Editor’s Desk: As a sedan driver for decades, I feel torn about joining the SUV bandwagon

I don’t know about you, but my mind often wanders in weird and mysterious ways when I am waiting at traffic lights.

At times, bizarre and brilliant ideas can come to me and my mind meanders off on strange tangents in those minutes while I am waiting for the little round red light to turn green.

Perhaps I’m over-reaching, but it can almost be like time stands still in your own little bubble.

Recently, while stopped at a busy intersection, I started counting how many cars passing me in the opposite direction were SUVs versus sedans.

I’m not OCD I swear, and this wasn’t as random as it sounds. You see I am buying a new car — I have been a sedan driver all my driving life and am about to take ownership of my very first SUV.

Everyone knows SUVs are dominating the market, but I was still surprised that during my 30-second count that all but two of the 30-plus vehicles that whizzed past me were SUVs. Are sedans that passe?

I swore I wouldn’t join the SUV club just for the sake of it. Up until now, I have been quite happy being a small car person.

So in a way I feel like a bit of a traitor joining the gang of car owners who I often scoffed at.

In my mind, many people who drive around in big SUVs are just after a status symbol and don’t really have the need or desire to go off-road or camping or 4WDing or whatever.

Yes, there’s more space and you sit higher up on the road, so arguably feel safer. But what is the appeal other than that? Do SUV drivers feel superior looking down on their lowly sedan counterparts?

You drive around a car park like Northgate that was built many decades ago when sedans were king, and it’s so crammed full of SUVs that it gives you a panic attack trying to navigate. Don’t get me started when I get boxed in between a Ram and a Ford ranger. Or how many times a big-ass car is virtually double-parked because the bays are too small.

In WA in 2023, according to data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, the top-selling cars were Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger, Isuzu D-Max, MG ZS, Toyota Prado, Toyota RAV-4, Mitsubishi Outlander, Tesla Model Y, Hyundai i-30 and Toyota Landcruiser wagon. Only two out of 10 are sedans.

So do I now feel sheepish about jumping on the SUV bandwagon? Yes and no.

I have bought a smaller, compact SUV, which is about the same length as my existing sedan, just higher. So I can justify to myself that I’ve still got one foot in the dwindling small car camp.

No can deny that SUVs are everywhere and will continue to be so. I was told by multiple car experts I wouldn’t get nearly as much as I hoped for from a trade-in of my immaculate four-year-old sedan with low kilometres, because a lot of people just weren’t interested in sedans anymore.

So if it’s all SUVs from here on out, then the least we can hope for is the infrastructure needed to cope with the invasion of bigger vehicles.

Urgently upgrading some of our car parks, which are simply a nightmare to enter, would be a great start.