France in Focus

It is always an interesting question, what's in a name, what is the exact definition of a SUV. The author of this article in The Guardian applauds the new year's ambitions of the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, to triple parking rates for SUVs in central Paris to €18 an hour and €12 an hour for the rest of the city. His frame of reference is the other side of the Atlantic, but is a supersized US car the same as a European SUV, sometimes with the footprint of a small citadin? Did he visit Paris? I don't know. Does he read French newspapers? I don't know. Wearing un pull rayé Bréton is of course a good start, not enough I'm afraid. Does he know how to input a French text into a simple translation tool (deepl)? I don't know. For a journalist it could have been a good exercise to line up all the opinions and facts. What about reading leFigaro?

Pourquoi Anne Hidalgo se trompe dans la définition des SUV, auxquels elle fait la chasse.

I don't know if the huge cars which are so popular in Spain now are called SUV's, but I do know that when I park my normal width and length car in most underground car parks there I have to choose which door I am going to open. Sometimes the spaces left between these monsters are too small to open any door.
At present there is a height restriction bar at the entrance to most car parks. Maybe there should be a width restriction device.

Why does anyone living in Paris need a SUV? I would suspect that 90% of the people riding round in these metal shacks have no need for them.

Wilbro wrote: ↑Sun Dec 17, 2023 7:58 am I would suspect that 90% of the people riding round in these metal shacks have no need for them.

Ah, that word "need" .... No, Wilbro, they buy them because they like the look, the perceived status, they can afford them and .... maybe, just maybe, the comfort and good all round viewing. Remember the Kensington tractor syndrome ?
The chunky car is à la mode at the moment. Car styles have gone from being sleek and aerodynamic back to the boxy look .... and at a price. But it doesn't necessarily mean that they are any more eco-unfriendly than other vehicles. SUV is just a label and covers the little Dacia Duster to the Peugeot 2008 and other bigger chunkier vehicles (Mercedes, Jeep etc). They aren't all 4x4 and some are electric/crossovers ..... very green .... hmmmm

Some of the spaces in car parks seem to have been designed for the small/medium sized cars of 20 to 30 years ago. People can be very careless but thank goodness for retracting wing mirrors !

Just as well when there is so much electronics stuffed into wing mirrors these days they can cost well into the hundreds of euros to get one replaced.

Most of the so-called SUVs I see around here are ugly as sin and look like escapees from a crusher jacked up high enough to clear the tallest speed humps without even slowing down. It seems the more competent automotive stylists have gone to work for the high end of the market and left the school leavers with their Windows 98 graphics programs to design for the mass market electro-junk at the bottom end.

They started streamlining, even the small sized cars didn't escape. Selling point: looks and low CW-value Taking away headroom, passengers and luggage space. Now the pendulum swings back and everybody tries to reinvent the boxy Renaul 4, modern style. Everybody wants to buy a SUV, so let's call it a SUV, that is what the public wants.

From the website Aramisauto these remarks:

' The first advantage of a small SUV is its size. This means that these vehicles can be used to get around town (and park) with ease, but also to take to the road if need be. What's more, the small size of the SUV has no impact on boot space, which provides plenty of room for this type of vehicle.
When it comes to fuel consumption, a small SUV naturally uses less fuel than a large SUV, especially as it weighs less. What's more, a number of car brands have added compact SUVs with plug-in hybrid engines to their range.'

The question is: as soon as a car has been labelled by the marketing guys as SUV or Crossover, does that imply that it has been promoted to a type of car as can be seen here, right in this photo?

A practical question for Anne Hidalgo and her advisers: are these ten popular petit SUVs urbains inside our outside the scope of our SUV definition?

Another practical question: is Paris a state within a state, or is the Élyssée also involved, interests of the French automotive industry?

@Blaze and
Yes I know they don't "need" them and they are mainly bought for vanity reasons but I'm referring to the bigger SUV's rather than the 10 in RA's picture. I should have been clearer.
In the US the mandatory Redneck vehicle along with the necessary weaponry, Trump stickers and baseball cap

I think the bigger SUVs cannot be driven on a B permit - so to an extent it is self-limiting.

niemeyjt wrote: ↑Sun Dec 17, 2023 12:42 pm I think the bigger SUVs cannot be driven on a B permit - so to an extent it is self-limiting.

Any 4 wheeled vehicle under 3500 kg with seats for the driver plus less than 8 passengers can be driven on a B permis.

@RA - that type of vehicle will always remain a pick-up to me ! They are cheaper than their "hatchback/saloon" counterpart. We used to have a Landcruiser and the pick-up version, the Hilux, would have been cheaper but less useful for us.

Fortunately there doesn't seem to be quite the craze for big vehicles in this neck of the woods, perhaps the narrow streets and difficulty in parking has deterred them. However, we see a surprising number of Porsches around here though not all with local registrations (not that that means anything at all these days). They're more discrete than a flashy SUV, more sober in design - Porsche owners today don't necessarily need to show off. They don't take up as much room in a car park either !