This article raises 2 questions.

1. Why do inner-city dwellers have 4 wheel drive Vechicles in the first place ?

2. Motorists supposedly ( more than) pay for Road infrastructure through Rego and the Tax on fuel.

Who Pays for Bike Pathways Infrastructure..? Not just Cyclists but all Taxpayers ?

Why ?

Bit of a shame this.

I just think the reason young people aren't interested in cars is because cars simply aren't interesting any more. they no longer have any styling individuality, or produce the same sorts of visceral sensations they did in the days of carburettors, manual transmissions and mechanical ignition.

Sure, cars are now much safer, more fuel efficient and less polluting. But in a sense they have lost the very qualities which made them popular in the first place - like the sense of excitement and romance associated with piloting a machine that felt like an extension of your body, rather than simply an appliance that feels like an extension of your mortgage, as they have now become. In the quest for convenience, all the appeal has been engineered out of them.

That's why my rule of thumb for cars is that I aim never to buy a car that's younger than I am (ie made before 1978). That seems like the time when the rot really set in.

Hmmm, perhaps it was my fault?!

This article is relevant to a world that is facing global warming.

It is an article that will be hated by Governments, vehicle manufacturers and petrol companies.

That humans are capable of rejecting saturation advertising that promotes driving a $50,000 plus 4WD through the pristine bush is encouraging. Yeeehah!

The death of the urban cowboy is to be welcomed!

I can understand why people pick on drivers of 4 x 4s - I saw one of them a few months ago, actually on a dirt road, just off the Princes Highway. Might have been lost.

Since they are designed for off-road work, perhaps it might help if they are banned from urban areas altogether ? Those young mothers double-parking outside of school-gates could simply walk to the school to pick up their little precious ones instead ?

Yes, you're right, there's a bit of envy there :)

Isn't it interesting how some can see what they want to see in any situation. We usually call it spin. The fact that the exchange rate is now very different has nothing to do with previously over priced European hatches getting a foot hold in our market.

I can see it now. 10 years time we have all these yuppie mothers, with double bike trailers on the back, peddling off to child care with the youngest, before continuing on to school with the other. That she arrives at work full of exhaust smells, with that camouflage paint, [sorry makeup] dripping of her sweaty brow will be forgiven because it's all in the cause of green.

Being Melbourne, it will be raining at knock off time, when she picks up the little one, & heads off for the bigger one. This trip does require a side trip, [just 10Km] to socker practice. Does she wait, wet & cold, or take little one home, & come back for the budding socceroo. After all, it's only 10Km each way.

It's a pretty picture Roger, but it doesn't hold water. I suppose the top yuppies could cycle around, giving the 4WD to the nannie, to keep the little ones safe of course, but for the others it's just a stage, just like socker is for their kid. They will grow out of it, given time & maturity.

Loudmouth, don't be envious, many are not driving them for fun, or to impress the neighbours.

My eldest daughter is driving a largish 4WD diesel duel cab ute, with canopy, because they need it to tow with. She would much rather have her Astra back.

It is his fathers fault, & that of some idiot bureaucrat. They could use the son in law's Commodore to tow their little sky boat quite happily, & fit the camping gear for those weekends at the dams, just. But then his father bought a trailer sailor, which he loans them.

Some years back, some fool bureaucrat got limits on what you could to, with what passed into law. The Commodore can not legally tow said boat, but he needs it. I could no longer tow my Brabham trailer behind a little Hillman Minx, which I did for years & thousands of miles, some bureaucrat, who quite probably rides a bicycle, said I was not allowed.

So mate, don't necessarily knock those little ladies in those big 4WDs, many of them hate the great lumbering things. Put the blame in the right place, the bureaucrats.

Why is it that these fool bureaucrats can spend years not doing that which needs doing, but all too often, stick their noses in where not wanted, & introduce damn fool rules & regulations, in areas where they know absolutely nothing.

Yes, Hasbeen has a good point there. I once ran into that problem.
However there is a world wide trend those under 25 are buying less cars.
Generally the trend applies until they marry.
They claim Facebook and twitter fill the gap !

However when fuel reaches $8 a litre, CSIRO forecast, my forecast $12
Litre this side of 2020, then we will see a step change in habits.
Forget global warming it is fuel cost/ availability that will drive change.

BTW, did you hear about the diesel shortage ?
Blamed it on technical refinery problems, but the refineries are closing, hmmm.
Major shortage in Asia, which probably means less in our supply chain.

...Meanwhile back on the “Ranch of Reality”. The sale of SUV’s is rising, and now figures at 27% of all new car sales.

Yeah, Schadenfreude demands that I look forward to petrol at $8 and $12 a litre :)

Then they'll be sorry !

Two simple steps can reduce car emissions significantly:

1. Repeal mandatory helmet laws: that would allow myself and others who would never agree to have that pot over their head, to buy and use a bicycle instead of a car. Hopefully by then I still won't be too old to re-learn how to ride a bicycle.

2. Introduce a dual car registration, so that two cars can be registered at only a slightly higher price than one, provided that only one of them is driven at any given time. Often the excuse for having a large car (including 4WD) is that one needs, once in a blue moon, to take many passengers or a piece of furniture. Had registration costs not been so prohibitive, people would also buy a small mini-car for daily personal use while keeping the big one in the garage except once in a blue moon.

4wd's are trucks and should be registered as such. The most ignorant piece of equipment on the road. When one is parked beside you there might as well be a brick wall there.

The main point of the article is that market research performed by Renault is showing that the motor car has lost its mojo among the internet connect inner-city living young urban professionals. If they want a car they find a car pool using social media networks and hire it for a couple of hours or a number of days. Consequently car sales are down since every car in a car pool is used on average by 15 people. European car manufacturers like BMW, Mercedes, Smart Car, Peugeot and other have developed their own bicycles that have design elements that hark back to their four wheel drive heritage. The Australian car industry hasn't capitulated yet and are not as a rule selling bikes and cars in their show rooms although a few forward looking dealerships like Bilia Volvo have got bikes in their show room in Hawthorn. The next step is ebikes that are more direct in competition with the motor car since they are a serious alternative means of transport for commuters that are tired of spending hours caught in traffic snarls going into the city. The recent $18 m investment by the Vic State gov in bicycle infrastructure shows that the new reality is here. Two wheels are better than four!

For the life of me, couldn't see the conection of the headline with the content of the article.
Envy, envy and more envy. Listen up folks, if you want a 4WD so badly, go buy one, a second hand one doesn't cost the earth, and despite what the envy people say, they don't cost the earth to run either. My 3 liter gives me the same per liter of diesel, that I got with my Commodore, and that's whilst it's towing a camper trailer.
Yep, I take on board the whinges regarding parking next to a 4BY, but what's the diference parking next to a SUV, or a panel van, or truck ?
Hey, have you noticed, the European manufacturers are jumping on the band wagon and now producing more 4WD SUV's for the Aussie market?
Now if the death knell is coming for the 4WD I wonder why these manufacturers are jumping on the band wagon ?
And push bikes ? The only people advocating this form of transport are the ones who never had to ride them to school and rely on them for their transport. Come to think of it, the quality of push bikes today is pathetic and they fall to bits as soon as a serious ride occurs. You can't even get a prickle proof tyre any more, what's the point of relying on your treddly if you get a puncture every couple of K's ?