[Closed] Where the anti 4x4 brigade when this happens?

I'm not anti 4x4 I just can't see the point of SUVs.
Billericay is hardly the middle of nowhere, it's like saying that people living in the suburbs of Manchester need a pointless SUV to ford the local river.

Does every 4x4 have a snorkel kit now?

Useful once in how many years? Hardly pressing need.

We are not driving through deep floods, mostly 🙂

Drivers brave river flood to rescue others

"Rescue"...from WTF?

I'd say that those two probably use the abilities of their vehicles more often than every couple of years.
Would have loved to have seen an X5 try to follow though!

A couple Defenders are hardly SUVs!

well it was the wettest april in 100 years

so i suppose i ought to buy a porsche cayene just in case..........

If you start saving now, you'll have a lot of Porsche in 100 years time.

+1 Saxon Rider. The rest were probably locking them in the garages t**sing off to the idea of saving people

"Rescue"...from WTF?

my next door nieghbours have RR vogues and both are garaged overnight, next doors specifically to keep the rain off his 'polish job'

I know that ford. It's very much avoidable from both sides and I can't see why anyone would need to rescue anyone from the surrounding countryside - certainly not by having to drive through it.

Still, 4x4ers like to have their fun, and why not? It's the only time in Essex their vehicles will feel remotely useful.

Still, 4x4ers like to have their fun, and why not? It's the only time in Essex their vehicles will feel remotely useful.

Unless the s*** goes down and the deal goes south and you have to do a runner from the pigs (or Chardonaeee and Barry need to park on the grass somewhere)

People who don't think they're the best thing for town centres and school runs might also, at the same time, think they have their uses elsewhere.

People who don't think they're the best thing for town centres and school runs might also, at the same time, think they have their uses elsewhere.

Don't come on here with your well reasoned argument - the lynch mob will turn on you next

always here lurking.....but of course we are a diverse and fractional grouping - i belong to the "not an appropropriate recreational activity in National Parks" sub tribe

and at the weekend when i go camping with the kids i'll take the 4wd so i don't get stuck in some muddy field

plenty of bad driving around schools by all sorts of drivers - yesterdays award went to a ford ka that ignored red right at pelican completely - 2nd time in a week car has completely ignored the red light, not just speeded up on amber - should be a law against it

I was at Tarr Steps a few years ago and a guy in a 4x4 turns up. He got out surveyed the ford, deemed it doable then went through the water.
You could tell by his smirk that he thought he was some adventurer god.
Meanwhile there is an old skoda parked with it's bonnet up. An AA transit appears on the other side of the river,drives through, hitches up dead skoda and tows it back through the water and away.
Shortly after mr 4x4 returns for another epic adventure through the water.
Instead of an adoring fan club he is confronted by an audience who thought he was a total knob.

Not had this yet?

[img] [/img]

where is an X5 useful?

People who don't think they're the best thing for town centres and school runs might also, at the same time, think they have their uses elsewhere.

Yeah like driving them right down the middle of narrow roads in the Lake District because they're so wide and they're so scared of scratching them, and slowing down to 25 for all the bends.

But hang on couldnt any car have got through that if you had fitted wet waether kit to it?

Besides no justification to buy a 4 x 4 for the 1 - 100 year chance of a tarmac stretch of road having once small section of it flooded.

Besides no justification to buy a 4 x 4 for the 1 - 100 year chance of a tarmac stretch of road having once small section of it flooded.

When this is your route home in winter they can be very handy :

[img] [/img]

A 90 & I backed off this road in the heavy snow in 2010 as we decided it was too dangerous - RangeRover Vogue driver called us a pair of cocks and slithered into the blizzard. Hope he's still out there somehwere.

Don't see the appeal of taking it offroad for 'fun' TBH - too expensive to break.
Suspect the Defenders in the vid are having fun whilst "doing good work"!!

FunkyDunc - Member

But hang on couldnt any car have got through that if you had fitted wet waether kit to it?

Suggest the height of the vehicle may also be a consideration, they are not airtight.

I work in Billericay and did struggle to find a route cross country to work that was not flooded. I have a 4x4 and it's also handy when going sledging too. So that's at least twice a year it comes in handy.

[IMG] [/IMG]

nb. it does have to be said though that every other car going past my window at work today is a blinged up 4x4. Waitrose are even considering putting larger parking bays in the car park.

When this is your route home in winter they can be very handy

Hah.. we went over the Beacons in 4" snow on the road this year in our Prius this year, drove pretty much normally. We did have the right tyres on mind.

We need to buy more of these great cars if we want to be more like the good ol' USA. Hummers too.

Didn't have any problems in my 328 tourer (standard tyres) driving round the backroads (untreated) near Abergavenny in the snow a few years ago. It's not something I'd like to do again though!

molgrips - Member

Hah.. we went over the Beacons in 4" snow on the road this year in our Prius this year, drove pretty much normally. We did have the right tyres on mind.

As I usually have 8 people to lug about I'd need a roofrack on a Pious.

Am I saying you should drive one?

Am I saying you should drive one?

No, am I saying you did?

If you weren't, I dunno why you posted that - kind of obvious.

Rogerthecat bet you've got a 'one life live it' sticker on your monster truck 😉

Back to the OP. That's Buttsbury Wash and floods very regularly. The fire brigade are often fishing people & cars out of there. The road is a back road and well known to flood. There are alternatives to using that road and no need whatsoever to use it when it's in danger of flooding. Despite this silly Doris' are always having a try and getting stuck. The the Landies were pulling people out, well at least it didn't require the fire brigade yet again

it's like saying that people living in the suburbs of Manchester need a pointless SUV to ford the local river

Or perhaps it's like saying that people who cycle should only have a road bike - an Orange 5 is pointless if you live in the City 😆

Live and let Live, Judge not lest ye be judged - which would you rather?

molgrips - Member
If you weren't, I dunno why you posted that - kind of obvious.

In the same way that your post may have been misunderstood as a bit of sanctimonious willy waving due to how insufferably smug driving a Prius can make people? 😀

Rogerthecat bet you've got a 'one life live it' sticker on your monster truck

Hell no - they are for LandRovers and "proper" Off Roaders - usually stuck on upside down in the event that you might like something else to laugh at over and above watching them try to get out through the windows.

zippykona - Member

I was at Tarr Steps a few years ago and a guy in a 4x4 turns up. He got out surveyed the ford, deemed it doable then went through the water.
You could tell by his smirk that he thought he was some adventurer god.
Meanwhile there is an old skoda parked with it's bonnet up. An AA transit appears on the other side of the river,drives through, hitches up dead skoda and tows it back through the water and away.
Shortly after mr 4x4 returns for another epic adventure through the water.
Instead of an adoring fan club he is confronted by an audience who thought he was a total knob.

i did something similar once with a mate. we wanted to visit some roman ruin in Kent. there was a ford with a little humped-back bridge next to it and a pub, full of people as it was a sunday.
there was a queue on the bridge caused by people trying to get into the pub carpark.
rather than wait i thought i'd plough through the ford in my dad's Rover 414. needless to say we didn't make it across. the car clapped out half-way through in about 2ft of water. the car started filling up. a crowd gathered on the bank. i had to crawl out of a window and wade through the water, walk past the by-standers and ask at the pub for a tow.

we got pulled out to a cheer and had to wait 2 hours for the RAC. when we got dropped off at home and the car lowered off the truck even more water came spilling out.

it took three weeks until the car could be driven again.

oh how the old man laughed...!

British ones come in quite useful for towing out bogged Aussie ones in the dunes....

[img] [/img]

I wasn't quite sure whether they could work out what was worse - being stuck there or being snatched out by a Pom in a 'toy' 4wd...

They're not very good at cricket either 😆

Or perhaps it's like saying that people who cycle should only have a road bike - an Orange 5 is pointless if you live in the City

If you use an Orange 5 for only for road cycling, making use of its off-road abilities once a year, then yes, it's pointless having one. The difference between an orange 5 and a 4x4 is that using it just makes your life harder than it needs to be, rather than making life a little less pleasant for other people.

The difference between an orange 5 and a 4x4 is that using it just makes your life harder than it needs to be, rather than making life a little less pleasant for other people.

I dunno, the rest of us have to look at its fugliness whilst you're riding it around 😆

The other difference is unlike the landed gentry of STW, most people can only afford one car per household (or per family member). Unless said family member works on a farm, they're going to have to drive a 4wd they may use off-road every weekend to work on a daily basis. Likewise if they happen to live somewhere cold and hilly in the winter - they're hardly likely to buy a car for each season.

The other difference is unlike the landed gentry of STW, most people can only afford one car per household (or per family member). Unless said family member works on a farm, they're going to have to drive a 4wd they may use off-road every weekend to work on a daily basis. Likewise if they happen to live somewhere cold and hilly in the winter - they're hardly likely to buy a car for each season.

My observations of cold and hilly places (i.e. the north of Scotland) tell me that 4x4 ownership is less prevalent there, than in English cities.

So that leaves off-roaders who have no other car: what percentage of 4x4 owners do you think this applies to?

My observations of cold and hilly places (i.e. the north of Scotland) tell me that 4x4 ownership is less prevalent there, than in English cities.

My observations of the moors north of Bolton, the Lakes, the Dales, and Snowdonia tell me the opposite. (Or at least numbers of 4wds that might actually see something more off-road than the pavement outside Tarquin's school i.e. NOT X5s etc)