If I see another bloody soccer mom driving a big SUV (XC90)...............

bullbars said:
If I didnt have the bullbars the front of my jeep would be dented & scratched continuously. .
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Indeed. Well if a driver sporting bullbars, for which they have no genuine application, knocks down and kills a child, or indeed an adult, while not travelling particularly quickly they will have to live with the thought that the difference between life and death may have been bullbars. That said if said driver hits a large Kangaroo at speed they'll know that they were right all along.
 

Trees, rocks & other off road obstacles. Large animals can do a fair amount of damage at even the slowest speed so the odd shunt from a bullocks hind quarters can cause enough damage.
 
I have been following this with interest as it is obvious that most of the people pontificating about safety haven't taken the time to check the relevant safety standards.

I'm just going to give a couple of examples from the European NCAP Testing results website http://www.euroncap.com
about some of the various cars mentioned here -

XC90 - scored 10 on pedestrian safety (2 stars)
Micra (2003) - scored 12 on pedestrian safety (2 stars)
Punto (2005) - 19 - 3 stars
Honda CRV (2007) - my car - 13 - 2 stars
Audi A4 (2001) - no cabrio (saloon) - 7 - no star
Large Crewcab (Nissan Pathfinder) - 18 - 2 stars

In pretty much all of these examples you will find that the occupant safety is higher than the smaller cars which I'm sure is one of the first things that people would check when buying a suv.
Safety was one of our concerns when we bought our CRV this year, also comfort - we have 2 children 3.5 years and 6 weeks - my wife has back problems - she has found that strapping them in is much easier than putting them into our old passat.
We were less worried about the carbon footprint/emissions as the CRV is not used to commute (avg 12k per year).

My point - having a SUV is not necessarily about status and does not mean that SUV owners are either going to do more damage to pedestrians or the environment.
 
Bullbars for me are the problem......

Also, I think all soccer moms with their fake Gucci sunglasses on their heads on cloudy days should be jailed for life
 
tosullivan said:
Bullbars for me are the problem......

Also, I think all soccer moms with their fake Gucci sunglasses on their heads on cloudy days should be jailed for life
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Would these same moms have orange faces and hair that is dyed either:

Raven black
or
Sickly yellow?
 
tosullivan said:
Bullbars for me are the problem......

Also, I think all soccer moms with their fake Gucci sunglasses on their heads on cloudy days should be jailed for life
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Then there is no need for people to paint us SUV drivers with the same brush. This is a 2 SUV household and not a bullbar or a pair of Gucci glasses (fake or otherwise) in sight.
We are just average Joe's who want to feel safe when we go out our doors and have no regrets about it.
 
Caveat said:


Would these same moms have orange faces and hair that is dyed either:

Raven black
or
Sickly yellow?
Click to expand...


Good lord, we've all gone very hard line!! Can we not just take the mick out of pretentious people without hating them?

I draw a distinction between pretentiousness/conspicuous spending (which doesnt affect me & I can smirk at) and obnoxiousness (peoples rude behaviour which makes my blood boil).

I've a few D4 type friends who have the accents and the clothes etc. but who are really sound skins and their outward appearance is only a product of where they're from (same could be said of me - but a lot less glam !!) - but I'd nearly have to defend them from other friends of mine who'd interpret their accents & appearance etc as being, of themselves, obnoxious - this would be unfair.

So I think, by the same token, these soccer moms neednt necessarily be public enemy no. 1. (now if they open the gob & its all self-important prattle for the benefit of everyone within earshot you have my blessing to execute them ).

Re bull bars - I can concur that hitting a kangaroo means curtains for your rad - saw it happen in front of me. This was such a real issue in the outback that, unless we really had to, we wouldnt drive at night (had no roo bars).
 
Good post, good points.
 

OK - maybe my remark was unnecessary & probably came accross as a bit nasty. I'm not usually a nasty person - honest!

But it has relevance when you think about it - if we are talking about pretentious consumerism, well pretending your skin tone is much (much) darker than it is, and pretending you have a bizarre glossy horse's mane of hair is at least as pretentious - non?
 
I'm loving this thread.

I bought, no no I correct myself, my husband bought me a new SUV last year, it's black and I love it.

I have a pair of Christian Dior Black shades (oh and a brown pair of bvlgari as a stand by second set if I'm not wearing black) which fit nicely into the specially designed sunglass pocket above the rear view mirror, actually there are 2 sunglass pockets available.

My SUV is automatic but has tiptronic and yes I know how to use it. I find it great for overtaking when I need a bit of ooomph. I know how to reverse and dear lord I can even parallel park without much effort.

Why do I have an SUV? I have 3 baby boys, a 3 year old, 2 year old and a 1 year old and somehow I just don't think a micra would cut it and to be honest (shoot me down) but I wouldn't be seen dead in one. Also the blacked out windows are great when they are all roaring their heads off in the back and I'm trying to stay sane and sing humpty dumpty when I'd really rather be sitting on a barstool drinking gin and tonic with my hubbie!

Oh and the SUV I'm driving scored nil on the NCAP safety points for pedestrians, good job I don't have bullbars eh?

I have no doubt that once the boys are older, I'll be classed as a soccer mom, however I would request that to be changed to rugby mom as I'm a rugby lovin' munster gal.
 
Yorky said:
In my experience SUV drivers are:

making a showy display to everyone that they have the ability to borrow and/or waste copious amounts of money to prove their 'status'.....
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Em, our current 4x4 (ok it's a commercial model, not a private one, but the price range is about the same for both) cost us less to purchase from a dealer than my old '01 Peugeot 206 cost us - in fact about 1k less, it's a 98 model in pristine condition (ie. was previously used for ferrying about tools and machinery, not bumping over rough farmland getting scratched to bits), so it's not always about the conspicuous "showy display" of borrowing money. Anyway, I can think of plenty of saloon/sports cars that easily cost double/triple what a brand new 4x4 costs, so where's the show of venom for drivers of prestige badge cars? And as a previous poster mentioned - if people have the money that they earned themselves, why should the be restricted to buying the smallest, cheapest version of whatever they want? I personally think buying a brand new car is lunacy, and always go for used models, but if someone wants the latest 07 BMW, so what?
Plenty of people live in houses that are bigger than they need, or wear expensive clothes when Penneys duds would do, or pay through the nose for posh holidays when a week in a tent or a caravan in Tramore would do, but surely that's their choice?

And just to clarify, I would fall into the category of the person in the Penney's duds and living on a fairly basic wage, and would love to have money to burn, although I reckon if I won the lotto in the morning, you still would not find me wearing designer clothes and driving a brand new car! Couldn't personally justify throwing away money no matter how much I had to spare, but different strokes for different folks.


And you really don't know the full reasons behind why people drive the cars they do - just because you see a seemingly fit man get out of a 4x4 doesn't mean they don't have a non-apparent affliction like arthritis in a joint or back trouble,that means getting into a higher more comfortable vehicle is easier than trying to haul yourself out of a lower vehicle. Just one example of many that I personally know of....

Anyway, I don't think anyone in either camp will ever change their opinion, and will stick rigidly to their guns and ignore the facts that don't prove their case and harp on about the ones that do (and I am including myself in that BTW ).
 

wow, it's in a film, so it must be true. Now at what dealership can I get one of those Cameros that the same Shia Lebeouf was driving that turn into that Autobot Bumblebee...

have you seen that documentary film "the Italian Job" where minis perform dangerous manoeuvres? shocking stuff! Ban all minis, as all mini drivers act like this.
 
GeneralZod said:
I was just linking to a spectacular scene.
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and I was just being tongue in cheek in the context of the thread where some posters are tarring all 4x4 drivers with the same brush, sorry if I offended, wasn't directed at you in particular
 
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