Garages Too Small For Cars – Driving Instructors Newbury

Research by the RAC Foundation has revealed that modern cars which are most popular in Britain, including Newbury, can no longer fit in a standard domestic garage. Cars have grown by just less than 1/3 in the last half century – The 5 most successful models during 1965 had a typical width of 1.5m as well as a length of 3.9m. However, the best-selling cars in 2020 typically measured 1.8m wide with a length of 4.3m. In terms of growth, that is an increase in overall size by 32% and our garages have not adapted to this inflation. Standard garage door width is around 2.1m, which means there is only a gap 15cm in which the modern car must clear. This is a problem for the Ford Fiesta, which is one of the most popular cars used by driving instructors.

53% of 2,138 car owners say they never park their car in their garage. 30% blamed the size of the car, claiming that the garage door can’t accommodate for the size. The RAC also concluded that nearly 6 million UK garage owners don’t use them to store cars, preferring to store ‘junk’, e.g. DIY supplies, gardening tools and furniture, bicycles and scooters, wellington boots and umbrellas, and camping equipment.

Cars have not only grown in size, but in number. There were 7.7 million cars in 1965, compared to today where there is 31.7 million. Director of RAC Foundation, Steve Gooding, said ‘This is putting huge pressure on roadside space and explains why many of us feel that the parking bays in car parks don’t seem quite big enough.’