Of course we all envy these tractor drivers their superb indifference to fuel and depreciation costs but the actual cars don't seem to me to get in the way any more than a lot of smaller vehicles.
I note that HJ who is professionally obliged to be tolerant of all vehicle categories justifies, more or less, the urban use of these big jeep things by pointing out that they don't feel stupid horrible gratuitous road bumps as keenly as lesser jalopies.
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4x4s are an easy target (they don't answer back) blame myopic inadequate drivers instead. Squeezing a Smart car into a proportinally smaller space probably would have netted the same result. Some people can't reverse to save their lives.
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What about all the drivers of Kas, Aygos, 107s and similar 4-wheeled teapots that couldn?t park in an empty hangar without getting into difficulty.
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Having had two cars damaged in two years by 4x4's, plus almost been run off the road and into a ditch by one, I think there is a problem. I guess a poor driver is less likely to cause damage in a 107 or Aygo than in a 4x4 - there is a lot more real estate to look after with a 4x4. Also their handling characteristics can catch out the unwary - a lot of people jump out of a saloon and into a 4x4 and don't realise that they handle quite differently.
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In the right hands they are fine I guess. Some people just aren't aware of what they're driving. I still can't fathom why a glorified farm vehicle is a status symbol now, but there you go. Apparently a lot of them are useless off road too, 100% complete pointlessness there I think.
- Need space? Buy an MPV
- Need a load lugger? Buy a van
- Want safety? Big doesn't = better.
- Need it for towing? Now you're talking some sense...
- Want one because it will look good in the company car park?
How about a nice Range Rover?
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I see my M plate Landie as a status symbol, going out now to paint some muck on it....
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Fair points Aprilia but the OP has had a problem with someone who can?t park but has directed his anger at 4x4s in general. I?ve never found size to be a contributing factor in what is and isn?t difficult to park.
Incidently, the Nissan Note has funny lumps on the top of its headlamps to help the driver see his corners. Hardly shows confidence.
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Personally I think that 4x4 dealers should offer additional training for drivers with associated insurance iducements.
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Going back to the original point of the attitude of the drivers, I bet the take up of that would be miniscule.
Good idea though.
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No doubt this will seem perverse to many. A few months ago in a petrol station in Upper Street I nicked the corner of the rear bumper of a not-very-impeccable Jeep Cherokee with the front wing of my white Escort which sustained a small, liveable-with mark. The owner of the Cherokee made a great fuss about the lacquer on his bumper which he said was not durable, a new bumper costing some improbable sum which I don't recall. I ate humble pie, as one should in those circumstances, and he let me off with a scowl.
Not long after that my daughter in her Golf, distracted by clamour from the nippers, drove briskly into the back of a Range Rover at a traffic light. No one was hurt, but the Range Rover owner spent a long time leaping about and taking photographs of the scene. My daughter claims the Range Rover was unmarked, hard to believe 100% in view of the £800 damage to the Golf, but one has to suppose not seriously damaged. Two policemen who turned up ended by staying until the fellow left, saying to my daughter: 'We'd better stay. He seems a bit excited.'
Apart from the fact that they show car drivers in a less than flattering light, the interesting thing about these incidents is the wimpish and hysterical behaviour of the 4X4 drivers.
Discuss.
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Why else would they drive them if they want to be cacooned from all the horrible things in this big nasty world that's out to get them.
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Years ago whist waiting on the Sandbanks ferry in our Series Three Land Rover an elderly couple drove onto the ferry and smack into the back of the Land Rover.
They were apologetic and i did not care,i was hardly wimpish or hysterical.
Their Volvo was slightly damaged and the Land Rover had another scratch.
If it was a new Range Rover then as an expensive car then maybe you could see the Range Rover drivers sense of humour failer,so morph expensive car onto Range Rover and then maybe there would be a bit more justification for his dislike of people ramming him up the backside.
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QED again. Even when you run into the back of them, they are still the guilty party! No bias here...
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QED again. Even when you run into the back of them, they are still the guilty party! No bias here...
Come, come, Manatee and bedfordrl... no one was blaming the 4x4 drivers for these incidents and no one says they behaved really badly: just, in fact, a bit wimpishly and hysterically. How does that translate into 'blame'?
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If someone drove into the back of me, i think i might get a little punchy to say the least.
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If someone drove into the back of me, i think i might get a little punchy to say the least.
Do you mean it's never happened to you? What sheltered lives some people have led.
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Drivers might gain a false sense of security in a 4x4 because of all the metal surrounding them. That might be true but 4x4s are more likely to overturn than normal cars once it's on its side, any people trapped inside a 4x4 are extremely vulnerable if something else crashes into the upper 'glasshouse' area.
When I had a Land Rover 90 I was also aware of just how close one's head is to the windscreen, side window, door frame etc. should one be jolted by an impact. The seatbelt wouldn't stop your head hitting the windscreen.
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boreme.com/boreme/funny-2006/parking-gadget-p1.php
of Course if you buy a BMW the above comes as standard avoiding collisions with lesser vehicles (TIC software installed)
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Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnn! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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Remember that for some the offroad ability or towing capacity makes 4x4s esential. My Isuzu doses around 8000 miles heavy towing and off road a year.
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One of my clients told me an interesting story about crashing a 4x4.
"I wouldn't have survived the crash in a saloon, but then in a saloon I wouldn't have had the crash....."
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Once people get over this pathetic obsession of everything American I think we will see the back of the prevalence of soft roaders.
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If it was about obsession of everything American everyone would be driving pickup, not 4x4.
4x4s are fine, they're not the biggest problem of UK roads - white VANs are. Always driven by half retards, always driven like looney carts. These days it doesn't matter what you drive there is always white van in your rear view mirror trying to overtake until it runs out of steam going up the next hill. I'm also sick of coming back home just to find entire road and parking blocked by loosely abandoned transits just because thanks to idiotic tax tactics every small adds handy andy thinks LWB high roof is exactly what's needed for his small bag of tools. I live with plumber and carpenter under one roof and seen nothing but estate cars parked on our driveway. What on earth do all these white van men do?
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If it was about obsession of everything American everyone would be driving pickup, not 4x4.
Tell me about it. Pick-ups seem to be getting popular.....
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boreme.com/boreme/funny-2006/parking-gadget-p1.php of Course if you buy a BMW the above comes as standard avoiding collisions with lesser vehicles (TIC software installed)
OK. Take a posh car. Pump it full of steroids, add a complicated and superfluous drivetrain, then jack it way up in the air, and ... Hey Presto! ... you got yourself a vehicle so bloated that you can't see an ordinary vehicle behind you whilst parking, never mind a small person.
Then, to get around this design flaw, spend several thousand adding a few dozen sonar sensors, a computer and lots of servos to control the steering, brakes, and all other driving funcions.
Lo and behold, the bloatmobile can now on its own perform a maneouvre which every driver learns in a few hours at driving school before they are allowed on the road alone ... provided they are driving a normal car.
And at the end of this farrago, the drivers of these Chelsea tractors wonder why they are mocked and derided.
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I took it to be a joke........then maybe not.
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I took it to be a joke........then maybe not.
I read somewhere that somebody is developing this technology, so I took it as real. If it was a spoof, it's bang on :)
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Otherwise I agree with you NW, I'd have no desire to load up my next car with this option. Perhaps they should bring a no frills version, I would be a buyer.
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I think it's an option on the top-of-the-range new Lexus IS.
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Why not lower the point at which a vehicle becomes 'heavy'? This would catch the 'Chelsea Tractors' whether they be 2WD or 4WD. I doubt that many of them would be lighter than most normal saloon cars. Then tax vehicles above that weight a much higher road tax. After all, that is what is done with heavy commercial vehicles. Normal car-sized 4WDs such as the Audi Quattro would not be penalised. There must be a flaw in this idea, or it would have been thought of earlier. Any thoughts why this wouldn't work?
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It's the anti 4x4 brigade who have a problem, having been whipped into a frenzy by other smug, nauseating, self-righteous hypocrites and lost all reason as to the relative importance of the choices we all make. The only whinger on this topic I will give the time of day to is one who never makes an unnecessary journey, or breaks a speed limit, doesn't go on planes, doesn't commute more than 5 miles to work by car, doesn't smoke, or eat vegetables flown from Kenya - you get the idea. The blind prejudice peddled by otherwise sensible contributors to this forum defies belief.
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I am sooo with Manatee on this one.
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Manatee here here, it gladens my heart to see that the majority of people on this site are like you and not e the hypocrites that you so aptly describe. I hope this is the last time this pointless thread appears on this site
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