RANTS - 4x4 SCHOOL WAGONS

Maybe this should be titled "buying the car to suit the purpose". The thing about driving to school in a 4x4 armoured personel carrier has been mentioned by many and also written about. The majority of normal people see the absurdity in it, but hey, this site is not about being normal so it's time to add our bit.

The incredible thing about this is that the people who drive these things REALLY belive there are no other options but lets look at this in scientific way. You have to deliver your 2 children to school 1 mile down the road. Now, there are several ways to do this. First option is to use the bus, now I won't be a hypacrite, a few weeks ago I went on a bus for the first time in over 20 years so I will say nothing other than it was actualy ok. The seat was relatively comfortable, journey was fairly quick and I didn't have to burn half the worlds oil supply looking for a place to park. I may do it again sometime. Another option is to walk (gasp!). No honestly, it's actually good for the children and will do you the world of good. I used to walk a couple of miles to school and never thought twice about it but times have changed which means the little angels need an adult for safety sake, this means YOU also have to walk. With that thought in mind I expect you have decided on option three, you drive them there!

Right, it's time to admit something, I drive a Kia Picanto, no stop it, stop the laughing, PLEASE!!!

I drive it because it suits my purpose, at most times there are 2 of us, this means there are 2 spare seats, so no problem there if I need to carry exra passengers. Recently we went on holiday to the Highlands of Scotland driving on small narrow roads, up and down very steep hills, infact I expect we went on worse roads than 99% of the 4x4s in the UK will ever see!! How on earth did we manage in such a normal little car? Errrr, just pressed the accelerator and it went where we wanted! It was also interesting to see how the majority of people in the Highlands, the wildest part in the UK, don't feel the need to drive 4x4s!

At the budget Gordon Brown brought out new costs for road duty, the 4x4 beasts were thumped, they now cost around double what I pay for road tax. On the news that night they interviewed a lady from Norfolk who was asked if the extra cost would make her think again about buying a big 4x4 in the future.

"Oh no" she said, "I have three children and have to drive on the back country roads, there is no way I could do that in a small car"

Ok, lets look at the problems scientificaly:

Three children.

Are they smaller or larger than adults?

I would be willing to put a rather large amount of money on the fact that they are small little people, that's what children usualy are. So not much problem getting them in a four seater car?!

Steep hills to climb?

Not true, Norfolk is one of the flatest places in the world.

The back country roads?

I had a brief visions here of redneck hillbillies in pickup trucks driving through the Appalachia mountains, whooping it up with racks of shotguns in the cabs, moose heads tied to the bonnets and drums of moonshine stacked in the back. In reality she pulled out of her drive onto a well tarmaced country road which admitadly was not very wide for two vehicles, not the size that she was driving anyway! Here's a tip, you stupid woman, buy a normal car and you wont have to drive on the grass every time you have to pass someone!!!!!

So, there must be SOME point in having a 4x4?

Fuel economy?

Lets compare my little Kia with a Shogun.

My KIA is an automatic, from a fuel consumpion point of view I don't drive particularly carefully and most of it is around town but I still average around 40mpg.

The Shogun on the other hand, in Urban mode does around 21.2

Not good.

CO2 emissions?

The KIA is 138 - the Shogun 278.

Ouch, that's double!

So much for caring about the children you carry to school and the environment you will leave them as a legacy!

Cost?

Well it's £7,895.00 for the KIA and a bank account sucking £27,544.00 for the Shogun.

At that price you could have 3 KIA's for the price of one Shogun and still have a few thousand left for the odd Gucci handbag or two.

Adding it all together, size DOESN'T matter in this case, so maybe this is about egos and looking cool?

But picture this in the morning...................

"Come on chidren, time to go, which car shall we take today, the black one?"

No, no, we took the black one yesterday mummy, it's sunny today so can we take the blue one to match the sky?

Now how cool is THAT?!!

If you DO take your kids to school in a 4x4 maybe you may be intersted in this simple test.

TEST:

I DRIVE MY KIDS TO SCHOOL IN A HUGE 4X4,

DOES THIS MAKE ME LOOK COOL ?

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