In the news

I park my hybrid , in a slightly less macho way, next to their Landrovers then comment how pretty their truck looks.

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Violent abusive husband and floppy tosser Papa Johnson outed as renowned toucher upper.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/16/stanley-johnson-accused-of-inappropriately-touching-tory-mp

Not driving an SUV for starters.

In America I think they did - early doors they could be registered as 'work vehicles' (or something similar, hence 'utility vehicles') which meant that they attracted a different version of road tax. I guess once there they started making their way around the world.

Seeing as a few folks here have expressed climate concerns around SUV's I hope you'll sign up to be flight free in 2022 (or forever) too.

https://flightfree.co.uk/take_action/

As someone who has always believed racism, cricket and Yorkshiremen who won't shut up about being from Yorkshire are fucking shit this hearing is ticking alot of my boxes.

Bugger that, I’ve already got about 50,000 miles booked in. Still a few more trips to get scheduled though.

"Our White Rose values" fuck me

Yep 🤮

Advert are horrifically aggressive, I don’t even drive, there’s nothing we can do to discourage people from buying SUV against massive companies with enough funding to pay people properly.

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^ cape town!

rad.

m8 that's a crossover

Someone needs to tell that bloke that's not how you wear sunglasses.

Farmer/ranger close enough

Yeah should be upside down stuck into the vents on his helmet

Wasn’t the RAV4 the first SUV?

I don't think so. But the OG Rav4 was much more like a miniature Discovery than that aberration above (sorry if that's what your car looks like).

Yes mine is like the aberration above, apparently the front end has to be that shape to minimise damage to cyclists, pedestrians etc.

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Sorry to everyone for inadvertently kicking off this interminable discussion, but it proves my point. The SUV/formerly 'gas guzzler' thing is only divisive, completely unproductive, and wastes everybody's time.

When I say that automobilism should be targeted instead, what I mean is the idea that we no longer need to care about how we organise space, because everyone can drive everywhere at the drop of a hat; the myth of the car as a universal tool ('best for all transport applications').

Twin-tracked, load-carrying vehicles have been around for a long time; twin-tracked, load-carrying motorised vehicles will be around for even longer, and they are very useful for a good number of things, so it's not about being 'anti-car'. However, what is not useful is the spatial dissociation they cause (through things like sprawl, over-emphasis on the economics of land, laissez-faire in development policy, etc.), which public transport (which has also been mentioned) will never be able to keep up with.

All that is what needs to be challenged, not a small sub-set of cars, and the resulting increasing disorganisation that the world has suffered for more than a hundred years must be counteracted effectively. Obviously, there was never a Golden Age, but we need to combine some of the advantages that used to exist with modern-day innovation and not mindlessly continue to feed industries that then blackmail society about their continued growth when far fewer of their products are needed, not more, and not the same number as before.

Don't blame individuals for their choices if you can avoid it at all. They make decisions based on the prevailing culture, the spatial conditions that they find, and it's those that need changing for the better. Singling out SUVs is counter-productive and totally takes the eye off the ball.

Coming in here with your calming logic and valid points

The key point is that we can agree on some common ground - it's all Oliver's fault.

Careful Oliver, the forum elders don't take kindly to discussion and debate unless we're just flat out calling a group of people cunts.

“ continued growth when far fewer of their products are needed, not more, and not the same number as before.”

Perhaps this is why despite having fewer parts EV cars cost so much, manufacturers moving the pricing to prepare for a change in the supply demand.

I chatted to Oliver on Middle -Aged Alleycats about the advances in the company I work for.
We changed the way we worked and were looking at saving £50k a year in diesel but there was a continuous fight against backsliding (I’m loosing it atm) as the fear of change was greater than the fear of not changing.

Further prompts from the Tax system could help.

I got a bit of disapproval from colleagues for choosing a hybrid (SUV obs.) over something more German and golf club.

SUV is a catchall, really, and quite a misnomer in many (almost all) cases.

Sports Utility Vehicle is generally applied to vehicles that talk the talk (jacked up, beefy trim, large side-walls) but don't walk the walk. They're lifestyle vehicles - the Honda CR-V, RAV4 and so on. This category does contain vehicles that are genuinely handy off-road like the Jimny, but largely it was used for cars that are based on FWD hatchback platforms that are then compromised dynamically by lifting them up in the air.

It's gradually broadened to include larger stuff that is (with tyres they don't come with) much more capable - Range Rovers and so forth.

I suppose they might get closer to the Sports tag - if you count shooting as a sport. From a motorsport perspective I guess you midget have something like observed trials? Not my bag.

Anyway, for 99.9% of the people who have them an estate car would be better on every metric - apart of course from the looks, and the "command" position of the driver that comes from being up high.