4 wheel drivers - bunch of arses - official !

[subversplat]

However if you convert your 4x4 to alternative fuels like natural gas you won't pay the charge anyway.

Pisses me off it does. I drive a 4x4 cos I need one for trundling back and forth from the allottment with tools etc. I'm going to be hit by a charge that is aimed at wankers who use a 4.5 litre jeep for going half a mile to the shops and clock up 30 odd k per year whereas my motor is 2.25 litre and only does 3k miles per year. I'm going to be penalised for driving frugally and sensibly just because I drive a 27 year old classic land rover.

If you've got an old cast steel engine you should really LPG it anyway. You'll save about 50% in fuel costs so it'll pay for itself in no time. You're charge free then, as you well know

Modern engines have a much lower benefit from LPG because they've been engineered up the wazoo to deal with the muck we call petroleum spirit.

 

[likesfish]

I'm in favour of a marketing ploy to say armour is the latest must have item for your urban SUV
when a couple of thousand have beens sold to people who want to protect there kiddys.
make them illegal and seize them
result military gets armoured 4x4 for peace keeping
SUVS get taken off the road
only losers gulliable rich people

 

[mauvais]

Hahaha! That's ace.

 

[Cobbles]

Explain to me why you need a 2.25 ltr land rover to take a few tools to the allotment?

Rough allotment, heavy tools.......

 

[Tom A]

Pisses me off it does. I drive a 4x4 cos I need one for trundling back and forth from the allottment with tools etc.

Can't you just use a Transit van, or do you need the off-road abilities of the 4x4?

 

[editor]

Explain to me why you need a 2.25 ltr land rover to take a few tools to the allotment?

'Cos the allotment's a mile across wet bogland and then half way up a treacherous mountain - and his tools weigh several tons, innit!

 

[snorbury]

 

[detective-boy]

Does anyone know any stats. for prosecutions since they made phoning / driving an endorsable offence?

They didn't. The specific offence is non-endorsable. Although there have been reports that it is to be made endorsable, I do not believe it has been yet.

It MAY, in extreme cases form part of the evidence for an offence of failing to be in proper control of a vehicle (reg.104 Construction and Use Regulations) (which is also not endorsable) or careless driving (s.3 Road Traffic Act 1988) (which IS endorsable).

 

[stopurban4x4s]

What does your car say about you? We all know...

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/gasguzzler/downloads.html

 

[axomoxia]

Erm... don't Transits use more fuel than landies? (Comparing the last van I hired, and my old bosses baby eating LWB Defender)

Andy

 

[Funky_monks]

Erm... don't Transits use more fuel than landies? (Comparing the last van I hired, and my old bosses baby eating LWB Defender)

Andy

A lot of transits are 4 x 4.

I still have a hi-lux diesel left over from when I used to do landscaping and its dead light without a load and costs me less to run than the 1.6l petrol car I used to have.

Of course, I don't live in london.

Oh, and its not capable of being driven at dangerous speeds, it acceleraes like a snail. I'm often well under the limit, much to the annoyance of drivers aroud me.

 

[axomoxia]

erm <scratches head, looks confused>. A hi-lux is a pickup, transits are a those big white van things....

However, you can fit four people into a landie (at least, you can seat six in a 90!), and you can keep them going indefinatly....

 

[Funky_monks]

erm <scratches head, looks confused>. A hi-lux is a pickup, transits are a those big white van things....

Yes, apart from transit pick-ups.......


(The hi-lux point was an aside)

Transit Van:

Transit Pick-Up:

 

[axomoxia]

Oh shit, one of _those_ bastard things. Landies I can cope with, hi-luxes I can cope with, those bloody things nearly take my head off everytime they go past.... stick with the Landie!

Anyway, I read a very interesting article about hybrid SUVs..... Wots everyone thing about them?

 

[zoltan]

Dont mean to be all Anoraky, but ive got a volvo estate & thats 4WD - I also have had 4WD Audis, but they all are bog standard estate or saloon cars to look at

Are these included in the 4WD hate list ?

 

[Cobbles]

Dont mean to be all Anoraky, but ive got a volvo estate & thats 4WD - I also have had 4WD Audis, but they all are bog standard estate or saloon cars to look at

Are these included in the 4WD hate list ?

Yes - Fiat Panda 4x4's shred kittens and mutilate babies as badly as all the rest.

 

[snadge]

Yes - Fiat Panda 4x4's shred kittens and mutilate babies as badly as all the rest.

don't worry about it my diesel audi quattro seems to make people go crazy as well..

 

[Tom A]

I tend to go by the rule of thumb that any engine size of 2.0L or larger is a gas guzzler. Probably very simplistic but it covers all the SUVs, sports cars, luxury Volvo/BMW/Mercedes/Leuxs cars driven by middle-to-upper class busniessmen.

 

[subversplat]

I tend to go by the rule of thumb that any engine size of 2.0L or larger is a gas guzzler. Probably very simplistic but it covers all the SUVs, sports cars, luxury Volvo/BMW/Mercedes/Leuxs cars driven by middle-to-upper class busniessmen.

Far too simplistic I think. Some of the most efficient cars have massive engines - take the Top Gear experiement where Clarky took that Audi A6 (4 litre v8 diesel engine or something stupid like that) across the country averaging 50 miles to the gallon - and some smaller engines are rubbish economy - my old Sierra 1.8 drank petrol It's down to maximum power bands and all sorts of sciency things. Roughly, a larger engine in its midrange revs will drink less fuel than a smaller engine being pushed to the limit to do the same speed.

It's not all about middle-to-upper class businessmen either (although businesses do need to be confronted - buying a new fleet every three years is crazy wastes of energy!) as I could get you a 2.5 litre "luxury" car (luxury meaning 20 year old BMW, but still ) on the road for £300 which would be lucky to pull in 30mpg, although easy affordable to all but the most spendthrifty dole scrounger

 

[Cobbles]

I tend to go by the rule of thumb that any engine size of 2.0L or larger is a gas guzzler. Probably very simplistic but it covers all the SUVs, sports cars, luxury Volvo/BMW/Mercedes/Leuxs cars driven by middle-to-upper class busniessmen.

Exactly - driven by envy rather than anything to do with fuel efficiency or emissions.