To irrationally resent SUVs ?

[SavoirFlair]

For those who have impossibly avoided the term, I’m talking about “fake 4x4s.”

A car that would have been a hatchback a dozen years ago, but is now wider, higher up, with fake 4x4 styling (flared wheel arches, roof rails, big plastic moulding).

I can’t stand them.

As someone who has owned two generations of Range Rovers when we lived off a track a mile or so from the main road, I realise people are free to lob back at me. but those cars had a purpose. We wanted to be comfortable; but we absolutely needed the traction and clearance that vehicle gave us.

Does anyone need what a Grandland X offers? A Mokka? (Jesus save me from that awful car. Worst on sale today - just buy a Corsa and stop being previous). Who needs a Sportage or a Qashqai? (the hallmarks of the aspiring, when years ago a Focus or a Golf would have done just fine).

The worst offenders for me are actually the so called luxury ones. BMW X5 is an abomination - can’t do anything off road, is massively wide on road, and two mums at our school park terribly with them and block the road for the other direction.

And that’s the thing - a large segment of folk who own them, can’t drive them properly. I go to the hospital car park twice weekly with my DD. If someone is careless (often are) and parks close to or on the white line… renders the next space completely useless. Which when hunting for the one or two spaces available for my vulnerable DD, can be infuriating.

We don’t need these things, but I get people love them for

• being “high up” (still doesn’t make the drivers any better at driving)

• Being “high up” to load DCs and allow elderly parents to get in and out without bending back

• some of them have a big boot

Ok, but my answer to all these three is..

an MPV. Cars like the Ford Galaxy, S Max, Touran, Alhambra - all high up seating, easy to get in and out of, massive boots.

But no.. the truth is fashion. Why buy a Corsa when you have a jacked up version. Why buy a 5 series when you can have an X5 and dominate the school run.

Meanwhile the greater fuel consumption, the materials cost to make the thing …

AIBU to irrationally hate these stupid wide massive things?

99% of the drivers who expect you to reverse half a mile to the entrance to a farm track rather than pulling into the proper passing place right behind them drive these cars. They are always extremely clean so I think it's a fear of getting mud on their overpriced lump of metal as much as the inability to reverse it.

I am all in favour of SUVs for people whose jobs or family responsibilities mean it's a matter of life and death that they aren't snowed in, and people whose disabilities they help. But there needs to be an extra test, ideally covering reversing technique, basic physics (ie you do in fact still need to leave stopping distance), use of dipped headlights, and a general personality assessment.

Congested, yes. Although that's more to do with the number of cars than their size.

Dangerous, I don't know. Fewer people killed in car accidents now than in past decades; it was almost 8,000 people a year in the mid 1960s and it's about 1,800 a year now, and has been hovering there for about the last 10 years. (Except 2020, which was a weird year because pandemic.)

"It's not a necessity. Be honest, say you like the power and the big feeling, don't pretend it's a basic need!"

What you fail to recognise is that there is something between the two. Somewhere in between those two extremes are choosing a car because it makes your life safe/ easier/ nice/ more convenient. Same as most things in life. Same as most purchases. If we all ONLY make choices that were absolute necessity the world would be a very different place.

I love mine, I like the high up ness. I hate the look of those people carrier things. I can park and reverse it fine and I don’t drive in a bullying way. It’s ULEZ complaint so not a super polluter either.

She finally attempted to reverse, fucked it up by somehow not maintaining a straight line, stopped and then started to gesture through the window to other drivers to reverse instead, cue lots of exasperated beeping of horns and she started to lost her rag and shout at people, pedestrians were stopping and laughing at the ridiculas spectacle unfolding. The cars at the back of queue got bored and reversed back, turned around and found another route, the cars in front turned off their engines, I was the second car stuck in-between two other vehicles. Eventually after a Mexican standoff a passer by offered to reverse the car for her which she reluctantly agreed to and we were soon on our way.

@whatatanker how! Im expecting DC3.
Ill have a double pram, 2 very big dogs and 3 in car seats…
The only cars I can find are bloody massive. We have an suv already and that’s not even big enough!

Good lord. Hopefully she's too embarassed to ever drive again after that.

A lot of SUVs aren't big enough for that. Spacious on the outside, weirdly small on the inside.

Its more a poor driver problem than a car problem I think.

I don't care how big a car you have as long as you can fucking park it properly without a) taking 34 attempts or b) taking up way more room than necessary because you have zero spatial awareness.

To an extent, less with SUVs but more with 4x4s - it bugs me how many people have them when they have zero need because they never tow and never go off road.

I have a large 4x4 because I am off road most days (work with horses) and also tow a horse trailer when my daughter competes. I can park and reverse (both car and trailer) efficiently and accurately so don't leave people waiting either 🙄🙄

I read that all the gains, in terms of lowering CO2 emissions, made by switching to EV cars have been wiped out by the prevalence of SUVs on the roads. Pretty depressing.

I live very rurally, and IME the people who genuinely live half a mile down unmade tracks tend to drive ancient estates held together with baler twine. Massive SUVs are more the preserve of the suburban- bungalow- with-a-gravel-drive posse. They're too wide for the lanes anyway, especially when they drive in the middle because they're worried about their bodywork! (And yes, if they sail past a muddy passing place, expecting me to reverse 200m, I WILL turn my engine off, put my feet up on the dashboard and start checking my messages. Every. Single. Time 😆)

It's true that there is a dearth of good, efficient MPVs out there though. It took me ages to find a true MPV- capable of seating 5, accommodating a whole 8x4 sheet of plywood, and of being turned into a weekend camper van. It ended up being a Nissan NV200 van, with a 1.5 engine, narrower than most bloated SUVs, and with endless space. I must admit I peer into the back of the big black monsters parked on the double yellows on the junction at school pick up time and marvel at how little space they have inside compared to their exteriors. It's like some kind of reverse Tardis 🙄

Holy cow! I swear to god this should be fined by police 😬

For some people an SUV is the best choice so yes, that is a "need".

Sure, I could try to fit 3 kids + assorted gubbins into a hatchback but the extra room I get from SUV is better.

An SUV which is more economic than the Astra it replaced with a much bigger boot, smaller than many of the estates and MPVs that people on this thread claim are better for... reasons and yes I do like sitting slightly higher off the road when it comes to visability.

Plus it has a really good sound system.

it's the style being made now for family cars. Ours is electric. we have kid, dog, go camping etc so it's an estate or one of the new family type SUVs.
Sounds like your just a brand snob to me. Range Rovers are okay but other makes aren't?
Do me a favour.

ps - they're a piece of piss to drive. Sensors, cameras, and automatic. far safer than some old model diesel estate

'an MPV. Cars like the Ford Galaxy, S Max, Touran, Alhambra - all high up seating, easy to get in and out of, massive boots.'

I don't need a MPV or 7 seats or a massive boot. I need and have something in between a small car and a MPV - and yes, the design does mean it's a small - eco friendly SUV

If that's the case, then why are so many driven and parked so badly?

Sorry I didn’t answer this earlier @Slowingdownagain -

I drive a two year old Porsche Taycan 4S. I 100% realise how fortunate I am to have the ability to own this vehicle.

So you drive a very expensive, "high status" car which can not in any world be described as essential or necessary and then accuse everyone else of "hallmarks of aspiration", or whatever nonsense it was, and not having genuine reaons for their choice of a Sportage?! Bloody hell.

This has got to be one of the most hypocritical OP in a long time, well done OP.

YANBU I hate them too. They’re also more dangerous if they hit someone, so if we need a good reason to ban them, there’s that. It does annoy me that we can’t seem to get a car big enough EV for us and kids/big dog/camping gear, that isn’t an SUV though. At least not one that’s a reasonable price. I guess the market will expand, and there’ll hopefully be EV estate cars eventually, but for now we’re driving around in our 14 year old banger. I don’t want a massively wide car, or humongous wheels, or anything with height, I just need one with a big boot. Which seems to be like expecting the moon on a stick atm, unless we get an SUV.

Amazing. And a Qashqai is a 'hallmark of the aspiring'.

This thread keeps on giving. Never stop, OP.

Porsche Taycan 4S RRP: From £86,500

I think you need a whole packet of biscuits OP.

What car is essential or necessary? They all are, or they aren’t.

My car is not high status!! It’s a car. It’s possibly one of the best electric cars on sale, and I wanted it because I live in a suburb / area where I’m in and out of London , so the Range Rover of previous years seemed utterly absurd and wrong for that usage.

An electric car perfectly suits my life as it stands (short to medium trips, none more than 50-100 miles other than the Newcastle runs, for which I stop and charge at the Ionity services for 30 mins or so.).

I just don’t see how a car which advertises to the world it’s a 4x4, is massive, yet can’t do Jack shit off road, is something to aspire to?

Judging people for driving a car that requires expensive components when you drive a porsche [head shake]. Just wow. It's just such an amazing development on this thread.

And now a Porshe is not a high status car? Haha, ok. Brilliant.

So many people desperately ‘needing’ huge cars! I am sure there are some valid needs but really?!

I know many of the wealthy parents on the school run at my kids’ London school. They are definitely not all 4 foot 11 people living on a rural track, with disabilities, six kids and frail parents ;-)

Just enjoy your big car. I know nothing about cars and can’t tell the difference. They are just all big monsters clogging up narrow London roads to me.

Question. If everyone had a big car and was ‘high-up’, would the height advantage be lost? 🤔

Anyway I never thought of myself as a good driver. But as a 5 foot 2 shorty, I can park my VW Polo in teeny tiny spaces. No cameras needed. And have at different stages of life been able to put car seats in and help elderly relatives out. Go me!!