How small is YOUR garage???

[Vin]

Not as small as this I hope......

 

 

 

 

Also, I tried to embed the youtube vid but it doesn't like it, am I doing something wrong?

[boobydoo]

Not far off to be honest.

I think I already posted on here what a palaver it is to get the Tagoras in to a council garage. You simply cannot reverse in and then open the door wide enough to slither out...and I'm not a fatty!! I have to line the car up carefully outside, then push it in slowly avoiding any mirror damage on the posts then sidle in to bung the covers on. I reckon I've got about 15cm space at the back when the car is sufficiently far enough in to close the garage door .

I always leave the driver window open so I can reach in to retrieve owt I've forgotten.

The 2litre isn't too bad but I need to put some carpet tiles on the wall to protect the door as I can only just squeeze out..... the 1100....well, I could ballroom dance round that. Sort of.

[michael t]

hahaha you could fit loads of peel p50s in there

[Station]

I had a kitcar and a Starion in my garage. I tipped the kitcar chassis over on it's side, and put the car in. There was no room to get in at all, so had to push it out every time. I found a way in climbing through the chassis to get to the back, but my hood got caught on something on the chassis and I couldn't get out, I was there until I decided to just push away and the hood tore clean off.

The other one was full of junk and a car. I had to take the doors off with no running gear on the car (it was resting on axle stands) but had to give up as I couldn't even open them. The best thing I did was get rid of both, they were just a storage for junk.

 

That little thing seems a bit of a hassle, imagine getting out and remembering you'd forgotten to get teabags, or even worse, slipping on the clutch pedal and charging through the end wall and starting a fire!

[worldofceri]

Those crazy Belgians!!

 

I tried to embed the youtube vid but it doesn't like it, am I doing something wrong?

 

Since the forum upgrade html doesn't work in posts which I assume means you can't embed the video.

[Vin]

I knew it could be done on the old forum. Now I know why it doesn't work now. Thanks WOC.

[Lord Sterling]

I'm currently renting 2 garages about 30 miles apart from each other, so different councils. Garage #1 is very small, I store a Rover Sterling in there and to be able to shut the metal garage door, I had to remve the rear bumper, it is very small width ways aswell, you can just about fit in.

 

Garage #2 is deeper and has another Rover Sterling stored in there, no need for bumper removal either, width ways though is about the same as garage #1. Garage #2 has 2 wooden doors that open sideways so care is needed when driving out or backing in. I did once manage to catch the arch onthe door frame once

[Formula Autos]

I was told by an Architect (I work in Construction) that they all tend to get the sizes for people, cars, trees, etc. (well - the sizes of everything really) from something called the Metric Handbook. Apparently the size of parking spaces etc. were last worked out when the construction industry started to go metric in the early '70s. As a result, the space required to park a car in and move around it is supposedly based on a FIAT 127 (as a minimum size, suitable for a 'small family car').

 

As few Architects would think to go into the car park and measure their SAAB, they just flick through the book and tend to give you a 127 sized parking space or garage. Even when they're being 'generous', and adding extra space compared to what's in the book, it's probably not big enough for a modern car supposedly in the 127/Fiesta Mk1 class. If you're getting plans drawn for a large house they'll expect you to have a large car, so any garage will be OK in size, but if the garages are for 'social housing' then it's expected you wouldn't have anything much bigger than a supermini (you awful peasant, you*)- hence the small garages.

 

Having said all that, I've just checked (prior to clicking Submit) the new edition of the Metric Handbook and it has, at last, been updated. Their 'small' car dimensions are now based on a Mk2 Clio (no doubt you wouldn't fit a Mk3 Clio into a garage designed for one of these though). Though many Architects will still be working from previous editions, no doubt, and sizing things around 127s.

 

*Not my view BTW - just what seems to be view of some Architects I know.

[ProgRocker]

I was told by an Architect (I work in Construction) that they all tend to get the sizes for people, cars, trees, etc. (well - the sizes of everything really) from something called the Metric Handbook. Apparently the size of parking spaces etc. were last worked out when the construction industry started to go metric in the early '70s. As a result, the space required to park a car in and move around it is supposedly based on a FIAT 127 (as a minimum size, suitable for a 'small family car').

 

As few Architects would think to go into the car park and measure their SAAB, they just flick through the book and tend to give you a 127 sized parking space or garage. Even when they're being 'generous', and adding extra space compared to what's in the book, it's probably not big enough for a modern car supposedly in the 127/Fiesta Mk1 class. If you're getting plans drawn for a large house they'll expect you to have a large car, so any garage will be OK in size, but if the garages are for 'social housing' then it's expected you wouldn't have anything much bigger than a supermini (you awful peasant, you*)- hence the small garages.

 

I'm sure that the architects/developers of the flats I live in (built early 90s I think) used a Mini to determine the parking spaces.

[eddyramrod]

I was told by an Architect (I work in Construction) that they all tend to get the sizes for people, cars, trees, etc. (well - the sizes of everything really) from something called the Metric Handbook. Apparently the size of parking spaces etc. were last worked out when the construction industry started to go metric in the early '70s. As a result, the space required to park a car in and move around it is supposedly based on a FIAT 127 (as a minimum size, suitable for a 'small family car').

 

Haven't I been saying exactly this?

 

 

If you're getting plans drawn for a large house they'll expect you to have a large car, so any garage will be OK in size.

 

Not my experience, after some time delivering timber to new-build housing estates using a three-axle rigid ERF. "Large houses" (ie those with at least three phone-box-size bedrooms) come with a maximum of two 127-size parking spaces, including garage if offered. It doesn't matter that the buyer of a quarter-million-pound house will have at least two Mercedes MLs or BMW X5s in his immediate family, not to mention the CLK/330d/A6 etc... It will when there's a fire and the fire engine (same size as my ERF) can't get down the only access road!

 

When I was still in UK, the last house I lived in was an ex-council house on the outside of a bend; built in 1949 when almost nobody had a car. I think I had 5 there at one point.... Unlike the new-builds though, only one of my cars would have been parked on the road as I could fit all the others in my driveway. Not the garage, note; firstly it was full of tools, parts etc, also it wasn't designed for Buicks and Plymouths anyway!

[pogweasel]

My garage must be an 'alright' size. I could fit the Maxi in it and my trailer (tipped on its end) in there no bother.

BMW + trailer won't fit though. And it's a bit of a squeeze getting in/out of the BMW once in the garage, even squeezed with 1mm between the nearside mirror and the wall. But the BMW does have -very- long doors.

When we lived in a Bovis Box, the garage there was actually surprisingly spacious, would fit my car (an Astra at the time) plus some big old tool drawers lengthwise, plus had a pitched roof gr8 4 storage and hanging bikes from. Shame the house was of shoe-box proportions (and the neighbours were all bell-ends).