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.

Are we all talking about the same kind of cars here? There is a big difference between a big Range Rover and e.g. a Hyundai Ix35 (or similar SUV type). I parked next to a range Rover sport yesterday and it made my car (Kia Sportage) look tiny so I don’t think it’s fair so referring to 4x4s and SUVs as though they are all the same is really misleading.

@GinDaddy The parking you describe is sheer arseholery! I hate people like this.

Actually I’m lying, it’s not the only reason. It also has two extra seats in the boot for when we ferry other people’s children around (happens a lot, as a SAHM I’m often asked for childcare ‘help’ here and there), and with the seats down it has a massive boot for then we have our three children/the pram/bikes/scooters/the dog with us.
Most of the people I know with similar cars have them for similar reasons. A lot of people I know (us included) would prefer a smaller, cheaper car but it’s not practical currently.

@AnotherEmma sorry, I was talking about driving everywhere (obviously many cars are fine for motorways sports cars, saloons with big engines etc wouldn’t necessarily be ok on full on dilapidated country roads). True about the boot space. Some small cars have a good amount of boot space (not a much as an suv but enpughfor a buggy or a couple of big suitcases etc). I just know that some people choose the really big suvs over other big cars for that reason.

I agree with you, OP, that diesel cars should be taxed more heavily than petrol, given the emissions and environmental impact. Why do we even have diesel cars anyway?! Hopefully the rise of electric/hybrid cars might mean than diesel is gradually phased out.

Electric cars are great but I think you sometimes get a false sense of security with a hybrid - a large hybrid car will still use more petrol and have higher emission than a small hybrid (or even petrol) car. NB I'm talking about self-charging hybrids, as the new plug-in hybrids obviously use more electric power and less petrol.

It's the same wherever I go, so maybe you're somewhere particularly advanced in that case.

Brighton - we are very advanced here

@Swellerellamoo

The 3008 is a good deal at the moment because it's not a very good car. It's not an SUV, it's just a fat slow hatchback like all crossovers.

It's 2wd and the version that seems to have the best PCP deals is a woefully underpowered 1.2l engine

BIL and SIL each have one. drive about 20 miles per day inner city, pay £300 per month each for them. 2 kids, no dogs or equipment (if you exclude a briefcase). apparently they absolutely need them and couldn’t live without ...

@Barbarara you can do it in full size Range Rover.

@DameFanny

Amen to your last sentence especially!

If I question something I don't do or own, does that automatically make me "envious"?!

I think we need to move beyond this specious argument on here at some point, otherwise we'll never debate anything.

I drive a large 4x4 because I need it to tow, drive off road and generally put up with a hard country life. I had a "normal" car which did not cope with my life (I didn't try and tow with it)

DH now has a hybrid SUV. He used to have an estate but it didn't have a large and tall enough boot for our 2 large dogs and we didn't want to have to drive my gas guzzler all over the country to visit family or go on holidays

I hate driving my car in town or trying to park it in a supermarket. It's too big and doesn't handle well in tight spaces! It's like a barge! It wasn't built for that job. Thank goodness for reverse parking sensors! I always try and take DH which is much easier and nicer to handle.

We needed a car that we could fit 3 car seats across the back, so moved from a Mercedes saloon to SUV. I like the higher up driving position and it may sound harsh but with three children in the car, if I unfortunately have a crash, I wanted to have as much protection as possible. I just feel safer in a bigger car.

Our car was a few years old when we bought it and it made sense at the time to buy cash.

We've had the car for a few years and it's served us well so far.

Many people her have SUV's. Many people here take up the entire road and seem not to understand or care about the width of the vehicle. If you do buy an SUV, please ensure it is not because you want to mow down and bully smaller vehicles, as a status symbol the suck very much and look lumpen and uncool.
If you want one because you have lumpy bumpy or icy roads or are a farmer fine.

@bluebeck

Hmm -

You have incredibly restricted parking permit allocations in a zone system, which helps actively discourage 4x4s.

You have a largely liberal population which tends to eschew things that might be considered anti-environment.

You're a big city so many people may tend to feel they don't need a car, or instead have a city appropriate car.

@Blueoasis what size is your engine though? Under 2L and you’ll be relying on other people to move out of your way when coming on etc. I do a lot of motorway driving, I’ve driven little cars myself. Less than 200 hp (usually around 2L) is just selfish.

Re snow they don’t clear it where we are so it would be above your car line in a lot of those cars. Very stupid risk to take.

YAdefinitelyNBU. I live in the suburbs and there is an extraordinary number of these around, far more than can conceivably be genuinely needed. It's really difficult to drive on some roads near local schools at dropping off and collection times because they're narrowed by all these cars parked along them, usually badly and with no effort to pull wing mirrors in.

What irritates me most is the number of people who have them who don't seem at all confident about driving them. If I'm ever held up in a supermarket car park, it's almost inevitably because of someone in a big 4x4 making a massive meal of getting into or out of a parking space. If you're not comfortable with the things, why have them?

@BogglesGoggles I have literally never seen anyone keeping a suitcase in the boot of their care just in case. I disagree with your point though as urban dwellers would probably be more worried about these things getting stolen from the boot (said as an urban dweller).

My specific example is our neighbour who drives a MASSIVE Audi Q7. 2 kids, no pets, no house space issues so golf clubs and suitcases can go in there and very limited on street parking. I just can’t understand why you’d bother, finding a space for a big car around here is a pain. I know is a status symbol in this case.

I like being up higher.

I must add though that to in some way make up for our ownership of a massive car we a) sold our second car and b) only use it when absolutely necessary. It’s very rarely used on a journey under 3 miles.

There is actually a practical reason why tall cars can in fact be more spacious, even if the width and length are the same as a shorter one. Not necessarily because they have more headroom, it turns out extra height can be used to create more horizontal room.

In a normal car, the height from the seat surface to the floor is too short for the persons leg below the knee to go straight down, they have to be stretched out in front of them. In a tall car, the seat can be made higher relative to the floor, the passengers leg can form a perfect right-angle at the knee, meaning they need less horizontal footwell space. This then means that rows of seats can be closer together, resulting in extra space, which can be used (a) to make room for an extra row of seats, or (b) to have a bigger boot, or (c) you can make no adjustment and just let people have the luxury of having much more space than they need for their legs.

Of course this doesn't answer why SUV's, these same benefits apply to tall hatchbacks and people carriers.

I live rurally, need the towing capacity and don’t intend on buying something less luxurious that I don’t enjoy driving as much just to satisfy inverse snobbery, or because when it’s clean someone might assume I’m part of the Chelsea tractor brigade. Perhaps I should drive the absolutely ancient and battered 4wd farm vehicle around spewing out fumes in residential areas so everyone knows I’m the real deal.

I don’t understand why anyone thinks shit parking is acceptable, or why tiny spaces and a big car are excuses to do so. Driving a big car doesn’t suddenly render someone a discourteous driver, or a dangerous one or crap at parking, they are still those things in a small car. It’s just more noticeable in something bigger.

Fuck taxing them more. Stop the funding bias towards London’s public transport so the rest of the country gets a fair share. And then if you must tax a certain group of drivers over others tax those with other options.

We had a Jaguar f pace and it was impossible to park comfortably in normal spaces at our local
Tesco. We ended up getting rid of it (because it was a shit car generally, not because of the parking issue. I now have a Skoda yeti which is a kind of SUV crossover and a phenomenal car and is higher than a lot of cars.

I live in the middle of nowhere and it's about 5 miles to the nearest village which is the main reason I need one but to be honest even if I didn't I would probably have one anyway so I could fit two car seats a double pushchair and everything else in.

People did manage 25 years ago but everything was a lot more local then, car seats weren't as big and seatbelt laws not as strict.

Factor in that more and more people are commuting, often both parents separately as well as a school drop off, expensive public transport and the loss of many rural bus services, everything being moved to out of town shopping areas and slightly hysterical attitudes at times towards child safety (children being driven rather than walking or biking places) and there's more cars on the road and people don't feel safe in small cars as everyone else around them is driving something bigger.

We walked the mile and a half to and from primary school 25 years ago, we didn't have a choice as we only had one car which was with my dad at work and we weren't on a bus route. Every other child in the school was the same, their mums walked yo and from school with them. That same school in the same village has a queue of SUVs outside now morning and afternoon as everyone has to be somewhere else immediately after.

I used to see this about ten/fifteen years ago but not now. Very unusual to see 4 x 4s unless driven by folk who need them. Driving a 4 x 4 as some kind of style statement is regarded as pretty trashy where I live.
Do you live in an area that is a bit behind the times OP?

I'm in leafy south-western suburb territory, some parts achingly trendy and expensive, and 4x4s are all over the place. If it's regarded as behind the times elsewhere, I can't wait for that view to spread to my area.

I've got a Volvo XC90, bought it after someone wrote off our Focus on the motorway. Got it due to elevated driving position, space in the back for bikes, camping stuff and dogs etc. Also at the time, seven seats came in handy although we've not used the back seats as much as we thought we would.

Another factor was seeing the state of our Focus after someone drove into the back of it, and we thought the dog would be safer in a higher vehicle if similar happened again.

Bought for cash and insurance money, it's quite old now and not flash in the slightest.