Should all non essential chelsea tractors be outlawed?

Answer 1

Put simply - yes. Some thoughts:

Show me an "essential" chelsea tractor and I'll show you someone who can't reverse park so they buy a big car in order to ram the large tyres up and down the kerb.

Safety? Hardly. The safety record of these poorly built and badly designed monoliths is negligable to say the least. The vast majority simply use their bulk as a safety tool, shunting the other vehicle back/out of the way. Secondary safety including G forces and cabin design are typically appaling meaning that even in mid-scale accidents passengers are subjected to disproportionately high loads and dangers. Equally these huge vehicles often have extremely poor handling, abysmal braking distances and dire visibility.

Snob value - look at my X5, Range Rover, Land Cruiser etc etc. Until you can convince people that they don't need the badge they'll continue to keep up with the Jones's. That's the most difficult task.

Environment. Yes, the owners of these cars pay more in road tax and by virtue of their appaling fuel consumption they also pay more in fuel tax than comparable cars. However, the damage to the roads of these lumbering beasts, churning up pavements in the summer as the driver attempts a 15 point turn with their enormous tyres for example.....

Tax. If you can afford to buy and maintain a £45k car that does 15mpg around town and costs £200+ per year to tax, then another £1000 to park it will hardly dent your finances.

I have no problem with farmers or others in rural areas where there is zero public transport using these 4x4's. Anyone who has a need to stay mobile and this is the only way to achieve it. But if the worst thing that they're ever presented with is a puddle in the local Waitrose car park, then yes, Ken (and all other City Mayors) should ban the use of vehicles. Base the regulations on a mixture of:

a) over a certain kerb weight
b) above a particular level of emmissions
c) at certain times of the day (the school run)
d) only carrying 1 person

I'm not anti-car. I'm in my early 30's and a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists. I just wonder why the world's natural resources should be sqaundered to pander to the demands of these supposedly intelligent individuals. These 4x4's use these resources, take up unbelievable space on the road, are often extremely badly driven and for heaven's sake, in 2007 are not needed to deliver a petulant child (my mum's 4x4's bigger than yours) to nursey. Either walk or in the case of London take the bus!

Answer 2

Having pushed excursion busses around London for 5 years , i comprehend the place yor comming from . Chelsea Tractors belong in the geographical area no longer in significant cities . I do disagree with you approximately maximum of them being obese , purely 40% of what you observed at present have been obese , a great form of those i see are slender , fairly your mothers taking their youngsters to a pollutants filled college playground that they themselves are partly responsible for by potential of employing their Chelsea Tractors

Answer 3

No. If we start to outlaw anything non-essential, we'll have to outlaw dishwashers, most home PCs, all games consoles and DVD players, CD players, perfumes, most cosmetics, jewellery, some items of clothing. This isn't 1970's Albania, its a democratic country.

Answer 4

Only in the same way sports cars should be banned. Or non-essential MPV's. Or empty buses. Or trains that are more expensive than air travel. The arguments are endless.

Answer 5

What makes me laugh is imagining all the women asking their husbands to buy them a 4x4 to protect their children when they drive them to school. And you know that all the men will buy one just to keep the women quiet. Show me a woman in a 4x4, and I'll show you a hen-pecked husband!!

HOWEVER, if the women knew how to drive in the first place, they wouldn't need the extra protection anyway - they only have accidents 'cos their cars are so large. In addition, the extra pollution their car produces is only causing more damage to the planet that their children will need to live in, so where is the logic. And finally, they should be walking their offspring to school instead of developing a generation of couch potatoes, but they can't walk them to school 'cos then they'll breathe in all the exhaust fumes from the other 4x4's and become asthmatic!!!!

Anyway, as a personal protest, when I'm driving I NEVER let one pull out in front of me.

I realise my views may be unpopular with some people, but remember them in 20 years time when the world has gone pear-shaped (in more ways than one).

Answer 6

Gerrroff moi land...! Yous worrying emthere sheep. If thats what they say when you meet them, then its an essential. If not, they are just wannabe upper class scum. The worst type of people.

Answer 7

whats a chelsea tractor?

Answer 8

As a 4x4 owner I pay more tax thru fuel and more road tax due to emmisions.
last time i checked we were still a free country and i believe in freedom of choice.
i don't see so many people rushing to condemn "big cars" like Merc's BMW's and Bentley's etc

Answer 9

No you can not outlaw freedom of choice . If the government has such an issue with 4x4 the answer is to make them fuel efficient and stop sealing them with such big engines etc . All should be given a grant to make them LPG compatible .

Answer 10

No. Do You feel the same way about off-road motorbikes(scramblers, dirtbikes etc.)?