4x4 owners

[Pippa68]

Did you watch the TV programme last night..and if so, has it made you consider changing your vehicle?

[NORMANTHEDOG]

did not see the show,but i dont have a problem with them,except sometimes the people who drive them,most dont have a clue how to drive them. we have 8 mpvs in our fleet and they are simular,but i must admit i wouldent buy one.

[rdv]

I did see the show and I dont own one. If i had a use for one I would buy one. Where is this going to end, are we going to be told what cars we are allowed to drive and where we can drive them. The owners already pay more tax because of the fuel consumption and what about 4x4 cars like the Golf R32. Dont bring pollution into it, before 1992 ( pre cats) our cars were not producing CO2, the government decided they should. CO was not a greenhouse gas so in that respect the old cars were less damaging to the environment. Global warming is a great excuse for more taxes

[Toureman]

I have done a lot of extreme cross country driving in Military vehicles, to drive C.C. you do need a lot of training to be safe.

I did drive my Daughters 3.5 Auto Rangerover quite a lot and I would admit it does give you a feeling of superiority when on the road but it never gave me a feeling of invulnerability.

Richard Bransom ran a fleet of Rangerovers at one time as high class taxis and he was in one that turned over on the M4, he said if it had happened in any other vehicle he might have been killed. One of the newspapers pointed out if he had been in any normal vehicle it would probably have not turned over in the first place, there not as safe as people think they are.

[cascarelli]

I didn't see the programme either, but I've often wondered why so many women seem to drive 4x4s. There is, presumably, a perceived safety factor involved in driving a bigger vehicle that is higher off the road?

[jake-the-peg]

I've got it on tape - we have a landrover defender which is less of a Chelsea Tractor and more of a er well tractor!

They'll take 11 people in the morning and half a ton of sand and cement in the afternoon - come the evening you can wash it out with a high pressure hose.

And yes we regularly do all of those!

But then I don't live in a city - as far as I can see most of these 4x4 rants seem to come from city dwellers.

Usually they seem to subconciously think that everybody is like them, lives in suburbia buys the Mail and really shouldn't need anything more than a Nissan Micra.

If everybodys getting uptight about Chelsea Tractors just shove up the London Congestion Charge on them to �100 a day and leave the rest of us alone

[wallis1007]

I saw the programme and there were some valid points.
1. They should be used for going cross country as that is what they are for.
2. 4x4's are not that good in urban areas.
3. the emissions from some 4x4s are high.

1. why then, is the use of byways ( green lanes) slowly but surely been stopped.
2. I live in a town, how the hell do I get home at night if I they stop or outprice 4x4s from urban areas.( I do not take the kids to school / go to tescos etc in it )
3. I probably do approx 7000 miles per year. A lot less then most euro boxes. therefore the difference in emission is not really an argument.
My series 2 landrover is over 40 years old and still going strong. Not many cars can last that long. how much pollution in making a new car?
There are of exceptions , like the bloke in the BIG car. As he said "it's a posing car" . Prick
I use mine for off roading,towing my boat and a standby rescue assistance vehicle. If it aint muddy or you don't know how to drive it properly then you don't need it.

[BRIGHT SPARK]

Is it me or is everyone missing the vital point here. 4x4 traction in a motor vehicle is the most stable system available. This is where the feeling of safety is detrived from. However, I think the point most people are missing, is the fact, that most of these vehicles have larger than average engines. This said 20% of vehicles sold in the UK also have larger than average engines ie Jaguars, Rolls Royces, supercars, some vans etc etc etc. Not once in this misinformed documentary was this fact ever disclosed to the gullable audience.

Do people realise that the new 'G' rate of excise duty imposed on vehicles with a high emision rating only applies to vehicles registered post April 2006, older vehicles some with very high emisions will always escape the 'G' band rating. Doesn't seem fair does it!

Yours faithfully

An eagerly awaiting new BMW X5 customer

[amonty1144]

I've just purchased a landrover freelander, today I drove to school and the shops. At the weekend it will go into the hills and my husband will hopefully bring a fresh killed deer home in the back of it. It is more economical than the renault that it replaced.
I like a 4x4 because it is safe and because I have a purpose for it.
I'm also a woman and , no I don't know why we drive them.
This is still our countryside and I intend to enjoy it, city dwellers will not tell me how to live my life.

[joko]

i can't understand all the hoohaa about this - people are entitled to drive whatever they want and those people who actually get visibly irate about it need to look inside and see what they are actually bothered about - its pathetic.

i think most are probably jealous.

[Reverandfunk]

Don't really care, although I bet the bloke with the 4x4 was using it as a pen*s replacement lol

[Compostella]

I watched it and it made me want to buy one

I would love it of someone shouted at me to get a smaller car, then I would know that they were really annoyed

[Gef]

rdv wrote, "before 1992 ( pre cats) our cars were not producing CO2, the government decided they should. CO was not a greenhouse gas so in that respect the old cars were less damaging to the environment."

This is a load of rubbish. To save me typing a long answer have a look here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalytic_convert er