Garage Doors

[Randomangle]

Would I be right in thinking garage doors (and subsequently the garage) built in the late 50's early 60's would be too small for the average sized car nowadays? I ask because a planning application has been put in to add to some flats near where I live and the developers are counting the existing garages as parking spaces under the 'London Plan'. Looking into it, under the plan you only have to provide 0.75 parking spaces per dwelling and they are saying there is practically a glut of parking available. They are going to provide parking for bicycles though. I don't think I have ever seen a car go in or come out of one of these garages and I know for a fact that two of them are let out to builders for storage (seen with my own eyes). Any thoughts?

 

[Vacumatic]

On the rare times that I see a family car from the 60s and 70s on the roads today I am always surprised at their tiny. A popular car from this period was the Ford Cortina it looks so small against current models.

Mrs Vac has a Golf, the house and garage were built around 1990, the clearance on the garage uprights is less than 1cm each side, much too tight for safety, especially if she has been on the gin.

By contrast we know someone with a Ferrari Testerossa, which I think was made in the 1980s, it is very wide and the doors are huge. The car is too wide for a parking bay and if he goes shopping he needs to look for a two vacant bays side by side and has to park acorss both bays otherwise he cannot get out, you can imagine the looks that he gets from other shoppers.

 

[Randomangle]

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply, I new they would be too small for todays cars, although someone did tell me a tiny sports car is stored in one of them ... I have no idea what model though. Definitely not a Ferrari Testerossa!

 

[Burgundy]

I reckon 7ft width is pretty standard for single garage doors in the UK. I’ve been happy enough parking current Golf and Focus size vehicles in standard single garages and smaller cars like Ups and Kas fly in and out. But current Passats, Mondeos etc wouldn’t be practical as you’d be folding the mirrors and probably climbing out through the rear hatch...

That said, I’ve turned our single garage into a gym. Read into that what you will!