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?

Good on you hope your car choice alleviates pain @DoorstoManual

but you bloody well know you’re an exception here, so don’t get angry at me when I speak about a rapidly growing , most popular sector of car where most people don’t have muscle wastage but choose it for image.

I live in London and feel the same. There are so many of them cluttering up the pavements. If you want a huge car for fashion purposes you shouldn't live somewhere where public space is at a premium. It's selfish.

I'm 5ft nothing and would not have passed my driving test if I'd not been able to park! The only car I've ever struggled to drive properly was an Audi Estate, even with the seat pulled as far forward as it could go and the seat raised as high as it would go I could not reach the pedals.

I don't think people who are too nervous to drive properly should be on the road personally. What happens when all your fancy sensors and cameras stop working one day while your out on the road somewhere?

OP, I wonder if you realise how hypocritical you are coming across. Turning your nose up at other people's justifications when you admit to having the type of car you apparently hate, but that's ok becuase you had a bit of land and "wanted to be comfortable".

So essentially your take seems to be that if you are a landowner you are fine to drive these big car -even just to be comfortable, or to deal with the occassional snow on all your acres, but all the peasants living in their semis are just idiots with no acceptable reason for chosing them.

I always find the 'safety' argument for driving SUVs interesting insofar as your improved safety comes at the expense of everyone else, be it pedestrians, cyclists and other motorists. That raised vehicle profile means that the collision height against many other vehicles is such that crumple zones are avoided and other drivers/passengers are more vulnerable to impacts. Certainly from my somewhat anecdotal observations is that an awful lot of people just cant maneuver very well these large cars despite all the sensors and parking aids and expect all other motorists to get out of the way. I have seen on more then a few occasions some lone fat SUV in the middle of the road or in a carpark expecting several cars to back down because the moron behind the wheel 'cant reverse'.

I agree with you and we have a qashqai 😂. I'd choose my tiny go-kart of a hatchback any day... parking is a nightmare (not because I can't drive, just having enough space to get in/out without inconveniencing anyone else), harder to manouver in confined spaces. Just all round why bother.

Definitely!

Cars do something to people's brains if they're not careful.

Eternally grateful I don't need one

But I don't understand all the hybrid mini SUVs. Most seem to be bought for the school run and never see a single bit of mud.

They aren’t very capable in the mud, so that shouldn’t be surprising.

I started with a small hatchback and ended up wrecking it because it didn’t have a enough ground clearance for what I used it for, then bought an SUV/crossover because it had better ground clearance but then got stuck in the mud. So, now I have a 4x4.

Incidentally, I have passed the IAM advanced driving test and can reverse park with a trailer attached.

Well, I could clearly park well enough for my driving test.

I'm a really good and confident driver generally. Just parking is not my favourite. I can manage though without the cameras, of course I can - I have been driving for over 20 years (and only had my current car for a year, although the last one had caemeras too). I just find it much easier and more convenient with them.

Funny that out of this entire thread what you seem most concerned about it my parking, and how I passed my test 2 decades ago. What do you want me to say? That I am lying about not loving parking? Or that I didn't actually pass my test? I am pretty confused that what you are trying to get at.

I agree with whoever said "it's not the car, it's the driver"

But the driver has to take responsibility for their choice of car.
I drove a tiny fiat Panda for about 10 years until last year. High up, easy to load, way to get in and out of, thin and very nimble to park. I chose that because after test driving lots of cars, that's the one I felt most comfortable and able to drive.

It seems to me now that a lot of people Choose a new car before they've even tested it. They see an advert for the new Patronise V8760 RoadHogger and that's the car they want whether they can actually physically drive it or not. Then they get it, they can reverse well, they can't take off well at lights etc, they stall it all the time, they can't judge the width so block the roads they live on when they park. Etc.

I think some of it, if people are honest, is just their general "everyone can adapt to me" selfish attitude that's overly prevalent these days.
They'll park on their street where is convenient for them, everyone else in the street doesn't matter.
They'll drive a car they want, everyone else can move for them.
Theyll fill 2 bays at the shops, everyone else can adapt and move for them.
Etc.

I'll stick to walking.

😂😂😂

Tbf, I'm a big offender with engine idling but my truck has an old school turbodiesel where the oil pump stops running when you shut off (most modern ones will keep going for a few mins).

It's terrible for the turbo to blast down the motorway and then immediately shut engine off, leaving the turbo literally red hot without any oil supply. A lot of people destroy turbos at motorway service stations.

There's a difference between a 4x4, an SUV, and a crossover. A lot of people get them mixed up.

Most of what people refer to as 'SUVs' are actually crossovers; basically hatchbacks with a bit of faux-4x4 styling.

You did say your resentment was irrational in your thread title, to be fair!

YANBU, I do love it when there are floods and you in the news those idiots in their suvs thinking they can make it through and then get stranded.

A proper 4x4 has low range gears.

No I’m not hypocritical and here’s why -

• I owned these cars previously. Not own. My current car is electric, and a hatchback. I live in the London suburbs now. I don’t require the car I did before.

• I owned a 4x4 because genuinely, where we lived, there would be times after rain etc where the churned up track was not easy to get off. I think that’s what these cars were designed for?? And I owned a comfortable version because, why not?

• I resent cars that are wide and jacked up , taking up more room, but performing none of the function of my previous cars. They lead to terrible parking on the school run, terrible parking in hospital, but very few of them can do the function their body kits promise. They can’t go off road. They can’t traverse mud or rough terrain.

so yeah - I told folk on here I owned the Rangies because I’m saying I’m not immune to the usefulness of a 4x4.

I just hate fake ones , taking up more room, weighing more, adding nothing to the already compromised experience of driving in the UK.

Yes and a ladder frame

I agree. Who cares. Why one person's opinion make whole lot so angry?

It is entirely rational to hate SUVs. they are too big and too heavy and too wide for London streets. My brother drives a horrible great big thing, and his boot space is no bigger than my little VW Golf.

Cars should be taxed by weight (a big factor in pedestrian safety) and footprint (parking spaces) as well as CO2 emissions to make it less attractive for people to buy these ridiculous vehicles.

It’s just a motoring trend. And then people buy from the available choice of cars. It’s an evolving market - things don’t stay the same otherwise we’d all still be driving round in Austin Metros which needed a choke to start in the morning!

Fuel efficiency/consumption has actually improved massively even in combustion vehicles, if you look at the engine sizes of some of these SUVs they are no bigger (or smaller) than your typical 90s/00s ‘family’ car.

I say all of this but we don’t actually have an SUV ourselves - no DC or dogs etc so not required, but I don’t judge those who do. I just ask that those who do learn how to drive and park correctly!!

We've just bought one to fit 3 car seats. We couldn't have got an estate as not big enough in the back. So we had to pick between an SUV or MPV. We went SUV coz MPVs are ugly. Hope my reasoning passes your test eyeroll

They can't park and they are often the same idiots who, on turning left, swing out right first because they don't know that their car will actually just turn the corner without doing that.

Sorry my reply was to @Slowingdownagain

So people are allowed to own something that assists with their physical restrictions but you sneer at those who do it for their elderly parents?

You’re just one of those people that would find anything to be a sneery sally about.

Perhaps petition car manufacturers if you think they’re making unnecessary and environmental unfriendly products? Rather than chastising people who have bought them to help their life be a little bit easier.

Personally, I don’t drive for medical reasons. But if I did, I’d be buying a suv type car, purely for the fact that when I’m a passenger in dps focus, in the dark I am blinded by other car light. In his camper van or in my dads Range Rover this doesn’t happen. Would I be thinking of you seething away about it? No, I’d be thinking about features and safety pertaining to me and my family.

I have seen on more then a few occasions some lone fat SUV in the middle of the road or in a carpark expecting several cars to back down because the moron behind the wheel 'cant reverse'.

Amen and thank you for summing up my biggest problem with these things.

They are driven by the same folk who wouldn’t reverse their A3 or Golf before, but only now it has a bigger impact as folk can’t get round them.

And a muddy collie in the passenger seat.