Why do people drive unnecessarily large cars?

You need to be in business or self-employed to do all of the above. It's hardly a big deal now if someone uses a commercial 99% of the time for work, to pop into the shop or drop a child off at a football training etc.

No problem with vehicles being predominantly used for business purposes. If your threshold is 99% of the time though then a hell of a lot of so called commercial vehicles would spectacularly fail your test

Its not a big deal, so insignificant in fact that revenue or the Gardai don't bother. Anyway, how do you know what tax people are paying on these, unless you're self-employed or have a letter from employer saying you need it as commercial then they're most likely taxed as private

Just like people who use greyed out number plates think its no big deal or using gren diesel is no big deal. Obviously if you benefit from it, its no big deal.…get a life and all that guff.

I've yet to meet anyone driving a ranger who bought it/runs it privately

They're getting scarce now allright!! Last one I knew was the mother of a friend of mine, who bought the licence " Just in case", but never sat behind the wheel of a car in her life. There were many like her, who when they heard that a driving test was on the way, bought the licence, even if they didnt drive, or even had a car. I suppose that you would be heading into the late 70's or 80's age group or older at this stage? There was another friend of mine, who like you, his father had a pound licence…all categories, and the same name, so when the father died, the son held on to his fathers licece and had a long driving career, he spent years driving throughout Europe, England and Ireland. They only caught up with him when some industrious wide awake person in the licencing department. (but more than likely a computer) put his age at over 100.

Yes,78+ would be about right! And still a fair few of those about, but how many would be driving, is another thing, and how many active HGV drivers are out there?

In 1964 car ownership was not an aspiration for a large part of the population so the numbers taking up the untested licences would have been limited.

It's not all that unusual nowadays for drivers to continue into their late eighties.

HGVs not really but you would see a few oldtimers driving light commercials.

Does one have to display this at the garage when choosing size?

As a family of Skoda and VW owners, you could be doing far worse…… we have 2 x 1.6 Superbs, they are great cars (2 ltr would be even better) never a bother on them only normal servicing. They tick all the boxes, long driving comfort, economical and well built. If I decide to change the MB, I'll be happy with a 2.0 ltr automatic Superb.

The main issue I have with them is the fact that they tend to be driven very poorly. It's no coincidence that almost every time I see someone doing something stupid, arrogant or dangerous on the road, they're doing it in an SUV. I'm not sure whether the extra size is unmanageable for a lot of buyers, or if they're just bought by idiots. I mean, who else, other than an idiot, is going to pay a vastly inflated price for something that doesn't provide any practical benefits over an equivalent hatchback or estate and doesn't cost much more to build? They're little more than a marketing scam, carried out by an industry that appears to have run out of ideas. Nothing illustrates this dearth of originality better than Ford's current range of cars. If ever a company deserved to be consigned to history.

The Ford Ranger Raptor thing always strikes me as funny. Always seem to be driven by little men who want to appear bigger than they are. When you watch them comically climbing in and out of the thing, after wasting best part of the afternoon looking for an adequate parking space, it sort of has the opposite effect. A silly toy for silly little men. Sad, really.

Fair play for genuine answer. My observations would be BMW saloons illegally using bus lanes. All the time, very noticeable. For another poster boy racers.

I wouldn't buy a Range Rover because I don't want one but their owners have the right to buy them an use the road like everyone else.

what is the relevance of being married?

My tuppence on this issue. As a cyclist and occasional driver, these giant type SUV's are completely unsuitable for urban driving. They take up valuable road space, they tend to be overpowered (hence driven at speed and dangerously by some), they require more power than normal cars and they are difficult to park.

I do think that all cars have increased in size since the 1990's and policy initiatives should be brought in to decease the overall size of cars. I get the impression that the growth in car sizes was driven to increase passenger safety, however I suspect this has made them more dangerous for pedestrians and vulnerable users.