@cstross the problem with this is what drove sales of F250s
Ford actually welcomed new legislation limiting the tax benefits for companies buying F150s. In some US states, if you run a successful small business, a F250 is literally free as it is fully tax deductible. Ergo, you now have spouses of IT engineers doing the school run in heavy duty trucks.
And before you get smug, it is the same in some EU countries. Just with big vans like the Mercedes Vito.
@newro "But they started it" worked so well as an excuse in primary school, didn't it? Two wrongs don't make a right: we should be working towards the abolition of mass car culture and the restructuring of our built environment to be human-centric rather than machine-centric. (Hint: machines are the beneficiaries because they're profitable. Fight capitalism!)
@cstross Charlie, I don't think you understand - I have two small children and a pug! How could I possibly move them and their stuff around without a SUV?
@cstross It might be harder for HMRC to define, but it would be nice to supertax anything with a pointless high bonnet that means you can’t see a child.
@BashStKid Nah, just ban them from sale completely. AIUI you can't sell a vehicle commercially if it's not safe; govt. gets to set safety standards, poor forward visibility should be an automatic red flag. Drive one on the public highway = it's not roadworthy = it's not insurable = it can be seized and crushed.
@cstross Absolutely no problem with that. But with this shower in charge of building safety / road safety / any bloody safety at all I’d say a non-legislative change would be a lot quicker.
@BashStKid I'm just remembering that my dad (who would turn 100 this June if he was still alive) was licensed to drive tanks on the public highways. And he never took a driving test! (Because world war two.)
@skjeggtroll@cdamian@BashStKid Oddly, many modern MBTs have suspensions that allows for squatting hull-down to minimize observability or going tall for high ground clearance. So "lift kit included" by default?
@cdamian@cstross@BashStKid
Well... There aren't many of these big 'cars' in Germany, but I had the misfortune of standing next to one at the petrol station a few weeks back and my first thought was.
'What if a child ran into the street in front of this thing and the driver started to move?'
And the I looked at my small Ford Ka and noted that the roof of my car was at the same height as the bonnet...
@cstross
I was curious, so I checked the measurements from our old Land Rover Defender which we don't use a lot.
Bonnet height: 120cm
View to ground: 220cm
Still not great.
Add comment