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?

But your post again just reiterates it's the drive not the car? So maybe (and only maybe as your experience is anecdotal - in my experience people in more expensive cars (of all sizes) tend to be more arrogant, but the worst agression I have personally experienced has been in people in non-expensive cars and vans, and mainly vans) aggressive people lean towards bigger cars. But that doesn't mean that big cars are bad per se.

Yup, I knew someone would be furious about it. Perhaps you can cool off by driving your Range Rover off-road like all the other Range Rover owners. 😃

Nobody is furious, you just look stupid!

Thanks. I do! Is that ok? Or should I check with you and your fragile little dickhead ego before I replace it with another 4x4 as per my needs?

Yes, speaking as someone who has driven/owed the biggest “real” SUV on the UK market, YADNBU. These blown-up, engorged versions of normal cars are horrible, common and nobody with good taste drives them.

Oh no, all the totally calm range rover owners are descending... 😂

Yup, you're totally calm and not at all angry. 😀

I know exactly what you mean! I hate the way big cars nudge forwards, assuming you'll let them in out of fear, or respect, or awe, or whatever. It's the motoring equivalent of man-spreading. I will always let someone in a Nissan Micra go in front of me, but some bloke in a huge penis-extension vehicle has to wait.

I’m neither calm nor angry. I’m just telling you that you have exposed yourself as much more of a dickhead than anybody who may have a ‘Chelsea Tractor’.

I can live with that.

I think it's mostly men though. Women seem to be more considerate. At least I am! Whoever has the right of way, goes first, can't see the problem here. But I don't have ego in my pants. I just drive the car my husband chose (we share it, so he had more say in terms of his needs).

I enjoy it. A couple of parents on the school run have got those enormous Toyota 4x4s and they cannot drive them at all. Its really amusing watching them blocking the road while trying to get into spaces.

@Neurotic90 My VW Sharan has a 1.2 l engine. We got rid of our 2 litre Galaxy as it wasn't ULEZ compliant and deliberately went for a petrol engine.

We have 4 DC so need a 7 seater. Hardly any SUVs have petrol engines and if they do they are massive engines (eg the Audi 7 seater, which defeated the object).

And to the poster upthread who said the MPV drivers are losers.... DH and I have long said that buying a 7 seater is very dull and that your choices, perception wise, are 'loser' or something even less flattering that summarises the majority of SUV drivers where we live. We were quite comfortable with 'loser'......

All being well, it should be the last 7 seater we buy, so we can live with that.

That's why I used the word "generally".

Most manufacturers these days will use streamlining if they can because it helps them squeeze out better emissions performance.

Something like an Evoque has pretty aggressively sloped front windscreen but a lot of SUVs and fake SUVs don't. Plus of course it is higher up which is going to cost in drag coefficient.

Heavy+poor aerodynamic shape = not good for the planet.

The higher up you are the more fuel you will use, because it is mostly about the front surface area you present to the oncoming air.

So saloons generally have a much lower drag coefficient than SUVs.

You multiply the drag coefficient by the frontal area to determine the total drag.

Breaking the mould here. 3DC, two large dogs, private school, and I turn up in a small hatchback.

Secretly, I’m actually quite smug about it when I see how much money other parents are wasting by buying such expensive pieces of metal.

Ha ha, same! Audis too, though they seem a bit passé these days.

And fwiw, I’m a rural driver and I drive an elderly Yaris. It can get a bit hairy driving through more than a foot of water and deep mud is a no no, but otherwise unless I need to have sheep or machinery in the back, it does fine up banks, across (non muddy) fields and over unpaved roads.

I have to agree that SUV drivers do tend to be more twattish and bullying on country roads. Strong small dick energy. But I usually end up yielding anyway because the ability of most of that kind of driver of that kind of vehicle to reverse is truly embarrassing to behold.

I don't know, the worst driving I am confronted with on a day to day basis is from a woman. She tends to just dump her car in the middle of the road or roudabout outside school to take her kids in. It's really unbelievable, and so dangerous. She drives a small range rover. She also has had loads of beauty enhancements. She wears designer clothes.

Do I think she drives badly because of her car? Or her enchancements? Or her designer clothes? Or that anyone who has the same car/ lashes/ clothes acts the same? Of course not, the woman is an entitled dick in her own right.

What car have you got? Between 3 dogs and 3 children I don’t know what I could wedge them into.
Id still have a need for a 4x4 as well as the above but I do like the idea of having something smaller and more economical for nipping around in.

Yeah there’s plenty of women driving like utter bellends in big stupid cars for sure.

I did look into getting Qashqai at one point, then I test drove a friend's and was shocked at how small it felt inside. If you had 2 or more kids and the prospect of luggage for driving holidays I've no idea why you'd bother. The friend even said it was often a squeeze.

Are woman in large 4x4s acceptable? Is it just men you don’t like driving them?

Sure. But my point was it isn't her car that makes her a bellend. It's just her.

I honestly think drivers of big SUV-type cars are more selfish and arrogant on the road. They may be lovely in all other aspects of life. But I think they feel safer in their big high-up car, and feeling safer makes them feel more powerful.
We've all seen how lorry drivers just casually change lanes on the motorway - they know that if they hit someone they won't die, unlike the rest of us, who know we have to be really careful when we change lanes.
I think driving a big strong high-up car makes drivers feel subconsciously stronger and safer, and therefore happier to take risks like overtaking, nudging forward when 2 lanes narrow, joining roundabouts etc. It's a confidence that comes from being less fearful, and it comes across as arrogance and superiority to the rest of us.

Looking out of my window I can see a huge Mercedes SUV parked half on the pavement of my terraced street because it's too big to park normally.

The arguments for 'bigger boot' is stupid. We have an estate as we transport large canvas tents, they'd never fit in the boot of an SUV.