In the news

Where do you stand on sports car owners?

Anyway, the greatest single obstacle to vastly reducing car journeys in an urban environment is the poor quality of public transport

I realise this is going to be an unpopular position, but I actually think the public transport system in London is pretty good. Remarkable in fact.

I think that is fair comment. But it isn't good enough to replace all car journeys for people who don't feel safe cycling, which is what we need.

they are not that common, at least on Layhams

@amey

I am yet to come across an SUV owner who is not a cunt towards other vulnerable road users but I have an open mind

Saw the ultimate yesterday - Massive Aston Martin SUV with the ultimate wanker plate J007 ASM.

it isn't good enough to replace all car journeys for people who don't feel safe cycling

Presumably, all those people who are driving because they don't feel safe cycling, don't feel safe cycling because of all the people driving.

Makes my head hurt.

The main problem is that you can't really squeeze the majority of people that own the big stupid cars.

For many people in the big £2m+ houses near me (in the SW London bubble) the monthly payments on a £60k wankpanzer are just a rounding error in their monthly household accounts. You could treble fuel duty, VED, etc and it wouldn't change their behaviour one bit. They'd probably vote for a party that proposed that as it would price huge numbers of people in littler cars off the roads.

(Laughs in 20 year old ULEZ compliant 3dr 1.1l petrol car.)

But it isn't good enough

And there lies the issue of legislative change vs out-woking(?) between consumers.

We can 'other' each other with SUV driver vs non SUV driver etc.

But I guess in 2021 there should be SOME consciousness built into what/how you consume.

Sadly this is the general public.

The group of people that own £3m+ houses is relatively small, and therefore presumably not really the problem.

The problem is that you can get finance on a Range Rover if you've got a job flipping burgers at McDonalds.

Not sure you need a photo of that lady, when LFGSS is hardly a microcosm of sustainability (I include myself in that comment).

nah we are all okay here tbh even the SUV owners ;)

She's got her own line of 'Range Rover Mum' tees and sweats merch now. Complete with that picture of her having the altercation with the IB protestors.

I wish I were joking

The problem is that we see driving a big car as a mark of success rather than the moral equivalent of drink-driving.

(Note that I edited my post to say £2m+)

The group of people that own £3m+ houses is relatively small, and therefore presumably not really the problem.

Countrywide yes, but at a more local level SUV ownership is highest in places where the average house sale price is already >£2m, e.g. parts of Wandsworth borough, Kensington & Chelsea, and Hammersmith & Fulham.

In part of my local area there's probably 95% of the 1000 houses nearby me that would sell for more then £2m. It isn't accurately reflected in average house sale prices (available via the Land Registry) as many are owned by boomers who bought them for £25k 40 years ago.

The problem is that you can get finance on a Range Rover if you've got a job flipping burgers at McDonalds.

Indeed, and the measures I suggested would have an effect on them as though couldn't finance a tripling in running costs. But in certain areas of the country where the SUV is so dominant there'd be little to no point trying to put the squeeze on them at all (with those measures).

At the end of my road is a school where the daughter of a Russian oligarch used to attend. As the story goes, to make the drop-off/pick-up easier (after complaints from locals about the two vehicles that used to idle whilst waiting for her) said oligarch bought one of the houses next to the school purely to use the driveway for drop-off and pick-up. The £2m+ house was just left empty and then sold (for a profit naturally) when she'd moved on from the school.

Laughs in 20 year old ULEZ compliant 3dr 1.1l petrol car.

What's that? I thought a petrol car needed to be 2006 or newer?

What's that? I thought a petrol car needed to be 2006 or newer?

If the (petrol) car is 2006 or newer it's pretty much guaranteed to be ULEZ compliant because cars manufactured after that date would have satisfied certain emissions limits, but that doesn't stop older cars happening to be compliant. It's about emissions not just the age of the vehicle.

It's a 2001 Citroen Saxo 1.1L

The car also happily runs on E10 petrol, which is no great surprise as the French have used that for far longer than we have. I know someone who's having problems with their 2011 car now that the UK has switched to E10 petrol.

Whilst I'm normally the first to back a pile-on of rich people, I don't think it's quite that simple.

I too live in an area where many of the houses are expensive, but it's in South-East London, and most of the people with the big houses run relatively modest cars.

A couple of my best mates are hedge-fund traders and make unbelievable amounts of money, but again, don't driver particularly flashy cars. Most of the hedge-fund traders I have met tend to be a bit weird - they look for the value in everything, which is why they all shop at Lidl.

Through work I occasionally come into contact with the mega rich. A couple of years ago I had a meeting with the wife of one of the richest men in the country - she turned up in an old Nissan Micra, held together with gaffer tape.

By contrast, my office used to be in Whitechapel, just off the Mile End Road, an area of grinding poverty, but you just couldn't move for high-end Beemers and Range Rovers.

In short, rich people are twats, but they're not necessarily the problem.

My 1997 car is also compliant, but I have not gone through the process to register that with DVLA because I'm horribly lazy.

What about Hybrid SUVS?
My SUV weighs 1700kg you can’t have a sunroof and a spare tyre because it pushes the weight too high.
Tyre wear is minimal at 26,000miles (a colleagues saloon EV has worn out a set in 4000). Regenerative braking so it seems very little brake wear.
Higher bonnet but active crash avoidance and softer front.
It’s narrower and shorter than my old estate , the space used is vertical.
The engine doesn’t idle it switches off at lights.

Reply rant over

E10 petrol

Leyton's got its own petrol?

Yes, and the Government even has its own dedicated website to check if you can use Leyton petrol:-

https://www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-e10-petrol

^ Good to know. All I need now is a car.

I think if you SUV is more efficient than a small car and you dont drive badly you are the outlier and not part of the problem, were your tyres slashed?

A couple of my best mates are hedge-fund traders and make unbelievable amounts of money, but again, don't driver particularly flashy cars. Most of the hedge-fund traders I have met tend to be a bit weird - they look for the value in everything, which is why they all shop at Lidl.

My anecdata is in contrast with yours then.

The road next to me is mostly £4m+ houses, replete with a couple of hedge fund managers and corporate lawyers. It's mostly huge Volvos, Range Rovers or the Tesla that's bigger than a Volvo estate. If they have a normal/ratty car (as well) it's because it's for one of the children or the staff.

(I too live in a big detached house, but one that has been cut up into flats.)

How does the emissions and economy compare to the equivalent estate or hatchback from the same manufacturer?

People keep saying their new SUV is better than their old car which isn't an apple for apple's comparison