Aibu to hope that this is the start of a major backlash against SUVs?

[gingganggooleywotsit]

Just seen this on the BBC news website.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56647128
It’s the first time I’ve ever seen anyone in motoring speak out publicly against suvs. I pray this is the start of a major backlash and rightly so! Before anyone says..”you’re jealous” as I usually see on these threads, I would just like to say-I could afford one myself but I wouldn’t be seen dead in one!
Also I am only talking about city suvs. In the countryside/farming it’s of course a different matter.

Carbon emission savings from people switching to electric vehicles have been wiped out by the soaring use of SUVs. www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/26/suvs-and-extra-traffic-cancelling-out-electric-car-gains-in-britain

The tax system could make SUVs less attractive, but instead the government has frozen fuel duty for more than ten years and is spending £27bn on new roads, the carbon emissions of which have been hugely underestimated
www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/03/ban-suv-adverts-to-meet-uk-climate-goals-report-urges

I have a 7 seater car as I have four kids and live rurally so bus once a hour at the best. I need my big car. If they banned SUVs I would be going on holiday and family day trips in two cars.

They have their place for some. In our village ( hamlet really within a village) you can live just a major A road on a country road and be cut off completely in the snow. But that aside bigger or blended families need more than a Toyota Yaris. That's the car i want but it's not practical

@Leonberger

I drive an suv/4x4 and have not noticed parking spaces being too narrow. I always fit in them easily.

My SUV has lots of inbuilt safety features, lane assist, crash assist, parking sensors and cameras etc. It also drives amazingly in the ice and snow. It has a 5* safety rating so I’m perfectly happy with my choice and spending my money how I wish.

I love having a big car, nothing would persuade me to drive a smaller car by choice. Our second car is small and I hate driving it.

I certainly won’t be changing my choice because someone in a small car isn’t happy about being in a smaller car

Ok @Leonberger why on Earth do you think that because some people drive smaller cars, they automatically -

A) aren't happy with them, and
b) they are bitter and therefore want you to get out of your "big" car?!

That is not the argument taking place here. Once again, for the SUV owners in the back - this. Is. Not. About. Envy.

There have always been big cars, and small cars, if we're using Reception year terminology.

This is about the havoc the vehicles often cause in narrow country roads when piloted by the inexperienced, or people who are terrified of putting one wheel on the verge in case a branch scratches their PCP'd "pride and joy" and they have to forfeit some monies in the lease agreement on handover. Meanwhile the rest of us just drive courteously or, the horror, take another small imperceptible scratch on our little hatch or estate and get on with country life.

Don't get me started on the mayhem these vehicles cause at school pickups, and the total and persistent inability of fellow women drivers to actually reverse the bloody things when it's their turn to concede right of way. Oh no - it's the automotive equivalent of the rhino. It just has one mode - charge forwards.

They tend to be diesels (no not all. But it lends itself to that fuel) and so particulates are an issue for kids lungs.

Apart from that you crack on with your smart choice of "big" vehicle.

@SchrodingersImmigrant

The volvo xc90 is same width as the audi a4 avant someone mentioned above for example.

The most sold suv apparently is qashqai with width 1807 it's as wide as ford focus (action few cm smaller) at 1,825-1,844. Putlander is in this size as well. So is skoda octavia accprding to google.

Yes, there are massive suvs, but lots of top selling ones seem to have same width, sometimes lenght as non suv cars. So as some people mention they nedd bannong because of space, well so do other cars, not just "suvs" then.

Audi seems to be really into making wide as fuck cars lately. Never realised until this thread how width obsessed they became!👀

Erm sorry -

Audi A4 Avant, width without mirrors = 1847mm (with mirrors is 2022mm).

Volvo XC90 is 1923mm width, or 2140 mm with mirrors.

Apologies. I had wrong volvo somehow

So to the next person claiming that their above average height teenager means that they must have a big car, here's a picture of the 6'5" Jeremy Clarkson in a Peel P50:

There's a big difference between fitting inside for a quick photo and actually being physically comfortable and able to travel without pain. By that reckoning, nobody needs more than a single room to live in, as even a family of 12 can all easily or sit on a dining chair inside that room.

I get the points about massive armoured cars, but I still think there's more than a whiff of able-body and young privilege on this thread. For some people, a higher up car might just be more fun with a better view, but for a great many of us - whether the most severely disabled, those with unregistered disabilities/mobility problems/chronic pain and/or many elderly people, it's the difference between travelling in relative comfort or being in a lot of pain and discomfort throughout the journey and for some time afterwards.

I'm quite tall and have disability-related mobility problems. Some of the little, low-down cars that a lot of people seem to think we should all be happy with would mean me (and many others) having to walk (which I also find painful much of the time) rather than being able to travel in a car at all - even to be able to get down enough and manoeuvre yourself into it in the first place, before actually travelling any distance.

I know some people have said "Ah, but we'll have special concessions for disabled people" - but apart from that then invariably leading to many of the most disabled people being challenged and threatened by aggressive idiots even more on a daily basis than they are now (especially those who 'don't look disabled'), disability and mobility issues are on a wide spectrum, and it's not simply binary that somebody is either severely disabled or otherwise in pretty much perfect health, with no other variations.

a family of 12 can all easily or sit on a dining chair

can all easily STAND or sit....

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

So to the next person claiming that their above average height teenager means that they must have a big car, here's a picture of the 6'5" Jeremy Clarkson in a Peel P50:

There's a big difference between fitting inside for a quick photo and actually being physically comfortable and able to travel without pain. By that reckoning, nobody needs more than a single room to live in, as even a family of 12 can all easily or sit on a dining chair inside that room.

I get the points about massive armoured cars, but I still think there's more than a whiff of able-body and young privilege on this thread. For some people, a higher up car might just be more fun with a better view, but for a great many of us - whether the most severely disabled, those with unregistered disabilities/mobility problems/chronic pain and/or many elderly people, it's the difference between travelling in relative comfort or being in a lot of pain and discomfort throughout the journey and for some time afterwards.

I'm quite tall and have disability-related mobility problems. Some of the little, low-down cars that a lot of people seem to think we should all be happy with would mean me (and many others) having to walk (which I also find painful much of the time) rather than being able to travel in a car at all - even to be able to get down enough and manoeuvre yourself into it in the first place, before actually travelling any distance.

I know some people have said "Ah, but we'll have special concessions for disabled people" - but apart from that then invariably leading to many of the most disabled people being challenged and threatened by aggressive idiots even more on a daily basis than they are now (especially those who 'don't look disabled'), disability and mobility issues are on a wide spectrum, and it's not simply binary that somebody is either severely disabled or otherwise in pretty much perfect health, with no other variations.

I find posts like these incredibly frustrating because they cite absurd propositions no one has actually stated on this thread ("we should all be in small cars") and throw allegations of disability discrimination etc around where that's not many people's intent or angle.

Also @WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll there are electric SUV-height cars like the Jaguar iPace or Kia Niro electric , and then there are large family vehicles like the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, all of which are very reasonable widths, not "fully rugged" and make good use of space and features for the price. Not that it matters but I would say these are examples of good SUVs that benefit disabled, families and "must ride high" folk without much impact or any impact on air quality or lungs.

So I for one don't want to ban all SUVs and I'm happy that a taller ride class of car is actively helping disabled people to live full lives.

What I can't stand personally are the pumped up wide bodied small engined diesel SUVs that serve little ostensible purpose other than to scream

"I am safe! I ride high up and my car is big... so I am saaafe!! I pay less road tax to be safe cause diesel is the smart choice even though I do twenty miles a week!

"And I and I will run my engine for as long as I want outside a school no matter the long term cost to your DC's lungs!

"Image is never a factor in these things BUT I wouldn't be seen dead in a S-Max".

Agh. It is all just so cringe to me. But that's why we have choice I guess, so that the less altruistic can exact theirs.

I find posts like these incredibly frustrating because they cite absurd propositions no one has actually stated on this thread ("we should all be in small cars") and throw allegations of disability discrimination etc around where that's not many people's intent or angle.

What? Have we been reading the same thread?! So many people criticising these huge, monstrous beasts that don't fit into parking spaces, saying that nobody needs to be in something so massive. What else are we supposed to derive from that other than that people stating that are wanting people to be in smaller cars? OK, not necessarily those comedy teeny-weeny ones, but considering that larger MPVs and family estates have the same footprint, I can only assume they're wanting us all in small hatchbacks.

Actually, on balance, I think I agree with you that discrimination isn't people's intent; if anything, I think that probably makes it worse, though, as it's not a deliberate attempt to criticise or discriminate against the disabled and/or elderly - more an apparent assumption that 'these people' just don't exist in the first place - or otherwise don't deserve to be able to travel around in a way that meets their needs, like everybody else.

I don't deny that there are a lot of people who buy a colossal great 4x4 that they don't need and never use for its proper purpose - as nothing more than a status symbol - but so many people go to the other extreme and say that, unless you're a farmer, nobody at all should have one.

Also @WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll there are electric SUV-height cars like the Jaguar iPace or Kia Niro electric , and then there are large family vehicles like the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, all of which are very reasonable widths, not "fully rugged" and make good use of space and features for the price. Not that it matters but I would say these are examples of good SUVs that benefit disabled, families and "must ride high" folk without much impact or any impact on air quality or lungs.

So I for one don't want to ban all SUVs and I'm happy that a taller ride class of car is actively helping disabled people to live full lives.

What I can't stand personally are the pumped up wide bodied small engined diesel SUVs that serve little ostensible purpose other than to scream

"I am safe! I ride high up and my car is big... so I am saaafe!! I pay less road tax to be safe cause diesel is the smart choice even though I do twenty miles a week!

"And I and I will run my engine for as long as I want outside a school no matter the long term cost to your DC's lungs!

"Image is never a factor in these things BUT I wouldn't be seen dead in a S-Max".

Agh. It is all just so cringe to me. But that's why we have choice I guess, so that the less altruistic can exact theirs.

Now, I think I pretty much exactly see eye-to-eye with you on your conclusions here, although electric cars still need a lot of improvement and are not pollution-free, as is frequently claimed, just because they don't pollute directly at the roadside.

Nobody answered my own question above (unless I missed it), as to why MPVs are the ugliest things ever and you'd probably rather travel in the back of a hearse than a Zafira, Alhambra or Grand Picasso. I get that they aren't stunningly beautiful, but neither are most cars on the road - certainly those designed for function rather than the very impractical ones that care about looks and driving thrills alone!

Also @WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll there are electric SUV-height cars like the Jaguar iPace or Kia Niro electric , and then there are large family vehicles like the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, all of which are very reasonable widths, not "fully rugged" and make good use of space and features for the price. Not that it matters but I would say these are examples of good SUVs that benefit disabled, families and "must ride high" folk without much impact or any impact on air quality or lungs.

Yes I drive a Mitsubishi PHEV with a disabled car tax exemption, a wheelchair hoist and a blue badge. (It’s a viable solution for those who can afford it or qualify for motability.) It’s one of the reasons I was trying to get some PPs upthread to define “SUV” or even which SUVs they were railing against.

I also know three women who rely on driving WAVs to get around, though. I’m not sure electric or PHEV WAVs are available.