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Cars are getting bigger!


Haliotis
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Got an email newsletter from moneysupermarket.com.   Leading topic is about cars increasing in size, referring to Autobesity, or Carbloat.  The heavy type, headline grabber says, “SUVs aren’t inherently safer for their occupants than an estate or saloon: most are two-wheel drive for fuel efficiency, so don’t offer better grip and higher view doesn’t guarantee better protection in a crash.”

The article goes on to list the “anti-environmental”(?) changes in various models, with overloading of bridges and multi-storey car parks as a possible hazard.  Electric vehicles with their hazardous ingredients, weight and acceleration putting more particulates from their tyres onto the roads, get included.  In essence, I think the editors are struggling for something new to say.

My C-HR is classed as a SUV but, IMHO it is not.  It is a conventional hybrid car with a boot and is slightly higher than a normal car, and has SUV-style bodywork.  It was chosen for its car-like qualities, with the extra height giving better ability to get into or out of it.  As for the higher view not guaranteeing more safety in a crash, that better view gives a competent driver assisted ability to avoid involvement in a collision.

All the article does is to give more false information to various governing bodies to further their war on the motorist, and more frivolous information for insurance companies to use as a lever to raise premiums.

To the editors of this spiel I would advise, “Get a real job!”

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Car obesity? No problem—they've got a jab for that, it's called Ozempic.😂
 

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Problem is you need a higher SUV style car in order to safely see and be seen, due to all the other monsters on the road.

Only hope of it changing would be if a government one day dared tax things properly taking into account every external cost

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For example a 32 tonner wears the road 64 million times more than a family car. I don't see them paying a corresponding amount of road tax.

 

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My loathing of SUVs is well publicised on here so I don't need to add more :tongue: :laugh: 

 

49 minutes ago, Mjolinor said:

For example a 32 tonner wears the road 64 million times more than a family car. I don't see them paying a corresponding amount of road tax.

And I'm glad they don't - Do you really want to be paying £10 for a L of milk or £50 for a pizza?? HGVs do wear the road more but like busses they are infrastructure and provide a service for all and not just the people in them, and if anything should have less of a tax burden as that just gets passed onto us anyway through the products they deliver!!

3 ton SUVs that never go off-road and only carry a single person 99% of the time? Now those deserve some additional tax burden!

 

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Vehicle designs differ according to what work they are intended for, and there will always be owners who will buy a vehicle not truly practicable for their daily use.   When we were caravanners I owned a VW Caravelle - a perfect and capable vehicle for towing.   Although I loved my Caravelle,  a great vehicle to drive, I reluctantly sold it when we ceased caravanning.  It was expensive to run, quite unnecessary for two elderly people, and in all honesty not practical.

I chose my Toyota C-HR as a replacement as it ticked all my boxes.  For only two people, it is satisfactory for when we go on holidays in rented self-catering accommodation - being able to convey luggage and a walker for my disabled wife, and compact enough for daily use.  I would not like a car any smaller as I would feel vulnerable - you can drive as safely as you wish, but cannot be sure some careless driver won’t collide into you.  I bit of meat on your vehicle at that time is a good thing. 

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It’s not just cars. I started towing a caravan in 1978 and bought a Morris 1800 “land crab” for the job. Most caravans weighed much less than a ton with only basic facilities. We gave it up when our teenage daughters wanted the flyaway type of holiday in the mid 90s. 
We returned to “tugging” in 2012 after 8 years with an motorhome, and I couldn’t believe how much the modern gin palaces on wheels weighed. Our faithful 2005 Yaris Blue had to be traded for a Honda FRV as I, too, didn’t see the point of a SUV. But as caravans got bigger and cars lighter I had to bite the bullet and get a CRV. Then a Kia Sorento (great bit of kit) which we traded for the Yaris Cross when we sold the last caravan this year.

Do, yes, SUVs do have a place, just not on the school run,

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For people that think SUVs are inherently safer than 'normal' cars, I like to show this video :laugh: 

 

 

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22 minutes ago, Cyker said:

For people that think SUVs are inherently safer than 'normal' cars, I like to show this video :laugh: 

 

 

Blimey, did something explode under the car?

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46 minutes ago, Rhymes with Paris said:

Blimey, did something explode under the car?

I think the result of that incident was more to do with the angle of contact and the front wheel of the white car riding up the rear wing of the car it hit, and the wheel’sdriven power doing the rest.  This was a very unlucky contact, and probably nothing to do with whether the white car was a SUV or any other design.

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Maybe, but a normal car wouldn't have rolled over like that. SUVs are not as safe as people think. They're more dangerous to themselves and everything around them because of their mass and high centre of gravity.

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1 hour ago, PeteChat said:

It’s not just cars. I started towing a caravan in 1978 and bought a Morris 1800 “land crab” for the job. Most caravans weighed much less than a ton with only basic facilities. We gave it up when our teenage daughters wanted the flyaway type of holiday in the mid 90s. 
We returned to “tugging” in 2012 after 8 years with an motorhome, and I couldn’t believe how much the modern gin palaces on wheels weighed. Our faithful 2005 Yaris Blue had to be traded for a Honda FRV as I, too, didn’t see the point of a SUV. But as caravans got bigger and cars lighter I had to bite the bullet and get a CRV. Then a Kia Sorento (great bit of kit) which we traded for the Yaris Cross when we sold the last caravan this year.

Do, yes, SUVs do have a place, just not on the school run,

When we started caravanning, the width of caravans rarely seemed to exceed six feet.  My first caravan was less than 6 feet wide, my next caravans were about one inch over 6 feet, and my last two caravans were 7’-4.5”wide.  Travellers were pulling up to 8 feet wide German caravans, legally using commercial vehicles such as Ford Transits - towing these caravans with a private car was not permitted in the UK.   This caused much aggravation from UK caravan manufacturers, supported by the Clubs, and the government finally gave in and allowed towing them with private cars.

So the “gin places” as you call them became fashionable.  On the Caravan Club forum I once criticised these monsters, and got terrible replies on the forum - I was surprised the Club moderators did not take some of the rhetoric down.

In latter years, I felt that a silly kind of “mine is bigger and newer than yours” snobbery developed.  With smoked windows, TV on board, and huge windbreaks these so-called campers insulated themselves and seemed to get together with owners of other high-end ‘vans.

We did think we would really miss caravanning when we gave up, but the changes in people, along with now having a “dog-eat-dog” fight to get a pitch unless you book up to two years ahead, made us decide that we were not missing anything. 

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51 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Maybe, but a normal car wouldn't have rolled over like that. SUVs are not as safe as people think. They're more dangerous to themselves and everything around them because of their mass and high centre of gravity.

Does anyone remember the great upside down car the Suzuki Vitara?

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4 minutes ago, Paul john said:

Does anyone remember the great upside down car the Suzuki Vitara?

The Vitara wasn’t the one, it was the little SJ jeepy things.

As for the Landrover in the video, that was more to do with the idiot driving it being desperate to get to the front of the queue than the car.

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Know what you mean about modern vans, we had a number of campervans/motorcaravans over the years and they steadily got more complicated and expensive, to the point today they are silly money for what you get in some of them. From our experience, they needed to concentrate on getting the basics right on new vans rather that adding extra goodies that can go wrong. But they did celebrate ' Made in Britain' on a few of our vans, which was rather worrying, made think back to dark days of the 1970s car industry here!

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Caravan or motorhome, it is amazing how many people buy an upmarket outfit, then will not use the shower, do cooking on very modern cookers, or wash their utensils in the onboard sink.  Instead, they traipse to the amenity block to do everything.  These people are not campers - they want a home on wheels with all the comforts of a well appointed house.  And so, of course, the manufacturers of these outfits gladly fit them out and make a handsome profit out of their easily led buyers.

Our first caravan was a well used Elddis with two gas lamps - one at each end of the caravan. The WC was a free-standing unit in its own small cubby hole. Water was pumped to the sink by a foot pump, and hot water required the use of a kettle.    But, looking back, we had the happiest care-free holidays in that old van.  There was little to go wrong, and we didn’t have to worry about leaving an expensive unit on site whilst we were out and about.

Repairs and maintenance were DIY, with no expensive annual service (now well in excess of £200) in order to keep the manufacturer’s warranty.

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Had a Talbot auto sleeper a few years ago.

It was a 1986  vintage, the seamless fibreglass construction of the habitation bit meant no seams,no leaks.

The cab was a different affair,it was as rotten as a pear, but held together while I had it, the doors had been replaced.

These were tough old vans though, the engine was still good despite being nearly 30 years old.(The 2 litre petrol being far superior to the 2.5 diesel)

Apparently two crystal wine glasses were supplied as original equipment with these in the wine cupboard.

Disappointingly these were missing on mine, I did try to contact the previous owner to find out the whereabouts of these, but they had no idea where they were.

Just goes to show you should always check original equipment is always complete on 20 to 30 year old vehicles before handing over the money I suppose.

 

 

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I've slept in my Yaris, does that count...? :fear: 

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36 minutes ago, Cyker said:

I've slept in my Yaris, does that count...? :fear: 

Yes,as long as you could stretch your legs out without pressing the ejector button.

It's a bit uncomfortable to say the least sleeping in a car when searching for work in the smoke,this being before my breakthrough into high society down south following some years later.

There were three of us in a ancient MK3 cortina 2000 GT with sleeping bags parked up somewhere in kilburn after a night in the burville hotel in neasdon.

The "hotel" had condemned hospital beds in dormitory rooms, and a communal toilet ankle deep in urine.

One must be tenacious though, and keep trying.

I love a can do attitude.

 

 

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2 hours ago, PeteChat said:

The Vitara wasn’t the one, it was the little SJ jeepy things.

As for the Landrover in the video, that was more to do with the idiot driving it being desperate to get to the front of the queue than the car.

Let me qualify. By my experience. The 1988 vitara. Plenty of corners on 2 wheels. 

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Hi Paul,

For about 8 or 9 years we switched to camper vans - had two ion that time.  First was an Autosleepers Rambler on a Peugeot Talbot panel van conversion.  Then we changed to an Autosleepers Talisman - fibreglass body on a Peugeot Talbot chassis.

Worst design were the articulated beds, which were made up in three sections.  Double bed arrangement was also poor - very narrow and a pain when the one next to the front seats had to scramble over the other person for toilet visit during the night.

And changing the spark plugs, which were located through a long tube that passed through the rocker cover, was a natural steer to using expletives.

But we did do extended summer holidays which allowed us to travel all over France - even snowballed her indoors in the Pyrenees.  

As we got older, with more aches and pains, towed caravans successfully beckoned, although we did also take these to France.  But the camper vans have left us with the best memories.

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We had a few Peugeot based vans over the years, also thinking about it a Talbot as well, but with you on the Peugeot diesel mechanicals, they were very reliable thankfully, had more issues with the british built back end, but as you say the basic servicing bits were a complete pain to do, needing screwdrivers and various spanners just to do filters etc., unlike our Toyota engined 107 which needs 2 sockets and a wrench and everything is easy access.

Remember the Autosleeper Talisman from back in the day, think we had a Autosleeper Duetto on a Ford about that time, but we also had VW and Peugeot based since then. 

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Not just SUVs that may perform poorly in extreme manoeuvres - remember the original Mercedes A Class which spectacularly failed the moose test around 1997.

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I remember the Talisman very well - it had a reputation for the gear lever as “stirring the box” due to difficulty in finding gears.  I understand that this was because Peugeot Talbot and Fiat commercial chassis only came into the UK with L/H drive, and complicated linkage was involved for conversion to R/H drive.   I was fortunate enough to obtain a Fiat workshop manual (P/T and Fiat were only different in the Badge on the front grille), and I was able to set up the linkage correct to spec.

One funny incident was when I bought the pre-owned Talisman from a small local dealer.  There was top box fitted to it, and the dealer said he didn’t know what, if anything, was in it because he was afraid to climb the fitted ladder and go onto the roof.  I removed the roof box and it contained an awning.

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  • 2 weeks later...

SUV= stupid useless vehicle 

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