4WD's banned from Coles carpark

Would be nice to see their rationale for the move, plus the notice advising motorists at their gate - what harm could a SUZUKI JIMNY do at Coles in the blue mountains ?

one of our local iga super market has repainted the car parking spots little so only small cars can park there.they do have bigger parking spots wayyyyyyyy down the back of the car park.there is a sign saying parking for smaller cars only.

Does this rule come under some council by law? If not then they have no way of enforcing it and just park there anyway. But yeah, I would be informing the manager in person that I will be shopping elsewhere thank you very much. What a moron.

So what consitutes a 4wd? Can you drive your 4wd magna in there? Or is that banned too?

smudger
pretty bad when they actually say to you they are banning 4wd's but already there have been heaps all over the country who ban 4wd's with their low clearance heights of 2metres.its been going on for years
cheers
fozzy

Coles Customer Relations FREECALL 1800 061 562

Call them. I did.

I'm waiting for a reply by phone after a representative told me that they were "unaware" of the situation and would investigate.

Onya Vince - I had a look at the Coles site and could see No - repeat No - store listed for Luera ! Something fishy ?

Ok so it's little sketch as to what is going on here. I shot off an email to Coles and will find out shortly (I hope, that is if their customer service is as good as they say it is).

I asked some simple questions and requested some simple answer in order to sill do my families weekly shopping at our local Coles.

Here is what I sent:

It has come to my attention that the Cole in the Blue Mountains (Luera) has banned 4wd's from using their car park.
I have a couple of questions regarding this:
1. What consitutes a 4wd? Does a 4wd Magna count? What about a Suzuki Jimny? Mitsubishi Outlander?
2. My family only own one car and it is a 4wd, do we walk to Coles now or just not shop there?
3. What council by law are they using to enforce this rule?
4. What right does Coles think it has to dicriminate against people's choice of vehicle?
5. What are these so called "problems" that these 4wds are causing in order for them to be banned.
We spend over $100 per week at our local Coles supermarket and would like all of these questions answered to my satifaction or my family will be shopping elsewhere from now on.

This is absolute cr@p! We live in Australia people!!
We are legally allowed to purchase these vehicles and drive them on Australian roads. Who are they to ban them from their carparks? I always try to park my Hilux away from the main traffic areas anyway, to try and prevent panel damage by door swinging ingrates!!
If this decision isn't reversed, even though it is a long way from where I live, I won't be shopping at Coles and I won't be afraid to tell them why....

I would go to this store, fill my trolley chock a block with the most expensive items I could find. Go to the service desk, call the manager over and calmly explain that I was going to purschase all this stuff but because I couldn't park my 4wd in their carpark I had decided it was too much effort to get it to my car and I would be going somewhere else more convienient.
If enough did it, I'm sure the dipstick would get the message!!

It's KMart - not Coles. They are lowering the clearance bars of their carpark to 1.8m, as a result of "an OH&S issue of the pipes and drainage hanging from the roof. This restriction in height matches that of the bakers Delight entrance". People-movers, tradesmans vans,etc will also not make it under the barrier.

There is still some parking not affected.

Looks like it's another beat-up by the SMH - and not even an accurate one. Time to retract your statement in tomorrow's Column-8 SMH!!

The article follows, it is the Katoomba store. Mind you too much huff and puff about it I think.

This is the age of consumerism and consumers are king. Anyone who is willing to alieniate there customer base will suffer, Coles will find this out if it is in fact correct.

Quote
The 4WD debate that the Spike column across the page had so much fun with earlier this month may be drawing first blood. Paul Duncan, of Leura, reports: "Here in the mountains, we believe actions speak louder than words. The local Coles (Katoomba) has banned 4WDs from the car park, beginning in April, because of all the problems they cause. Now, if only the council and others would follow suit we could start to reclaim the streets from these ..." Paul then goes on to make all sorts of unpleasant remarks about inconsiderate 4WD owners. Unquote

I also just sent them this:

Visibility

A regular complaint is that 4WDs impede the vision of other cars. 4WDs do impede the visibility of sedans because of their height; however, the same can be said about vans, people movers, caravans, tradesmen's trailers, utes, buses, trucks and even some of the larger sedans. The basic factor here is that all road users must drive to meet the conditions of the road, and anticipate the road and traffic conditions (especially in the busy peak hour periods). Road users should factor visibility into their driving habits and ensure that they do not tailgate.

Chrysler Voyager

Overall height (mm) 1749


Toyota Hi Ace

Overall height (mm) 1930


Ford Transit

Overall height (mm) 2363


Nissan Patrol

Overall height (mm) 1875


Source - drive.com.au

Vehicle Size

Another regular complaint is that 4WDs take up more than their fair share of roads, car parks etc. 4WDs are not necessarily larger than sedans. The Toyota Landcruiser and the Nissan Patrol (two of the bigger 4WDs) are roughly the same size, or smaller, in surface area (plan view) than the Holden Commodore, Ford Falcon, or Chrysler Voyager and similar large sedans or people movers. They in fact take up no more room on urban streets, car parks etc than do these common vehicles.


Chrysler Voyager
Overall length (mm) 5094
Overall width (mm) 1997

Ford Falcon Wagon

Overall length (mm) 5053

Overall width (mm) 1863



Holden Commodore Wagon

Overall length (mm) 5046

Overall width (mm) 1847



Nissan Patrol

Overall length (mm) 4930

Overall width (mm) 1930


Source - drive.com.au

http://www.smh.com.au/column8/index.html

So, we now know where the next Gathering will be...

damn coz the shops are shut sundays here in WA I use the woolies carpark to unroll my winch and test it using the shopping trolley parking bay to pull against

WOW..all this huff and puff over a store that has a problem with the height of its entrance to the car park....they try to help by telling people not to try and enter or the HIGH vehicle will get damaged and some clowns will try and then complain....what about all the low bridges around , do we hear the truckies complaining that they are not allowed to use such and such a road because of the low bridge...no they just use another road...