Why does everyone need a massive car these days?

[Britishsummertime22]

Tesco this morning. Full of people who don't know how to drive or park their fuck off range rovers.

No tradesmen can work.out of a bag.

You might live five mins from work,.not everyone else does.

Some big SUV type vehicles are status symbols, not strictly just a mode of transport. You could buy a Nissan or you could spend an extra 100k and buy a Range Rover.

Nothing wrong with that, If you have the money, go for it!

In the school car park…? DD is an only child so minimal fuss - out of car, grab satchel & sports bag, hug goodbye and off she went. All in all about a 30 second ordeal and then I raced off to work. When she got to secondary school age I just dropped her out on a side street beside school.

We must be polar opposites as i can’t think of anything worse than having to drag a tired, cranky child to school on foot in British weather.

I don't! I love my Citroën c1......I can turn it on a sixpence 😁.....yanbu OP.....

That was my point. Tradesmen DO work out of a bag in central London. They have to work differently.

Get the infrastructure and regulations right and nothing is inevitable.

Trades in London use vans. The only situation I can think a backpack of Stanley would do for is if they’re travelling to a building site which holds a variety of equipment already.

a trade coming to your house -
perfectly common to come in a van. I Have worked for construction and building companies in central London for a long time

And it’s chunky enough to make me feel safe when I’m driving on the motorway every day.

So it's an arms race. At the expense of pedestrians and cyclists.

Road wear works to a fourth power rule. So a Range Rover causes 16 times the road wear of a Kia Picanto.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law

I don't know how families coped when cars were smaller! In our car we usually have 2 adults and 2 little ones in car seats, then day bags on the back seat in the middle and the kids' footwell (nappy bag, handbag, food bag, etc). In the boot we then have the double buggy, DS' bike or scooter and helmet, a change of clothes, big winter coats, walking boots/wellies, then a couple of suitcases if we're staying overnight at my parents'/in-laws/siblings/friends houses (probably 2 weekends a month). Often also need a potty/highchair/bed guard/travel cot. We are full to the brim even in our SUV!

You mean that you don't use period transport?

I can go back to the days when my father had a Morris Oxford. I have never seen boot so big as they were in those cars - 4 suitcases went in the back when we went on holiday as kids. There was never anything in the car with us.

Then it seemed that boot space suddenly got smaller

It’s frustrating they often take more than one parking bay, so everyone has the consequences of someone liking a bigger car.

The safety they bring is potentially at the risk of others in a crash. Pedestrians and cyclists particularly.

I think if you’ve got a car that is costing everyone (and the environment) more than it should be taxed to alleviate that and pay for the infrastructure needed for them.

I fail to see how anyone genuinely ‘needs’ one on a school run. Lots of near misses at our school. Disabilities aside, completely appreciate a larger vehicle will be needed for a wheelchair or similar.

It’s a status thing mostly I think. You can fit dogs, bags, scooters and kids into estates which aren’t so huge upwards and outwards.

Digdongdoo · Yesterday 09:07
2 car seats, suitcases plural and a pushchair? In a VW Up? No you did not.

where did I write suitcases? we took bags, not suitcases

2 cars seats, and 2 pushchairs and 2 adults, 2 children and we went on holiday 170 miles away for 7 days holiday in a caravan - yes we did.

I apologise - I did write suitcase, meant bags.

The boot has a hidden part underneath which houses quite a few extras.

We can get a double pushchair in the boot - but not much else so need to use the foot wells for shopping etc.

I get 64mpg on a trip - but not fully loaded, It cost £5k 8 years ago, its £250 a year to insure and £20 for car tax atm. So its cost me £78 a month

It sits on the drive or in a car park 90%of the time, as most cars do https://www.racfoundation.org/media-centre/cars-parked-23-hours-a-day#:~:text=Steve%20Gooding%2C%20the%20director%20of,does%20have%20one%20silver%20lining.

Im not paying out over £100 a month and certainly not £800 a month for something to sit idle for 23 hours a day

they used a roof rack

Its possible to go on a family holiday on the train

Cycling to school can be nice

Inadequate people need big cars to make up for their inadequacy. It's how they feel complete 🙁

this family do train holidays

Nice, with bikes too!

Redpeach

he took his son, shown on another video - to Netherlands on holiday - bike, train, boat. They camped and cycled.

I don't like crappy little Italian town cars that shake your bones every time you drive them 🤷‍♀️

We aren’t talking about whether the purchase is an investment with a return-a car never is, no matter how you buy it, so that’s irrelevant- but about whether it’s affordable- with the posters on this thread alleging if you don’t pay cash outright, you can’t afford it.

I’m simply saying your mortgage payment is affordable even though you couldn’t buy it outright so why wouldn’t a lease payment be?

Basically the only profits dealerships and certainly individual sales people do make on sales are your extras and your leasing.

that doesn’t negate the fact that in order to promote leasing (to realise that profit) they offer incentives that you can’t access by paying cash.

I guess you could look at it another way- you’re penalised for paying cash because they’re not really interested in that business.

Just shows there is life beyond cars

So they want you to lease because they make more profit from you.
I mean we all spend money on things that are important to us but it still feels like a bit of a mug's game.
The number of posts you see on her where people are complaining they are skint in 100k salaries are making a bit more sense...

I had a Nissan micra (old type) and easily managed with a toddler and a baby.