Why do people drive unnecessarily large cars?

"egomaniacs to flaunt their wealth,"

Agree, but what makes matters even worse is that it is not wealth, its loans :)

If you have the money then why not, some people will work all their lives and die with millions in the bank as they refuse to spend the money on anything like nice cars, clothes, house upgrade, travel etc.

You only live once and if you have the money then why not. I know single men that have worked until retirement with a pension and still refuse to spend money and known to be tight arses completely.

False equivalence surely - you don't need a top spec large SUV to get collision avoidance and blind spot sensors. You can get these on smaller cars.

They're crashes, not accidents. If we want to reduce them, let's stop using language designed to avoid any accountability for the drivers who cause them.

Technology can certainly help, but with technology that was restricted to the big, luxury brands 10 years ago now being available on very standard, mainstream cars, it's not really about size. It's certainly not an excuses for buying SUVs, which have certain inherent risks around visibility and impact compared to smaller cars.

"Accidents" (Crashes) will always happen though. You can reduce the amount of them sure via new tech but human error will always occur as they are the primary controller of the vehicle - collision sensors, etc are secondary.

I'd rather be hit my a mini then an SUV.

people drive them because they want to and for many other reasons.

Personally I like my cars, have bought many new ( and said I never would again ) and many used, I’m retired now and in my first new SUV and love the height, visibility and access in/out, each to their own, too many people attempt to shame people on their car choices, two fingers to each of them, we drive what we like in this country !

Yes over reliance and even abuse of these systems is possible but that's a whole different conversation. But the main thing is that they do work, and they will get better and cheaper, and they are what will make the roads safer. EuroNCAP certainly believes that so they will not award 5 stars to cars that don't have these systems.

Exactly, when people say these giant SUVs give increased road visibility, they are talking about other cars and road signs, not vulnerable road users.

Is that not true for any large vehicle though, Renault traffic van, ford transits, box vans. You can't see over them.

Yep, don't think we see that ratio though, head up the naas, road or the quays in Dublin any work morning, there's a lot more vans etc on the road than SUVs. You just need to be extra careful if your around any of these bigger vehicles I suppose

I agree, and I don't see the need for them most of the time, but I think some people like bashing SUVs, the "can't see over them" is a nonsense argument if the same person doesn't mention vans etc in the same way. You need to be safety conscious regardless.

It's just as well 'they' don't tax idiocy or you'd be in right trouble.😁

When you're exiting a parking space, it's useful to be able to see whether there are any cars or pedestrians about to pass.

If you genuinely need more space and these features buy an estate. In my recent search for cars, I found that SUVs were lacking in boot space in particular, are less efficient and the only genuine advantage they have is when someone has special needs and requires a higher seated vehicle.

I swear we'd all be better off if estates were the go-to for families rather than deceptively small SUVs.