Current Events > I feel like this should be obvious, but

(+) Yeah! (+)

If it's a two car garage,

TWO CARS SHOULD FIT INSIDE.

That would've made sense before companies started making all cars bigger to get around having to make better engines.

nekrodev posted...

That would've made sense before companies started making all cars bigger to get around having to make better engines.

I don't think I've ever seen one that wasn't tall or long enough, though I'm sure they exist. Actually, if that were the problem it wouldn't matter how many cars were supposed to fit inside. My problem is the width, and I'm pretty sure most cars have always had pretty much the same width. Or at least, we can still drive on roads that are decades and decades old.

RetuenOfDevsman posted...

I don't think I've ever seen one that wasn't tall or long enough, though I'm sure they exist. Actually, if that were the problem it wouldn't matter how many cars were supposed to fit inside. My problem is the width, and I'm pretty sure most cars have always had pretty much the same width. Or at least, we can still drive on roads that are decades and decades old.

As just a quick example, the difference between a 1992 Honda Civic and a 2022 Honda Civic, the new one is 4-5 inches wider. That's not a ton on the road, but can add up in a garage, especially if the other car is also wider than the older version, which it probably will be.

Slightly under 80% of microplastics come from tires (and based on the study this is from, likely also brake pads).

Heavier cars wear out roads more. It is likely they also wear out their plastic synthetic rubbers more by the same margin.

Get a car half the weight, you have far less than half the "microplastic footprint." They just keep making heavier and heavier cars, especially the SUV and pickup truck department, which is the biggest source of profit in North America (station wagons still exist in Europe because they are more sane there when it comes to cars and car laws and at least trying not to take 150% of the inner city roadside parking that you need to).

I, and others, like to call those stupid pickups that carry LESS than a 90s design, while being far larger, "Ego carriers." Because anyone who actually wants a pickup for pickup things (like a business) will in fact try to find a used one even at markup before having to resort to buying one of the new pieces of crap that has like 2/3 the actual bed space.

I could just about park my (mid size) car in my (1950s built) garage, if I were careful.

But I would be trapped inside, as I couldn't open the doors more than an inch.

My challenger is definitely wider than most cars. Was a learning experience getting used to parking it.

Even smaller cars are wider these days, but I think some of that is just safety features like side crumple zones and stuff.

I don't think garages built 50+ years ago were prepared for the car sizes of today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_average_fuel_economy

Starting in 2011, they way that they classify how many MPG a vehicle needs to get was based on the size of the vehicle, so vehicles started being made larger, rather than making more fuel efficient engines.

That's literally all it is. The entire reason.

My house is older but the two car garage has two separate garage doors. Both our crossovers fit, but a big truck probably wouldn't due to length.

Related article: American cars are getting too big for parking spaces
https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3pyzx/american-cars-are-getting-too-big-for-parking-spaces?utm_source=reddit.com

It's also really hard to buy a truly small new car. Your choices are basically MINI Cooper Hardtop (expensive repairs) and Fiat 500 (even more overpriced). There's no more Ford Focus, Ford Fiesta, Chevy Bolt, tiny Kia, etc.

Cities and states need to start taxing more for larger vehicles since they "use more" of the road and should also be reducing speed limits.

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That probably just comes down to buyer preference without consideration for the long-term impact. Like, if you put down two floor plans in front of a buyer and told them that one had more storage but in exchange all the bedrooms were smaller, they'll probably pick the ones with the bigger bedroom.

Then again, I'm also of the opinion that your average homeowner has entirely too much crap and the issue is less a lack of storage space and more an excess of stuff in storage that they're not going to touch or look at for the next decade.

nekrodev posted...

As just a quick example, the difference between a 1992 Honda Civic and a 2022 Honda Civic, the new one is 4-5 inches wider. That's not a ton on the road, but can add up in a garage, especially if the other car is also wider than the older version, which it probably will be.

TIL

tankboy posted...

It's also really hard to buy a truly small new car. Your choices are basically MINI Cooper Hardtop (expensive repairs) and Fiat 500 (even more overpriced). There's no more Ford Focus, Ford Fiesta, Chevy Bolt, tiny Kia, etc.

Mitsubishi Mirage is still an option. Quick google search shows they're only 151 inches long (and come with a 10 year warranty!)

Probably not the safest car on the road though

littlebro07 posted...

Mitsubishi Mirage is still an option. Quick google search shows they're only 151 inches long (and come with a 10 year warranty!)

Probably not the safest car on the road though

I'll check it out! It's for my wife to drive to work, so small and unsafe is an ideal combination.

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Good time to pull that suit of armor out of the back corner of the garage.

We have a 'two car' garage and I drive a 17' Passat and my wife drives an 18' Tiguan and there's no way in hell they would both fit in the garage without one of us exiting through the car window.

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That bugs me, too. Where I live, we have too many people per house and most garages are used as storage. The reason it irritates me is because it usually amounts to people parking on the road, which turns it into a one way street.

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If you were looking for a sign that it's time to get rid of that old comforter you have in a plastic bin shoved back into the deepest recesses of your closet that you keep around because you might one day go back to that old color scheme, this is it. It's time to let it go.