Driving - a lifetime lesson!

[PeterC]

I have a lot to do with the countryside - I live in a forest in the Welsh hills. Funny, but from my perspective when other drivers see I have a 4x4 they stop dead and expect me to climb round them on the bank or in the ditch, or reverse. Actually, I don't mind provided it is physically possible. Perhaps you should contemplate some pictures like this before you generalise too much (that's not me BTW) :-

Perhaps you should give some driving lessons to our local school run mothers.

 

[Tetchytyke]

How do you know what people need? I have a big 4x4 and in fact have always had big cars (estates previously) because I've needed them.

Everyone around here seems to either be driving a Nissan Juke (I can only assume Sunderland were giving massive discounts...what a hideous car) or a BMW X5.

Now maybe I'm being unfair, but I don't think everyone in North Tyneside driving one of those things heads out into the Northumberland pennines every weekend for a hike and a bike. The furthest off road they go is Asda. Which is just as well: Top Gear have repeatedly proven that these things are rubbish off road.

Truthfully, I'd happily see VED trebled for these sorts of cars.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Very true.
When I first learnt to drive in 1991 I was frequently pulled over by the police in my old VW van for a check up. They’d issue me with a ‘producer’ - which meant appearing at the local cop shop with my license, insurance and MOT certificate etc.
The point was that there were police out on the roads all the time keeping an eye on things (including hiding behind bushes on well known speeding spots in the dead of night, ready to catch you out). This just doesn’t seem to be the case these days and it all seems to be a bit lawless out there now.

There's a lot less need for issuing "producers" these days because it can all be verified electronically - indeed, except the driving licence itself, it can all be verified electronically without you even knowing it has been, and probably is multiple times a day via ANPR cameras.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I can get why some people might want one due to back issues, but apart from that I simply don't see the practicality benefit. More awkward to get into tight spaces

Is it? I have a Land Rover Defender LWB, it's huge (though not quite as big as the Vectra estate I used to have, believe it or not - about a foot shorter and 6" narrower). But it's dead easy to manoeuvre (other than the turning circle being comparable with a supertanker) because you can easily see the corners from the driving seat, and the side mirrors (much underused by driving instructors[1]) are huge.

[1] Reversing around a corner is made dead easy if you use your nearside wing mirror to do it (checking others too to ensure you aren't going to reverse into anything). But instructors barely ever seem to teach that.

 

[Cowley]

There's a lot less need for issuing "producers" these days because it can all be verified electronically - indeed, except the driving licence itself, it can all be verified electronically without you even knowing it has been, and probably is multiple times a day via ANPR cameras.

Yes good point.
The amount of idiots that race past where we live (in a 30mph zone) is astonishing.
I asked the police why they didn’t speed check people here instead of up the road (where they sometimes do) which is straight and open and completely obvious if there’s a camera van lurking to catch people out.
He told me that if a car came speeding over the bridge and was surprised to see them they could lose control and crash...
He didn’t have an answer to the question: What if they came speeding over the bridge and one of the kids was crossing the road?

 

[Lucan]

Everyone around here seems to either be driving a Nissan Juke ... The furthest off road they go is Asda. Which is just as well: Top Gear have repeatedly proven that these things are rubbish off road.

I've just Googled for Nissan Juke, and that looks like it could be true. Some of these SUVs are "token" 4x4s.

Truthfully, I'd happily see VED trebled for these sorts of cars.

Trebled? I pay about 10 times as much VED per mile as a typical 44t 12-wheel articulated HGV. If they really wanted to tax CO2 as they claim, they'd put that tax on the fuel - it is very directly related.

Of course the guy hauling fodder to livestock who needs a 4*4 is in an ancient short wheelbase landrover.

Less and less these days, and they don't make that sort of LR any more. My nearest neighbour, a farmer, uses an older Discovery and his old father-in-law has a Suzuki Jimny. The Forestry Commission Ranger here uses a Toyota Hilux (with the fibreglass "van" cover over the load platform), and the forestry contractors and many of the farmers around here use those or the equivalent Nissan Frontier. The Open Reach off-road teams are still in Defenders FTTB.

Is it? I have a Land Rover Defender LWB... But it's dead easy to manoeuvre (other than the turning circle being comparable with a supertanker) because you can easily see the corners from the driving seat

Indeed. When I used a saloon hire car from work I was shocked at the poor rear visibility, thanks to the fashion for dark pillar-box slit windows.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Trebled? I pay about 10 times as much VED per mile as a typical 44t 12-wheel articulated HGV. If they really wanted to tax CO2 as they claim, they'd put that tax on the fuel - it is very directly related.

Fair point about fuel, actually. The less efficient a vehicle, the more fuel you have to buy, the more tax you pay.

The massive hidden subsidies given to road haulage firms are a whole new argument!

 

[Cowley]

This what I call a crossover. A Russian truck locomotive...



Plenty of room for comfy seats if you’ve got a bad back, and I don’t think too many people would ask you to reverse if they met you on a country lane?
Actually you probably just make your own lanes wherever you want.

 

[bspahh]

I once had a classic Volvo estate and as far as other road users are concerned I don't see much difference from my present 4x4, which is in fact shorter. Wife has a 4x4 Panda which is almost indistinguishabIe from the 2wd version apart from logos. It is hard to understand why having a second prop shaft under the floor generates so much hate.

The increased ride height means that a 4x4 is more likely to roll. A few years ago, I met an Mk I Landrover Discovery, upside down, on my side of the road and heading straight for me. It was at a roundabout where you have to turn to the right. The (drunk) driver had braked too late, put their left wheels onto the grass verge and ploughed on in a straight line. They pulled the steering wheel onto full right hand lock. When they slowed down and regained grip, the car rolled onto the other side of the road. As I came around the roundabout, I was able to swerve to avoid a head on collision. A second earlier and I could have had its engine in my windscreen.

A sober driver should have made the turn. But having 2 tonnes of car with a high centre of mass did not help at all.