Poll
Loading ...You know the culprits – the mums or dads dropping the kids off at school in a 200 Series Cruiser, a vehicle that practically defines off-road credibility, and one that is about as good as it gets when the going gets tough out the back of Bourke. Said Land Cruiser is nicely kitted up, too: snorkel, bull bar, driving lights, roof racks, spare wheel carrier swinging from the rear bumper. A quick glance would trick you into thinking that Sally and Steve Suburban are about to head off on the big one – the ’round Australia trip. The Canning Stock Route is not for the faint-hearted.
Nope. The Suburbans are in fact off to do some shopping after dropping the kids at school. Might stop in for a hair appointment, if you’re lucky. Then it’s back home, where the Toyota will be safely locked up in the garage and out of harm’s way.
There might have been some merit to the safety argument 20 years ago. You know the one: “Bought it to drive the kids around, mate. I feel much safer with them in a big truck. I like the visibility.” But that argument is pretty much redundant now thanks to the safety advances the industry has made across the board, from the smallest cars right up to these urban assault vehicles. That poor Land Cruiser – just begging to get down and dirty out in the bush – is wasted in the city. It’s no different to driving a V8 Supercar to work. Completely out of its element and begging to be used the way its maker intended.
That’s not the least of the issue, either. If you don’t actually know how to drive such a large vehicle, even things like positioning the SUV in a tight lane or side street can be a problem. And that means you’re actually more dangerous to everyone else around you than you would be in a smaller, more manageable vehicle.
Sales of SUVs both large and small keep going up, despite our increasing disinterest in large sedans. Maybe a large 4WD is the new family vehicle? I for one am not exactly thrilled with that development if the requisite driving skills don’t go with it. Just because you like the look of a Mack B-Double semi-trailer doesn’t mean you know how to drive it, does it?
Comments (2)
I drive an SUV, its safer and more fuel efficient, and more power than the mazda3 i traded it in on. I bought it with the dream of making the trip around Australia which i have now done, (much more comfortable than my old mazda3) however not all SUV’s are created equal, some (landcruiser200) are essentially a truck, they handle like a truck and are only safe because of the simple physics of being much heavier than the car coming in the opposite direction whos 5 star crash rating is not going to be much help against a car twice its weight.
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U A V’s……most aptly named. Is there something more grossly inappropriate than one of these bulldozer tanks in the ‘burbs? Jeez, putting morality aside, what sort of ignorant loons think these are socially acceptable. Deranged is a word that springs to mind. Oh they are fantastic for running over and killing small children, and even better for having a single car crash in, and positively destructive in a multi car crash. Has Toyota removed the massive truck chassis rails that are the core of these killer vehicles. The real-life factual crash statistics of these ‘trucks’ are shocking in the extreme. You are THREE TIMES more likely to be killed if hit by one of these behemoths. Then, they are at the extreme edge of monumental inefficiency, with huge footprints, massive inefficient gas/diesel guzzling engines, spewers of excessive carbon monoxide into the atmosphere. These obscenities are a blight on suburban society, and a terrible reflection of how screwed up society is becoming. This ‘up you Jack’ mentality beggars belief. Most criminal blame must lie with the makers tho, who without a shred of conscience or morality, flog to death the sales into THE most appropriate market. But then what drives a car maker…..after the F.A.G. Syndrome [Fear And Greed]….an infantile chase to beat the next maker, nothing more. Where is there even a tiny shred of real research and evidence pointing to these death buckets being appropriate as family vehicles? There is none! We’re simply seeing irresponsible makers foisting big profit ‘killers’ on us. Slam the grossly irresponsible wankers first, then turn some real heat on all the regulatory authorities that sit around, in full knowledge of the mayhem and death these bricks cause, and do nothing! Lets get a ‘ban the killer bricks’ campaign going………
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