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.

I understand @luckylavender . But a VW Up is about the same size as my 1989 VW Polo, while the Polo is now the size of a 1980s Golf.
So as well as the estate, we drive a mini, which is huge compared to the one I drove while learning to drive.

We have an eight seater because there are six people in our family and sometimes we all go on holiday or visits or out somewhere together.

Bitter for not buying a car on credit? Are you quite mad?

I must be very odd because funnily enough I’m not envious of other people’s massive credit card debt either.

I still don’t think you understand what a lease is.

the car is being bought anyway. “Massive credit card debt” indicates someone who is buying things they can’t afford, people who don’t have the money.

You have to be able to afford the monthly lease payment- in full- every month. You don’t get to make a minimal payment and think about making the rest up later.

3 years later you buy the car, or you trade it in for a new one, usually because you like cars and getting new ones.

you could compare it to someone who puts all their purchase on Amex for the cash back and pays it off in full every month. That’s not massive credit card debt either.

The credit card debt was in response to a poster being told people were bitter.

I think it is you who doesn’t understand leasing after you compared it to taking out a mortgage.

Anyway other people’s loans and debt are definitely not enviable to anyone.

BTW I fully understand debt (and that is exactly what a leased car is). For many years my job entailed trying to come up with feasible repayment plans to avoid/delay repossession for people who borrowed before their circumstances changed.

Because we regularly travel with 5 children.

Where would you like me to put the 5th, in the boot along with the 3x musical instruments, 5 x school bags, 5 coats and 3x hockey sticks / cricket bats / cardboard models / cake sale contributions / my work stuff? Have you tried to get 5 children, in car / booster seats, into a small car along with all their stuff?

We also live down a muddy pothole ridden track, and our old smaller car was crashed into, so we had to replace it.

We also have a smaller car that we drive when it’s possible. It’s actually more polluting that the bigger one, are you judging only on size?

You quoted me so fair to assume it was in response to me either way.

No one is envious of other people’s debt (well, that’s not true I guess I’m envious of those on 10 year fixes at 1%) but neither is any normal person envious of people’s cars, and neither are people who buy cars on leases trying to “keep up with the jones’”

Same experience. We had an old Renault Megane estate for years - pretty much everything fitted in the boot, great for camping or carting old furniture to the dump, could even have slept in it if we'd had to. Nothing now comes close apart from the Skoda Octavia estate. Everything else, no matter how massive, has less boot space.

Also, these huge cars these days have huge tyres which are causing all the terrible potholes we have now.

I think it's also the weight of the electric batteries damaging the road.

I love these threads because all the people who it clearly isn't aimed at come out in outrage to talk about how they need to fit their children's giant bulky hobbies in and their elderly parents' wheelchair and they live on a farm and have to carry sheepdogs etc etc, just absolutely falling over themselves about it. If you've got an obvious enough reason then this thread probably isn't about you, is it? Relax a bit.

My friend - who has no children with oversized hobbies or any reason to transport anything bigger than her handbag - has a Range Rover because she likes being high up and it feels fancy. No other real reason. I have a Sportage because I like being high up and I can't afford an Audi Q7. I can park mine, though!

The average household size in the UK is 2.36. The number of families needing to cart around 3 or more children is tiny (even if they are all on Mumsnet 😂)

I don’t need one, I wanted one. I don’t care if you don’t like my choices. I park superbly btw

We don't have a free market economy. It's a mixed market one with significant amounts of government intervention.

If the government wanted to restrict car size, they absolutely could.

what’s wrong with a button or dial

It's cost. A central touchscreen saves a fortune on the relatively complicated knobs and buttons which used to be an opportunity for designers to make unique interiors, I drive a 2018 Q7 occasionally and the switchgear is beautiful, all scrapped a year later for fiddlescreens.

Every car in 2025 looks the same inside. And outside for that matter.

Edit: Not every car, obviously. But the trend is definitely there.

Supermarkets need to make the spaces bigger too. Because if you park next to a huge SUV you can't open the car door!

3 adult DC with whom we regularly do 500 mile plus journeys, plus a large dog and the occasional need to fit in a wheelchair. Plus my DB lives up a dirt track, so I would need to park and walk over a mile in winter if I didn't have a 4x4.

Because I am not willing to compromise my safety or life for knobheads that dither around, speed, don’t do the speed limit or don’t know the Highway Code.

If you make a mistake I know I am probably safe and nothing will persuade me otherwise.

The worst parking I see comes from small car drivers.

But what if you made a mistake? And it was a pedestrian, cyclist, people in a smaller car - who probably would have been fine if you hadn’t been driving a tank?

It becomes an arms race, which benefits no one.

When my DD got her own car, i happily sold my "mum car", and bought myself a MX-5. I bloody love it, it goes like a rocket and i put the roof down whenever the weather lets me. I don't think i could go back to having a big car any time soon.

Most don't "need", they "want" and safety of those outside their care doesn't seem to come into it.

They usually don't, people are just bellends these days.

Emissions is only part of the story. These cars produce more fine rubber particles which damage air quality, The weight also reduces the lifespan of roads. So you should not pay less road tax

We own 3 cars..

2 x SUV’s and one sports car

Reasons I like my SUV (which I can drive/park)

Big enough for the kids/dogs all the shite they need. (try getting 4 people, 2 dogs and camping stuff in a polo)

I live rurally - the roads around here are absolutely terrible, the potholes are massive and in parts increasingly dangerous the air suspension on the car is definitely worth it.

Again the roads are un gritted in the winter, one of the sets of crossroads is an ice rink when it freezes - without 4x4 and the AWD we’d be screwed to get home and to work kids to school etc - admittedly this winter it’s not been too bad but when it was -10/12 it was a life saver.

I like it - own all 3 cars outright (we did have them on HP at some point) and I enjoy driving them 🤷‍♀️

I don’t have to justify myself to anyone about the cars I drive..and don’t give a shit what other drive either

Edited to I have my HGV license 🤣 so if I can’t drive an SUV I shouldn’t be on the road

Exactly, which car was taking up two car parking spaces at the garden centre yesterday. I'll give you a clue it wasn't a SUV or 4x4.