Why do people drive big cars they can’t manage?

[HulinSings]

I’ve lost count of the number of (usually women in hubby’s RR) driving big cars that they simply cannot park or simply manoeuvre.

Is this just an issue by me or does anyone else encounter this on a daily basis?

Surely the need to be seen in a ‘brand’ isn’t worth the hassle driving one of these cars must bring..Insta has a lot to answer for

Yes many of them don’t want to give way even if the obstructions are on their side and they hurtle at you

Surveys of people who drive SUV's strongly suggest that they are twats

Care to link to one of these surveys?

People also buy SUVs for practical reasons, such as owning dogs and wanting to ferry them around practically. Ridiculously judgemental and narrow minded of you.

@IfNotnever any reason? Never? Are you sure? Your estate car is not in a million years going to pull 3000kg of livestock and trailer, or hay and straw up and down hills on country lanes or through fields in the depths of winter.

Not everyone works in suburban London you know, lunching and doing the school run - some of us live and work in the countryside and absolutely do have reason for a huge 4x4

And some of us are really rather adept at manoeuvring them too!

I own my RR outright.

Agree. My RR is mine!

We had a Roller, could manage it perfectly, why would it be hubbies

It’s terrible by me. People driving massive 4x4’s in roads that are completely unsuitable. Narrow terrace house streets with massive cars that no one can park.

There are plenty of both men and women who are rubbish drivers and drive small, medium-sized or big cars.

I know the size of my car really well and park easily. I once squeezed into a spot and then couldn’t get my baby bump out.

do not tar all RR drivers with the same brush. I live in the country and it’s free for my gun dogs.

it is bad enough men being sexist without women doing it too.

Accidents caused by vehicles accelerating slowly are far outweighed by accidents caused by vehicles driving too fast for the conditions.

Just a reminder - it’s got absolutely nothing to do with anyone else what car you drive, how you’ve paid for it or how much it costs. There shouldn’t be any situation where anyone thinks they have to justify their choices to anyone else, or feel superior to anyone else.

Ultimately, if you want an SUV, buy one. If these judgy twats aren’t judging you for that and feeling superior, they’ll be doing it about something else. Because they’re judgy twats and all this has more to do with that than anything in your life.

That will ramp up the envy 😆 😆

I drive a big estate car that can be tricky to park, I drive daily on a road considered one of the most dangerous in Scotland for fatalities. It's a daily occurrence seeing tourists use the wrong exits/entries, driving too fast or slow and generally being a danger. I want to feel safe should I get hit!

I’m not really judging SUV owners. I find they are hugely impractical for the average person just using it as a family car for other road users (and pedestrians when they’re parked on the pavement).

People have been brainwashed into thinking they need these huge cars.

Maybe for a single person yeah but we are thinking of having DC3 in the future. One thing that needs to be considered is having three full seats on the back to fit three car seats. Range Rover is one of those cars that is a car and not a bloody mini van.

edited to add:
we don’t own one, but it is a consideration

Plenty of non-SUVs fit three car seats. There’s really no excuse. If you want to take loads of kids, get a people carrier.

The women tend to have 4x4’s, the men sports cars.

Good for the men getting their sexy, manageable sports cars while their wifeys get to lumber around in the massive ones, presumably as they get to do all the wholesome donkey work of transporting numerous kids, dogs and equipment around in their spare time 👏🏻

This. Buy a car for your lifestyle and requirements not looks. People are fooled by marketing to think they need SUVs when the majority don’t need them.

My parents had 3 kids and we had a Picasso or Scenic, nothing wrong with those type of cars.

Range Rover

I drive a huge car of the Landrover variety that you dislike and it’s got a massive dent in the font because my idiot husband drove into a pillar while manoeuvring. It’s not his car and he didn’t hear the beeps apparently, so afraid men can be shit drivers too.

I find your post incredibly sexist most of the women know(rurally) can drive and manoeuvre massive horse boxes with ease, unless they hit you with their lovely expensive luxury cars then move on and stop being jealous.

This is quite interesting.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/40484743_Sex_differences_in_parking_are_affected_by_biological_and_social_factors

”mental rotation skills”

More than 1m cars sold in UK each year too big to fit typical parking space
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/04/more-than-1m-cars-sold-in-uk-each-year-too-big-to-fit-typical-parking-space

We don’t have laws in place to stop this (same as we didn’t have laws in place to stop disposable vapes being sold to children). It takes years for any changes to happen.

I sometimes drive our big truck - it’s very easy to manoeuvre, park etc due to the size of mirrors, parking sensors and cameras!
there’s literally no reason to fuck it up when you have all those things
My own much smaller car has none of those things and I still manage but I do despair at the amount of drivers who are shit.

Ahem, older gen here and I’m a great driver thank you, been driving for nearly fifty years, at home and abroad, all sorts of cars from gutsy sports cars to Volvo wardrobes and from the days of pre automatic everything so you actually needed some driving skills. My late DM came from racing stock, nothing wrong with her driving either.

The OP is right, there are a lot of really bad drivers out there who just can’t manage their huge cars. The number of times I’ve seen the driver of an oncoming car panic because they can’t judge the width of their own car on our rural roads and are afraid to pass is unreal. It isn’t only women, but they are the more tentative drivers; the men are no better, just arrogant with it.

MPVs (Scenics and Picassos) are bigger than the SUV I drive now. I know as we used to have a Sharan when we needed more seats and it was bigger than the current car. Also we found elderly parents can't climb easily into small cars - my mum couldn't get into the Seat Ibiza we got for DD1 to drive as it sits lower on the road.

Horses for courses isn't it. I spent ages Googling "Can a greyhound fit it [X car] boot?"

Personally I like driving something, without being huge, that sits a little higher on the road as you feel you are holding your own among all the larger commercial vehicles around, and just like the sporty design of some SUV shapes rather the long flat estate shape - which we've also had, but I now find a but ugly.

Perhaps it somes from having the Sindy beach buggy as a kid or admiring Suzuki Vitaras as a teenager, which looked so different from the majority of boring boxes at the time. I actually like cars and enjoy driving my car, it isn't just a box to get us from A to B in.