Recommend me a car.

agrinnall

dark_knight wrote: »

"Why does she want a SUV (just to continue my campaign to make people realise that they very rarely need such a vehicle, and it would be better for everyone if they just bought a normal car)?"

Prefers the height, room , feeling protected etc etc

Height is the only one of those that is not available in normal cars, and that extra height is one of the main reasons why they are a nuisance to other road users.

JP1978

Tarambor wrote: »

Poor visibility especially for close distance manouvering, longer stopping distances, poorer on cornering, risk of roll over on sudden direction changes, affected more by the wind, worse fuel economy, higher cost of repairs, higher running costs not just because of fuel but because of tyres...

I take it you just made this up with no research based on what you 'think' will be the issues?

Worse fuel economy that what? Mine can do 55mpg - plenty of other 'normal' cars on the road that cant do that

Higher cost of repairs - Hmmm, mine and a few others are based on the Golf 5L platform and use the same running gear, same engines - do dealers add a mark up for been an SUV? If a 4wd version, the haldex clutch on mine just requires a oil change (circa £40) every 40k miles - not really a major issue is it?

Poor visibility - Really? They are slightly higher up, better visibility and mine is flat at the back, so actually, great visibility, unlike all these stupid curved hatchbacks with stupid tiny rear windows.

Risk of roll over - granted, higher centre of gravity, cant get away from that but with many electronic gadgets on the drivetrain (ESP, TSR etc) the chances of that are very very slim. Remember the mercedes A-Class - that wasn't an SUV but failed on the 'moose test'..... so not just affecting 'SUV' type cars.

Affected more by the wind - Again, granted, they can be - but so are some poorly designed small cars if their aerodynamics are not spot on.

Tyres - unsure what you mean - but same size tyres on mine as many other VW Group cars - and because VW group use that size on so many cars, there is much much choice and so competition means lower prices for them. Bigger tyres if popular are often cheaper than smaller tyres if not very common - supply & demand.

Some of your comments are valid against some SUV's but some are not valid at all so you cannot generalise.

philnicandevan

On my 2nd skoda yeti after 3yrs of ownership (i'm an arthritis sufferer)

GwylimT

agrinnall wrote: »

They take up an unnecessary amount of space for the function they perform, and in particular for the rest of us who choose the sensible car option they block the view by being unreasonably tall. Everybody managed for many years before some marketing genius decided they could make lots of money for car companies by promoting a new class of vehicle that until then nobody had needed.

Our SUV is smaller than a mondeo, guess you don't like that size of car either?

agrinnall

GwylimT wrote: »

Our SUV is smaller than a mondeo, guess you don't like that size of car either?

Actually I'm not wild about it, but at least it is a similar height to mine so I can see past it. Your SUV is just a mobile traffic screen. I can put up with vans, lorries and buses as there is a justification for their extra height, whereas yours is solely the result of marketing hype.

Manxman_in_exile

agrinnall wrote: »

They take up an unnecessary amount of space for the function they perform, and in particular for the rest of us who choose the sensible car option they block the view by being unreasonably tall. Everybody managed for many years before some marketing genius decided they could make lots of money for car companies by promoting a new class of vehicle that until then nobody had needed.

This is particularly true in car parks and is often made much worse as most of these vehicles have so much privacy(?) glass that you can't see through them properly.

JP1978

I am surprised that some people can actually work out how to walk and breathe unaided if they can't adjust their driving habits to accommodate taller cars, HGV's, vans, trailers etc.

It may mean at junctions you have to wait a few seconds for the SUV/Van with no side glass in to move off - so what in the grand scheme of thing?

Instead of driving into parking spaces in car parks, reverse in (its much safer regardless) - you will have better visibility when you come to leave.

The same could be said for people carriers - yet no one has mentioned them yet - they are often taller than SUV's.

Luckily we live in the free world - I assume that if certain people were in charge we would only be allowed to buy beige cars from one brand - all one model with the same engine? Its nice to have a choice, SUV's suit some people, normal cars suit others, its as simple as that. Choice.

agrinnall

JP1978 wrote: »

The same could be said for people carriers - yet no one has mentioned them yet - they are often taller than SUV's.

Yep, MPVs, SUVs, Chelsea tractors, they all fall into the same category for me. Very few people actually need one, and the majority of owners and everyone else would be better off if nobody had invented them in the first place. I don't expect to convince anyone who has paid over the odds for such a vehicle as they have to justify their investment, but I'll carry on be a grumpy git about them regardless .

Manxman_in_exile

JP1978 wrote: »

Instead of driving into parking spaces in car parks, reverse in (its much safer regardless) - you will have better visibility when you come to leave.

.

Only slightly better visibility. If you come back to your car and find it sandwiched between two slab-sided 4x4s (or people carriers or suvs or a combination thereof) both of which have been invariably driven in rather than reversed in, you still have to get the front of your car out blind until you are far enough forward to see round them. At least when you've got a standard car next to you, you can still see through its windows.

goosander

Bit conflicted on this...

Although SUV's and other tall vehicles drive me up the wall when stuck behind them, I must admit I rather like my Yeti... Got it because it is one of the very few cars in which you can put bikes in the back vertically. Its also compact being shorter than the Fabia estate I had previously and much nicer to drive too.

I'm now pretty much resigned to not being able to overtake anything in a car now, but when on the motorbike its a different story - even misery boxes (caravans / camper vans) are no problem