Typical woman driving a car too big for her

[Lewqa]

That’s what my work colleague (a woman) said whilst sat next to me this morning when I gave her a lift in. We were waiting to pass a car (SUV) in the work car park where the driver was taking a while to park, lining it up etc.

I have heard this sentiment before from others, it’s not the first time.

AIBU for saying that men are just as bad as women when it comes to their driving/parking ability with these bigger cars?

AIBU for asking if the sky is blue? Sure lots of people will be on soon to validate that yes, the sky is often blue, and that one person who points out it's sometimes other colours.

Love the clickbait title! 🏆🏆

You forgot to tell us what you said in reply?

I’ve had this said to me before, but if they saw me getting a baby, toddler and 2 big Labrador’s out of the car they would probably realise I could actually do with an even bigger car😂

I salute anyone who is fabulous at parking bigger cars! Most parking spaces are just not built for them, I was a great parker when I had my little A1 and would love to just go back to a smaller car ha

Yes, what was your response?

Along the lines of ‘yes, she’s delaying my morning coffee’!

You give her a lift..,, so a close colleague whom you generally get on?

I think many women are socialised to think women are bad at driving and also to accept their DH’s theories on safety and/or prioritise their family’s safety over everyone else’s. Therefore timid woman in an SUV

The women all drive well in my family and I’d challenge any man to a parallel parking competition. I also hate SUVs bought solely for height and safety. This typically means the person is a poor driver. You want visibility and safety at the expense of others having it. And SUVs are much more likely to be at fault in incidents. As a direct result of their feeling of safety, because the height should make them safer.

No one should drive a vehicle that’s too big. Frankly, if you can’t drive, don’t.

But also teach your girls. DD could fill windscreen fluid at 3, check tires at 5 and at 15 can change tires, assemble brakes and change oil. If you don’t know how, find someone that does.

Yes, men are just as bad

but if its' a woman driving, I would also say "typical woman" - and "typical man.." when it's one.

It's the "driving a car too big for them" the point of the sentence, male or female is irrelevant.

You just need to go around a primary school at school run time to be confident, that yes, women and men are equally bad drivers, equally dangerous, and equally as stupid. It's not flattering.

In my experience, when I see a driver struggling to reverse or park a large car, more often than not, it's a woman driving.

Go to my local towns multi story at about 10 am and you’ll see lots of 4x4’s being reverse parked by women, perfectly competently.

I have driven them for 16 years. I can reverse park (easier to leave) much better than my husband, who prefers a little sporty car.

My first one had reversing beepers. So I relied on mirrors. My current one, has 360 degree cameras, which shows my car on a big screen and can park by itself, if I ask it to.

In other words, it’s sexist nonsense.

Has it ever occurred to you that a lot of women need an SUV for it's actual capabilities? I bought an outlander to tow a horse box, off road in the paddock, tow a trailer of hay, for all of my camping gear in and drive off-road to wild locations to camp in. All the women I know with SUVs actually use them for what they were built for. Also we all live in the country side where our roads regularly flood and snow and ice means that my husband in his regular car can't get to work/pick up our daughter when the roads get too bad so he takes my car or I go. Obviously everyone we know here is also having to contend with those conditions on a regular basis.

The only person I know driving an SUV for status and safety is a man.

I live in the States, where there are tonnes of big cars and some much larger than anything we have, and can definitively say that both men and women can be terrible at parking them.

It’s always amusing to see a bloke park a large truck at the very end of the car park where all the spots are open, taking up several because he can’t park the thing, and then walk all the way to the shops. Good on them for staying well away from everyone else’s cars though. 😂

At least most men are tall enough to be able to see over the steering wheel of a bloody great 4x4.😂

Some of the absolute worst manoeuvring I've ever seen in my life has been in school and supermarket car parks, and yes, the chief culprits are small women in massive cars.

On the other hand, most of the worst and seriously dangerous driving, overtaking, speeding, cutting up and tailgating I've ever seen has been vehicles driven by men.

Women vs men debates are so 1970.

I think people become less adept / confident at reverse parking when they age, and often an old man buys a big (long) car that they don’t need because of the prestige he associates with them, and the wife is struggling to park it at Waitrose when she’d be far happier in something small like a Micra or Mini etc. that’s what I assume when waiting for them to complete their 95 point turn. It doesn’t look fun. Why else would she be driving it?

Right so you agreed with her then.

So what's your AIBU?

Because to read your opening post it looks as though you disagree 😳

Yes and I’m very clearly not talking about you. I used to work for Landrover and when I did you were vastly outnumbered by the idiots getting stuck in off road mode on High Street Ken. If you live somewhere rural, of course more people need them. But cities are clogged up by SUV people who haven’t seen a horse in decades.

It used to be a rule that Defenders were driven by people who needed a 4x4 and everything else was driven by someone who didn’t. Those days are gone but there are a lot of people in Jaguar and Porsche SUVs who only see fields on their way to Cornwall for hollibobs.

In all honesty, I've seen far more women than men who struggle with parking. Some of them seem to actually think it's an endearing quality, which pisses me off.
I used to share a house in London with a woman who was quite proud of the fact that she couldn't park - she'd literally abandon her car in the middle of the road and come running in to call me to park it for her!

None of which answers your question about women with big cars, but suspect some of the people I've encountered would benefit from a smaller vehicle that is easier to handle...

I drive a small car as it's cheaper and I mostly use it for short local trips. I get annoyed by all the people (not specifically women) who drive MASSIVE chunky cars and still use our local lanes which are not built for their vehicles and who are the worst at finding the best places to stop and pass each other.

Babes (of any gender), if your car's gigantic, just take the long way around (we live in an area where there are alternative routes). Horses and farm vehicles, cool that's fine, crack on, this is your place and you know how to drive in the country lanes.

I would never say "typical woman driver" because in my personal experience, the women in my life are excellent capable drivers.

It's not senior citizens in general we're talking about here. It is families who have bought a huge car / SUV / whatever. Besides, the sort of person who shops at Waitrose is not the sort of person who has a small, cheap runabout anyway.

Yay! Sexism AND ageism!

Come on @SerenaCat93you know well enough that the majority of oriole who own an SUV never pull anything nor go off road.
OP I think the issue is parking spaces are not big enough for these big cars. I also think women are more careful - men may appear more confident but they don’t do a better job at actually parking. Slow and steady is just as good as fast if the car gets parked properly.

A lot of men are quite the liability in their vans. I mean as women we are really paying extra on insurance for men's dangerous driving.

Oh crap….[makes hasty exit].
I don’t pass the “Waitrose test”