For those who love their SUVs

Man of Honour
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There's a clip of the Navarra at 30 seconds into the vid. Passes with flying colours

That is the D23 - I have a D40 - the D23 has improved handling and different suspension setup.

EDIT: Best I can find suggests the D40 is similarly composed to the newer model at 42MPH at 37MPH - but doesn't equate what they are like with both at 42MPH - the assumption would be it is worse to whatever degree.
 
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Soldato
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17 Jun 2007
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We decided to buy an X5 45E in August. We went with the hybrid as most of the time were doing less than 40 miles. So can be on battery unless we are doing our 400 mile round trips for work.

Got to do our bit to save those polar bears.

Especially since I picked up my new M5 Comp on Friday..

As for parking. Our x5 is easier than the 5 series
 
Man of Honour
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It fascinates me which sport might need such huge vehicles. Is there a sport that expects sportsmen to bring the sports pitch along them them?
They provide a good platform if you need to tow a race car trailer of decent weight and carry a pile of stuff you want to access at a level where you don't need to bend to get it out. Most of us who go club racing need to take the race car with us, so yea there is a sport where you need to bring a big chunk of stuff.

Lots of people go motor racing most weekends, though I always use a borrowed van.
 
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They provide a good platform if you need to tow a race car trailer of decent weight and carry a pile of stuff you want to access at a level where you don't need to bend to get it out. Most of us who go club racing need to take the race car with us, so yea there is a sport where you need to bring a big chunk of stuff.

Lots of people go motor racing most weekends, though I always use a borrowed van.
Yes I can see the virtue of owning an SUV for something like that. Are you suggesting there are many SUV owners who need to tow race cars though? I'm desperately trying to think of the last time I saw an SUV towing anything. I'm also trying to think of how many people I know that had suffient interest in racing vehicles that they would actually go racing them.

I confess to only knowing two. One was a petrolhead youngster who was forever spending a fortune trying to get his VW golf to complete a race, the other was a vintage motorcycle fan who loved restoring old bikes to their former glory, starting off with a 600cc single cylinder Panther he bought cheap as a kit of parts, because the previous owner of the bike was out of his depth when he took it to bits and hadn't a clue how to go about the restauation when it started to look far more difficult than he imagined. My friend did a good job on that bike and sold it for a tidy profit, which enabled him to buy a vintage racing bike in need of restauration. He was so proud when it won a serious race in its class, but although he was a keen biker in his youth, and even named his first child Vincent, after the bike he had to give up when the kid was born, because his wife insisted they would need a car, he knew his motorcycling days were over insofar as driving one in the anger needed to win a race.

Yes, I can see there might be a potential use for those interested in motorsports to own an SUV, but I've only known two people who might fit into this categorgy and neither either needed one or would wish to be seen dead in one.

An interesting comment a young lad who worked for me made after he offerred to drive me to Hove to buy a new machine for my engineering business in his Morris minor pick up truck, was that having parked it outside the company's front door, the dolly bird receptionist sought him out and aske if she could have a look inside it. He ended up getting a date with her and said on the way home, "What's the chance of that happening, if I'd turned up in something as dull as a Honda CRV".

The thing I remember about cars in my youth, is that you could identify eveyone of them from a distance. It's impossible to do that these days, now they all look the same. Be honest, if some idiot hogging the outside lane on a motorway decides to cut across the other lanes at the last minute to exit down the slip road, how many drivers who ended up in the pile up it caused to say for certain it was a BMW or Porshe SUV that was responible for the chaos, rather than a Kia one?
 
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Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
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90,821
An interesting comment a young lad who worked for me made after he offerred to drive me to Hove to buy a new machine for my engineering business in his Morris minor pick up truck, was that having parked it outside the company's front door, the dolly bird receptionist sought him out and aske if she could have a look inside it. He ended up getting a date with her and said on the way home, "What's the chance of that happening, if I we'd turned up in something as dull as a Honda CRV".

Chicks dig pickups.

Something which still amazes me - if I turn up in a Golf or Tiguan I wouldn't even get a glance - turn up in my Navara Outlaw and totally different story.

Similar story with guys though - some immediately are triggered by it and act like a knob towards me who otherwise probably wouldn't even register I existed.

There's a clip of the Navarra at 30 seconds into the vid. Passes with flying colours

That video does tie up with how I'd rank those pickups for use on the road - Amarok is way out ahead of the pack if you are doing a lot of miles on tarmac with the Navara in second place, while the Fords do better than the Navara in some areas they do a fair bit worse in others and the Toyota, etc. trail a good bit behind.
 
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Soldato
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Let's face it (and I'll preempt this by saying I'm not a fan), suvs are primarily bought as a status symbol rather than for practical purposes. I reckon 90% of owners have them just to show off. While they might be useful for towing, that's going to be a small amount of people actually doing it. I'm now expecting lots of angry replies:p.
 
Caporegime
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Easy for me, two reasons

Towing - We have 5 horses and a double horse trailer so need something that can tow - saloon cars and estates are pathetic at towing nowadays, you used to be able to get normal cars which could tow 3 tonnes but not anymore.

Bad weather - You generally need to look at SUVs if your want a decent 4x4 system although in recent years options have opened up on normal cars with 4x4.
 
Man of Honour
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Bad weather - You generally need to look at SUVs if your want a decent 4x4 system although in recent years options have opened up on normal cars with 4x4.

Problem is a lot of SUVs now are just the regular car platform on stilts - or you get maybe 1-2 models out of like 7 which are actual useful 4x4s and the rest underpowered or 2x4, etc.

This is one of the reasons though I've gravitated towards these kind of vehicles as with my job combined with other factors I can potentially need to be on the road, any type of road, any time of day or night in any weather condition - while most of the time it isn't beyond the capabilities of a normal car it is nice to have that reassurance there especially in the exceptions.

What I really want is something like the D40 derived Pathfinder but a little smaller - but so far none of the options like the Touareg for instance have really clicked with me - I keep coming back to the Tiguan but I'm not entirely gone on that either - mostly because a lot of my car history has been V6s or similar type engines.
 
Caporegime
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Location
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Problem is a lot of SUVs now are just the regular car platform on stilts - or you get maybe 1-2 models out of like 7 which are actual useful 4x4s and the rest underpowered or 2x4, etc.

This is one of the reasons though I've gravitated towards these kind of vehicles as with my job combined with other factors I can potentially need to be on the road, any type of road, any time of day or night in any weather condition - while most of the time it isn't beyond the capabilities of a normal car it is nice to have that reassurance there especially in the exceptions.

What I really want is something like the D40 derived Pathfinder but a little smaller - but so far none of the options like the Touareg for instance have really clicked with me - I keep coming back to the Tiguan but I'm not entirely gone on that either - mostly because a lot of my car history has been V6s or similar type engines.

Yeah its getting harder and harder. The number of SUVS with low boxes is almost zero now. SHoguns and even Touaregs used to have low transfer boxes.
 
Man of Honour
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21 Feb 2006
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Yes I can see the virtue of owning an SUV for something like that. Are you suggesting there are many SUV owners who need to tow race cars though? I'm desperately trying to think of the last time I saw an SUV towing anything. I'm also trying to think of how many people I know that had suffient interest in racing vehicles that they would actually go racing them.

I confess to only knowing two. One was a petrolhead youngster who was forever spending a fortune trying to get his VW golf to complete a race, the other was a vintage motorcycle fan who loved restoring old bikes to their former glory, starting off with a 600cc single cylinder Panther he bought cheap as a kit of parts, because the previous owner of the bike was out of his depth when he took it to bits and hadn't a clue how to go about the restauation when it started to look far more difficult than he imagined. My friend did a good job on that bike and sold it for a tidy profit, which enabled him to buy a vintage racing bike in need of restauration. He was so proud when it won a serious race in its class, but although he was a keen biker in his youth, and even named his first child Vincent, after the bike he had to give up when the kid was born, because his wife insisted they would need a car, he knew his motorcycling days were over insofar as driving one in the anger needed to win a race.

Yes, I can see there might be a potential use for those interested in motorsports to own an SUV, but I've only known two people who might fit into this categorgy and neither either needed one or would wish to be seen dead in one.

An interesting comment a young lad who worked for me made after he offerred to drive me to Hove to buy a new machine for my engineering business in his Morris minor pick up truck, was that having parked it outside the company's front door, the dolly bird receptionist sought him out and aske if she could have a look inside it. He ended up getting a date with her and said on the way home, "What's the chance of that happening, if I'd turned up in something as dull as a Honda CRV".

The thing I remember about cars in my youth, is that you could identify eveyone of them from a distance. It's impossible to do that these days, now they all look the same. Be honest, if some idiot hogging the outside lane on a motorway decides to cut across the other lanes at the last minute to exit down the slip road, how many drivers who ended up in the pile up it caused to say for certain it was a BMW or Porshe SUV that was responible for the chaos, rather than a Kia one?
I sense you’re triggered more by the mindset you think certain people have than their actual reason for purchase. Kia man nice, BMW or Porsche man “who does he think he is”. Palpable from your words and certainly not unique to you. Some people like big cars, spending any time worrying what you think that makes them is fruitless.
 
Man of Honour
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Yeah its getting harder and harder. The number of SUVS with low boxes is almost zero now. SHoguns and even Touaregs used to have low transfer boxes.

Have to say I've never actually needed it so far with my Navara - one of the reasons I've not rushed to the newer Navara - the combination of V9X engine and electronics does remarkably well when the going gets tough.
 
Man of Honour
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I’ve never had an SUV. I drove the new Defender as I think the 90 looks good but with 4 seats it wasn’t very practical and though the ability to tow stuff was useful as was it’s visibility and 4WD it was to space limited and a pain to get in and out of the back seats.
 
Man of Honour
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I’ve never had an SUV. I drove the new Defender as I think the 90 looks good but with 4 seats it wasn’t very practical and though the ability to tow stuff was useful as was it’s visibility and 4WD it was to space limited and a pain to get in and out of the back seats.

That is the other things - the Defender and Pathfinder, etc. look the part - stuff like the Audi RSQ8 sure it looks great and isn't really intended for the same market but just doesn't look like I'd want an SUV to look.
 
Soldato
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Have a crossover on order at the moment. Coming from a small hatchback it has many advantages:

More space for holidays and camping gear.
The back can be easily kitted out with a cooler etc for cooking whilst camping.
More space for tip runs, picking up furniture.
More space for myself and passengers so more comfortable for them, especially important on longer journeys.
Faster engine.
Towing capacity is higher, so if we wanted to get a caravan or use a trailer then we have that option.

At this point I feel like I'm staying the obvious.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Mar 2013
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9,121
Have a crossover on order at the moment. Coming from a small hatchback it has many advantages:

More space for holidays and camping gear.
The back can be easily kitted out with a cooler etc for cooking whilst camping.
More space for tip runs, picking up furniture.
More space for myself and passengers so more comfortable for them, especially important on longer journeys.
Faster engine.
Towing capacity is higher, so if we wanted to get a caravan or use a trailer then we have that option.

At this point I feel like I'm staying the obvious.
But thats essentially what you'd get in an estate, I'm not sure compared a small car to even a crossover is a valid comparison, they always seem to be the next size up.
 
Permabanned
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Strange as me and the mrs had nose around in a Mazda CX-3 as was perplexed why you’d choose that over the 3. It offered nothing more other than it was taller. The boot was tiny the rear was no bigger I was a bit disappointed.

Each to their own but neither of us would ever consider one.
 
Soldato
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Problem is a lot of SUVs now are just the regular car platform on stilts - or you get maybe 1-2 models out of like 7 which are actual useful 4x4s and the rest underpowered or 2x4, etc.

This is one of the reasons though I've gravitated towards these kind of vehicles as with my job combined with other factors I can potentially need to be on the road, any type of road, any time of day or night in any weather condition - while most of the time it isn't beyond the capabilities of a normal car it is nice to have that reassurance there especially in the exceptions.

What I really want is something like the D40 derived Pathfinder but a little smaller - but so far none of the options like the Touareg for instance have really clicked with me - I keep coming back to the Tiguan but I'm not entirely gone on that either - mostly because a lot of my car history has been V6s or similar type engines.
My Tiguan 4 motion just has a dial, normal driving, off road, snow, all electrics. Saying that I have had it off road in mud and occasionally snow and it's not got stuck yet.
 
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