Just stop buying new SUVs...

[Fridakahlofan]

Unless you REALLY need one. I live 1/4 mile down a muddy track and I do not have one.

In the Times today:
SUVs 'were responsible for all of the growth in oil demand, of 3.3 million barrels a day, from passenger cars between 2010 and 2018, with total fuel consumption from other types of car falling slightly'

Surely soon it will be shameful to own one!

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/soaring-demand-for-suvs-exacerbates-climate-crisis-kbpj5mpzg

All of you saying you NEED an SUV.

I live EXTREMELY rurally. We already have a few inches of snow and a few inches of ice on the road. This will probably get worse and worse until late April.

We have pot holes a foot wide and a foot deep.

Our road is very steep in parts, it's single track with a drop off to the sea.

You couldn't even begin to think of driving a sports car down there in the summer, many of my friends won't visit past November and the Fed/UPS lady refuses to drive here from now until April too.

We manage without an suv.

All those people advocating hybrids are wasting their time. The government is hoping to ban petrol as well as diesel by 2040. Everything will have to be electric by then. The tree huggers will have a field day when all the new power stations go up to cope with the demand.

surfaces will be covered with highly sophisticated photovoltaic cells and we will have advanced battery technologies
No need for power stations!

I have kids and a dog and we travel quite a lot, lots of bootspace required, etc. so we got an estate. Does the job. Only downside I can see mentioned so far is more difficult to park in busy street parking. We rarely need to do that anyway so not an issue.

I think the OP is mainly talking about the people who live in towns and cities who jam up the roads with SUV's when in reality they probably don't need one at all.

All the people in this post have justified having on quite rightly - but it's not those types of people that you guys are that get peoples backs up.

For example, the school run in the village I live in. The school has no car park so the parents park along a residential street. The Range Rovers are always badly parked, can't get into spaces, can't get back out and it's purely just a status symbol. With PCP becoming more and more common it's making these cars more accessible to people who wouldn't normally be able to afford one and this again is all about status.

There's a huge difference between having a Renault Kadjar and a Range Rover for example, and the latter is usually used by people for status rather than practicality. Especially in towns and cities.

KamikazeIdiot is absolutely spot on
'Owning/driving SUVs is antisocial. They use excessive amounts of fuel, don't fit in standard car-park spaces and block other drivers' view at junctions.'

This is my major bugbear, I drive a VW Golf and my vision is obstructed by SUVs on a daily basis at junctions, coming out of parking spaces, or being unable to see beyond them to anticipate what is happening on the road. It's undeniable that some SUVs are so ridiculously oversized that they overhang car parking spaces.

Of course people can choose to drive what they like but lets not pretend that the huge upsurge in SUVs not does negatively impact on other road users.

I have relatives and friends on the school run that drive SUVs and none of them has a pressing need for a oversized car!

Of course people can choose to drive what they like but lets not pretend that the huge upsurge in SUVs does not negatively impact on other road users!

People are saying they need an SUV because they live in the back of beyond at the end of a dirt track and they have several large dogs etc etc
But these are all choices that they have made, they have chosen to live in a situation which requires them to have an SUV in order to live as comfortably as they would like to live

The tree huggers will have a field day when all the new power stations go up to cope with the demand

surfaces will be covered with highly sophisticated photovoltaic cells and we will have advanced battery technologies

Plus other renewable energy sources are improving rapidly, and nuclear fusion reactors which will be viable at some point in the second half of the century, so we only have to bridge the gap until then, at which point everything will be hunky dory.

Once we can reverse engineer photosynthesis we'll be there

I love my Kuga SUV. Perfect for local journeys, dog in the boot and strong enough to tow my horse trailer. I also think it's nice to look at.

I don't get when people say they NEED an SUV because they have a big family or live rurally. You chose to have a big family (also bad for the environment) and live rurally.

I don't own a car at all, of course that's not possible for a lot of people but the amount of money I save compared to my friends is amazing.

SUV covers a wide variety of vehicles and many of them are not 4 wheel drive. Some of them are just tall cars.
Also some cars that are not SUVs are 4 wheel drive.
I agree that for most people the 4 wheel drive aspect is unnecessary, but many SUVs are really just regular 2 wheel drive cars for people who need or want a taller car

I also agree with the Golf driver above. I drive a BMW 118i and every day my vision is obscured on roads by Range Rovers, the majority are also tailgaters on the motorway, can't see at junctions, pull out because they know their car would crush mine, never use their indicators. Ever.

But this is in a city so I suspect the majority really do have them as a status symbol

@JacksonPillock - Maybe you could move to Cornwall for a while and then decide no-one NEEDS to go anywhere by car.

I work a 45 minute drive from home, as a lot of people need to do here, because of where specific jobs are available.

Should I walk there?

Or get two different buses, which take over an hour to do journeys which are 25 mins by car, and expect my boss to understand that I won’t be there until at least 11.15, as I have decided to stop driving?

Or for the after school club to stay open, just for my children, until 7pm? As I have decided to stop driving.

No rail network me to use either - although there are trains between certain towns, so people who can, use it when they can.

Hybrids and electric cars are so dangerous t other road users. I have a horse and my OH cycles. Both of us have had near accidents due to not hearing them. We will stick to our pickup and suv for the time being. Never seen an electric car that can tow 3.5 tonnes.

Range Rover 5.5L V8 petrol, 535hp, Supercharged, Overfinch tuned.

Oh yeah, it's got Camel Leather seats.

Never been near mud in it's life.

Love it. Not changing it. Wanted one for years.

Don't get me wrong - Co2 impact is important, but I don't want my kids breathing in nasty diesel particulates just because the Government made it cheap to tax such cars, and people want fake 4x4s.

Perhaps you shouldn't have had any children.

Overpopulation is awfully bad for the environment.

Gosh this thread really has brought out the pricks hasn’t it!

Sorry if this has already come up, I haven't read the full thread (this time).

This isn't just an environmental issue. Apparently, you are 11% more likely to die in an accident if you are in an SUV. They are twice as likely to roll and twice as likely to kill pedestrians.

www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/oct/07/a-deadly-problem-should-we-ban-suvs-from-our-cities

We don't need them in cities, they are ridiculous and selfish (even the ones that are beautifully engineered).

Where I live, they aren't used for towing or even for carting around children. People want them because they are fashionable.

And to those saying 'well don't have any children then' to the people arguing the environmental case for banning them - that is just lazy. (and no, I am 38 and don't have children)

And to those saying 'well don't have any children then' to the people arguing the environmental case for banning them - that is just lazy. (and no, I am 38 and don't have children)

It's just an absurd catch-all to close down any debate. There is an impending climate disaster but let's not discuss how to avert it or attempt to avoid it, because after all, if you have kids then you're just a hypocrite. No point trying to change anything.

Honestly? I think it's a nonsense, because of the particulates argument that has now become even more pressing.

Wow, so your degree and postgrad qualifications + list of publications will back that up then.

Don't get me wrong - Co2 impact is important, but I don't want my kids breathing in nasty diesel particulates just because the Government made it cheap to tax such cars, and people want fake 4x4s

Oh DFOD with your superiority complex.

Unless you live rurally there's no need for a 4 wheel drive. A 7 seater people carrier is fine for families who need the space and uses less petrol than a 4x4

Oh I forgot. Obviously the one acceptable cars on MN are

• Skodas, particularly the Octavia
• some small think that wrecks your back and knees after 50 miles

-so,etching really old and rusty And everyone can afford something big and flash, but choose to virtue signal instead. It's all rather tedious.

I drive a nice car. I like my car. I am not going to change it because of some bollocks on here or in the papers. I've done my bit for society by not having children, now let me drive my wannabe 4x4 and have my dogs. If the planet dies in 30 years time, it won't be because of me.

Still curious where my 1.9 turbo diesel falls in this debate... 🤔😉😂