Six out of 10 Brits think drivers of SUVs and other large cars should pay more to park in city centres.

A strong majority believe that drivers of big 4x4s and other large cars should pay more for city parking

April’s Used Car Tracker from Startline Motor Finance shows that 37% also say such vehicles are too big for city streets and the same percentage agree they are too polluting.

And just over a fifth (22%) think that charging more money will help to dissuade drivers from bringing these vehicles into urban areas.

Paul Burgess, CEO at Startline Motor Finance, said: “We asked this question following news that parking charges in Paris have been trebled for any vehicle weighing more than 1.6 tonnes and wanted to see whether there was an appetite for similar moves here in the UK.

“The answer very much appears to be yes, with a strong majority believing that drivers of big 4x4s and other large cars should be paying more. There seems to be a pretty common view that they are oversized and generally unpopular.”

Previous research by Eco campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E) revealed that new cars are getting too big for British roads while “spilling out of parking spaces”.

While more than half of new cars sold in 2023 were too wide for the minimum specified on-street parking space (180cm) in major UK cities, the problem is worse for large luxury SUVs, which measure around 200cm wide.

Although such ‘autobesity’ has prompted action in Paris, not all those in the Startline survey back similar measures in the UK. This month’s research, carried out among 302 consumers and 64 dealers, found more than one in four (28%) believe all private cars should be treated the same in cities, 15% that parking spaces should be made bigger for all cars, and 11% that higher charges won’t affect these drivers.

Paul Burgess added: “It’s a reasonable point to make that anyone who can afford to be driving a car of that size may have less of an issue with paying higher parking fees. However, the responses in our research do raise a wider question about the degree to which these cars may be viewed less favourably for use in cities.”