Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

4x4s and other similar vehicles....

133 replies

AliGrylls · 02/04/2010 18:24

I live outside central London in a nice area that I love. However, there is one thing that is starting to annoy me and that is the number of 4x4s and other similar vehicles that are huge, impractical and block the roads.

Am I being unreasonable for wanting them banned. I know this is extreme but they really do drive me mad - the roads where I live are narrow and not meant for cars (i mean trucks) this size.

Apart from the above I could argue about the amount of petrol they use, which considering the ever depleting worlds resources makes me wonder why anyone would actually choose to have one.

OP posts:
reallywoundup · 02/04/2010 23:20

Bloody Nora, hasn't this been done to death already?

FACT, some of us NEED a 4x4, some of us live in remote or rural mountainous areas that frankly a fucking Toyota prius isn't going to cope with. We choose to drive a car that is safe to get us around on the roads we need to negotiate. We pay more road tax and more fuel duty.

So what? Seriously if your life is totally overwhelmed by your hatred of 4x4's you need a hobby.

nooka · 02/04/2010 23:38

I drive an extended pick up truck, which is probably bigger than most 4x4s in the UK. But I live in Canada where the roads, parking spaces etc are a great deal bigger, and we regularly have three months of snow. We use the pickup to go camping (off road) and it's nice to be able to take a couple of extra kids along. Where I live it's probably the most popular vehicle. I do think it is a slightly silly vehicle, but it has been very useful at times.

But when we lived in London we had a Golf (weekends only, bike/public transport during the week) which fitted the four of us and all our stuff just fine, even for going on holiday. If we returned back to the UK we'd have one again (here they are regarded as small cars, which says something for the general scale of cars here).

I don't think most owners of 4x4s have them for any particularly good reason - I know more people who own them who have two kids than with four, and more people from Dulwich than in the countryside too. The local farmers near my parents house mostly have beaten up sedans.

edam · 03/04/2010 09:19

NO, Louise, it's wrong for all the OTHER people who aren't driving the 4x4. Not just me, FGS!

ImSoNotTelling · 03/04/2010 11:11

I am @ 4x4 drivers comparing their vehicles to buses.

Can people really not understand that there is a need for buses in cities, they transport a lot of people, and they are very useful. They are not the same as a 4x4 with one person behind the wheel...

Plus everything that edam said.

"It is right for me to be able to flatten children but it may not be right for you" great.

Personally I hate them, they are cumbersome and dangerous and make my life rather a misery.

ImSoNotTelling · 03/04/2010 11:16

Round here I hate them I mean. I have no problem with them when there is a practical necessity.

I think some of the people on here would be surprised to visit some of these suburbs and see how many there are and how the block the landscape.

For those of you who do own them and live in urban areas and like to drive them in places where there are lots of small children, well you've made your decision.

poorbuthappy · 03/04/2010 11:20

I don't have a problem with the 4x4s, but I do think that if you want to drive 1 you should have a certain standard of parking ability prior to purchase.

But actually I think that about all vehicle purchases...if you can't get the bloody thing between the white lines and open your doors then you shouldn't be driving, regardless of whether or not its a range rover or a smart car!

bobdog · 03/04/2010 15:01

Honeymoo, It's not snobbery it's chosing the right tool for the job. If you've to tow twenty sheep to market don't buy a Mini. If you've got a dog and a child and you live in Battersea then a small car will be adequate and if you decide to increase your flock you can always (gasp) sell your car and buy a slightly different.

posieparker · 03/04/2010 19:45

Unless you have to drive in the countryside you look like a dick driving a 4X4, the silly BMW 4x4s are just for idiots as their off road driving is useless.

rollerbaby · 03/04/2010 20:44

Bobdog in case you've missed the global economic crisis and its effect on the car market, it would be utter folly to buy TWO cars in the next 5 years. We bought a car that would last us a very long time. That makes sense financially and environmentally. I couldn't give a flying fk about your rather sad generalisations about "poncy London village folk" and we bought what was right for us, and (gasp) one we wanted - as do most people.

And I agree with poorbuthappy don't buy a car if you can't drive it!

tiredfeet · 03/04/2010 21:01

All cars have the potential to kill a child, or indeed an adult. As I unfortunately know only too well. It was a bog standard normal car that killed my friend.

All cars pollute the environment.

YABU if you divide cars into 'goodies' and 'baddies' it is far too simplistic and misses the vital point that driving behaviour (in terms of ability, attention, and how much driving you do) is far more important. Just because you drive something other than a 4x4 doesn't mean you can sit polishing your halo. It seems they are a worryingly easy scapegoat which allows other people to exempt themselves from any responsibility.

bobdog · 03/04/2010 21:10

Honeymoo, you don't need to buy two cars at the same time and you don't have to buy a new car why not give away, swap or sell your unsuitable car for one that suits your current needs.

Hope your not thinking of buying baby clothes why not just buy adult clothes for your child after all
'in case you've missed the global economic crisis and its effect on the market, it would be utter folly to buy baby clothes in the next 5 years. We bought clothes that would last us a very long time. That makes sense financially and environmentally'

Obviously struck a nerve with the Padstow jibe. We'd love to see you and your money down here, just find reverse in country lanes and risk scratching your paint work by driving near the hedge not in the middle whilst we squeeze past.

Fruitysunshine · 05/04/2010 11:29

"We'd love to see you and your money down here,"

ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhh!!!

Smacks of jealousy to me!

Bigmouthstrikesagain · 05/04/2010 12:01

OP yanbu - most people do not 'need' a 4x4 - they may want one, or have a reason for having one, but need is very subjective anyway - for most purposes there will be a range of vehicles that would be fit for purpose.

When I lived in london and experienced being on the road with 4x4's around (as a passanger in dh ford mondeo so a largeish car) - like white vans they frequently represented the cliched bad/ selfish driving that makes driving in London so very unpleasant. tail gating, agressive, f**k you kind of driving, that is what I witnessed. The general attitude of drivers in a city is agressive anyway and when the person in their 4 wheel drive tank wants to make a manoeuvre they do so safe in the knowledge that they won't get killed, this does not promote good driving.

I now live in a more rural area and obviously there are landrovers etc around but as the attitude on the road is generally more relaxed (people let us out!!!) the tension I used to feel when a 4x4 came in sight is not so pronounced but I still hold my opinion that the design of the vehicle promotes poor and aggressive driving.

It may be considered a predujice but we all make value judgements based on my experience and no one on this thread has given me pause for thought. I am sure they are very useful and you feel all lovely and safe etc. but they come with a huge responsibility to drive them considerately and defensively and I do not see enough of that ...

My sis is in Kenya on hol and I hope she gets an opportunity to go on a safari and in a nice big 4x4 with bars etc. - a 2cv probably wouldn't cut it -

Bigmouthstrikesagain · 05/04/2010 12:06

I am sure you all do not make value judgements based on my experience but you know what I meant I hope...

looneytune · 05/04/2010 12:30

Well dh has a 4x4 and although I don't like them myself, his reasons for wanting it are good and tbh, it's been SOOO useful at times. We get floods in a certain area locally regularly enough for it to be a problem and thank god dh can get through these (rather than get stuck in them like m any other drivers we've seen). This has meant ds1 hasn't had to miss school because of them and my mindees (I'm a childminder) are still able to be dropped off at school therefore parents still able to work. It was also a godsend with the recent snow as he could collect children from parents who were stranded, he could get shopping when many others were stranded.

Oh, and I also have a 7 seater people carrier. I only have 2 children of my own but when I'm working, all seats get used up. No doubt people see me with my 2 children at the weekend and 'judge' me without knowing the facts.

I'm sooooo bored of people making assumptions about people they don't know!

bibbitybobbityhat · 05/04/2010 12:38

I hate them and am very judgey about the people who drive them (country dwellers/ farmers excepted).

I've never seen so many 4x4s all in one place as in the huge council estate I got lost in in Norfolk recently .

GentleOtter · 05/04/2010 12:51

We need our 4x4 as a tool of the trade and have brought forth lambs in it, transported feed to high ground, pulled people out of pickles, managed to get to a shop when no other vehicle could, that sort of thing.

I feel like a fish out of water though, on the rare trips into the city. You really cannot see very well in a busy car park or trying to park in the narrow little spaces allotted. I get nervous if someone gets flattened so keep jumping out to check at the blind bits.

People generally despise your mud and oomsk covered 4x4 in town but sing a different song when they need pulled out of ditches or snowdrifts.

Can I just rant that diesel is £1.20 per liter here ( £1.35 in Shetland) and that people who actually use their 4x4 for offroad work are being heavily penalised.

MitchyInge · 05/04/2010 12:56

yabu and ridiculous to want to ban them

cannot be bothered to justify for millionth time the value of my 4x4

(when it is actually working )

GentleOtter · 05/04/2010 13:04
MitchyInge · 05/04/2010 13:09

as soon as I finish rubbing myself with this picture of a double cab high capacity pickup . . .

Krugerellie · 05/04/2010 13:25

OP - Get a life. I will drive whichever car I choose and can afford to. Cannot believe the level of vitriol aimed at 4x4 drivers.

bibbitybobbityhat · 05/04/2010 13:27

Why can't you believe the level of vitriol? Your charmless post sums up perfectly why people despise 4 x 4 drivers "I will drive whatever car I choose ..." selfish, selfish, selfish.

cheesesarnie · 05/04/2010 13:32

op-does it matter what car people chose to drive?

we don't have 4x4 fwiw but don't get why it irritates you so much.
i live in Cornwall,they're quite handy down here.

amberlight · 05/04/2010 13:33

I drive a Land Rover. In a large town. And in the country where it does a good job of hauling stuff for the horse. And on construction sites getting equipment to and from things for surveys. And at rugby events where I can pile in 6 rugby players and their kit and get across 100 acres of mud and potholes without wrecking anything so we can use it as a first aid point. Just some of its functions.

The other week some woman in a small car decided to mistake the accelerator for the brake and rammed into the back of me at a traffic filter. Had my car not weighed 3 tons, a quick check of the physics says she would have shunted me into the oncoming traffic in front of a goods vehicle and caused a major pile-up and for all we know a loss of life/limb.

I also do a carbon offset.

I once wrote to the alliance against four wheel drive vehicles and asked them their view of all of this, and never even had the courtesy of a response.

Often I have male drivers staring at me and refusing to back up in narrow streets even if they have the shorter distance to go, seemingly quite convinced that I can't drive it and that it's going to be amusing to watch the silly blonde lady with her stupidly big car. I can put my car to within the nearest millimeter in any given direction, which wipes the smile off their faces quite beautifully. And I even give them a nice smile and wave.

In this last winter, I was the only mobile vehicle around my bit of the roads - helping deliver food supplies to the neighbours, take supplies out to the stables, and keeping a business running pretty much single-handed as I was the only one who could get into work.

What a car. Three cheers for her.
Land

Bigmouthstrikesagain · 05/04/2010 13:36

All the people posting that they live in the shetlands and use their 4x4 everyday moving sheep and driving through ditches - the op was not talking about you ...
Working vehicles and appropriateness for purpose is accepted!

The chelsea tractor driving between fulham and knightsbridge can not be classed as a working vehicle (even if they go to Scotland once a year in it!!!!) ... simples