Parking bays widened for bigger cars, says NCP

Heard this on the news this morning. Apparently there's a lot more car park prangs these days.

Funny how van men seem to be able to get their vehicles in to standard sized spaces... just saying lol

TBH car sizes have gotten bigger. Some of it is due to car safety/crash testing and need for crumple zones etc. IIRC my own Golf is about 5cm longer and 4cm wider than its predecessor. I've also found the pillars are thicker so they obstruct more which means you need to be more careful.

Bigger cars and minimum-sized parking bays means there's going to be dings. In some places I've parked, both cars could be in the middle of their parking bays but it's still a squeeze for a slim driver to get out.

Yeah, it's not just SUV that are a problem. Even relatively modest family cars have gotten wider while spaces have remained the same size in a lot of places.
I generally don't like parking in the main car park at work because of the number of dings that seem to happen - even cars parked fairly central in the bays are pretty close together. And as for the multi-storey car parks in town, they are a nightmare for anything but the smallest vehicles.

Of course, if they widen the bays then there will be fewer of them.

I've been to car parks where it was a squeeze to get in and out of my old C3!

The Qashqai is a lot wider and wider than my wife's Pulsar. I haven't had too many problems so far, but sometimes the spaces are tight, especially if you have some idiot park too far to the side of his space. Then I usually reverse into the space and leave about 2cm on his side.

The worst are the people who use 2 or 3 bays. (Yes, I've actually seen somebody who managed to park a sodding Corsa across 3 bays!)

The problem I have is not just door thickness, but length. They are much longer than your usual 4 door car, and to get them open enough to get out, I need more space between my car and the car next to me.

I have a couple of rules when parking:
1 - Do not park next to a people carrier
2 - Do not park next to a car with “Baby on board” things in the window (or even cars with evidence of children).

All you need is a mis timed door swing caused by out of control brats, or some one swinging a door open/closed with hips because hands are full of child/toddler/baby, and you have the potential for a ding.

In my experience, old people are the main culprits for door dings, not kids. Also, I've see a fair few old car parks whose lines have been re-drawn to create more bays. Especially in pay to park places.

Personally, I'd like to tax Chelsea Tractors off the road - I never wave them out of a junction, or offer the same courtesy I give to other road users. I only wish more folk would follow suit, and make it a de facto cost of ownership.

Sadly i can confirm this. My Dad is in his 70's but insists he is still fit to drive . Every time I visit their house there's a new scrape or bump on his car. He bought a new car last month and he's already managed to crump one of the bumpers on it. i don't know if spatial awareness is one of the things that deteriorates as age increases, but I think it's a question worth asking.


Again, my elderly parents did drive a 4X4 for a while, Not because they went mud-plugging, but because the extra height of the vehicle (and therefore the seats) made it easier for my mother, who has had two hip replacements, to get in and, especially, out. Not everyone who drives a chelsea tractor is a knob (although, frankly, quite a lot of them are..).

Jon

Similar to me. I bought the Verso and the Qashqai because I had a car accident which left me with a partially inflexible back, which makes getting into low vehicles and vehicles with low doors (I'm looking at you VW Group and Peugeot). The higher sitting position and the high doors mean that I can easily get into and out of the car.

We had a lot of Passats at my old employer. I've lost count of the number of times I've nearly brained myself getting in and out of those cars! The worst was a Mercedes CLS, I nearly knocked myself out getting into it. I was dizzy and nauseous for the first 10 minutes of the journey - luckily I was a passenger.

Yeah, this is definitely a thing. A lot of newer cars seem to be lower to the ground. I assume this is for improved aerodynamics and so fuel economy but it can make getting in and out a bit of a pain for people with restricted mobility - it's easier to step or climb up into a car than it is to hunker down into the seats. A friend of mine bought a new car a couple of years ago and the number that she rejected because they were difficult to get into (she's got issues with her neck and back) was pretty high - basically most superminis went straight out the window because they were too low down. Ended up with a Hyundai i10 (but the previous shape because the new model had been lowered and was no good). It's certainly easier to get into than my Focus which is a bit bonkers given how much bigger the Focus is.

As big_D says, the number of cars I manage to brain myself getting in and out of has definitely gotten worse over time. Ease of access will definitely be high on the list whenever I next replace my car.

Can you clarify 4x4? I don't class those baby 4x4s as Chelsea tractors, because they're no longer or wider than your average family car, but the extra height does make them easier to enter and exit - AFAIK the term came into use to describe the large 4 wheel drive vehicles i.e. Navaras, Warriors, Range Rovers and G-Wagons etc.. driven by people who only ever go off road when they pull onto their driveway.

Kia Sportage. Not a Range Rover, Q7 or anything that big, but significantly bigger than a focus or golf.

should all buy one of these

I looked at one of those, when I changed from the C3, but it only had 5 gears, like the C3, and therefore revved too high on the Autobahn.

It is relatively cheap, funky, but you notice that on the build quality. It is a fun car to drive, though.

I don't like the look of them but then I'm not a fan of big cars anyway

Swmbo wants a Land Rover Discovery for no other reason than it's a big vehicle. She has no need for it and her hatchback does more than enough. She's rubbish at parking. I've even suggested she look at Evokes because of cheaper running costs and she'd still get that 4x4 feel. Nope. Wants a Disco.