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Other people's driving

Brown Bottle said:
I had the easiest driving test ever. It was market day In Northallerton, the examiner said we’d go out of town to avoid the ‘traffic’. I had to negotiate 1 set of traffic lights and 1 roundabout, met very few other vehicles as we drove around local villages.

As I drive around London now I admire anyone who learns to drive in the Capital.

Cheers BB
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Took my test in Northallerton!
 
learned to drive in NW and central London. My instructor took me to some the most congested and complicated bit of central. twas fun.....text in NW london
 
Once I got past the clutch control and basic control stuff, my dad took me from Harrow, south via Wembley down the A40 Westway to Hyde Park Corner and back on the Edgware road A5 via Stanmore on my first long drive. Was quite the baptism, never forgot it.
 
cutting42 said:
Once I got past the clutch control and basic control stuff, my dad took me from Harrow, south via Wembley down the A40 Westway to Hyde Park Corner and back on the Edgware road A5 via Stanmore on my first long drive. Was quite the baptism, never forgot it.
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that route is where many of my lessons were...... Marble Arch in those days late 82/83 was like wacky races.......
 
awkwardbydesign said:
Another fun video, from the same people who brought you the last one I shared. For all the SUV drivers here. :D
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I am hopeful that in the UK at least, SUVs and pick ups are a FAD that will be short lived.

As an aside, I once asked a Lexus sales person for the boot/trunk capacity of their RX SUV thinking it looked quite small. He had to go off to find out, I was shocked by how small the answer was.
 
Roog said:
I am hopeful that in the UK at least, SUVs and pick ups are a FAD that will be short lived.
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im not and they are great - some really interesting xover stuff will emerge as EVs allow more interesting designs happen.

Lets hope the new EV Hummers make it over here

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Roog said:
I am hopeful that in the UK at least, SUVs and pick ups are a FAD that will be short lived.
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I'd love to believe it's a fad. But I think that SUV ownership is more often than not about being able afford a big status symbol. So unless a smaller, lighter car is seen by most current SUV buyers as portraying even greater status than their SUV then I think we are stuck with them.
 
I can understand people buying SUVs, I sat in the back of one on Monday night, they're so much better for adults travelling in the rear and much easier for aged parents to negotiate access and egress. The driving position is great for city driving. I've had 3 people carriers, when my kids were young, absolutely brilliant for lugging kids/luggage and pets, absolutely rubbish as a drivers car. Pick ups are here to stay as they are classified as a van for company car tax purposes.

I'm considering a SUV as my next company car as we regularly carry older family members these days.

Cheers BB
 
One of our cars is an SUV for a couple of reasons:
  1. We drive from Edinburgh to the Cairngorms most weeks so encounter a lot of snow and while my estate car with all-seasons is pretty decent in those conditions it runs out of ground clearance so having a higher 4x4 is useful
  2. We have 2 largish dogs so the extra space compared to my estate is also useful as well
Our SUV is a petrol hybrid though - so not really a gas guzzler as most of our town driving is done on electric.
 
paul rich said:
I'd love to believe it's a fad. But I think that SUV ownership is more often than not about being able afford a big status symbol. So unless a smaller, lighter car is seen by most current SUV buyers as portraying even greater status than their SUV then I think we are stuck with them.
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They also make it far easier to transport kids in car seats and big luggage. Tyres are often a higher profile so resist punctures and rim damage better. Ground clearance is better for snow and passing on country roads.

Not everybody is obsessed with status.
 
I understand G-Wagons, Range Rovers and big Mercs/BMW/Audis might be considered by some as a status symbol. A Hyundai Tuscon or Kia Sportage won't be turning many heads outside the Wine Bar!

Cheers BB
 
gintonic said:
that route is where many of my lessons were...... Marble Arch in those days late 82/83 was like wacky races.......
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I taught myself to drive, in a Bedford van, with my wife as "supervising" passenger. She had passed her test 4 or 5 years earlier and forgotten how to drive! I drove once round the block up at Ladbroke Grove, and then straight into the West End, past Marble Arch to do some signwriting. I had assumed I would be able to drive and it turned out I could. After about 2 years of doing removals and driving to places like York and Anglesey, I took my test, as the fines for driving unaccompanied were mounting up. :oops: One lesson in a school car and straight into the test. Luckily it was OK. No theory test nonsense in those days.
But it was only when I became an instructor did I really start to understand driving. Still learning.
 
awkwardbydesign said:
Hmm, how many of you SUV fans watched that video? Most of the claimed advantages are actually untrue, it would seem.
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I did watch it and have owned 2 SUV's. The trouble is he mixes good points with half truths in his critique of all SUV's. It is also very US biased where the truck thing is huge. I don't know enough about the growth of trucks to counter so I took all his points on how they avoid certain taxes etc at face value. We used to be able to get a commercial vehicle in the UK for very low tax instead of the usual BIK taxation which led to lots of double cab pickups appearing in the company carparks and they really were terrible but they were not what I call an SUV. SUV's in the UK at least are very much like larger cars. They are not chassis based like trucks and have very similar construction to regular cars. Their footprint is often the same as their estate car equivalent with the increase in size mainly in height. They have very similar safety data and some rate them safer. Some good points here. Look at the NCAP site to get a view and there are as many SUV's top rated as cars.

I had an Evoque which was OK and I enjoyed it but quite small as an SUV and I did not fall in love with it TBH. However the X5 I had was amazing. I would get another in a heartbeat, nothing like one for family trips out, elderly parents, kids and my hobby stuff (kayak, band gear etc). Mine was a 2.0l diesel - called itself a 2.5l but if I got another it would be one of the later hybrid or BEV versions. That all said, I love an estate car and would probably be torn between the X5 and the 5 series tourer.
 
awkwardbydesign said:
Hmm, how many of you SUV fans watched that video? Most of the claimed advantages are actually untrue, it would seem.
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I've not watched the video but the for the reasons I bought my PHEV Outlander it's definitely better than say my estate car is:
  1. It's definitely got a good bit more ground clearance and doesn't beach in heavy snow like my estate car does - and it's still be better in snow than even a 4x4 estate car would be for that reason (and we get a lot of snow in the Cairngorms)
  2. It's definitely way cheaper to run in town (on electric) than my estate car is (although they're similar on overall fuel economy on longer drives)
  3. It's definitely got more interior space than my estate car does (although there are of course bigger estate cars that'd rival or exceed it on anything other than headroom)
My SUV is cheaper to tax compared to my estate car. My estate car is much nicer to drive and way, way faster though.
 
SteveG said:
My SUV is cheaper to tax compared to my estate car. My estate car is much nicer to drive and way, way faster though.
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I haven't looked it up, so why is it cheaper to tax? Lower emissions? I don't know much about EVs, just that I couldn't find a small one I could afford, and can't fit a high current charger.
 
A very tiny % of people ‘need’ an SUV, unfortunately the status cars like RR drive demand for the more affordable versions.

My parents have a Suzuki faux by faux; they’d probably be better off with a Honda Jazz. Estate cars are often more commodious with bigger boots.

I do like the BMW X5 but would never have one, just too big.

I see no reason why we cannot incentivise people to drive smaller cars in cities; Japan did this back in the day.
 
I much prefer minivans to SUVs - much more usable interior space for the same footprint of car. I can understand an SUV for deep snow or off road, but otherwise I think they are dangerous and (generally) polluting. That electric hummer looks like a killing machine - incredibly heavy and with a front bumper at a height that will do terrible damage in a collision.
 
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