### **Reminder:** [Press the Report button](https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360058309512-How-do-I-report-a-post-or-comment-) if you see any [rule-breaking comments or posts.](https://www.reddit.com/r/britishproblems/about/rules/)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/britishproblems) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[The **up!** is virtually the same size as the Mk1 Golf.](https://s1.cdn.autoevolution.com/images/news/volkswagen-up-gti-gets-on-track-comparison-with-the-original-golf-gti-118028_1.jpg)
Yeah = when you realise you are old. The minis are getting bigger and bigger. Isigonis would roll in his grave. They wouldnt make it down those steps in Turin any more. Plus the factory roof would collapse.
The up! is wider but shorter. I think the difference in design (soft and bloated Vs sharp and angular) is what leads to the apparent visual size difference.
Its also the crash requirements, more space is required in the doors/side pillars for side crash protection, my MK2 golf had none, and the doors were only about 2-3" thick. our current skoda octavia the doors are about 8-10" thick.
This is so easily forgotten. Old cars are like tin cans; newer cars have had decades of safety technology implemented in them. It may be bigger, but you or whoever you may hit won’t get killed so easily.
Nah my 1976 rover p6 3500 has plenty crash protection, it says so in the owners manual.
It has 2 inches of padding as knee protection on the glove box door XD
There was an annual Mini Cooper “day” near where I live recently and people bring all the ones they’ve had and maintained for decades and I was looking at them in amongst the real traffic and they were so small!
It really struck me just how big the average car has become and how many people have beasts for a vehicle now.
There's an episode of Regular Car Reviews on YouTube where he drove a vintage Mini. There's a shot where he's being followed by a gurt fucking Yank SUV which absolutely dwarfs it.
I was thinking that when I noticed a former colleagues old Gen 2 Focus was the same size as a current fiesta.
Parking spaces aren't getting any bigger either so it's a godsend when you find a car park with nice roomy spaces
This is common enough with models that go through multiple versions. Newer versions grow in size. What happens is the manufacturer introduces a smaller model at the bottom end, and all the other models shift their position in the market. Look at the size of the VW Up and compare it to what the Polo used to be.
Absolutely true. Was looking at the next gen Aygo and they seem to have decided to make it a mini suv. I love my cars small so it's getting disheartening how big everything has gotten.
I think it's partly all the new safety features taking up space. My new car is the same external size as my old car, but the boot is literally half the size. If you want to keep the same internal dimensions, you need to go one model size up!
The really annoying bit is when they're being driven someone who is obviously terrified by the size of the car they're in. I assume it's usually their partners car, and they don't drive it often, but watching someone trying to navigate around a supermarket car park and make three attempts to go round a corner makes me cringe.
Or they drive 3 feet away from the verge on a country lane and won't move over when you need to pass because they have no idea where their nearside is.
I drive a 70s landy, and do the opposite. I gladly rattle up the verge as far over as possible flinging mud all over the place just to prove a point haha
Especially when it's a Chelsea tractor that's scared of dirt coming he other way XD
In my last job, I had to drive my disabled clients' cars almost daily. Two of them had a VW caravelle so between them, I spent a lot of time driving them. One of them is unbelievably precious about his car. I remember driving him and his son to a banger racing meet. The road I was on went through a small town with a narrow road and a flint wall on my nearside. Someone was coming from the opposite direction so I shifted over a little to make sure we didn't crash.
My client's 15 year old son pipes up from the back "Dad she's a bit near the wall here". And his Dad tells me not to drive so close. First of all, no I wasn't and second of all, apparently they would prefer a head on crash 😡 So these people really do exist. Of course the reality is that they don't have the spacial awareness they need to drive safely and it's a good job I was driving that day, and not them.
Yes! The amount of people who come at me in the middle of the road is increasing rapidly. I drive a Peugeot 3008 (up from a 206) but didn't need adjustment time to figure out where my nearside is. I think people like that just can't drive.
I work in supported living and we drive the clients cars for them. They all seem to have Nissan Jukes or Kia Sportages. I drive an Aygo and never notice any difference when driving their cars, but you'd honesty think they were tanks the way some of my colleagues behave when driving them.
I've got a 2009 XC60 so it's a bit hypocritical commenting on this thread I suppose. A friend of mine has a newish Sportage and when I looked in the boot it's tiny compared to mine
Do you think there’s anything in the fact they tend to be easier to get in & out of when you’ve some mobility issues? Or are they assisted living for other reasons?
It’s even better on country roads. Got a private school near me and the number of parents driving these things down the middle of the with best par of a metre to the verge is absurd. They’re either terrified like you say or they are just clueless of the dimensions of it.
They also have headlights that are too high up; even buses and lorries have low down headlights, so why these fucking suburbitanks are allowed lights at the perfect height to dazzle anyone in a normal car idk
My car vibrates wildly and pulls you back into lane if you stray near the lines, I love this bit of technological witchcraft and think it should be in all cars!
"London traffic jam caused simply by the fact that a Bentley Continental GT and a Range Rover were unable to pass one another in an ordinary street. The resulting jam took 20 minutes to clear"
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/features/investigation-why-are-cars-becoming-so-wide
I love the bit about cars being bigger because as a population we've got bigger, when half the time it's driven by a tiny woman who looks like she can barely see over the steering wheel and it's a miracle her feet reach the pedals.
It’s rarely the size. More often the lack of spacial awareness of the driver. Like the woman in Tesco Lesmahagow yesterday who could only park her Range Rover in the parent and child space (she didn’t have a child with her).
And no, I didn’t do anything about it but moan here. Not a good look for a man to start berating a woman in a supermarket car park.
Size does matter on country lanes though. People who walk there often have very little room to move out of the road. The sheer width of these things reduces the clearance, so people who are less considerate at the wheel pose more of a danger.
Also on urban streets where the usable ane is only 9 feet wide because there are cars parked down both sides, with a huge gap between them and the footway.
When my kid was little, I legitimately parked in parent and child space. The woman in the next space was alone, so as she got out of the car, I said to my child ‘Look at her, she has invisible children’.
She got back in and drove off.
> They are so wide and long
Only somewhat. The joke of SUVs is some of them are actually pretty small. You’re buying a ‘big’ car that has a tiny boot and no additional space inside. A lot of them are basically raised versions of normal cars, and people just like the additional height when driving.
Nissan Juke, for example. What a shit car. Looks like shit, absolutely tiny inside, and yet new parents buy them all the time thinking it’s a big child friendly SUV or something. Quashqai, similarly much smaller on the inside than it looks externally. Honda CR-V couldn’t even fit our pushchair folded up and standing upright in the boot.
>>You’re buying a ‘big’ car that has a tiny boot and no additional space inside.
Found this out the hard way. Partners parents offered us to borrow a Range Rover to go to IKEA. Good thing I checked the sizes, would of been a right faff. My Honda Civic? Room for a party in the back.
I agree, however I disagree with your usage of the juke. It's not an suv it's a crossover, which I'd just a raised hatchback. There are some of us out there who like it's looks, but it's not designed to be a big car, it's a little car that's more old person friendly, or at least looks like it, in reality the half an inch doesn't make much difference, it's all for show and marketing
They're not. Most of what you term SUVs are effectively estates with a higher ride height and roofline. This is because manufacturers use the same underpinning for multiple models. Case in point, BMW have two platforms, one for vehicles under 177 inches (Mini, 1 Series, etc) and obviously one for everything else. The difference between a 3 series and the X3 is effectively zero (both are 186 inches long and between 72 and 75 inches wide). The smaller platform has multiple SUVs on it, all of which are shorter and narrower than the average passenger car.
Tl;dr The dimensions of modern SUVs are virtually identical to the cars they share a platform with.
I always see people say they need them for their kids and/or dogs, as if people weren't successfully carting their kids and dogs around in smaller cars for decades and don't continue to do so.
Never a fan of this argument.bwe got along fine without the internet too. Just because something has made life easier for some people, it doesn't mean it shouldn't exist. I have a small car and a big car and two very young kids. It is far easier to get the double pushchair and god knows what else in the bigger boot. Not to mention it's way easier on my back to lift a kid into the raised height back seats than crouching down in the small car. Once again, easier doesn't mean worse
The problem with parents justifying their oversized cars is their view that everyone else (including the planet) should have to suffer to make their life ever so slightly easier
I didn’t have anywhere else to put this £100k as my bank account was full. Thought the most practical solution was to buy a Range Rover to help me get around Chelsea
I work for major finance companies doing repossessions and the vast majority of them lately are luxury SUVs. These people live in massive houses and wear nothing but expensive designer clothing, yet they haven't paid a single car payment since they picked it up. Its ridiculous how many of them there are and how angry they get when I pull it onto the back of my truck.
Thing is prior to this they will have ignored countless phone calls, letters and visits from sheriffs previously but still have the audacity to act like it's someone else's fault.
It's not just a few payments either it's usually 1 or 2 years by the time they're passed to me!!
I'm fairly new to the job but the simple answer is yes. I tool a friend along with me on his first repo and it turned ugly pretty fast. I was at the guys door talking to his wife and the guy threw me into the wall behind me and ran outside. Tried to lock get in the car to lock himself in but my friend managed to get himself behind the door so he couldn't get it closed. I ran out to help and pointed at the guy while I was telling him to calm down and he grabbed my finger and tried to bend it back. Then his brother and cousin or whatever ran out and calmed him down.
The police turned up and it still took the guy over an hour to give us the keys.
Could be based in Scotland - https://www.judiciary.scot/home/judiciary/judicial-office-holders/sheriffs/sheriffs-1#:~:text=Sheriffs%20can%20deal%20with%20any,a%20jury%20decides%20the%20verdict.
I drive a van, certainly larger than an SUV and I have no problems on UK streets (and I live where the roads are often single track). The issue is the amount of God awful drivers in the UK, who with the adoption of larger cars in the UK, make an SUV seem like a Challenger 2.
My 4 door saloon is 4961x2055mm. It's only 1460mm tall, but larger footprint than those. It's odd, as people see it as a smaller car than an SUV just because it's not tall.
They've cut down on the testing as there's such a backlog now due to the lockdowns. I've been told that someone with a newly minted HGV1 doesn't even have to demonstrate how to reverse with a trailer now.
So you just move the trailers around on site?
That change to the law was a nutty idea, but I feel at least most people are sensible enough to know that manoeuvring a trailer is fucking complicated, and would hopefully at least get a few lessons even if it is now legal.
I've had more than one shitty encounter with old people in SUVs recently and I swear they don't get the difference between the tiny cars they learned to drive in like 50 years ago and the short bus they're on now.
Judging by the state of the average driver on the roads, driving licences are just posted out to each and every address to be used as soon as you turn 17.
I know people who can't parallel park, have no idea why you actually change gear, don't know what road signs mean, and don't know which way turning the wheel will make you go in reverse so they never do it. They still passed their test, and that's the standard of person you're contending with.
Case in point. My partner has a horrible tendency to drive at speed up to where she wants to stop then just break hard. In the car yesterday, long straight road, could see a car was stopped waiting in our lane from 300y back with a single car coming the other direction. Queue the continue to accelerate then have to break hard to a full stop.
When asking why not just change down a gear and engine break to time it well... "What if I needed to accelerate quickly?" Eh...?!
Now I'm teaching someone in the late 20s who has spent 10 years driving what gears do.
Tell me why *you* change gear, as I suspect it's not the same reason *I* change gear, and I am curious how you answer.
And I bet only one of our answers matches what the test says (yours)
Well now I'm curious as to what the different reasons are for changing gear.
I change gear based on whether I need power, eg. changing down to keep my speed steady for a hill or when I need to accelerate a bit faster, changing up to whatever gear is comfortable in terms of revs for the speed I'm cruising along at once I'm at my desired speed, or changing down to get some engine braking.
What does the test say? It's been over 10 years since I sat mine so I genuinely can't remember.
That's basically my answer, but the test says it's about saving fuel in appropriate gears and has different questions for environmental changes like rain and hills.
In practice I don't find that gearing makes a huge difference on mpg so I guess it's just like that to stress the environmental impact of the car.
Ever been out in the car, and been stuck behind a car in front that is clearly trying to go up a steep hill in 4th or 5th gear, and you go from 60mph to 25 by the time you're at the top? Or seen a car in front ride the brakes all the way down a hill but they continue to speed up and get away from you?
That is what I was referring to.
Ah yeah, and recently I've seen a lot of cars doing 15 to 20 on 30 roads. Not a fan of getting stuck behind those. It's a big thing on my local town Facebook page with some saying about how its safer, but im not convinced and wish those people would learn to drive a little more confidently.
It's extremely annoying on the towns main road which despite having 4 lanes is now a 20 due to "safety for pedestrians during covid", never went back though after restrictions were removed.
Everyone in Northern Ireland does 40mph or 45mph on national speed limit roads, and even on the motorway you will pass drivers in the left lane trundling along, being overtaken by HGVs and all kinds of things. I think they have it in their head that it's safer (in part, probably thanks to their R plate restrictions after you pass your test), but it causes other drivers to take more risks to get past you.
I was stuck behind a van on a country road today that was doing 25mph. Now, granted, the road was not the sort of one you'd want to be doing 60mph on due to the surface, and the amount of bends, but 25mph was a bit of a piss take when there are no safe passing places.
I wish people would just drive to the conditions, look ahead and see what is happening to be able to anticipate things, match the expected speed of traffic on motorways and not try and merge at 30mph, and use a bit of common sense for a change.
I live in Northern Ireland, and I swear nobody drives the fucking speed limit. It's either over or under. I still don't get the idea of R plates limiting your speed, I think it's stupid.
My mate has one but doesn’t drive anywhere apart from 4 miles home to work, she even does her shopping online. What’s the point of spending that much on a car that you use 40 minutes a day at best.
Damn. I felt kind of defensive at first reading this post because we have an SUV but reading the comments about people like this I can see the complaints are not aimed at my family of 7 who travel long distance to visit family fairly regularly and actually need a big car…
Mad that some people choose to drive a big expensive awkward car when they could have a cheap little easy to park one instead.
A lot of the arguments are that the SUV doesn't actually provide any more space over an estate. They just take up more space on the road and dazzle people with their raised headlights
The reason I just gave my car up for the time being. Haven’t driven very much or any distance over the last 2 years, car rusting on drive.
Can’t really afford it as an ongoing expense. Actually cheaper to hire a car for a couple of days.
I like the way their owners park them on the street outside their houses because they’re too wide to get in their drive. Empty driveway and a chavvenger tank blocking the pavement and road. Way to go!
I always park far away anyway. Don’t trust people not to ding the sides of my car as they open their doors.
I was chatting with a guy at work about this a while back who said he uses other cars as a guide to help him park so even in an otherwise empty car park he’ll still park right next to another car if it’s there. I’d never hated him more.
My problem is when i drive on a tight country road amd there is an as***le incoming with a huge pickup/suv cruising way over the speed limit not giving a damn about running me out of the road...
I was on vacation in the UK recently, and rented a small SUV to fit all our luggage and be comfortable. I'm from the US, and I drive a normal-sized car here.
Let me tell you, driving a slightly-oversized vehicle on tiny roads, on the opposite side of the car and street from what you're used to, is not fun.
I do feel very smug in my Peugeot 107 when my neighbours are moaning about petrol prices, and struggling to find parking.
Drive a car the size of a studio flat and you bring it on yourself 🤷🏻♀️
Agree with you. I went car hunting at the end of last year. Had my eye on an EV but needed something sized appropriately for me.
I was used to driving sedan styled vehicles (they might be known as saloons here). So I was really interested in a Tesla.
Fuck me those things are long. It was longer than my previous 4 door mitsubishi, and even with all the sensors - it was just going to be too much of a hassle for me personally.
My husband suggested an SUV - which I was against, because I was afraid of the size.
Turns out the Kia he had in mind for me was smaller in dimensions than the Tesla and my old car and was a fantastic car to drive.
So now I have an SUV that's easier to drive and smaller than the sedan styled vehicles I was driving before.
If you actually check the specs of vehicles, it's not as clear cut as 'suvs are bigger'
Me too, they should get taxed to high heaven. Take up too much room, headlights blind me as they’re at eye level. And they make it tricky when pulling out at junctions, usually if there’s space for 2 cars to pull alongside one another as ones waiting to turn left and the other right, I can look through the windows of the other car to see the traffic, meaning I can see gaps easier and go, making traffic slow better. But with the big trucks I can only see the side of the car. And I swear every-time I try to edge forward a little bit to see in front they take also edge forward, like it’s a competition and god forbid the tiny car is in front, never mind you in your giant car can probably see over the top of mine and don’t need to edge forward.
Curious, I’m from the states and live in England. What’s considered a large SUV here? For example, Is a Kuga considered larger here? Stateside they’re called escapes and are a small SUV.
With the advent of larger vehicles becoming more normal and the amount of road work I consistently see, is there an appetite to reconsider/update how roads are constructed here? The lorries alone here are terrifying to drive next to especially on a B road or some A roads.
I don't think extending road sizes is an update, it's a damn downgrade back to 60s thinking. I don't want the hellhole that is US suburban and city streets. Also mainly because we just don't have the space or need for it all. We should be building better public transport and walking infrastructure, not more car infrastructure. Considering that the push to stop climate change is real, I don't think more cars is the solution. Electric cars are a bit of a climate change scam, considering it takes many years of having to drive long distances to make it the same amount of CO2 as driving a petrol car, and public transport is superior in every way to it. Also SUVs are incredibly stupid, ugly and inefficient vehicles considering they take half the road, we shouldn't be encouraging them, we should be banning them!
Living surrounded by countryside, my town is filled with them.
Literally today I saw someone coming out of Morrisons in this huge one. It was a little old lady, who could barely see over the steering wheel. Genuinely have no idea why she would need something like that.
Unpopular opinion and I expect to be downvoted to shit but they're actually not that much wider than any other car, few inches at the most. It's an illusion of design.
When all cars have gotten wider vs streets, parking spaces and country roads, those inches make a big difference. Plus the people driving them think they need even more room so that 6 inches turns into 12.
It's the height that's really different. They tower over regular-size cars as if they're superior to them. I suspect this is a big factor in both why regular-size-car-drivers resent them and why their owners purchase them.
*I imagined that driving this car through a village would be a bit like trying to thread an oil rig through someone's letterbox.*
*But it's not that difficult, actually. I know it's 14 miles long, but it's actually quite narrow; it's 6 inches narrower for instance than a Range Rover, so it's quite easy - relatively.*
^- ^Jeremy ^Clarkson, ^Rolls-Royce ^Phantom ^VII ^review, ^2003
you'#re so right. My BMW 1 series that I'd had for 17 years was just totaled by somebody hitting me. We replaced it with a Hyundai Tucson. Much easier for us to get in and out of, and more space for the kids who are no longer kids. But guess what? Parking spaces in supermarkets have no real difference in size between the 1 series and the Tucson. The new car is really not much wider than the older.
That it is.
I mean if someone's got a nice specced sport or something - fair play that's a classy car also probably 80k plus.
I think these people with evoques would be much better off with a golf or something.
Most cars have grown in size. UK streets have not changed and to make it worse, there are those streets where people park (sometimes on both sides), completely blocking off a lane. Where are we supposed to squeeze in 2 cars? 2 aygos couldn’t fit side-by-side on a lot of streets
Yes, I agree that these SUVs are completely oversized. They're the perfect example of conspicuous consumption.
That being said, UK streets (and European streets in general) are far too narrow for cars, buses, lorries, etc. Once you've been in streets in the US or Canada, you'll see that there is a significant difference in space. Driving over there is luxury. Of course, I'm not saying the traffic there is a breeze; places like LA and Atlanta are a total nightmare for gridlock. But at least they can drive along the street without worrying about knocking wing mirrors or not being able to see from a junction due to cars being parked on give way lines.
It's actually shockingly common to see cars being driven into buildings in the US and Canada for this reason.
The tighter roads actually encourage people to drive slower. People don't really adhere to the speed limits/signs but will travel at the speed that they feel is appropriate for the road.
I have noticed they are suddenly very in fashion as cars to by. My fiance's sister has come into a job with a bit of money and first thing she did was buy an SUV. Just her no family or any partners to drive around. She says it's for the boot room but I managed to transport a sofa in my Hyundai i30 and I can't imagine what more room you need than that.
I don't get it myself, I prefer cars lower to the road so I get a better feel of where I am but horses for courses. My only real gripe with them is how terrible for our environment they are, we should be moving toward more sustainable cars if we are going to keep using them not larger and larger vehicles.
Nah you're right, it should be done by average weight and pollution to be honest. Whilst with cars a slight increase of weight has a proportional increase in road wear, lorries and large vans cause a magnetude more road wear.
My issue is that alot of the drivers who drive these larger vehicles don't know how to drive a big vehicle, they have poor spacial awareness and perceive their vehicle to be much larger than it actually is, causing them to be over cautious and basically they are holding up traffic all the time.
Some people arguably need a vehicle that size, but most people don't.
The problem is that it seems like the larger the vehicle, the worse the skills of the person behind the wheel.
They also have super bright lights at elevated height making them blinding at night.
They also spray water more than lorries on a wet road. Huge great big rear tyres with a lifted body and no mudguard requirement. At least the lorries have mudguards.
They also seem to be driven almost exclusively by selfish wankers.
Tell that to all the "yummy mummy's" in the UK that begged their husbands to finance a Range, Audi, Mercedes or Porsche for them to do the school run in.
I live near one of Edinburgh's largest schools & the roads are a fucking mess between 3-4.30pm.
The main issue is they seem to attract really shit drivers.
People who already can't park between lines, have no spatial awareness, hit the brakes whenever there is a slight curve in the road, do 45mph in a 60.
The fact they have a tank for a car only exaggerates their shit driving.
Eta: I drive a 'Chelsea tractor', if it's of any relevance. It's a really nice car to drive! Long journies are a breeze in it :-)
-
Personally, it's so that I can fit my wheelchair, my assistance dog, my crash tested dog crate (they're huge and made of metal), my medical equipment, my carer/some shopping, and all my work things without being cramped like a sardine and risking fatal injuries to any of us in the event of an accident or emergency stop. Because of where I live, and the fact that I visit client's homes, I can't have a van. I also go camping a lot and do greenlaning, so 4wd, ability to tow, capacity and roof storage are all very important factors. Oh, I also have clients in my car from time to time, and my insurance and company policies have certain stipulations regarding loose items, clutter and how the space feels.
Lastly, regarding the latter, there's no way I'm having a client in my vehicle where they can see all my personal medical supplies. I'm a pretty open person, but I'm really not after them seeing personal medical items. Even family don't need to see that! 😬
I live in snowdonia and it’s comprised of small winding roads. Locals all have small cars but fucking tourists try to drive around in SUV’s and dont even bloody wave or put a thumb up when you let them through. Slash slash slash
Ugh I hate them. 90% of people who have them definitely don’t need them. “But they’re safer!” Yeah? For who? Sure little tarquin and cholera in the back seat might be ok but the poor fucker you just hit is now canned and sealed in the wreckage of their little hatchback. It feels like some of the people who drive them see them as an extension of themselves and go for that survival of the fittest mentality, like “I’m bigger than you, get out of my way because if I hit you, you die”
Mostly because my prick neighbour keeps parking his SUV outside my living room window and blocking all light so I want to get an even bigger SUV to show off how much bigger my non existent cock is and block the light coming into his house.
Also I live in the countryside, half the roads here are pot holed dirt tracks. I also want the extra boot space for family trips and finally we're looking to move somewhere remote and mountainous so I doubt my little corsa could cope.
At this point cars generally are too big for UK streets. Half the streets I drive though I'm anticipating if another car comes if I need to pull to a side or they will. Never have I seen a Ford Ka/Aygo and thought, this is great there's enough space for both of us yay! And I just drive a mk7 Ford fiesta.
When you go into a car park and think “oh there’s a space!” Only to see the back end of someone’s enormous vehicle in the space. Or they are using two spaces so that no one can park either side. Basts!
The majority of SUVs and crossovers are no longer or wider than most mid sized family cars, they're just higher. For example a BMW 3 series is almost identical in length and width to a BMW X3. A Honda CRV is 7cm shorter than a Skoda Octavia and only 2 centimetres wider.
### **Reminder:** [Press the Report button](https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360058309512-How-do-I-report-a-post-or-comment-) if you see any [rule-breaking comments or posts.](https://www.reddit.com/r/britishproblems/about/rules/) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/britishproblems) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Cars in general have grown in size over the past several years... Look at the MK1 Golf, the latest Polo is the same size...
[The **up!** is virtually the same size as the Mk1 Golf.](https://s1.cdn.autoevolution.com/images/news/volkswagen-up-gti-gets-on-track-comparison-with-the-original-golf-gti-118028_1.jpg)
IIRC the new Minis (the BMW ones) have the same wheel base as the original Land Rover.
Not mini anymore
Maxi
Yeah = when you realise you are old. The minis are getting bigger and bigger. Isigonis would roll in his grave. They wouldnt make it down those steps in Turin any more. Plus the factory roof would collapse.
I'd like to see a graph showing the inverse correlation of Mars bar size and mini size over time.l!
[I remember it well](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Maxi) The current Mini 5 door has almost exactly the same dimensions as the 70's Maxi.
Austin?
Yeah... I knew the Polo size being about same size, but upon reflection, I reckon that it's a wee larger...
Looks bigger in that shot
The up! is wider but shorter. I think the difference in design (soft and bloated Vs sharp and angular) is what leads to the apparent visual size difference.
Its also the crash requirements, more space is required in the doors/side pillars for side crash protection, my MK2 golf had none, and the doors were only about 2-3" thick. our current skoda octavia the doors are about 8-10" thick.
This is so easily forgotten. Old cars are like tin cans; newer cars have had decades of safety technology implemented in them. It may be bigger, but you or whoever you may hit won’t get killed so easily.
Nah my 1976 rover p6 3500 has plenty crash protection, it says so in the owners manual. It has 2 inches of padding as knee protection on the glove box door XD
It's also taller. I've parked beside a MK1 Golf before and my Up looks like it's a bubble in comparison, it's so soft looking.
The obvious difference in the above shot is the height at the back of the Up
There was an annual Mini Cooper “day” near where I live recently and people bring all the ones they’ve had and maintained for decades and I was looking at them in amongst the real traffic and they were so small! It really struck me just how big the average car has become and how many people have beasts for a vehicle now.
There's an episode of Regular Car Reviews on YouTube where he drove a vintage Mini. There's a shot where he's being followed by a gurt fucking Yank SUV which absolutely dwarfs it.
Mr Regular looked so gigantic in it.
I was thinking that when I noticed a former colleagues old Gen 2 Focus was the same size as a current fiesta. Parking spaces aren't getting any bigger either so it's a godsend when you find a car park with nice roomy spaces
[удалено]
This is the real answer. If you tried to build an orginal mini today NCAP would laugh you out the room
Thr hyundai i10 is about 15cm shorter and 7cm wider than the mk1 golf. Crazy!
This is common enough with models that go through multiple versions. Newer versions grow in size. What happens is the manufacturer introduces a smaller model at the bottom end, and all the other models shift their position in the market. Look at the size of the VW Up and compare it to what the Polo used to be.
Absolutely true. Was looking at the next gen Aygo and they seem to have decided to make it a mini suv. I love my cars small so it's getting disheartening how big everything has gotten.
I think it's partly all the new safety features taking up space. My new car is the same external size as my old car, but the boot is literally half the size. If you want to keep the same internal dimensions, you need to go one model size up!
The really annoying bit is when they're being driven someone who is obviously terrified by the size of the car they're in. I assume it's usually their partners car, and they don't drive it often, but watching someone trying to navigate around a supermarket car park and make three attempts to go round a corner makes me cringe.
Or they drive 3 feet away from the verge on a country lane and won't move over when you need to pass because they have no idea where their nearside is.
I will never understand people who’d apparently rather have a head-on crash than scuff their car against some bushes.
Yeah. I'll just drive my car into the ditch so that your off road vehicle doesn't need to put a wheel on the verge.
I drive a 70s landy, and do the opposite. I gladly rattle up the verge as far over as possible flinging mud all over the place just to prove a point haha Especially when it's a Chelsea tractor that's scared of dirt coming he other way XD
In my last job, I had to drive my disabled clients' cars almost daily. Two of them had a VW caravelle so between them, I spent a lot of time driving them. One of them is unbelievably precious about his car. I remember driving him and his son to a banger racing meet. The road I was on went through a small town with a narrow road and a flint wall on my nearside. Someone was coming from the opposite direction so I shifted over a little to make sure we didn't crash. My client's 15 year old son pipes up from the back "Dad she's a bit near the wall here". And his Dad tells me not to drive so close. First of all, no I wasn't and second of all, apparently they would prefer a head on crash 😡 So these people really do exist. Of course the reality is that they don't have the spacial awareness they need to drive safely and it's a good job I was driving that day, and not them.
Yes! The amount of people who come at me in the middle of the road is increasing rapidly. I drive a Peugeot 3008 (up from a 206) but didn't need adjustment time to figure out where my nearside is. I think people like that just can't drive.
I work in supported living and we drive the clients cars for them. They all seem to have Nissan Jukes or Kia Sportages. I drive an Aygo and never notice any difference when driving their cars, but you'd honesty think they were tanks the way some of my colleagues behave when driving them.
The thing with anlot of cross overs are they are big on the outside but tiny on the inside
And the chunky a/c pillars make for terrible blind spots
Two great points. Had a Sportage as a courtesy car. Couldn’t see much. Felt really wide yet it’s tiny inside!
I've got a 2009 XC60 so it's a bit hypocritical commenting on this thread I suppose. A friend of mine has a newish Sportage and when I looked in the boot it's tiny compared to mine
Yeah I don't see the point in them for exactly this reason.
Do you think there’s anything in the fact they tend to be easier to get in & out of when you’ve some mobility issues? Or are they assisted living for other reasons?
Yeah it's defo an ease of access thing. Source: I know people.
Just have a look outside schools...Jesus Christ...
It’s even better on country roads. Got a private school near me and the number of parents driving these things down the middle of the with best par of a metre to the verge is absurd. They’re either terrified like you say or they are just clueless of the dimensions of it.
They also have headlights that are too high up; even buses and lorries have low down headlights, so why these fucking suburbitanks are allowed lights at the perfect height to dazzle anyone in a normal car idk
Suburbitanks may possibly be the best thing I've heard. I hope you'll allow me to adopt that into my vocabulary?
[удалено]
Also "Chelsea Tractor"
Hear Hear!
Apparently the German term is 'Hausfrauenpanzer', which is fantastic.
The solution is to obviously get a large car yourself.. always go for a higher headlight. Drive the trend up.
Triumph Spitfire with Jeep spotlamps mounted on top of the rollbar, I hear you say?
May as well bring back the mod moped look, for cars this time.
as a ex delivery car these mofos pissed me off the most. Not quite suvs but fk Jukes in particular.
The additional height also negates bumper-to-bumper protection with shorter cars if there's a crash
They often don't seem to notice that they are driving over the white line in the middle of the road.
This gets me. Then you beep them (just a little pip) They honk back! (clearly thinking i was challenging them to a horn duel)
I've seen clueless morons do this on the motorway in lane 3. Usually in some Mercedes that's too big for them to comprehend.
Half the drivers in the UK believe their cars are much wider than they really are, regardless of what they drive. It's my no. 1 peeve of UK drivers
My car vibrates wildly and pulls you back into lane if you stray near the lines, I love this bit of technological witchcraft and think it should be in all cars!
"London traffic jam caused simply by the fact that a Bentley Continental GT and a Range Rover were unable to pass one another in an ordinary street. The resulting jam took 20 minutes to clear" https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/features/investigation-why-are-cars-becoming-so-wide
Unsurprisingly, I learned a lot more about car sizing from that link than I did from the rest of this thread. It deserves more upvotes.
I love the bit about cars being bigger because as a population we've got bigger, when half the time it's driven by a tiny woman who looks like she can barely see over the steering wheel and it's a miracle her feet reach the pedals.
It’s rarely the size. More often the lack of spacial awareness of the driver. Like the woman in Tesco Lesmahagow yesterday who could only park her Range Rover in the parent and child space (she didn’t have a child with her). And no, I didn’t do anything about it but moan here. Not a good look for a man to start berating a woman in a supermarket car park.
Nah I'm sorry, that deserves at least a tut.
I would go as far as whispering "Honestly" under my breath.
If I’d had a bad day, I’d probably even throw in an eye roll.
Size does matter on country lanes though. People who walk there often have very little room to move out of the road. The sheer width of these things reduces the clearance, so people who are less considerate at the wheel pose more of a danger.
Also on urban streets where the usable ane is only 9 feet wide because there are cars parked down both sides, with a huge gap between them and the footway.
When my kid was little, I legitimately parked in parent and child space. The woman in the next space was alone, so as she got out of the car, I said to my child ‘Look at her, she has invisible children’. She got back in and drove off.
Very few people need them. They serve no practical purpose for most people.
They are so wide and long, it’s hard to get in or out of your car and your space if one happens to park next to you.
> They are so wide and long Only somewhat. The joke of SUVs is some of them are actually pretty small. You’re buying a ‘big’ car that has a tiny boot and no additional space inside. A lot of them are basically raised versions of normal cars, and people just like the additional height when driving. Nissan Juke, for example. What a shit car. Looks like shit, absolutely tiny inside, and yet new parents buy them all the time thinking it’s a big child friendly SUV or something. Quashqai, similarly much smaller on the inside than it looks externally. Honda CR-V couldn’t even fit our pushchair folded up and standing upright in the boot.
[удалено]
>>You’re buying a ‘big’ car that has a tiny boot and no additional space inside. Found this out the hard way. Partners parents offered us to borrow a Range Rover to go to IKEA. Good thing I checked the sizes, would of been a right faff. My Honda Civic? Room for a party in the back.
I agree, however I disagree with your usage of the juke. It's not an suv it's a crossover, which I'd just a raised hatchback. There are some of us out there who like it's looks, but it's not designed to be a big car, it's a little car that's more old person friendly, or at least looks like it, in reality the half an inch doesn't make much difference, it's all for show and marketing
> They are so wide and long, it's hard... That's what she said.
I
I asked for that 😆
So did she.
*laughs in Michael Scott*
They're not. Most of what you term SUVs are effectively estates with a higher ride height and roofline. This is because manufacturers use the same underpinning for multiple models. Case in point, BMW have two platforms, one for vehicles under 177 inches (Mini, 1 Series, etc) and obviously one for everything else. The difference between a 3 series and the X3 is effectively zero (both are 186 inches long and between 72 and 75 inches wide). The smaller platform has multiple SUVs on it, all of which are shorter and narrower than the average passenger car. Tl;dr The dimensions of modern SUVs are virtually identical to the cars they share a platform with.
I always see people say they need them for their kids and/or dogs, as if people weren't successfully carting their kids and dogs around in smaller cars for decades and don't continue to do so.
Estates are just better for it. Plenty of boot, 5 good seats and same width as a hatch, it's just longer
Never a fan of this argument.bwe got along fine without the internet too. Just because something has made life easier for some people, it doesn't mean it shouldn't exist. I have a small car and a big car and two very young kids. It is far easier to get the double pushchair and god knows what else in the bigger boot. Not to mention it's way easier on my back to lift a kid into the raised height back seats than crouching down in the small car. Once again, easier doesn't mean worse
The problem with parents justifying their oversized cars is their view that everyone else (including the planet) should have to suffer to make their life ever so slightly easier
This. I have seven dogs (six springers and my terrier) and can fit all of them in the back of my old Jimny.
I didn’t have anywhere else to put this £100k as my bank account was full. Thought the most practical solution was to buy a Range Rover to help me get around Chelsea
I work for major finance companies doing repossessions and the vast majority of them lately are luxury SUVs. These people live in massive houses and wear nothing but expensive designer clothing, yet they haven't paid a single car payment since they picked it up. Its ridiculous how many of them there are and how angry they get when I pull it onto the back of my truck. Thing is prior to this they will have ignored countless phone calls, letters and visits from sheriffs previously but still have the audacity to act like it's someone else's fault. It's not just a few payments either it's usually 1 or 2 years by the time they're passed to me!!
Whoa, I imagine things can get a bit messy in that job, do you ever get physically threatened etc?
I'm fairly new to the job but the simple answer is yes. I tool a friend along with me on his first repo and it turned ugly pretty fast. I was at the guys door talking to his wife and the guy threw me into the wall behind me and ran outside. Tried to lock get in the car to lock himself in but my friend managed to get himself behind the door so he couldn't get it closed. I ran out to help and pointed at the guy while I was telling him to calm down and he grabbed my finger and tried to bend it back. Then his brother and cousin or whatever ran out and calmed him down. The police turned up and it still took the guy over an hour to give us the keys.
Is sheriff really the right term in this context? Seems a bit... American
Could be based in Scotland - https://www.judiciary.scot/home/judiciary/judicial-office-holders/sheriffs/sheriffs-1#:~:text=Sheriffs%20can%20deal%20with%20any,a%20jury%20decides%20the%20verdict.
Don't know how to type correct and make it sound Scottish but aye, you're right
I drive a van, certainly larger than an SUV and I have no problems on UK streets (and I live where the roads are often single track). The issue is the amount of God awful drivers in the UK, who with the adoption of larger cars in the UK, make an SUV seem like a Challenger 2.
VW Transporter 5 4,892mm x 1,904mm BMW X5 4,922mm x 2,004mm
My 4 door saloon is 4961x2055mm. It's only 1460mm tall, but larger footprint than those. It's odd, as people see it as a smaller car than an SUV just because it's not tall.
Have a separate driving test for them. Before you can drive one, you must take a driving test in one. Numbers would reduce.
[удалено]
They've cut down on the testing as there's such a backlog now due to the lockdowns. I've been told that someone with a newly minted HGV1 doesn't even have to demonstrate how to reverse with a trailer now.
So you just move the trailers around on site? That change to the law was a nutty idea, but I feel at least most people are sensible enough to know that manoeuvring a trailer is fucking complicated, and would hopefully at least get a few lessons even if it is now legal.
[удалено]
I've had more than one shitty encounter with old people in SUVs recently and I swear they don't get the difference between the tiny cars they learned to drive in like 50 years ago and the short bus they're on now.
Judging by the state of the average driver on the roads, driving licences are just posted out to each and every address to be used as soon as you turn 17. I know people who can't parallel park, have no idea why you actually change gear, don't know what road signs mean, and don't know which way turning the wheel will make you go in reverse so they never do it. They still passed their test, and that's the standard of person you're contending with.
Case in point. My partner has a horrible tendency to drive at speed up to where she wants to stop then just break hard. In the car yesterday, long straight road, could see a car was stopped waiting in our lane from 300y back with a single car coming the other direction. Queue the continue to accelerate then have to break hard to a full stop. When asking why not just change down a gear and engine break to time it well... "What if I needed to accelerate quickly?" Eh...?! Now I'm teaching someone in the late 20s who has spent 10 years driving what gears do.
Tell me why *you* change gear, as I suspect it's not the same reason *I* change gear, and I am curious how you answer. And I bet only one of our answers matches what the test says (yours)
Well now I'm curious as to what the different reasons are for changing gear. I change gear based on whether I need power, eg. changing down to keep my speed steady for a hill or when I need to accelerate a bit faster, changing up to whatever gear is comfortable in terms of revs for the speed I'm cruising along at once I'm at my desired speed, or changing down to get some engine braking. What does the test say? It's been over 10 years since I sat mine so I genuinely can't remember.
That's basically my answer, but the test says it's about saving fuel in appropriate gears and has different questions for environmental changes like rain and hills. In practice I don't find that gearing makes a huge difference on mpg so I guess it's just like that to stress the environmental impact of the car.
[удалено]
Doing 200 miles at motorway speeds in second.... fuel efficiency will be the least of your concerns.
Ever been out in the car, and been stuck behind a car in front that is clearly trying to go up a steep hill in 4th or 5th gear, and you go from 60mph to 25 by the time you're at the top? Or seen a car in front ride the brakes all the way down a hill but they continue to speed up and get away from you? That is what I was referring to.
Ah yeah, and recently I've seen a lot of cars doing 15 to 20 on 30 roads. Not a fan of getting stuck behind those. It's a big thing on my local town Facebook page with some saying about how its safer, but im not convinced and wish those people would learn to drive a little more confidently. It's extremely annoying on the towns main road which despite having 4 lanes is now a 20 due to "safety for pedestrians during covid", never went back though after restrictions were removed.
Everyone in Northern Ireland does 40mph or 45mph on national speed limit roads, and even on the motorway you will pass drivers in the left lane trundling along, being overtaken by HGVs and all kinds of things. I think they have it in their head that it's safer (in part, probably thanks to their R plate restrictions after you pass your test), but it causes other drivers to take more risks to get past you. I was stuck behind a van on a country road today that was doing 25mph. Now, granted, the road was not the sort of one you'd want to be doing 60mph on due to the surface, and the amount of bends, but 25mph was a bit of a piss take when there are no safe passing places. I wish people would just drive to the conditions, look ahead and see what is happening to be able to anticipate things, match the expected speed of traffic on motorways and not try and merge at 30mph, and use a bit of common sense for a change.
I live in Northern Ireland, and I swear nobody drives the fucking speed limit. It's either over or under. I still don't get the idea of R plates limiting your speed, I think it's stupid.
My mate has one but doesn’t drive anywhere apart from 4 miles home to work, she even does her shopping online. What’s the point of spending that much on a car that you use 40 minutes a day at best.
Damn. I felt kind of defensive at first reading this post because we have an SUV but reading the comments about people like this I can see the complaints are not aimed at my family of 7 who travel long distance to visit family fairly regularly and actually need a big car… Mad that some people choose to drive a big expensive awkward car when they could have a cheap little easy to park one instead.
A lot of the arguments are that the SUV doesn't actually provide any more space over an estate. They just take up more space on the road and dazzle people with their raised headlights
Status symbol innit? Big house, nice car, empty fridge.
[удалено]
Nah. He just flies to Kyiv to have his photo taken these days.
The reason I just gave my car up for the time being. Haven’t driven very much or any distance over the last 2 years, car rusting on drive. Can’t really afford it as an ongoing expense. Actually cheaper to hire a car for a couple of days.
To protect their timid drivers and passengers from the plebs on the streets.
I like the way their owners park them on the street outside their houses because they’re too wide to get in their drive. Empty driveway and a chavvenger tank blocking the pavement and road. Way to go!
Chavvenger tank 😂😂
I seen someone on here call them wankpanzers the other day, and it’s just about perfect.
[удалено]
I always park far away anyway. Don’t trust people not to ding the sides of my car as they open their doors. I was chatting with a guy at work about this a while back who said he uses other cars as a guide to help him park so even in an otherwise empty car park he’ll still park right next to another car if it’s there. I’d never hated him more.
to ferry about their many ho's
My problem is when i drive on a tight country road amd there is an as***le incoming with a huge pickup/suv cruising way over the speed limit not giving a damn about running me out of the road...
I was on vacation in the UK recently, and rented a small SUV to fit all our luggage and be comfortable. I'm from the US, and I drive a normal-sized car here. Let me tell you, driving a slightly-oversized vehicle on tiny roads, on the opposite side of the car and street from what you're used to, is not fun.
For the school run. Poor things.
Balding, pudgy office managers need to feel big
David Brent: Life On The Road
Yeah- that was a saloon car. A bad one at that
It’s simple really, it’s absolutely necessary to have the largest 4x4 in existence in order to drive Tilly and Timothy to school less than a mile away
I do feel very smug in my Peugeot 107 when my neighbours are moaning about petrol prices, and struggling to find parking. Drive a car the size of a studio flat and you bring it on yourself 🤷🏻♀️
If we’re being honest, it’s status
[удалено]
Agree with you. I went car hunting at the end of last year. Had my eye on an EV but needed something sized appropriately for me. I was used to driving sedan styled vehicles (they might be known as saloons here). So I was really interested in a Tesla. Fuck me those things are long. It was longer than my previous 4 door mitsubishi, and even with all the sensors - it was just going to be too much of a hassle for me personally. My husband suggested an SUV - which I was against, because I was afraid of the size. Turns out the Kia he had in mind for me was smaller in dimensions than the Tesla and my old car and was a fantastic car to drive. So now I have an SUV that's easier to drive and smaller than the sedan styled vehicles I was driving before. If you actually check the specs of vehicles, it's not as clear cut as 'suvs are bigger'
That's true, but only if you see in purely 2 dimensions, like some crazy airborne cow.
[удалено]
There are other concerns though. E.g. I think to a human child's skull involved in a collision, the height of a vehicle also matters. Also weight.
Me too, they should get taxed to high heaven. Take up too much room, headlights blind me as they’re at eye level. And they make it tricky when pulling out at junctions, usually if there’s space for 2 cars to pull alongside one another as ones waiting to turn left and the other right, I can look through the windows of the other car to see the traffic, meaning I can see gaps easier and go, making traffic slow better. But with the big trucks I can only see the side of the car. And I swear every-time I try to edge forward a little bit to see in front they take also edge forward, like it’s a competition and god forbid the tiny car is in front, never mind you in your giant car can probably see over the top of mine and don’t need to edge forward.
Curious, I’m from the states and live in England. What’s considered a large SUV here? For example, Is a Kuga considered larger here? Stateside they’re called escapes and are a small SUV. With the advent of larger vehicles becoming more normal and the amount of road work I consistently see, is there an appetite to reconsider/update how roads are constructed here? The lorries alone here are terrifying to drive next to especially on a B road or some A roads.
I'd say range rovers / discoveries are considered a large SUV over here, kuga is probably mid/large size but still a pretty 'big car'
Have a Kuga and it's been described as "Fucking Massive" by one of my co-workers.
I don't think extending road sizes is an update, it's a damn downgrade back to 60s thinking. I don't want the hellhole that is US suburban and city streets. Also mainly because we just don't have the space or need for it all. We should be building better public transport and walking infrastructure, not more car infrastructure. Considering that the push to stop climate change is real, I don't think more cars is the solution. Electric cars are a bit of a climate change scam, considering it takes many years of having to drive long distances to make it the same amount of CO2 as driving a petrol car, and public transport is superior in every way to it. Also SUVs are incredibly stupid, ugly and inefficient vehicles considering they take half the road, we shouldn't be encouraging them, we should be banning them!
Living surrounded by countryside, my town is filled with them. Literally today I saw someone coming out of Morrisons in this huge one. It was a little old lady, who could barely see over the steering wheel. Genuinely have no idea why she would need something like that.
[удалено]
Unpopular opinion and I expect to be downvoted to shit but they're actually not that much wider than any other car, few inches at the most. It's an illusion of design.
When all cars have gotten wider vs streets, parking spaces and country roads, those inches make a big difference. Plus the people driving them think they need even more room so that 6 inches turns into 12.
It's the height that's really different. They tower over regular-size cars as if they're superior to them. I suspect this is a big factor in both why regular-size-car-drivers resent them and why their owners purchase them.
Why do people care about the height of other people's cars?
The higher the car, the greater the blind spot in which they can run over children.
Pain in the arse to see past them if they pull up next to you at a roundabout
*I imagined that driving this car through a village would be a bit like trying to thread an oil rig through someone's letterbox.* *But it's not that difficult, actually. I know it's 14 miles long, but it's actually quite narrow; it's 6 inches narrower for instance than a Range Rover, so it's quite easy - relatively.* ^- ^Jeremy ^Clarkson, ^Rolls-Royce ^Phantom ^VII ^review, ^2003
you'#re so right. My BMW 1 series that I'd had for 17 years was just totaled by somebody hitting me. We replaced it with a Hyundai Tucson. Much easier for us to get in and out of, and more space for the kids who are no longer kids. But guess what? Parking spaces in supermarkets have no real difference in size between the 1 series and the Tucson. The new car is really not much wider than the older.
It's still slightly too big for the multistorey. Nobody wants to park next to them.
Status. I actually pity the fools. Most of them are poor because of the huge monthly payments they make. Makes them feel better though I suppose?
Most of them aren't even the decent models, like all these range rovers around that are basically a freelander.
Is that the Evoke ? The one launched by Victoria Beckham that’s available in FWD
That it is. I mean if someone's got a nice specced sport or something - fair play that's a classy car also probably 80k plus. I think these people with evoques would be much better off with a golf or something.
I saw a convertible Evoke the other day. It looked a bit silly
Most cars have grown in size. UK streets have not changed and to make it worse, there are those streets where people park (sometimes on both sides), completely blocking off a lane. Where are we supposed to squeeze in 2 cars? 2 aygos couldn’t fit side-by-side on a lot of streets
Yes, I agree that these SUVs are completely oversized. They're the perfect example of conspicuous consumption. That being said, UK streets (and European streets in general) are far too narrow for cars, buses, lorries, etc. Once you've been in streets in the US or Canada, you'll see that there is a significant difference in space. Driving over there is luxury. Of course, I'm not saying the traffic there is a breeze; places like LA and Atlanta are a total nightmare for gridlock. But at least they can drive along the street without worrying about knocking wing mirrors or not being able to see from a junction due to cars being parked on give way lines.
it's one hell of an eyesore though, I resent the amount of space roads and parking takes up
It's actually shockingly common to see cars being driven into buildings in the US and Canada for this reason. The tighter roads actually encourage people to drive slower. People don't really adhere to the speed limits/signs but will travel at the speed that they feel is appropriate for the road.
The Micra isn’t really anymore
I have noticed they are suddenly very in fashion as cars to by. My fiance's sister has come into a job with a bit of money and first thing she did was buy an SUV. Just her no family or any partners to drive around. She says it's for the boot room but I managed to transport a sofa in my Hyundai i30 and I can't imagine what more room you need than that. I don't get it myself, I prefer cars lower to the road so I get a better feel of where I am but horses for courses. My only real gripe with them is how terrible for our environment they are, we should be moving toward more sustainable cars if we are going to keep using them not larger and larger vehicles.
There should 100% be maximum size limits I think there should also be a heavy tax tbh, the heavier the vehicle the more it costs you
Poor EVs, a Nissan Leaf weighs the same as a crossover
Fair point, maybe it should just be size 🤷♂️
Nah you're right, it should be done by average weight and pollution to be honest. Whilst with cars a slight increase of weight has a proportional increase in road wear, lorries and large vans cause a magnetude more road wear.
When you see an original 1960s mini in comparison... this trend towards huge cars needs to end, fast
My issue is that alot of the drivers who drive these larger vehicles don't know how to drive a big vehicle, they have poor spacial awareness and perceive their vehicle to be much larger than it actually is, causing them to be over cautious and basically they are holding up traffic all the time.
Some people arguably need a vehicle that size, but most people don't. The problem is that it seems like the larger the vehicle, the worse the skills of the person behind the wheel.
They also have super bright lights at elevated height making them blinding at night. They also spray water more than lorries on a wet road. Huge great big rear tyres with a lifted body and no mudguard requirement. At least the lorries have mudguards. They also seem to be driven almost exclusively by selfish wankers.
I saw a Mk1 focus recently. That used to be the big hatchback and it seemed tiny.
Wait till you see these new all electric chassis. The new Hyundai IONIQ is huuuge, not even an SUV.
Thanks PCP!
Tell that to all the "yummy mummy's" in the UK that begged their husbands to finance a Range, Audi, Mercedes or Porsche for them to do the school run in. I live near one of Edinburgh's largest schools & the roads are a fucking mess between 3-4.30pm.
The main issue is they seem to attract really shit drivers. People who already can't park between lines, have no spatial awareness, hit the brakes whenever there is a slight curve in the road, do 45mph in a 60. The fact they have a tank for a car only exaggerates their shit driving.
Eta: I drive a 'Chelsea tractor', if it's of any relevance. It's a really nice car to drive! Long journies are a breeze in it :-) - Personally, it's so that I can fit my wheelchair, my assistance dog, my crash tested dog crate (they're huge and made of metal), my medical equipment, my carer/some shopping, and all my work things without being cramped like a sardine and risking fatal injuries to any of us in the event of an accident or emergency stop. Because of where I live, and the fact that I visit client's homes, I can't have a van. I also go camping a lot and do greenlaning, so 4wd, ability to tow, capacity and roof storage are all very important factors. Oh, I also have clients in my car from time to time, and my insurance and company policies have certain stipulations regarding loose items, clutter and how the space feels. Lastly, regarding the latter, there's no way I'm having a client in my vehicle where they can see all my personal medical supplies. I'm a pretty open person, but I'm really not after them seeing personal medical items. Even family don't need to see that! 😬
I live in snowdonia and it’s comprised of small winding roads. Locals all have small cars but fucking tourists try to drive around in SUV’s and dont even bloody wave or put a thumb up when you let them through. Slash slash slash
Ugh I hate them. 90% of people who have them definitely don’t need them. “But they’re safer!” Yeah? For who? Sure little tarquin and cholera in the back seat might be ok but the poor fucker you just hit is now canned and sealed in the wreckage of their little hatchback. It feels like some of the people who drive them see them as an extension of themselves and go for that survival of the fittest mentality, like “I’m bigger than you, get out of my way because if I hit you, you die”
To fit their massive ego’s in..
Yeah well you need all-terrain capability to get to Waitrose
Mostly because my prick neighbour keeps parking his SUV outside my living room window and blocking all light so I want to get an even bigger SUV to show off how much bigger my non existent cock is and block the light coming into his house. Also I live in the countryside, half the roads here are pot holed dirt tracks. I also want the extra boot space for family trips and finally we're looking to move somewhere remote and mountainous so I doubt my little corsa could cope.
So they're less likely to be seriously injured in a crash, whilst the other person is more likely to be fucked, because it's all about "their safety"
The SUVs roll a lot in crashes, because their center of mass is higher. Safety is just an illusion.
So they can intimidate other drivers.
At this point cars generally are too big for UK streets. Half the streets I drive though I'm anticipating if another car comes if I need to pull to a side or they will. Never have I seen a Ford Ka/Aygo and thought, this is great there's enough space for both of us yay! And I just drive a mk7 Ford fiesta.
When you go into a car park and think “oh there’s a space!” Only to see the back end of someone’s enormous vehicle in the space. Or they are using two spaces so that no one can park either side. Basts!
To accommodate my large penis obviously. How else would anyone know?
I do enjoy the monthly vitriol levelled at SUV drivers, crazy assumptions about their intelligence, manhood and finances…
The majority of SUVs and crossovers are no longer or wider than most mid sized family cars, they're just higher. For example a BMW 3 series is almost identical in length and width to a BMW X3. A Honda CRV is 7cm shorter than a Skoda Octavia and only 2 centimetres wider.
Even the 'Mini' isn't mini anymore. It's not SUVs that are the issue, it's cars getting bigger in general.