Women in large jeeps have been having a bad press recently. In the interests of balance MOTORS invited an SUV mother to explain herself. So, Susan Ricketts sorts out a few things
Forget speed, alcohol or safety belts. According to some, it's women driving large jeeps that are a danger on our roads and to our environment. Why is it that women drivers are always subject to criticism?
For years the phrase "women drivers" was said with a "what can you expect?" shrug, and a patronising tone was the response of men to women on the road.
Any inadequacy was explained away by the fact that the driver was a woman. Now that we are shown to be safer drivers than men and benefit from reduced insurance, the carping of men has turned to another angle - not how we drive, but what we drive. Women driving SUVs are now held in derision.
Well, I am a women and I am driving my second SUV, and with great pleasure, I might add. I wasn't originally looking to buy a jeep but a seven-seater vehicle. Why? I had three children under six at the time, and often travel down the country with school friends or grandparents.
It was important to me that my children had full seat belts. If people wish to crusade about something, surely the more important topic would be the number of parents who travel with children not buckled in, underage children in front seats or even, as I have seen a couple of times, standing between the front seats or with heads up through sun roofs.
We had lived in the US where I drove a minivan (or "mommie-van") that seated seven people in comfort and had considerable luggage space. When I returned to Ireland in 1996 there was no similar MPV available. Those available had narrow seats, smaller luggage capacity and did not inspire a sense of safety, which I sought in a vehicle. I bought a Mitsubishi Pajero and I have never looked back.
Not only does an SUV carry my family and I, but it also carries a considerable amount of luggage. We travel up and down to the country on a regular basis and find the comfort and ease of travel amazing. I have dragged other cars out of the mire and roadside gullies and travelled over rough roads and country impossible in a normal car.
When I go away with the guides, packing in tents, cooking gear, rucksacks and so on is an easy matter.
More importantly, transporting my children and their playmates around Dublin and the countryside is possible. The five of us, two friends and luggage can travel easily.
Yes, I think about the environment and the petrol it uses. I need a car and feel that this is the best solution for my family.
We live on what are currently country roads and would no more let our children cycle to school or the shops with the heavy goods vehicles, vans and people driving over the speed limit on narrow, winding roads. I feel vulnerable in my jeep as lorries thunder around a corner on my side of the road - a child on a bicycle would have no protection.
As for parking, I have never resorted to taking up two car parking spaces and see no difference between the jeep and most MPVs in that respect. Surely it is not what you park but how you park.
There are many driving Mercedes, Jaguars and the like that take up the same floor space, and a badly parked Fiat Punto will take up two spaces just as easily. The big difference is height, not ground space, although of course that gives an illusion of greater size. There is a disadvantage - you have to take it very slowly when you reverse as the height means that small children could be below the level of the back window (That is also the case for many MPVs).
It certainly feels safer to drive than most cars and gives you a great vantage point over the road. But do I think women driving these cars are more aggressive than other drivers?
Absolutely not. Indeed I am often struck by how aggressive people can be to me driving the car - e.g., being less likely to let me into traffic. I often think that there are aggressive drivers in all types of cars from Minis to Mercs that like to cut in, overtake, rev up and indulge in one-sided races.
Really, it is only a car. It has a function for our family to be comfortable, safe and spacious for long journeys. It's too easy to get judgemental about people and their cars. Too easy to categorise, get angry and outraged.
After all when it comes down to it, they are merely means of getting from A to Z.