4x4 do you own one and do you get hostilities from other drivers

[Blueglass]

I have just aquired one and get constantly picked on. And before you ask it is not my driving

Which car 2006-7 says the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV 4 are the most pedestrian friendly 4x4s, but they don't have a lot of details on pedestrian safety.

btw they do say that in early RAV 4s the airbags go off too late in a frontal crash, but Toyota haven't recalled them - if you've got one, you might want to get it checked out (Chassis number earlier than JTMBA31V005012623 or JTMBA31V306022220)

Run that by me again in English please?

????

comprehendo? speaka Englisho? we talka about big cars no? bigga cars picking up bigga men no?

what is this number speak you have? Is this a maths lesson,no?

Yup it's a maths lesson: JTMBA31V005012623 -1 = unsafe airbag.

You need to find the chassis number, which will be in tiny letters in a completely inaccessible place, to work out whether your airbag is going to go off in time when you crush a Ford Fiesta under your wheels.

Oh dear - we all better have standard uniform grey cars of the same size, and fabricated in exactly the same way from ....bubble wrap and cardboard?.. in old Soviet Union style...because otherwise there will always be one car bigger than an other which will potentially crush the Ford Fiesta under it's wheels

sheesh!

And what about motorcyclists - invariably will come off worst in any collision with almost any car. I can't get over the self absorbed wanky car drivers putting their preference for a 4 wheeled vehicle first and
completely disregarding cyclists and motorcylists. Moral degenerates!

Blueglass says it is not her driving, and I wonder how she knows that ?
It's one of those entertaining bits of statistics that 80% of the population put themselves in the top 20% of drivers

Even if she is right about herself, my observation about female 4WDs is that they are scarily bad.
Most seem to believe that they are obliged by law to keep a phone permanently attached to their ear.

People carriers are big, but their design is such that they generally have a lower bonnet so that in impacts with pedestrians, they scoop up rather than flatten head IYSWIM. I think....
Don't like them.

We have a 4x4 an so far have not experienced any hostility but I'm prepared for it! We live in Cyprus where the driving is notoriously bad not sure we will be bringing it back to the UK though.

DC I just love your sweeping generalisations

So judging by the responses here, the answer to the OP is pretty much "Yes".

Clarkson sums it up really. If you are driving a 3 ton car because it makes you feel safer, you are making everyone else on the road less safe. The reason the car is safer for the occupants is principally because it is so much bigger and heavier than other cars, such that in a crash it has more momentum.

Ownership of the car pretty much sends a signal to other road users that your safety is vastly more important than theirs - and that because you can afford to drive a tank, you don't have to drive as safely.

Inverted snobbery it is not. The Prisoner's Dilemma tells you why people don't like you. Two criminals are taken into custody. They are held in separate cells and offered a deal. If they both keep silent, they can perhaps get away with it. If they both confess and try to frame the other one, they will go to jail. But if one of them stays silent and the other frames him, he will suffer a bigger penalty.

Driving a 4x4 is unfortunately a loud and clear signal that you would "frame the other person every time". You are only safer because other people opt for smaller cars. If everyone had one, you would be only as safe as everyone would be if they drove a Fiesta. But we would have hugely bigger cars on the road and poorer pedestrian/cyclist/motorcyclist safety as a result.

Wish I'd seen this thread last night!

Spiderama says "I snarl at 4x4 drivers because I believe that most of them ... are dangerous drivers."

Amazing that people admit to this sort of prejudice!

I happen to genuinely believe I am a very good, safe and considerate driver.

I didn't buy my car BECAUSE it's a 4wd, I just like it (mainly for the space inside and how nice it is to drive), and it is one. Just an added bonus in my opinion. (My current MN name gives it away obviously.)

We do walk to school etc, but on longer journeys we have an incredibly comfortable and luxurious vehicle to travel in. In any case, if I did use it on the school run, wouldn't have any problems with other drivers as they've all got them too. Our town is PACKED with 4wd drivers and I feel right at home.

Don't drive it because it makes me feel safer, drive because of the state of the roads and DH's job!

Hey just woke up and found a geet big sctrach down the side of my freelander...was it you Moondog?????????

..am with you Q7...have had my old rust busket for 6 years now..bought it because I love it, though it's more of a token 4 x 4 as internal space is actually far less than DH's NOT 4 x 4 estate car ! We have lived in rural areas for the past 12 yrs and it's been invaluable when we've had snow - there have been fab previous instances when the (male) car drivers havn't been able to drive up a certain hill (too slippery) I've whacked mine into 4wd and driven up with ease - amazed looks by said males in rear view mirror !!!!

Naturally I do put the well being of myself and my family first cloudhopper. My conscience is completely clear on that one.

I don't get the prisoner analogy at all - I wouldn't wilfully stitch up someone else in the scenario you describe unless they were guilty and I were innocent of course. But if we were both guilty I suspect I would confess..oh an shop the other guy (I have quite a strong moral code).

You say everyone hates us. Tbh I haven't noticed hostility toward me whilst driving my XC90 (perhaps because I am a considerate and careful driver who gives way etc... I don't know??..or perhaps because I am not an urban driver??). But if I did I would doubtless dismiss the other driver as some sort of intellectually challenged simpleton with issues.

Safety was a consideration in selecting my vehicle and I do want a car with good strong build quality that will hold up well in a collision. I can't personally right the social injustices that mean that some families don't have a bigger/ stronger car, and I think it would be a bit fuckwitted to have bought a ford fiesta for ourselves in recognition of the fact that smaller more vulnerable cars are on the road.

Deep; you are attacking my colleagues if you are claiming their work is somehow tainted by having non-execs who you don't like on the W? board. There are several different corporate structures at W? because it's a charity with a trading arm and a campaigning arm so I wasn't clear which one you were referring too.

W? crash tests are more extensive than those performed by Euro NCAP was all I was saying; W? is part of EuroNCAP and helped to set it up but runs more detailed crash tests. I can look up the details for you if you still want to be convinced and if you haven't insulted my professional integrity and that of my colleagues enough yet. I didn't work on crash testing myself but I can tell you people consider the design of all tests and investigations very, very carefully. There are an awful lot of procedures to go through to ensure what W? does is fair and actually useful.

I do feel insulted, frankly, by the combination of attack on the professional integrity of W? and your insistence that the directors can't be my colleagues. Gee, thanks. I don't want to say what my job was there as it would make me identifiable but what makes you so sure I was the office junior?

Frankly there are some people with bees in their bonnet on the council but there are in any walk of life and it does not affect testing. I had to handle some of their queries about my department, which mainly meant treating them with respect but explaining why we did some stuff and why we didn't do some other stuff - not the detail of test design. If you are a subscriber, come along to the annual meeting, stand for council, take part if you don't like the way it is run. Anyone who has a sub can do this.

Finally, it would be biased if W? refused to allow people with day jobs in industry to sit on the council. Can you imagine the outcry from any of the industries W? investigates if it had a blanket 'any involvement in business rules you out'? And how on earth would you get non-execs who understand the role if you didn't at least consider people who have experience of being non-execs?

Blimey talk about victim mentality.
Boo hoo. I've got a 4x4 and people are mean to me. Boo hoo.

This is social pressure and good thing too. These things are ridiculous in town (I live in central London and there are masses of them there). Looming, unenvironmental, dangerous.

No problem if you live in a very rural area but if you don't, then just suck it up.

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I live in the sticks we have a Honda CR-V. No-one says a word. Would have been unreasonable imho when we lived in Hampstead though.

NB my other car was a Smart car (but we got rid of it when I got pregnant).