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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to get fed up with receiving more than the average amount of abuse on the road just because I drive a range rover?

317 replies

Mrs4x4 · 13/11/2007 22:16

I get the whole environment thing psses some people off but this seems out of proportion with the abuse. I am a considerate driver and really object to the abuse especially when my DC's are in the car and people are swearing. Recently parked car in a supermarket carpark to have someone who lived in a nearby flat on one of the higher floor start shouting that i should get back in my RR and pss off.

OP posts:
bobsmum · 15/11/2007 14:55

(...found it difficult driving into town...)

bobsmum · 15/11/2007 14:57

And as for the wealthy argument PMSL!! The insurance company gave us £3500 for the RR once it was counted as a total loss!!

Blu · 15/11/2007 15:08

Horsygirl - was that an addition to the alleged intellectualisation of 4x4 ownership?

horsygirl · 15/11/2007 15:35

Oh i don't know.. probabaly, Blu. We've got a 4X4, one of those ford pickups. It made sense for us because it could pull the horse trailer and it was classed as a van so we got the vat back on it. A little while after that i got an old horsebox so didn't need the pickup. dh drives it and it does the cash and carry run a couple of times a week.

I never get any abuse when I'm driving the Ford - I find smiling helpful - but i'm even less eco friendly now as i have a d reg horsebox aswell!

Being the driver of a big pickup, a smelly old horsebox and an old fiat tempra (that someone gave me for nothing and I won't throw away because it keeps passing its mot) i just feel.. each to their own, I suppose.

And what's wrong with saying live and let live bufo? It's better than having slanging matches over what you drive!!

chocolatedot · 15/11/2007 16:38

I've got three children and we have a Toyota Prius (Hybrid). We manage just fine as do millions of other people with three children in cars of that size. Other cars that happily seat 5 / 6 / 7 are multitudinous and any one who uses that as an excuse for having a 4 x 4 in London is delusional.

CountessDracula · 15/11/2007 16:42

YABU

If you don't like it get rid and get a more sensible car

MALO · 15/11/2007 16:53

About 12 years ago I had a car crash - I was hit side-on by a Range Rover with bull bars on the front. I came off worse. The driver of the RR wrote my car off - she barely had a scratch on her vehicle. I ended up in hospital and in traction for 6mths due to spinal/nerve damage and physio for the next 2yrs. I was driving a Ford Sierra at the time which was a heavy and very sturdy car. I am certain my injuries would have been worse had I been driving anything smaller. I was told by the garge that took my car away that the majority of the damage on my car was due to the bull bars.

Re my comment about wealth and the rise in congestion charges for 4x4s - Surely those that can afford to run 4x4s, insure them, buy them in the first place won't even batter an eyelid to a rise in a road charge?

Blu · 15/11/2007 17:01

hg - just that lots of the thread explains why 'live and let live' doesn't necessarily apply in practice and why most of the aversion to 4x4s is over their use in cities - not presumably where you live.

Sara85 · 15/11/2007 17:13

YANBU. I, like many others in this thread, don't really agree with your choice of car, as I don't see why someone would need an offroader for the schoolrun in a city. BUT, it is very unfair of someone to shout abuse at you because of it.Unless of course you'd parked right next to them and taken up loads of room so they can't get their 5 month bump out of their corsa..(personal experience!)

Sweetkitty - I've been toldby many people that big cars are actually easier to drive than little ones!

I know its not really on the same subject, but does anyone know why people insist on telling me I'll need to change my car when DS is born? He's my first and I drive a 3door corsa.big enough for 3 of us surely??

bobsmum · 15/11/2007 17:13

MAlo - like I said before - our RR was bought and then written off for just over £3K and we ran it on vegetable oil - 40p a litre cheaper than forecourt diesel.

But thank the Lord we live nowhere near London anyway so I'm not entirely sure what charge you're talking about.

blousy · 15/11/2007 17:27

Today I spent 10 minutes waiting for a silly bint to drive her mahoosive BMW X something or other in and out and in and out a hundred times while she tried to park it.
I did think 'what a monumentally impractical car for the purpose of getting a pint of milk', but I would never abuse her on the basis of the car she drives. This modern day phenomena of hating 4x4 drivers confounds me, because half the time I think people see the big car and think 'tosser' automatically, regardless of where/who/why.

MALO · 15/11/2007 17:48

bobsmum: In inner London everyone has to pay a 'congestion charge' regardless of what you drive - I think it is now £10? It was a fiver initially. Anyway if you drive a large 4x4 the Government are considering upping this charge to £25.

MALO · 15/11/2007 17:57

I think there is an element of snobbery on behalf of those that drive 4x4s but also an element of envy on behalf of those that don't!!!

I sometimes see some really smart 4x4s and think 'cor, I wish I had one of those' and then I think 'phew, I'm glad I don't, how the hell would I afford one?!'

bobsmum · 15/11/2007 18:08

Malo - is that every time you drive into London or a one off fee? Sounds like a good idea tbh. For some of the urban status 4x4 drivers I think £25 would be pennies. But ours (and that of most of the people who live round here in the sticks) was a real shed of a car with authentic off road mud - so we'd have got a discount surely

Why don't people park and ride? I don't know many folks who would choose to drive into Glasgow or Edinburgh unless they had a designated/guaranteed parking space. Even with a buggy and wee children I would always park outside the city and get the train in. Except for my one supermarket trip .

handlemecarefully · 15/11/2007 18:10

blousy I am entering your name in my 'Sane and grounded mumsnetters list'

horsygirl · 15/11/2007 18:10

Hmm. They are cumbersome. When i go to tesco in ours i don't even bother trying to find a space near the entrance, I just park as far away as possible, preferably in a 'drive thru' (a space with another space on the other side, negating the need to reverse) It's just so bloody big. I like the fact I can put the dogs in the back tho.

I had a 'yummy mummy' aquaintance who drove a gleaming RR vogue about and it never got dirty ever. But I liked the car very much and I wouldn't have minded one myself..

Mine would have been full of horse shit and dog hair tho.

handlemecarefully · 15/11/2007 18:12

I know you have horses horsygirl - but prey tell how does horse poo get in your vehicle? (am thinking you drive with your hunters on?)

horsygirl · 15/11/2007 18:38

Lol yes, on the feet. It's not so much the volume of actual poo, more the smell of it I suppose. There are girls (well women) at the place where I keep my horses who store their wellies in the boot and faff about changing into them when they get to the yard but I'm not that disciplined sadly.

suey2 · 15/11/2007 18:38

bobsmum currently the congestion charge is £8 per day. But, if you live within the congestion zone (which includes kensington and chelsea- main area of my bug bear) you get a 90% reduction- ie 80p per day instead.
There will be no reduction for 4x4s if the current consultation is successful- it will be £25 per day to leave the house.

bobsmum · 15/11/2007 18:45

So, hang on, if you live in the busiest part of the UK with an enormous amount of public transport, including an underground system, then you only have to pay 80p to use your enormous car, which most reasonable people would realise should be left at home.

When in fact the people with all these resources on their their doorsteps are the very ones who should be charged more for not making use of public transport.

There shouldn't be a charge, there should be a compulsory exclusion zone for all cars, unless the occupants are disabled or leaving the town. Pedestrianise the cities!!!

horsygirl · 15/11/2007 18:46

So you have to pay £25 to drive a 4x4 into London? Jesus. I would certainly be taking the fiat in that case. I'm nowhere near London luckily for me.

bobsmum · 15/11/2007 18:49

Exactly horsygirl - but why would people bother driving a 4X4 (or any car?) into an overpopulated city like London anyway. There are trains and buses aren't there? Or is that just on telly

suey2 · 15/11/2007 18:50

bobsmum i wouldn't go that far! I live in westminster and qualify for the reduction. I am 37 weeks pregnant and am currently using the car a lot to get to the supermarket/ go to MW/ antenatal classes etc. There are no direct buses or tubes- even if people were to give me a seat (yeh, right) But i drive a 3 door golf and we have no plans to change. WE bought one of those isofix thingies so at least we won't be wrestling with seatbelts when junior arrives!

bobsmum · 15/11/2007 18:53

3 doors are great for car seats - you can get right into the back and stand in front of the seat for doing the straps. I hated trying to get dd and ds in and out the RR. Ds is 5 and still needed a plastic step to get in the back (as did I ). And trying to lift dd up, and swivel and into a car seat was really painful and hideous on my back. I'm so grateful to have my Ka back!

LittleBella · 15/11/2007 18:56

Actually, if your 4x4 has a bull-bar on it, you deserve all the abuse you get. There's so much evidence that a bull bar causes more injury/ death, that anyone who still chooses to have one, is really a tosser imo.

4x4s I can understand the "need" for. 4x4's with bull bars - er, no.