Teachers tend to drive sensible second-hand cars.JExpensive new cars are usually ruled out by constraints of salary, though fear of jibes from staff room colleagues might also be a factor.
New cars are always a fertile source of staffroom gossip, and the sudden acquisition of a new BMW is likely to be taken as proof of your ambition for promotion, and enthusiasm to impress the management. Or, of course, you are management, in which case your possession of a better car is one of the many reasons why most of the staff secretly hate you.
Another reason for driving a car that is as innocuous as possible is the risk that at some point, a disgruntled pupil or a group of leavers will decide to trash it.
Teachers rarely drive 4x4s. Apart from environmental and financial considerations, there is also the deep-rooted hatred of such vehicles born of the fact that they clog up the entrances of most schools in the country twice each day, and are usually driven by the mothers of the most obnoxiousJpupils in YearJ8.J David Davies, a history teacher in Bedfordshire
