Have you ever been pushed out of your lane by a large towering fortress-on-wheels driven by an impatient parent doing the school run?
Or find that an available parking space is no longer viable thanks to the hulking quasi-4×4 in the next space over, taking up more room than any passenger car has a right to? You may not be aware of it, but there are many motorists out there that have a strong dislike for SUVs and their growing popularity. Here’s why:
SUV drivers are the most annoying on the road
According to 54% of respondents that took part in the research done by UK-based car leasing company OSV Ltd., SUV drivers are the most annoying. That’s right! Over half of the participants agreed that SUV drivers are the most irritating, so clearly it’s not much of an unpopular opinion to have at all.
Their research also revealed that 42% of the participating motorists agreed that SUV drivers often hog the road and do not allow others room to pass. Do you share a similar opinion or disagree completely?
They’re driven with entitlement
Many complain that SUV drivers often think themselves to be high and mighty. This is perfectly reasonable because they literally are quite high up and their cars are intimidatingly mighty. However, it is not perfectly reasonable to behave like all the other cars are less worthy of the road than yours is.
Sitting high up does give us great visibility and it can make us safer in the event of a car crash but it should not result in aggressive and overconfident driving. One of the main reasons sport-utility vehicle drivers are disliked is due to their cocky driving style made up of fast acceleration, tailgating, lane-hogging and road dominance rather than road sharing.
SUVs are dangerous to other drivers, pedestrians and occupants
Although a lot of us wouldn’t like to admit it, SUVs can be rather scary, especially if you’re driving a tiny hatchback such as the beloved Fiat 500. It feels like that looming Audi Q7 could literally crush you if the driver chose to do so and it turns out, that feeling is completely rational.
In 2008, European crash tester ADAC had a Fiat 500 and an Audi Q7 crash head-on into each other, each car travelling at 56 km/h (roughly 35 mph). The crash test dummy occupants of the SUV were largely unharmed, whereas the Fiat 500 occupants would have been severely, if not fatally, injured. Due to the SUV being so heavy and high up, it proved to be a very safe car to be in but not very safe for whoever it crashed into. Are SUVs unsafe weapons of destruction that trade safety of others for the safety of those inside them?
Not only that, but it’s been shown in research time and time again that these large cars are not safe for pedestrians either. Research done by American organisations such as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conclude that “pedestrians are two to three times more likely to suffer a fatality when struck by an SUV or pickup than … by a passenger car.”
They’re a symbol of excess
If you drive off-road or often carry a lot of cargo then an SUV would suit your needs very well. What seems to anger a lot of UK motorists is the fact that these cars are not bought for these reasons at all. The research carried out by OSV Ltd. found that 35% of respondents would purchase or have purchased an SUV for the status symbol and 26% for aesthetics. They’re heavy, thirsty and impractically large (especially for the UK) and although they look great, many consider them to be a rather selfish purchase.
There’s no denying SUVs are becoming increasingly popular by the day. Even brands that have never produced an SUV before are now jumping on the bandwagon, hoping to cash in. Rolls Royce, Maserati, Lamborghini and now Aston Martin have all joined the market, despite them previously being mostly limited to supercars or luxury saloons. Here’s to praying that Ferrari, Bugatti and McLaren don’t also join the trend of manufacturing these mobile castles they call cars!
(Aston Martin DBX SUV)
Of course, we only aim to entertain with this content and we know that SUV ownership can be a joy like no other. So, what are your thoughts on SUVs?
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