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The 4x4 Debate - 22nd June 2006

I have just seen another TV programme (20/06/06) about whether one should or should not own a 4x4. I watched the show with as much impassive emotion as I could muster. Ah ha! Another 4x4 owner about to rant! YES, I am going to, a bit!

Any car can go almost anywhere, even a small 2 seater can get to most places with little or no trouble and I have owned 1 or 2 in my time. But just because almost any car can get to most places doesn't mean it's the right car to have. Furthermore, how many people complain about sports cars versus 4x4? Not as many as you'd notice.

A sports car in a large city, like London, would be the toy of the well healed, well to do, up and coming, boy racer, city slicker etc. Whereas the 4x4 in LONDON? Should not exist at all, why? Simple, there is no space for it, it's not economical and there are loads of cars better suited to the environment the owner lives in. But this does not mean a 4x4 should be taxed to the point of impoverishing the owner wherever he/she lives.

If the Government wants to change the 4x4 tax system it has to be based on postcode. I live in the HR9 district (for those of you not up to speed on postcodes this is Ross on Why, sorry, Wye!). It's a bit hilly, a bit rural and a bit neglected by road menders and 4 miles to the nearest town/school, also a bit rubbish for the school run in anything but a 4x4. I also have a Renault Megane 1.4 manual which can also do the school run usually. And it's the Megane, I want to point out to the readers of this article, that is probably the best car for the job. As it usually gets from A to B with little fuss, except I did have to tow it out of trouble (using the 4x4) one winter when it got stuck in the driveway.

The Renault is great at nipping to town, to the shops, to the schools but it can't take the family very far with bikes, luggage or anything else very far or for very long. But I don't want to spend my kids' inheritance burning up loads of fuel with the 4x4 either. So my wife and I compromise with the 4x4. My wife and I work out which car we need each day, long runs for me or the wife in the Renault and short runs in the 4x4 unless we are both at home and both on short runs then we share the Renault if we can. But we couldn't use an estate as it wouldn't get up to our property, or even near it.

The last car we owned was another Renault but an automatic estate. Very nice car, took all our baggage and kids and bikes but the gear box and drive shaft could not cope with our environment and both failed spectacularly.

So if anyone in power is reading this the rule is simple: if you live in HR9 or NP25 or similar rural areas then allow the 4x4 to run on the road at a reasonable cost; if you live in SW15 or NW3 then tax the hell out of them, they deserve it.

Insurance companies do this already with postcode liability so why not the same for 4x4's?