All 4wd owners
By Silverchic
@Silverchic (396)
Australia
January 18, 2007 5:02pm CST
Do you ever find yourself getting annoyed at the stigma of being a 4wd owner? I had a conversation the other day with someone who thought all 4wd's should be banned in the city!
Now I agree to a point...people who buy 4wd's with no intention of EVER using them as 4wd's (think the brand new BMW 4wd worth about AUD$90,000) and don't bother to learn how to drive and control them properly...then yes, I maybe could agree on that.
BUT....I own a 4wd, in fact it is my only car (I also have a motorbike). I live in a country town and my Hilux does see gravel roads and beaches and tracks that you could only go down with a 4wd...so I know that I need a 4wd. And occasionally I drive down to the city - I don't want to have to hire a sedan for that! I use my 4wd and I can't afford to buy and maintain another car just for when I want to drive to Perth!
I think that the people who rant and rave about 4wd owners are perhaps a bit bias in the fact that they will only ever notice the BAD drivers! Come on - we all do it! For example...kids in shopping centres, we complain about them running around screaming and knocking things over...well what about the well behaved children that follow their parents around quietly? We never notice them do we? =)
Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
2 people like this
4 responses
@Adversa (406)
• Australia
19 Jan 07
OK, I was first reading this topic header on the bus yesterday afternoon (Friends topics get emailed to me and i can read emails from my mobile phone). while I was doing that I saw a 4wd Owner driving over a median strip to pull a U turn.
Some drivers dont deserve a licence let alone a 4WD.
I think the best solution is set up a new license class for 4WD's and have some restrictions on when and where you can drive it. I think country people by all means drive the things 24/7 but City people should be on restriceted access where they can only drive it to and from 4WD events etc, or only on the weekend.
The 4WD is not designed as a city car, and should not be used as one. Some people need a 4WD, but if you dont, trade it in, you shopuldnt have it!
1 person likes this
@Silverchic (396)
• Australia
21 Jan 07
I was thinking of this also...but there is just so many little problems with the whole idea. Assuming you worked out all the new restrictions, licences, exemptions etc - how would it be policed? I wouldn't like to drive my 4wd to the city and be picked up all day long and given the third degree on whether I'm allowed to have one or not. To start with the police force just don't have the resources to do it!
@kyliepops (269)
• Australia
23 Jan 07
oh this is a pet hate!! We to have a Hilux, we have a ford and also a mercedes.
Now we bought the $wd purely for that reason and it has been everywhere!! We have dinted every panel, smashed a windscreen, got bogged more times than i can remember, snapped the winch and bent the bull bar. Yet with all these things peopl still give us that look of why you have 4wd in suburbs!
I for one have done my 4wd course and feel that even in a car, i am a much safer driver than the majority of other drivers.
I think that its the sedan srivers and the ones as you said with BMW or Merc 4wd's that give us good ol genuine 4wd bad names!!
There are some good ones of us around still and we DONT RUIN THE BUSH!!!
lol
great topic for me silverchic, have great day mate!
@VKXY62 (1605)
• Australia
11 Feb 07
Hello, I hate being behind large vehicles in city traffic, doesn't matter what it is. When I am driving the truck I pretty much only grumble at the big box vans or the Kenny that's bigger than the little Isuzu.
But, I think there is a valid grumble at little narrow city streets clogged up with Mums picking the kids up in a 4wd that's never seen a dirt road and never will. It has resulted in several deaths.
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
11 Feb 07
It's much different where I am. I'm not sure I totally understand how you are classifying 4wd. My Nissan Xterra is 4wd, but not all of them are, and even though I don't really have a need for the 4wd option and have rarely used it, I bought it because of the price and the other options in the vehicle that I wanted. When we bought my husbands Titan, we knew he would need the 4wd option and we specifically asked for it. Now, he drives that every day, but only uses the 4wd when he's hunting.
Where I live - close to Washington DC - there's not a lot of need for 4wd, so you can use it or not. Now, everyone her has to have a SUV, it's the IN thing to do. That's probably why I got mine, I liked the style and that's what I wanted. Most of the time it's just me in the vehicle so most people think it's a huge waste. One of the main reasons I got mine was the old adage "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" I was getting tired of being in a car and not being able to see around me because everyone else had a truck or SUV.
What I think is really rediculous though is people that think they can drive in any condition just because they have an SUV with 4wd. They don't realize that you have to still know how to handle the vehicle in bad conditions.
