I know it is an old gripe but 4x4's seem to be under an awful lot of fire again.More than the usual stick they get.

Well,if the government can democratically decide on the smoking ban,why not 4x4's?

Someone said on another 4x4 thread its freedom of choice as to what you drive.I'm afraid not if a majority in the commons decide(about 300 people on behalf of all of us).Smokers choice went.Just you remember who knows whats best for us;)

Lets see what happens then...

No, they wont.

When did you last wake up after a night out smelling like a Range Rover?

When did you last wake up after a night out smelling like a Range Rover?

No comment!

I don't think the royal family would be particularly happy about 4x4's being banned either!

Chris

Neither would most of the workers at Land Rover and their suppliers

4x4s (the big never go off road type) are annoying though. It's near enough always school run mums in them. I know round here it's a pigging nightmare with them, mummy in her x5 taking ickle Timmy to school WHY?!?! Surely an estate would suffice???

Dont know about you but I'd have a Range Rover/Touraeg/Cayenne if I could afford to own and run one.

would't be too bad if ickle timmy's mum new how to drive in the first place..............

4x4s (the big never go off road type) are annoying though. It's near enough always school run mums in them. I know round here it's a pigging nightmare with them, mummy in her x5 taking ickle Timmy to school WHY?!?! Surely an estate would suffice???

If you're going to say that, then why do you need a car that goes over 100mph. Seems a waste to me!

Chris

I'm going to stick up for the 4x4 owners here

When did you last wake up after a night out smelling like a Range Rover?

But its an environment thing and that is one of the biggest thing to all the parties at the moment.I love them, but choice as to what I want does not matter anymore in UK

The Queen will have as much say as the rest of us.Even more galling when you have to sign the final approval of it:D

I think while they're at it they should ban long haul flights and force people to take boats and trains.

Long haul flights inject nasty gases directly into the stmosphere and are also hazardous to your health.

I think there are several different types of 4x4's and they cant all be grouped into the one heading, For instance the Audi Quattro's, Octavia 4x4's,Evo's, Scooby wrx/sti/rb5/22b of this world are not built with the intention of recovering sheep from a barbed wire fence 200 feet above the cloud line in Glencoe. And neither are the cayenne,X5,H2,touraeg even though they are designed to make you feel you could if you wanted to.

I suppose you could catagorise them into

Aggricultural 4x4

Sports Performance 4x4

Poseur 4x4

I personally think the poseur 4x4 are the worst, but wouldnt throw a cayenne out of bed on a cold morning.

I dont think they could possibly discriminate against how your car is driven FWD/RWD/4WD but will every year begin to tighten their grip on the engine size, noise and emmision regulations untill we all drive hybrid fuel motors in 20-30 years

If they banned big Poseur 4x4's the makers would simply make them all rear wheel drive and equip them with ESP type systems galore anyway

save the 4wd i say!

Er hello

4x4s (the big never go off road type)

I just do not see the point in them. For agricultural and military purposes yes but for mincing about on the road no. They take up too much space in car parks. 4x4 Cars nowt wrong with them as they are normal size

Dont know about you but I'd have a Range Rover/Touraeg/Cayenne if I could afford to own and run one.

Not in a month of Sundays ' date='even if i was given one i'd flog it. Hate them, they are big horrible things driven by people with an inferiority complex*. Mrs Richies old boss had a top of the rang range rover vogue for just him and that was it??? :confused: Bloody big horrible thing it was.

*Disclaimer. May not be true, but all my opinions are my own :P

I know I would have the supercharged V8 range rover sport if I could afford one.

At the end of the day, there will be no fossil fuels left at some point in the not so distant future. If we were all driving small cars it would make very little diffrence to the amount left over, and would only be delaying the inevitable. So a 4x4 is a little potentious? I love being potentious.

I absolutely agree with monkeychild's view on the 4x4's, I hate them, I think there are far too many people using the "my drive's a bit muddy so I need a 4x4" excuse. but that's not what I wanted to post about.

On the original question, I don't think the government will implement a ban or control on them, even though I suspect if you actually have a vote on them the public would support them. What I'd like to see, and is much more likely to happen, is that gradually new laws will come in (via the EU quite possibly) to introduce a mimimum mpg figure (or CO2) all vehicles must achieve unless they've got a reason (eg agricultral vehicle or track car) and maybe a minimum pedestrian safety rating

You're not going to like this on a site seemingly teaming with octavia vrs drivers but I reckon a minimum mpg of say 35-40mpg (or equivalent co2 values) is totally realistic - I don't think there is any need for any car used for normal driving to return less than that and I mean sportscars vrs included as well as 4x4's. Of course the Fabia vrs shows that you don't always comprimise economy for speed, so in the long run it would mainly be aimed at the 4x4's returning crazily low mpg figures.

If I had kids I'd have a big 4x4 - then if anyone hits me they'll die instead of my children.

Personally I'd rather kill a stranger than have them kill a member of my own family. Harsh perhaps, but if we're being honest we all feel that way I'm sure.

I was anti 4x4. Too big, thirsty and unnecessary I thought.

Since getting a dog, and a kid on the way, I decided I needed something with more room than my Octavia Hatch. Such as an estate.

When I found a Jeep Grand Cherokee £9,000 less than it cost new, only 9 months old with 6,000 miles on it as an ex-demonstrator I decided it was worth buying and I could sell it on if I didn’t like it.

Now I find I appreciate it. I no longer crack my head when bending just to get something out of the car. I can’t see people tailgating me when I’m trying to stick to the limit driving past a school so don’t get angry or stressed. I do feel safer after nearly being wiped out by a truck indicating left for a roundabout when he was going straight on.

It handles like a bulldozer, and I think it has made me a more careful driver, more careful than the drivers of high performance cars always accelerating hard and trying to find a race on public roads to prove the worth of their modified car.

Come to think of it, I see an accident almost every week on my commute on the M6 and M62 and I can’t remember the last time I saw a 4x4 involved. This morning it was a Vectra and a Corsa. Maybe 4x4 drivers are generally more careful drivers, just a thought.

The thing about taking up space is probably just a perception issue. Is it really going to help if 4x4s are replaced with estate cars on the school run? That’s a ‘use of the car’ issue as a whole, not use of 4x4’s.

So from coming from a view point of being anti 4x4, the discourtesy, rudeness, unhelpful, dumb, stupid and idiotic attitude of most car drivers on the road I seem to experience often, has made me turn away from being a general car driver and doing the most to myself distance from them.

Oh, and being 6ft 4, I actually fit in it quite well, its 100 times more comfortable than my Octavia was, my dog likes it, and it is actually helpful on the family’s 34 acre farm.

OK, so it only does 13mpg, but that’s my choice. Because it runs on LPG government lets me fill it up at half price because they believe its cleaner. They also let me tax it for less than the wife’s 1.6 Octavia, and drive it around London’s congestion charge zones for nothing. It doesn’t take up more space in car parks, every car takes the same size parking space. The size of the thing has never presented a problem so I’m keeping it for the time being.

I am not now a 4x4 supporter, a good deal came along that I could afford and I just like the choice I have made. I may get another, I may get a car next time, or a people carrier. However it’s a choice I’d like to make for myself.

I was anti 4x4. Too big, thirsty and unnecessary I thought.

Since getting a dog, and a kid on the way, I decided I needed something with more room than my Octavia Hatch. Such as an estate.

When I found a Jeep Grand Cherokee

Long haul flights inject nasty gases directly into the stmosphere and are also hazardous to your health.

... but the huge increase in short haul flights causes dramatically more emissions than long haul flights.

Personally I don't like "on-road" 4x4s but mainly on a practical level as i've never really seen the benefit over a decent estate car. A big estate has far more room for storage etc than most 4x4s and handles better at the same price-point and the only real benefit of a 4x4 that I can see is safety in a crash (although worse handling & braking probably counteract some of this safety). If you need to properly go off-road then fair enough ... i'd get a landie

APOLOGIES to everyone.I have phrased this thread really badly:O .Some good points made though,especially about the types of 4x4's.

I like them.All the political parties don't.They are saying they are bad for the environment in the same way smoking is bad for us and they decided chasing foxes needed a ban.

300 politicians voted overnight to ban smoking.There was no voting from the public.They just did it.Alleged democracy in action:P .

My worry was,whatever the love of 4x4's we have,could they just ban them whatever we all think and tough you will have to live with it?

Current worry throughout the world is climate,climate,climate.I reckon they might have a pop at it.Farmers excluded though

I just think 4x4 driver need special licence test to demonstrate they can handle a big car AND CARE ALL OTHER SMALLER CARS ON THE ROAD!

4x4's are cool, and efficient at times, like when there's too much traffic on one road and none on the other, and you decide to 'take a short cut' back

The new Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8....mmmm....fastest 'proper' 4x4 in the world so far, me like

Everyone should be left to choose what car to drive. Whether it suits them as far as parking in low-ceiling multi-storey car parks go is a choice they will have to live with.