See my wife commuting in hers, and I'm sure most would comment how she doesn't need it. But then watch her pulling her horsebox (and horses) across a muddy paddock or me last week taking my mum's friends to their hospital appointments or their ability to swallow a vans worth of stuff or just the ability to use them as an 'uplift' vehicle…

They can do a job, and can do it well for not much more than the cost of an equivilent engined car.

But if we didn't have horses, nor dogs, nor MTB'd, nor had folks in deepest Wales and Scotland then maybe we wouldn't need one – but we have, so we do – and also as she is a contractor, doesn't get paid if she isn't in work…

But surely a Rangie is a much nicer machine for the money?

Spongebob – Member
4wd's are great IF 4WD is actually needed and if they are in the right hands.

Unfortunately most are owned by "poof poser cocks" who have little, or no driving ability.

Yep wished I'd stopped this morning and taken a photo of the 4×4 (audi?) on it's roof in a ditch on my commute for this thread (though I hope they escaped safetly).
Really put off my TG's X6 review, I actually like the look of them… 😳

Funny that, had someone try to get up the slipway into the carpark at Llandegla (the morning we shut) in an A3 Quattro and got stuck, turned out it was a fwd auto diesel! His mates in a Hi-Lux and Navarra had no such issues 😆

Spongebob, you have obviously met my bro in law. He fits your description to an absolute T.
He took my two sons out in his RR Sport whilst I was working just before Xmas. My eldest said to me when I got home, "he kept forcing everyone over from the outside lane by getting really close", it was really scary. He wont be taking them out again!!

My son calls my bro in laws RR Sport a Land Rover, much to his disgust. The innocence of kids eh?

He's spot on, it's just a chopped Disco 3 underneath

Really put off my TG's X6 review, I actually like the look of them…

😯
Scary. My main issue is how anybody can look at such a big car that only has 4 seats and think it's 'right'. If it had 7 seats it might be another matter, but 4 seats??? FFS.

4×4 is for getting you out of the poo that you get into in 2wd.

Using 4wd all the time means you can get really stuck unless you have a winch and know how to use it.

I have a wench and know how to use it

RangeRover has got to be the sensible buy.

The father-in-law has the Vouge which beats any Greman luxury 4X4.

He sold his X5 after 6 months once he drove his mates new Rangie (Which is a sport).

Well if your father-in-law identifies with Vogue and thinks women look goood in the shoes on that page then I suppose he would consider a Range Rover a sensible buy. People that don't rely on magazines for their taste will probably disagree.

the X6 was a slight guilty pleasure of mine this summer. seemingly every drug dealer/politician in tajikistan owns one.

they razz around dushanbe every evening, and they did sound rather lovely… i assume they were tuned or something… and with fat alloys etc, there was something about them.

but yes, they're bloody awful cars really, you'd have to be a proper twerp to actually go and buy one.

Been dealing with an RTC this evening (car into a wall on a pretty steep hill). Couldn't get the police car anywhere near it, ambulance couldn't get near it, fire engine got closest and they cut the car in half, but it was the breakdown guy in his Discovery who got to it without any trouble, folded the seats down and transported the driver/stretcher to hospital for the paramedics, then came back up and towed the car out of the wall and away. Very impressed with that LR now.

thegreatape – I was out with an instructor for the Land Rover Experience over Christmas – driving behind him up a steep road covered in sheet ice. He cleared it first time in a bog standard 8 year old Discovery with decent tyres – they are very capable vehicles if driven by someone who knows what they are doing.

happy new year all!

surely it's the driver not the car that gets stuck? and the whole "4×4 's are bad" gets a bit boring. gas guzzlers of any kind, 4×4, 2 seat sports car or whatever, are essentially selfish.

agree that the X6 is a munter though!

m

I was in the 3 valleys last week on a ski holiday and saw many tourists that had driven over in their x6's,x5's,audi Q7's, cayennes etc wheelspinning their semi slick tyres into oblivion as the locals sped past in their battered clio's. It all comes down to having the right tyres and snow chains when necessary, even lorrys managed to get up a particularly nasty hill, that most failed at, with chains on. Saying that I did spot a Hummer (the original one not the new H2) and it didn't seam to have any problems maybe the schoolrun set should look into getting this.

Iain

Wizzed past a brand new 4.4 v8 x5 this morning, stuck at the bottom of my road, spinning away like mad.
Gave him a very smug smile as I went past in my 5 grand x-trail with no bother at all.
Got Grabber AT2's all round, blasted through 9 inches of snow this morning with impunity!

Double post!

Triple post!

I've got a Q7 and it goes fine in this weather. Stopping is a bit of a different matter though. Maybe if I had more suitable tyres it'd be different. That said I'd muich rather be in that than the other car in the family. A rwd BMW really is exciting. I couldn't get it out of the drive this morning.

Amen spongebob!

I don't doubt there are many 4×4 owners out there who actually need them, but I'd bet the majority buy them for the status, the imposing driving position the 'safety' and the 'space'. They have only slightly more load carrying space than an estate for the rare occassions when that space is needed (if you need it all the time, perhaps you should own a van).

They're not really safer in reality – as we've seen they're not invincible in bad conditions, but many of their drivers seem to believe otherwise and their size and power seems to encourage bad driving. Admittedly they might protect the driver and their precious cargo in a crash with a normal size car as their high CofG ploughs over the safety cell of the car they've just collided with, but often they perform pretty poorly in NCAP tests. Then they dazzle anyone coming the other way in a normal car because the headlights are mounted so high and inevitably have the xenon lamp upgrade….

Sorry, but (a lot of) 4×4's are a bit of a pet hate of mine 😆

their size and power seems to encourage bad driving

Speaking personally I'd say the opposite is true. I am acutely aware of the size of my beloved old XC90 and drive accordingly ie with manners. And in weather like this with decent tread tyres it is the perfect family car thank you very much.

my 110 is 19 years young, it might or might not dazzle everyone else with its Mot'd, 'E' marked headlights, it has more carrying space than any estate I've ever owned, and to finally finish this planet off Im driving it to Capetown and no doubt killing everyone on the way. I'd love to do it in a disposable Jap/Eurobox or a heavy metal unrecylable battery powered fart box but I need the crash protection from any stray donkeys that might wander in my way.