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.

as for mud, I regularly have to have mine steam cleaned at a specialist place otherwise all the caked on mud underneath causes serious damage - so even the proper ones have their clean moments!

I'm giggling at the fact that Sandy's post showed as "It also comes in handy driving through the french" on the list of threads I'm on...

"Why do you not get your knickers in a twist about the White Man driver or the juicy BMW'S, Jaguars, Mercedez drivers? "

Because they aren't driving 4x4s which can cope with the snowy edge of the road but not moving over! Read and understand the OP FFS!

Out of interest, Riven, would the driver who splashed you be a fat wanking cunt if he'd been driving a Micra? Would you then hate all Micra drivers?

I went out in my 4x4 to pick up some stranded neighbours earlier and managed to avoid drenching any pedestrians. So it's not the act of driving a 4x4 that turns a driver into an automatic-pedestrian-soaker, it's being a git that does it and I dare say a git is a git, no matter what car he or she is driving.

Well said Soup!

Tiredsville - I'm afraid that is exactly the kind of mentality that pisses people off. Mr and Mrs X have kids and suddenly decide 'Ooh we need a fuck-off huge car to keep us all safe' - well actually, they are not safe, they are fucking dangerous to everyone else's precious children - but I guess that doesn't matter does it?

Glad to see you conform to type tiredsville - everyone else can go fuck off eh?

I wasn't suggesting you make a habit of running over other people's children. I just hope you are never involved in an accident where the size/height of your 4x4 inflicts serious injury or a fatality because I sure as hell couldn't live with myself if I did.

Tiredsville confirms what I thought!

lol - back to the Op - I often think this - not usually in the snow of course, but anywhere where it is too narrow to pass without one going in the mud. But on the other hand, I just find it amusing , and then forget it & think about soemthing more interesting...

Maybe it's the mentallity of the driver, rather than the size of the car?

I have been looking at the pedestrian safety ratings here www.euroncap.com and the 4x4s aren't much different to the estates/saloons

I also feel safer, and more SUPERIOR(conforming for you) as I can react to hazards further down the road because I see them sooner.

I think it's the high bonnets on 4x4's that make them particularly dangerous - I can see the point that being higher up means that you can see obstacles from a distance, but nearby the visibility is very poor. Some of the tanks that park by my dcs school have bonnets that are up to my chest - maning that they can cause greater and more life-threatening injury; can't see young children and lethal to those that they hit.

Doesn't make up for the general crapness of driving ability by 4x4 drivers though.

parking sensors make up for the high bonnets

Riven - you're talking physics to 4x4 drivers?.... save your breath, it's beyond them....

Agree primula. I've seen some hideous near misses by 4x4 drivers, where they obviously haven't spotted a child or pushchair that's really close to them.

Erm ... are the parking sensors switched on when they need to take up 1 1/2 spaces in a car park? (sorry that's cheeky)

But Sandy ... how do parking sensors compensate for having restricted vision in front of you when travelling at, say, 10, 20 40 or more mph - not just parking?

they beep when you get close to things! even when not parking & the brakes are bloody good!

I think you're getting confused with the Noddy car again Sandy.

We had snow only at the beginning of the week. I got stuck behind some dozy bint in a new Grand Espace driving slowly along on the ice with her brakes on. Talk about dangerous.

I've come to the conclusion that the reason people always feel that 4x4 drivers are such a PITA is because they tend to be driven by these sorts of women- who would be a PITA whatever they drove. If they are that scared of driving they should stay off the road.

well without dh 4x4 our whole close would have starved to death(well ran out of milk}he was the only one able to get out in his big chunka munka.

about 10mins, no one wnted to go but piled out with lists when they saw dh with his bag for life.