Maybe just let it rumble away …..you never know one day the share price might have a ‘takeover premium’ built into it
Printable View
it may be quite a while before everyone gets conditioned in N-ZeaLand to having to ride a pushbike
into the sunset .. remember most of the breeding population appear to have a curious habit of
descending outside schools across the land in their 4x4's to transport their assorted brats to & from home daily . ;)
The school near my home sees vast quantities of urban SUV's (which are unlikely to see off-road use) double parking as they walk their children hand-in-hand from the vehicle to the school gate. I'm told that it's just too unsafe for children to ride their bikes, catch the bus, or walk as predators are lurking behind every bush (unlike the 'good old days' when everyone was 100% safe.... which was when?) and their children could catch covid from public transport. I'm also told that SUV's are the safest form of transport in an accident. Not if it's another SUV you crash into of course.
Electric self-driving SUV's are apparently the answer. Not really an environmental answer, but oh well I give up.
Electric self-driving SUV's are apparently the answer. Not really an environmental answer, but oh well I give up.[/QUOTE]
That's it Zaphod there is no answer, apart from the Ford Prefect much safer for travel .
Originally an SUV meant a sports utility vehicle which was designed for off road use and used a ladder chassis like the old Defender, the Jeep Wrangler, Toyota Landcruiser or the Nissan Patrol - or something like Ford Everest which is based on a utility. Most of the vehicles, you are describing fit into the more fitting US term of 'Crossover' which is based on unitary bodies based on a platform shared with cars - everything from a Nissan Juke (Note), Toyota RAV4 (Corolla), Ford Puma (Fiesta), Toyota Highlander (Camry), Ford Territory (Ford Falcon), Hyundai Tucson (i30), Hyundai Santa Fe (Sonata) to a Audi Q7 or a Urus (A6).
A lot of the crossovers are available in FWD only (the Ford Territory sold plenty of RWD only versions) and have about the same offroad capabilities as their car based brethren apart from slightly more ground clearance - but are better on the road. The AWD variants are better when it rains as they have better traction.
As they use the car platforms, most of the crossovers crash better than their ladder chassis SUVs brethren - and because you tend to sit more upright than a car, they offer better legroom, headroom (ask anyone who's sat in the back of a ZB Commodore sedan what that's like) and luggage space but the blind spot behind and in front is much worse for pedestrians - particularly short ones like children. The alternative which was a station wagon or estate has basically disappeared because no-one buys them any more. The Territory killed off the Falcon SW and despite Commodore arriving with the Sportwagon belatedly (the older versions sold mainly to Telstra and were extra long because Telstra wanted them like that) and the awful Adventra - the even more awful but better selling Holden Captiva (aka the Craptiva) made in the old Daewoo factory in S Korea ensured that the Commodore SW was a niche product.
We walk the older boy to school and home but we live about 750 metres from the local primary school that is well regarded and no busy roads to cross plus we work from home a lot - not everyone has a decent school within walking distance especially if you are struggling to buy a house in the first place in a nicer part of the city. If good urban design allowed for it, then we'd have a lot less cars needing to be driven - meanwhile we allow urban development to happen offering affordable housing away from employment, shops, schools and other amenities - whilst the city transport planners make it harder to get to those amenities.
Yes, I agree with you on the terms, however I always stick to using the term SUV because not very many people know what a crossover is, including most manufacturers who still advertise their vehicles as SUV’s.
Most of the shift to these common platforms by manufacturers was primarily driven to save costs. Produce one chassis and modify the coachwork & running gear to provide different functions and aesthetics. It’s a smart move.
Crossovers do have more clearance, and you’re right that they’re similar performing to their car based brethren. Although many try to compare them to off-road vehicles, they’re not suited to that type of environment but yet are marketed as such.
As for AWD, granted they can provide better traction in the rain, but do we actually need them in an urban environment? What about the occasional trip up a mountain? Plenty realise that AWD does not equal 4WD as soon as they attempt these latter types of trips. This will probably become a moot point if most electric vehicles are released to market with dual motor drivetrains, which I think is a natural progression.
From a safety aspect, a larger vehicle (including crossovers) makes the driver feel safer, but they are far more prone to rollovers due to the higher centre of gravity. Feeling safer can also engender more risky driving behaviours, so it’s a double edged sword. For those driving smaller vehicles, visibility and overall safety is reduced when interacting with these larger vehicles. Then there’s the environmental cost of constructing and running the larger vehicles with higher resource requirements and lower drag coefficients.
They have their place, but unfortunately many colleagues swap their smaller cars for these larger vehicles for all the wrong reasons.
It's good to see you walking your younger child to school. There are still plenty of options for children to get to school, especially in-zone. Urban public transport (dedicated school or public buses), ride sharing with other parents, walking (including school-organised walking buses), biking, there’s many options even in smaller cities.
Despite this, our neighbour drives a brand new Audi Q8 to the school less than 300m down the road every morning, double parking, to ensure that the kids arrive safely. They join the dozens of other SUV’s including Range Rovers, double parking, parking in the driveways and over yellow lines all in the name of keeping their kids safe. Ironic.
Anyway a bit OT so I better get back to the title of the thread!
I'd like to think these SUV's with their short school runs are just what ZED shareholders need.
mkt seems to have given up on t/o notions....