Jaguar 4x4

[Piemaster]

I'm also hoping Alfa Romeo continue to fail in their attempts to produce a SUV.
Like Jaguar it's just something they shouldn't do.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

I do accept they go fast and now can hold the road with some degree of performance. But in doing so they are still high up and must move about more as they are further away from the centre of gravity. If you took a Transit van, wrote "sport" on it, bunged in a hot engine and some suspension control it will still not handle like a car.

Oh I don't know?!
Sabine Schmidt at the Nurburgring in a Transit, on Top Gear anyone???

Comparing a 4x4 with a big estate, I had a Mondeo hire car recently, it was huge and can't think the footprint of a 4x4 would be anything much different. Cars have put on weight from earlier generations and got wider due to being safer with side impact protection.

The first Range Rover was built on a 100" wheelbase chassis....................so is the new (it looks a bit like a bloated one, so let's call it a...) Mini

I have relative dimensions somewhere, but vehicles like the Mondeo, Passat, etc... are longer than a Range Rover (based on P38 dimensions; the 1994-2002 model)

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Someone look at Mr Paul's balls FFS!

 

[youngoldbloke]

Bye bye everyone - this seems to have degenerated into some sort of petrol heads discussion. Just hope that this is a passing phase and in a few years these SUVs will be seen to be as foolish and outdated as loon pants.

 

[screenman]

Bye bye everyone - this seems to have degenerated into some sort of petrol heads discussion. Just hope that this is a passing phase and in a few years these SUVs will be seen to be as foolish and outdated as loon pants.

Not sure about foolish, but in time most things become outdated.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

[QUOTE 3475642, member: 45"]You have pm....[/QUOTE]

 

[tyred]

I just had to become a victim of fashion and buy my own SUV

Looks very nice sitting on the shelf with the Airfix Citreon 2Cv I built when I was 9

 

[Over The Hill]

[QUOTE 3475715, member: 9609"]At 102.2" the new Mini Clubman has a bigger wheelbase than the original Range Rover - All vehicles are getting bigger and bigger, and there is more of them as ever before, something somewhere is going to have to give.[/QUOTE]

Spot on.
It is a bit of a car arms race out there and 4x4 off roaders are the trident missiles.
Our concerns over road safety have greatly increased over the last say 30 years (anyone remember the fuss over being made to wear a seat belt in early 80s) and although roads are now much safer they are perceived as being more dangerous.

If many SUV drivers were honest about the reasons for their choice of car, would it not be that they are just taking themselves up a step on the arms race? The height, weight and chunkiness of the SUV gives the driver a sense of protection (that is not often real) but the down side is that they are then inflicting more damage than necessary on other cars, pedestrians and cyclists when they hit them.
This is not new, in that Volvo led the way with big and safe cars designed for safety. But such cars were also made to make the road safe for others too (good stopping distance, high lights, good visibility, designed to be less damaging to peds etc).
Perhaps this is a reflection on our society particularly in the UK. When you go to Europe there seems to be far fewer SUV or 4x4 type cars.

 

[Smokin Joe]

[QUOTE 3475715, member: 9609"]At 102.2" the new Mini Clubman has a bigger wheelbase than the original Range Rover - All vehicles are getting bigger and bigger, and there is more of them as ever before, something somewhere is going to have to give.[/QUOTE]

Bye bye everyone - this seems to have degenerated into some sort of petrol heads discussion. Just hope that this is a passing phase and in a few years these SUVs will be seen to be as foolish and outdated as loon pants.

Many cyclists also like cars - shock, horror.

 

[Markymark]

Bye bye everyone - this seems to have degenerated into some sort of petrol heads discussion. Just hope that this is a passing phase and in a few years these SUVs will be seen to be as foolish and outdated as loon pants.

Well, your OP sets out your stall quite nicely on a rather simplistic view of 4x4s. There's plenty of people on here who think anything other than the bare minimum for a car is a waste.

However, clearly there's plenty who like cars. You may find the rest of the thread boring but it does in some way answer your question as to why another brand is entering the market. Clearly, even amongst us green-hippy-hummus-eating-cyclists, some like them enough to spend our hard earned cash on things we enjoy.

 

[John the Monkey]

I think the ssssanyong has it for sheer clumsy design.
But I think this thing wins as they have clearly worked so hard to make it look like this and be the most horrid thing imaginable.

I always imagine the Evoque design meeting being, essentially, pictures of a Range Rover that an elephant had sat on.

As for the OP, whatevs. It's how things are driven, not what they are that concerns me principally these days.

 

[Smokin Joe]

I think the ssssanyong has it for sheer clumsy design.
But I think this thing wins as they have clearly worked so hard to make it look like this and be the most horrid thing imaginable.

Nice motor, shame they didn't fit a rear window.

 

[Markymark]

Nice motor, shame they didn't fit a rear window.

Didn't Victoria Beckham help design it?

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Have you seen the £14k Chinese copy, apparently Land Rover aren't too pleased, shame.

 

[Markymark]

Did David Beckham design that one??