Bigger SUVs, pickups are outgrowing home garages, public parking spaces in US

whatsinaname · Mar 5, 2020

Bigger and bigger SUVs, pickups are outgrowing home garages, public parking spaces

SUVs and pickups are getting so big that they’re starting to have trouble fitting into some home garages, parking garages and public parking spaces.

www.usatoday.com

Across America, the drive for bigger vehicles is bumping into physical limitations. SUVs and pickups are getting so large that they're struggling to fit into some home and parking garages and public parking spaces.

When Kristen Trevino moved to her new home in the Dallas area recently, she ran into a problem.

Her 2016 Ford F-150 did not fit in the garage. Undeterred, she bought the 2019 model. That one also didn't fit.

"It's too tall. It's too long," she said. Now she keeps it parked in the driveway.

About the Cybertruck size.

"Nowadays, there's people buying Dodge Rams, Ford pickups that don't fit, and they'll park them outside," he said. "The difference here is this is an electric vehicle and … you need to plug it in. I'm not gonna spend $50,000, $60,000, $70,000, $80,000 on a vehicle and then have to run an extension cord outside the garage or an outside outlet."

Looks like 'oversize' vehicles parking is gonna start costing more too.

For SpotHero, an app that sells parking at more than 7,000 locations throughout the country, oversize fees are currently limited largely to New York, where about 11% of vehicles must pay extra.

Now, some New York lots are starting to charge "super oversize" fees, which applies to truck-based SUVs and pickups, while the "oversize" fees are applying to crossovers.

"We never quite know where the end is going to be," IHS analyst Brinley said. "People buy what they want to use. Whatever their personal reasons are, however it fits in their life, they've decided it's worth it to them. That's not critical, it's just a fact."

Deleted member 179 · Mar 5, 2020

Our favorite past time: Buying things bigger and bigger to try and one up our friends

Brass Body Dave · Mar 5, 2020

Fuck em. The amount of SPACE even a normal vehicle requires is bad for everyone. Destroys everything. It's so stupid. Fuck em. And for people buying them that don't even haul anything...fuck em.

LewieP · Mar 5, 2020

Might have been worth specifying which country this is happening in as part of the thread title, because I don't think this is a global trend.

Stay Up Be Easy · Mar 5, 2020

Link is broken.

The Silverado I purchased last week is both too high and too wide for the garage at the home I'm renovating.

Teh_Lurv · Mar 5, 2020

I drive an old Camry and now-a-days I'm frequently flanked by towering SUVs on either side when I park at my local Target or Wegmens.

whatsinaname · Mar 5, 2020

LewieP said:
Might have been worth specifying which country this is happening in as part of the thread title, because I don't think this is a global trend.

True. Requested a title change.

(Though I have heard anecdotal complaints from other countries too, this article is US specific).

Stay Up Be Easy said:
Link is broken.

The Silverado I purchased last week is both too high and too wide for the garage at the home I'm renovating.

Fixed!

Deleted member 1476 · Mar 5, 2020

LewieP said:
Might have been worth specifying which country this is happening in as part of the thread title, because I don't think this is a global trend.

SUV / mini SUVs are rising globally though.

bionic77 · Mar 5, 2020

Got damn at the 'problems' some of us have in this country.

My giant ass SUV/pickup is too big to fit inside of my garage. But on the plus side I can transport an entire aisle of Costco toilet paper.

LuigiMario · Mar 5, 2020

I have long felt that that driving a car bigger than a certain size should require a special license or something. I live in michigan and so many people drive these massive pick up trucks and can't even park them, it drives me nuts. You only need a truck that big if you use it for work.

Dennis8K · Mar 5, 2020

Just what we need. Bigger versions of the worst kind of car in the world.

His Majesty · Mar 5, 2020

SUV's are bad and people who needlessly own SUV's should feel bad.

Inugami · Mar 5, 2020

That's okay, people who drive huge pickups and SUVs are super resourceful and they've long figured out how to get around not fitting in a parking spot...

Fatoy · Mar 5, 2020

As someone from the UK, American parking spaces are already absolutely ludicrous in size. Half of the vehicles you folks drive wouldn't even fit down some of the roads in the UK and Europe, let alone into our supermarket and multi-storey parking spaces.

Teh_Lurv · Mar 5, 2020

Maintenance said:
SUV / mini SUVs are rising globally though.

Car manufacturers won't disclose it, but a big reason why SUV/Crossovers are growing in popularity is because they are easier to get into/out of for an aging and fattening US population:

The real reason SUVs and crossovers are performing so well isn't as much about cargo space, all-wheel drive for bad weather or our desire to own vehicles that project an image of rugged, outdoorsy individuality: it's just that for an aging and increasingly unfit population, they're just easier to get in and out of.

Easy entrance and exit will become more and more important as the population ages and huge groups like Gen X move into their 50s and 60s.

"Seat height is key," Knudsen said. "People like to be able to slide in, not lift themselves up or down."

Automakers don't talk about this much. It's a truism that people want cars that make them look younger, not reminders they're less limber at 60 than 40. Nonetheless, the incoming tide of small SUVs will fit aging drivers and people with limited mobility like a glove.

The Real Reason All These Crossovers Are Selling Like Crazy

The real reason SUVs and crossovers are performing so well, Americans can barely afford new cars, Faraday Future is still a mess and more today on The Morning Shift for Monday, Oct. 8, 2018.

jalopnik.com

Euler007 · Mar 5, 2020

As far as the EV goes, I'd rather have the transformer/charge station on the outside of the brick wall, and the EV charging outside instead of inside the garage. Drill through wall and run a teck cable to the fuse box.

WedgeX · Mar 5, 2020

Well that's depressing.

Deleted member 9241 · Mar 5, 2020

Yeah, mine is pretty huge. I have to pull it out of the garage so that people can get in because I'm so close to the wall on my passenger side once inside.

Max|Payne · Mar 5, 2020

Not much of a problem in my back of the woods, but whenever I see one of those humongous SUVs driving around, the word that pops in my head is "unnecessary". They're way too big for the kind of mundane use the majority of its owners make of them. It's simply so they can flex their massive car on others and feel important or something.

It's ostentatious for the sake of it.

whatsinaname · Mar 5, 2020

Euler007 said:
As far as the EV goes, I'd rather have the transformer/charge station on the outside of the brick wall, and the EV charging outside instead of inside the garage. Drill through wall and run a teck cable to the fuse box.

Still an issue though for the top half of the US. You don't want your EV covered in snow sitting outside. Even if the garage is not heated, it is slightly warmer and provides coverage from melting snow and wind chill.

Pockets · Mar 5, 2020

Pick up trucks in home garages... Come on now.

You are detached from reality if you think that a pick up truck belongs in home garage.

RadzPrower · Mar 5, 2020

It's why I stick to smaller cars. I had a Prius for seven years and literally drove it to death (died en route to the dealership to trade it in) and now I've got a Corolla. I don't care for trucks or SUVs and never have. I've got a minivan right now, but that's because I've got three kids and they were all in booster or carseats when we bought it. Even with my relatively small car, the minivan makes it a very tight squeeze to get our two vehicles in the garage. We'll probably downsize (barely) to an SUV with our next vehicle just because the kids'll be out of their seating apparatuses by then, but it's still too big for me. If the kids wouldn't hate me for it, I'd prefer to get a larger sedan and cram 'em in three wide in the back seat.

Hiphopopotamus · Mar 5, 2020

I work on an island with massive parking problems and relatively narrow roads. The kicker is that these people complain about parking during our tourist season, but have conniption fits when parking garages and increasing bus service routes are proposed.

When you get down to brass tacks, they really just want all the tourists and low-income workers to stay off the island, despite the fact 95% of them were snowbirds themselves before they fully retired to be asshole NIMBYs full-time

Hiphopopotamus · Mar 5, 2020

KojiKnight said:
That's okay, people who drive huge pickups and SUVs are super resourceful and they've long figured out how to get around not fitting in a parking spot...

These assholes must wipe a lot of spit off their cars each week

fakefaker · Mar 5, 2020

Teh_Lurv said:
Car manufacturers won't disclose it, but a big reason why SUV/Crossovers are growing in popularity is because they are easier to get into/out of for an aging and fattening US population:

The Real Reason All These Crossovers Are Selling Like Crazy

The real reason SUVs and crossovers are performing so well, Americans can barely afford new cars, Faraday Future is still a mess and more today on The Morning Shift for Monday, Oct. 8, 2018.

jalopnik.com

Sounds like my senior neighbours. Both have had their hips replaced, then bought a rav4, then started complaining about how much gas it was using.

Psychotext · Mar 5, 2020

Fatoy said:
As someone from the UK, American parking spaces are already absolutely ludicrous in size. Half of the vehicles you folks drive wouldn't even fit down some of the roads in the UK and Europe, let alone into our supermarket and multi-storey parking spaces.

Yup. I drive a relatively normal car and I've lost count of the number of times I've needed to slither out of the car to avoid hitting the car next to me (normal supermarket / shopping centre parking spaces).

King Alamat · Mar 5, 2020

Hiphopopotamus said:
These assholes must wipe a lot of spit off their cars each week

They're lucky more and more people have fobs nowadays, otherwise folks would key the fuck outta them.

Fulminator · Mar 5, 2020

Brass Body Dave said:
Fuck em. The amount of SPACE even a normal vehicle requires is bad for everyone. Destroys everything. It's so stupid. Fuck em. And for people buying them that don't even haul anything...fuck em.

🤝

Bane · Mar 5, 2020

It's pretty crazy how much bigger things have gotten. I drove a '97 f150 from '96 to '15, when I got a new f150 and it's way larger than the old one. Seems unnecessarily so.

On the other hand, man it sure sucks to have to pay more or being judged for driving a big vehicle when I don't fit into smaller ones.

pezzie · Mar 5, 2020

I bought a new 2020 Hyundai Elantra, supposedly one of the smaller cars available, and it still feels much bigger than most of the cars in this class from the 90s. Cars are getting big in general.

BringBackSonics · Mar 5, 2020

Our large vehicles are parked outside. We've never used the garage for its intended purpose lol

Hasseigaku · Mar 5, 2020

We make such dumb problems for ourselves. We're going to need bigger parking lots for bigger cars, which means less land for other things like, say, housing.
Good thing there's no lack of that right?

Aurongel · Mar 5, 2020

My apartment garage has side-by-side automatic sliding doors separating the retail parking (first floor) from the residential parking (floors 2 through 6). I remember a few months back, two of these super long Ford trucks parked in the spots adjacent to these doors and created a gap so wide that only one car could pass between them and effectively blocked 50% of each garage door. A bunch of pissed off residents called towing services and notified the apartment management to contact the owners and get them moved.

This sort of thing is a huge problem in city spaces, especially ones in Texas where something like 30% of the vehicles on the road here are pickup trucks.

CaptainNuevo · Mar 5, 2020

Yeah, it's ridiculous especially in cities. I drive a charger and even that can feel too big in a lot of parking spots. Next car (if I get one) I want even smaller.

Coyote Starrk · Mar 5, 2020

Pockets said:
Pick up trucks in home garages... Come on now.

You are detached from reality if you think that a pick up truck belongs in home garage.

Wait where else would a person who has a truck as a daily driver put it?

Fatoy · Mar 5, 2020

Pockets said:
Pick up trucks in home garages... Come on now.

You are detached from reality if you think that a pick up truck belongs in home garage.

I have never met anyone in the UK who parks any car in their garage, except my father in law - who stores a classic in his.

That being said, I do really object to people parking pickup trucks (which are fortunately pretty rare over here) and parking them on drives that are too short, so the front sticks out and obstructs the pavement.

Mammoth Jones · Mar 5, 2020

I ran into this problem recently. Truck parked mad close to my Jeep. I was pissed. This asshole should park center of the spot instead of off to the side.

Then I looked and his truck was parked dead center, lol. That was a big ass truck. I do want one but I love my Jeep too much.

whatsinaname · Mar 5, 2020

Aurongel said:
My apartment garage has side-by-side automatic sliding doors separating the retail parking (first floor) from the residential parking (floors 2 through 6). I remember a few months back, two of these super long Ford trucks parked in the spots adjacent to these doors and created a gap so wide that only one car could pass between them and effectively blocked 50% of each garage door. A bunch of pissed off residents called towing services and notified the apartment management to contact the owners and get them moved.

This sort of thing is a huge problem in city spaces, especially ones in Texas where something like 30% of the vehicles on the road here are pickup trucks.

Yeah, I've come across two trucks parked across from each other in narrow Chicago parking structures. Not fun.

There's this guy in my regular structure who is being thoughtful and takes a corner spot against a wall. But he doesn't realise he ends up blocking the spot 90degrees to him cause the truck is too long. -_-

NealMcCauley · Mar 5, 2020

I've noticed this at work. One older garage in particular, already a horribly designed shitshow, is becoming a nightmare because of the trend.

siteseer · Mar 5, 2020

also weight, small two door coupes are 3000+ pounds now. have to question if old structures like bridges and parking garages and such can support all this new weight taking in the same number of vehicles.

once everyone is driving 5-6000 pound electric vehicles it's gonna be a nightmare for civil engineers, lots of infrastructure to be upgraded.

Vish · Mar 5, 2020

Here in Oregon so many people have these massive sized 60k vehicles. Where they get the money from I dunno.

BringBackSonics · Mar 5, 2020

Coyote Starrk said:
Wait where else would a person who has a truck as a daily driver put it?

Drive Way

Hiphopopotamus · Mar 5, 2020

King Alamat said:
They're lucky more and more people have fobs nowadays, otherwise folks would key the fuck outta them.

Sucks for them because I keep one of these on my keychain

Big-E · Mar 5, 2020

Cars are not only getting heavier but wider as well. This is almost universal across sedans and SUVs a like.

Wraith · Mar 5, 2020

pezzie said:
I bought a new 2020 Hyundai Elantra, supposedly one of the smaller cars available, and it still feels much bigger than most of the cars in this class from the 90s. Cars are getting big in general.

Definitely. A "compact" today is a midsize or larger from the 90's/early 00's.

And when it comes to fuel economy, today's subcompacts rarely offer better fuel economy than their compact stablemates. A Fit and a Civic have basically identical mpg figures, and an Accord - a much bigger car than either - is only 2-3 mpg shy of that.

mreddie · Mar 5, 2020

No one learned a damn lesson from the mid 2000s SUV boom.

Brass Body Dave · Mar 5, 2020

Hasseigaku said:
We make such dumb problems for ourselves. We're going to need bigger parking lots for bigger cars, which means less land for other things like, say, housing.
Good thing there's no lack of that right?

The amount of space our personal vehicles take up is absolutely a terrible effect on traffic and movement. It's terrible and we need far smaller, not larger vehicles.
I mean how many people are REALLY on this stretch of road?

We should be smaller.

Doomguy Fieri · Mar 5, 2020

I'm annoyed when the wife impulse buys a rug at Ikea that doesn't fit the room. Trying to imagine what it would be like to get home with a new car and it won't fit in the garage.

steejee · Mar 5, 2020

I live in a residential area in Boston inner-core and it always boggles my mind when I see someone street (so parallel) park a giant truck or SUV in our very dense area. Suddenly a span that can fit 4 regular cars (eg Golf sized) can only fit 2, or 3 if the trucks really go up to the edge of the curb cutouts. Then the trucks get left there for like a week without moving 'cause they don't actually need a vehicle most of the time anyways.

Bonus is that for houses that do have garages the garages were all built in like the 50s (houses are often ~1900 built) and even a compact (Golf, Focus, etc) only has a few inches on each side of space when pulling in.

On the upside I never have to worry about my mirror getting clipped because they always seem to stick out an extra foot from the curb.

Edit: Other annoyance with the biggification of vehicles:
- I can't see around, through, or over any of these damn vehicles so pulling into traffic can really suck at times.
- "'Compact Only' is just a suggestion right? My F150 Super Duty Kid Hauler can totally fit there fine."
- Now these people are driving a vehicle that isn't really any safer for them, but makes the road less safe for everyone else due to the mass. Lovely!

Kyrios · Mar 5, 2020

Mammoth Jones said:
I ran into this problem recently. Truck parked mad close to my Jeep. I was pissed. This asshole should park center of the spot instead of off to the side.

Then I looked and his truck was parked dead center, lol.

I had the same situation happen to me yesterday lmao

I was like "Sure just fucking park right up nex-oh you didn't" lol

I just want to know how these people get out of these huge things parking so close to others.

Bigger SUVs, pickups are outgrowing home garages, public parking spaces in US

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