To think that if you have 4x4...

[SoupDragon]

... you should move across to drive in the snowy bit of road and leave the clear part to the ordinary car coming towards you?

It is, after all, the one time per year that your 4x4 is actually necessary in town.

Nope - we're talking about much smaller numbers with sports cars and they tend to be people with a specific interest they want to indulge.

Whereas the 4x4 market became swamped with people jumping on the bandwagon, thinking it was an essential status symbol, and there is definitely a correllation between poor drivers with a lack of control and even basic understanding of the size of their vehicle and 4x4 drivers. I have seen many near misses on the school run.

I think things are changing - most people are more environmentally aware these days and realise that a fuck-off great gas guzzler is unecessary. And even if they're too dim to consider the environment, they're getting hit in the pocket now through road tax etc. Bout time too.

Violet - Thats exactly how I feel, well said.

sb6699, a "normal car" with proper winter tyres will be better in these conditions than a 4x4 with standard tyres. If you go to Sweden or Norway, few people drive 4x4s - they have normal hatchbacks and saloons, but put the right tyres on for the conditions.

In most other northern European countries, people put winter tyres on as soon as the temperature drops below 10 degrees C, which is the point at which "normal" tyres that 99.9% of people in the UK have on, start to get harder and lose grip.

Most of the 4X4s designed at townies are no more capable of coping with bad conditions than your average estate anyway. And most of their drivers aren't either.
funnily enough out this way in the years we have had bad snow it hasn't been the 4X4s out helping people its been tractors.

I'm out in the boonies and up to my bits in snow - yay for my 4x4! Landy's rock - I've even used ours to tow a tractor out of a ditch!

I do know what you mean about some town 4x4 drivers though. We used to have loads coming down for the weekend where I used to live. You could always spot them as their cars would be gleaming and they'd drive in the middle of the road (and sit there, leaving the oncoming car to drive through the hedge) so they didn't get their wheels mucky ... There was a shoot near us in a nice, dry, level field and the entrance and road was crammed with town 4x4s as nobody wanted to drive their car into a field!

In response to the OP - definitely they should be taking the snowy bit and leaving the ordinary car to have the clear bit. I'll always take the rutted/snowy/crappy side if I have to pull over for a non 4x4.

landy + these rock

I must GO! and maybe seek treatment for my obsessive compulsive land rover loving disorder

PMSL at 4x4 drivers not wanting to get their cars dirty. Says it all!

But bruxeur, but does winter tyres help with mud, which I've been stuck in twice outside my house this week (we live semi-rural and our drive-way is really just a makeshift one cut out of the tractor path that runs past the back door) and every time it rains there is a huge puddle at least a foot deep that appears in the lane (the only way out). Mechanic thinks this could have caused the damage to my little car.

I suppose I'm in a different category from town drivers who have one as a status symbol and I agree it can get a bit ridiculous.

Think I've posted this before at some point but in our local multi-storey carpark, I once had 2 HUUUUUGE 4x4's parked either side of my car and couldn't even open the doors - ended up climbing in through the boot and had to take off my wing mirrors to get out of the space without damaging my car.

I hope you scratched their 4x4s sb6699

Sorry sb, probably not - but you didn't mention mud, just the current weather and lack of gritting...

YANBU it's a sensible assumption but there are some really weedy, over accessorised supposed 4x4's out there that just could not cope with it.
My G-Wagon will go ANYWHERE (almost) but it looks a bit like a tank (hope that works..)

oops it didn't www.supercars4u.co.uk/g%20wagon%20(1).jpg

Nekabu, we get those drivers too. The lane is a single road with passing places which when it rains get really deep and slippy but the 4x4 drivers seem to expect me to move aside for them!

Town drivers don't seem to have Landrovers either - is BMW 4x4's and Porche Cayennes where I live.

DAGTD - I think I could drive over the Himalayas in that!

I think you probably could. It's really an army vehicle so it's well 'ard

4 X 4's disgust me they are excessive, selfish bits of materialistic machinery and often bullyish on the road - tough this is my opinion and they shouldnt be allowed to park across two spaces either

On a totally serious note (because I know these threads can just become a slanging match) the problem with 4x4s is that for some reason (greedy manufacturers using marketing strategies) they have become something that they never should have.

The argument about 4x4 drivers coming to the rescue of poor stranded drivers is disingenuous. Proper 4x4 drivers have always done that... I remember when I was little, the farmer with the beaten-up old landrover used to give us a lift along the track when it was icy etc. These people have always been around - it just wouldnt make the headlines!

The issue now is with the hordes of seriously misguided people who have been conned into buying huge gas guzzlers through various marketing ploys that make them feel that it's an essential accessory. And even more worrying is the message that makes people feel these tanks are safe. They aren't. They are lethal. There genuinely does seem to be a correllation between anxious and/or poor drivers and 4x4 use, certainly in towns. They can also give the driver a false sense of security - 'I'm alright cos I'm in a fuck-off big vehicle- which is hideously dangerous.

I'm off work today because the school I teach in is closed, but I drove to work every other day this week in a little peugeot. No problem. I managed this by getting up even earlier than usual, to give myself masses of time, crawling along at a really slow speed, not worrying whether I arrived a bit late because my safety and that of others on the road was paramount. I felt pretty safe, tbh, even in this weather, and I was also aware that the worst case scenario would not result in a fatality because I went so carefully and slowly. Contrast this with my walk to school this morning with my dd. There wasn't much out on the roads, but whenever a 4x4 went past they went signficantly faster than other cars, even though I'm sure the drivers had no greater control. Add to that the height of these vehicles, and the fact that some of them still have lethal child killer bull bars on the front (yeah, really necessary for city driving).... I have to agree with bigeyes. The vast majority of 4x4s should not be on our roads - they are driven by selfish people who don't respect the environment or other people's lives.

bigeyes, sometimes they are necessary! I need my Landy to get around (I'm out in the sticks are roads can be very variable) and to carry hay, etc. Being 'bullyish' and parking badly (why would anyone need to park across two parking spaces with a 4x4?!) is down to the driver, not the car. Bet they'd be just as rude in a different car.

bigeyes, I use mine to pull my horsebox/trailer and off-road to get to some of our fields that do not have a road so yes, it is necessary in some cases (but i'm not defending the ponce-mobiles - great phrase Riven!)
I can also park mine correctly!

I am judging only suburban 4x4 drivers here. I have quietly sniggered to myself as I am forced to pull across to the snowy bit of the road since my Laguna seems to be handling the snow/slush very well indeed despite being a bog standard car.

I was also amused by the Lexus Poncemobile which mad a huge meal of getting out of our road, although to be fair that's not a proper 4x4.

my normal sized hatchback has AWD and I would certainly move aside for someone sliding about in an ordinary car
I would not for someone in a fucking chelsea tractor. In fact if I had a missile in my car I would direct it at them. Selfish cunts.

(disclaimer: They are fine if you are not in town)

I'm not sure where i fit in on the scale of the stereotype 4x4 drivers? We have a Grand Jeep Cherokee, it's not a flash new model, cost about 5 grand, not what i would call a "big, flash, expensive car." We don't care if it gets dirty, we live outside the new forest so quite often go off road but we live in a town. Am i suppost to park the car outside the town and get the bus home?

Plus i am quite often tailgated for driving too slow (30mph) AND i give way to other drivers Plus i can park the car!

I know which 4x4 drivers you are talking about though. The sort who drive these type of cars tthat are always shiny and a clear status symble. I hate them too, it's just a shame people ignorantly paint all 4x4 drivers with the same brush.

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