to think that 4x4 drivers are the most selfish w@*&(*&s ever???

[redrobin]

It makes my blood boil! They drive their big childcrushers whilst on the phone, they tailgate other smaller cars, they use enormous amounts of petrol, they block up roads, they look threatening...how can people choose to drive something like that? Do they have ha a selfish gene, do they think they are just better than other people so rules don't apply to them, or are they just thick?

(NOTE this is only about town drivers, i appreciate that they are useful in the countryside).

Sometimes, I think Jeremy Clarkson is winning.

How about a grrovy little 'muddy wellies' insignia?

But I still defend the right for a sticker saying 'I live in Fulham, now Fark orff'

maybe spray on mud to create authentic wellie wearer, aga owning, couple o sheep ambeience

a fulham farkers urban collective, trotting around in a St Tropez haze, yakking on about house prices dahling

Ah, nope. Abi, you lost what slender support you had with that last post.

spray-on mud

cor!spray on mud [www.mumsnet.com also works on yer wellies]] not so good on the aga

cor!spray on mud accessorise yer wellies not so great on the aga.thanks for link

did I mention that I drive an OLD mini - it is a tiny car

feckin tiny

Quite funny today when various bigger cars tried to cut me up

"parp Parp"

I felt like noddy

But in some ways I feel safer in my car - i can see EVERYTHING, I can really feel the road conditions, and i drive with consideration

I also drive an old car (36 years old), but it has been converted to have a more eco friendly engine, and the insurance band means I can only drive a certain amount of miles a year. Consequently i don't use it on the school run/around town. My dp car shares for work and fortunbately for me i live within close proximity to my job,school, shops, doctors, dentists etc. I hate standing in judgement of anything, it actually makes me feel very uncomfortable and until I woorked in my current role my opinions were alot more flippant. But whilst we argue on this thread about the stats, the justifications etc it won't do anyone any harm to remember that there are very real victims in all of this. This arguemnt is not just about envy, status and perceived intimidation, its about the lives that are nedangered purely through choice of car. When people quote stats and suggest the dangers of other cars, yes I do take this on board and readily accept that other cars are not as pedestrian friendly as they should be, but the issue is wider than this. Big cars on small roads cause problems for road users and pedestrains alike which aren't covered by statistics, poor visibility being one of them. To suggest that buses, lorries etc are equally as dangerous is a futile arguement as they both serve a purpose which society as a whole benfit from and generally stick to bigger and better equipped routes.
You can argue and argue, and justify and justify but ulitmately when big cars place others in danger and for the best part are unescecarry (sorry spelling) don't take umbridge for being judged.

oh dear so m,any typos but you get my point!

Oooh, aspirational, defiant, defensive, judgemental, jealous, sarcastic, this thread has got the lot!

Thank goodness there's some humour in there as well

(Waves to all the Sciennes mums and thanks heaven she doesnt drive and never will)

And to youcannotbeserious - if you dont know what a bugaboo is - be thankful. You are standing in front of the door marked "Aspirational parenting". Once you open it you can never go back...its very seductive. Get out while you can!

I feel i should own up to being a 4X4 driver in the city. Sometimes i do feel embarrassed by the chelsea tractor image.

HOWEVER, i am fed up of people going on about the pollution/ petrol guzzling stuff. It has a 2 litre engine, smaller than many other cars (including the 3.2l porsche boxster we used to run pre-kids!). We use it very little (3000 miles/year), but still have to pay more road tax (i am in favour of road tolls which would target the bigger polluters). I drive much more sensibly in it as i'm more aware of its size (although actually its really no wider than your average car).

I have a BMW 4 x 4 which I really do enjoy driving (safely) Conversly, I do get annoyed when I see glamorous, slim and sexy shiny-haired types driving the same car as me (seems to be the type that gets most womens backs up) - but if I am honest it is because they look so groomed and fabulous and swish and I by contrast am porky and dishevelled.

I have got a nice warm bum tho..and my other car is a Prius so I am kind of carbon-neutral to a point (perhaps I should get a bumber sticker with 'my other car's a Prius' for the BM

I'm that people admit to driving less carefully when not in a 4x4.

Thanks Aitch - I hadn't realised that she'd mixed us up either.

I drive an ancient saloon which does about a fifth of the miles-per-gallon that a 4x4 does, but I don't get any dirty looks. In fact, I'm considering buying an old Land Rover because clearly the car I drive doesn't court enough controversy, despite it's enormous girth.

I pay £45 per tank of petrol directly to Mr Darling for the privilege and frankly, I expect to be loathed for it. Clearly I have gone very wrong somewhere...

Suedonim,

I should clarify that I mean in the 4X4 i tootle around often well under the speed limit whereas i used to drive at the limit before. With the porsche i used to enjoy racing away at lights etc but with a diesel 4x4 that ain't gonna happen!

I don't understand how anyone can justify driving a car with a 2L engine in town by saying 'there are cars with bigger engines out there'. That's a bizarre argument. Of course there are. There are also substantially more cars with smaller engines

The man in the Saab that tailgated me across the forest this morning (speed limit 40mph) wasn't intimated by my 4x4 in the slightest.

At least not until I slammed my brakes on. I expect his car will need to go to the valet now.

I was pondering this thread this morning and have come to following conclusions/found out that:

*Big 4X4s (not the toy ones) do take up a teensy bit more space than other cars. In big cities with narrow roads, this makes all the difference and is annoying.

*4X4s are 30% less likely to be involved in accidents, but if they are, there is a 26% chance of injury to a pedestrian, compared to 21% if hit by 'family car' (ie 5% greater chance of injury)

*They are visible and shiny and generally expensive and a large proportion of 4X4 drivers are wealthy. They look down on the rest of us. It's bound to wind a few of us up .

They tend* to guzzle more fuel (but see here for interesting comparisons.

*All cars are bad for the environment, but in the great scheme of green-ness, it would be more helpful for everyone to insulate their houses, get a new boiler and stop eating meat or flying than to worry about 4X4s.

4x4s are 30% less likely to be in an accident than ALL CARS, the interpretation being that they are in most cases family cars.
i bet you any money that ALL FAMILY CARS are 30% less likely to be in an accident than yer general car on the road. certainly sounds like it, judging by the amount of extraordinary confessions on here that people were unsafe drivers before they grew up and entered the family 4x4 market.
please do not assume that a story in the Standard had interpreted the data correctly, that's just embarrassing.

As I was cut up by a driver who was going round the wrong side of a mini roundabout this morning I thought of this thread. The stupid w*nker was driving an Astra...

no, got the figs from BBC

but you can't trust anyone these days