot is smallish, but I’m managing so far 😆

Ha good
In our recent research DH was pretty adamant that he wanted a bigger boot but I can see that it's probably fine!

My thoughts are - if I need more space for such things as a family holiday I can always rent a roofbox for the week.
Day to day it works well.

We drove to France earlier in the year and packed so light we managed without a roofbox.
Not a lot of wine room on the way home though

Yes I tried the roof box argument and lost it sadly!

Yeah well you'd hardly expect any eco friendliness from someone that's had five kids.

Oh dear... here goes

This is ridiculously geeky but if anyone is interested in researching/comparing car dimensions and boot sizes, I've just found this excellent* website
www.automobiledimension.com/
(*excellent in a geeky way)

This thread is mumsnet at its most ridiculous. Of course most people don’t ‘need’ a SUV and the justifications are ludicrous. We all need to think about emissions, manufacture and the planet. Yes ALL of us, or our children, and their children, are totally fucked.

I have a 4x4. Live in the country, it's great in the snow and is a hybrid so cheap on company car tax. Bags of room, great for kids and carting all the stuff around that we seen to do.
Aside from that I'd love a two seater sports car (like I used to have) but the 4x4 is so practical

It seems a few people prone to a nasty turn of phrase have climbed aboard the eco wagon.

If you want to make friends and/or influence people you might like to take a long hard look at the tone and content of your posts.

AnotherEmma But if you mention number of kids and cars you also have to mention houses bigger than requirement, air travel for pleasure not necessity, cheap clothes...the list goes on. People can’t just slam the areas they are ‘eco’ in but forget the others where they are not! I have an X3, (oh the shame 🙄) not huge but suits me and my family needs. We have one car as DH rides to work and we haven’t flown for 5 years. And OP, the cars you have as options are still bigger and higher than a hatchback or saloon and probably wider than mine.

Well this thread was originally about cars so I'm not particularly interested in covering every other possible topic. Cars use fuel and create emissions. I suppose houses also use energy so if you want to discuss that perhaps you could start a new thread.

I wonder what the impact of air travel is compared to the impact of car use... those of us who are interested in making more environmentally choices will do what we can and what we feel is achievable, whether that's buying a more "eco" car, reducing our car use, plane travel etc.

It's a rather convenient way to try and shut down debate, though, isn't it - to claim that if you're not addressing everything at once you have no right to address a single issue.

environmentally friendly choices

I have fairly strong views on people who "hog" large houses they don't need. There was a couple on Location Location Location the other week who didn't appear to have any plans for children and didn't mention needing space for family and friends to visit but for some reason "needed" four bedrooms. I would have thought that even if you both worked at home and needed an office each a 3 bedder would be fine with a sofa-bed in each office for visitors. But anyway. It's another, more extreme, example, of "I can afford a status symbol so I don't care about the impact on other people".

I have flown twice this year. For one of the trips I could have conceivably used Eurostar and if I do the trip again I might do. For the other trip the alternative would have been ferry and I am not massively certain it is so much less polluting. Of course the alternative would be not to go at all.

Yes, the post was about cars and you raised the ‘child’ issue. I was just saying how we all (not just you specifically actually, but I’m not fussed about your tetchy reply) need to take into consideration things we don’t actually know about people but automatically make an assumption. And actually, I agree that some cars are way too big for the needs of people in the same way that the op above has given an example of a house that was too big for someone’s needs. However, my car any many others are not tractors, just several centimetres higher from the ground which is not huge and I personally don’t do many miles. Less than 10000 in two years actually. But I do have school runs and work and a disabled stepdad to ferry about, amongst other things, so I don’t feel guilty at all. Also, I know when I upgrade my car I will be looking at the hybrid version

I can only talk about why I chose mine.

After our hatchback died and family expanded we wanted something with a larger and more flexible boot. We were choosing between an estate and a smaller-model 4x4 (Volvo xc60, Mazda, Kia style).

I was leaning towards an estate but then found the 4x4 was the same width and emissions as the equivalent estate and comparable boot space but was 15-20cm shorter. We have on street parking which is at an absolute premium on our street. A shorter car is both easier to get into smaller spaces and more considerate to our neighbours by making it marginally easier for them to park too.

A totally unanticipated bonus was how much easier on a dodgy back it was getting kids in and out of car seats.

Of course a Nissan Micra would have been better on that count, but we do make purchases based on our wider needs and likes.

The eco issue can't be discussed without reference to the broader picture.

Otherwise you would convey the impression that 4x4s (or dryers, or whatever) are the sole cause of global warming.

In the case of larger vehicles the comparison to buses might be useful - more people can be transported for the same output of pollutants. But buses too have an environmental toll, even if hybrid or clean fuel. Raw material extraction and manufacturing processes have an impact.

To say vehicles of a certain type or size cause less damage is irrelevant. All damage is damage. We are all contributing to it. The only valid comparison is to walking, cycling, or taking a horse and cart everywhere.

Even if you claim electric vehicles are eco friendly that is only true if the electricity comes exclusively from a nuclear power station or a renewable resource, and even then we are talking about environmental dislocation and in the case of nuclear power, the potential for devastation due to accidents and problems associated with transportation and storage of spent fuel.

So we don’t care about the emissions, no?

didnt even enter our minds when car shopping earlier this year. What can it tow, whats included feature wise and comfort were our considerations

4x4s are disastrous environmentally, and you should all care way more than you do about the air your kids are breathing. Wake up!

dramatic much? take a chill pill

"Didn't even enter our minds"

Well that answers that question! 🤦🏻‍♀️

I'm horrified that emissions wouldn't even enter someone's head when buying a new vehicle. Even if you weigh it all up and go for a high emissions vehicle anyway, how can it not even enter your head as a fleeting thought?

We're all being pushed to consider our environmental impact more. I can't do a long journey in my car without the environmental impact occurring to me at least once.

I’m interested in 0-60 speed mostly. It offsets the environmental benefit of over 30 years of vegetarianism.

It's just not rational or efficient to take 2 tons of metal with you everywhere you go

Our roads are shared spaces part of the infrastructure which we pay for collectively, we should be looking at ways to use this infrastructure rationally and efficiently not all trying to one-up each other with who can have the biggest fastest vehicle
it's an arms race which will end up with everyone driving a tank

3 kids 2 dogs live 5 miles off of a b road in Scotland where snow is 3ft sometimes, ttc also.
Also if I can drive it, pay/paid for it then what's the problem

'I want it and I can afford, it stuff everyone else'