To park next to tank-like cars

DH's car is far too big for me as I'm used to a Mini. I parked it in a local car park and despite being parked perfectly, the wheels were over both white lines! I ended up having to drive to a different car park. It's not even classed as a 4x4 so goodness knows how people in proper tanks cope.

That being said, I find the doors on the mini are badly designed too because they have to be opened really wide to get out so I still can't take advantage of tight spaces.

Cars don't need to be so big, it's a hazard on some older roads when driving too. It's just like you can start widening roads for these stupid oversized cars. It's not going to solve the parking issue at present but car manufacturers should be reducing the size of cars. Half the people can't even drive them properly anyway.

The car park for the supermarket in Uckfield has such small spaces. I've always wondered why they've kept them that small. In a 6/7 person car I needed to go out through the boot.

I don't live there but visit a relative that lives near.

I don't know what the solution is, but a lot of UK settlements are based on medieval street plans and that isn't going to change.

In the affluent SE town where I grew up (medieval street plan, scads of SUVs), all car parks built or remodelled in the last 10 years or so have got wider spaces.

Although I have a 1990s licence and can therefore drive a 15 seater minibus or (I believe) some light goods van classes with no extra test or licence, I know my own limitations and therefore drive a 12 year old Polo. Sometimes when I go back to it in a car park it has disappeared into a metal canyon created by two obese vehicles!

I do think an extra test would be a good idea, because a significant number of drivers of large cars can't reverse properly and if your car is the same size as a goods van, you need the same kind of skills. I'm not fab at either parking or reversing but I don't often get into pickles because my car is small.

YANBU. Idiotic people with their giant cars.

Car park spaces are getting too small , it's not just about big cars not fitting but some smaller cars are parked at weird angles meaning the next space along has to park weirdly to fit in and then it continues

I should also add that I always put my own body between my car and someone else's so that I don't damage their car/my kids can't accidentally swing the door. Not, unfortunately, courtesy someone did to me when they dented my driver's door on my new car...

I agree. Car park width has become problematic in some places, but I think a lot of it is people being entitled and rude. The issue isn't the size of the car or the parking space, if she'd taken all due care and couldn't get out that would be one thing, but it sounds like she didn't even try let alone apologise. The problem here isn't her car width or the car park width, its that she's an entitled arsehole.

Part of the trouble too is that children's car seats are now massive. That's brilliant for child safety in accidents but it is a pain in the bum if you want to fit more than two in a car! My husband is 6' 7" and when we had a second child we had to get rid of my beloved Ford Fiesta because it just wouldn't fit him and two car seats. I imagine it is even worse if you have three children as our middle space is unusable even with two!

We’ve lost sight of what a normal car looks like.

Pretty much everyone around here has a 4×4 . If you do not, you cannot drive for chunks of the year due to snow or flooding. Cars are regularly abandoned in the winter because drivers couldn't manage the conditions. It is foolhardy to go out with children not knowing if you can complete your journey.

Yes I agree there should be limits on sizes of cars in the U.K. especially in the city. Or maybe car parks could say no wider than in the same way height can be restricted.

it would seem pointless to reduce the capacity of a car park by increasing the width of each space.

Rural villages where? No one is buying a tank sized audi or BMW because they are safer in a rural village

The rural villages round me have narrow roads, and we had a near complete gridlock situation recently where 2 big audis literally couldn't pass each other (at least not without risking a scratch)

These cars are so much safer than the old school thinking if, "grand, sure we will squeeze in. It will be gand.

That's great that their safer to be inside of. They're a death trap for cyclists, pedestrians, children and just about anyone outside them. But as long as the petals inside are safe.

Whilst the general trend for cars Is they have got bigger there are definitely some cars that are just fucking massive. I hate them as they can't park, they are too big for the roads but more importantly they are so fucking big I can't see past them when pulling out of a space. These cars are unreasonable in my opinion

The enormous BMW ones are just ridiculous and twattish, usually carrying a single person as well

You say most people, but the problem is that in rural villages etc, you encounter many wide vehicles. Land rivers etc. These cars are so much safer than the old school thinking if, "grand, sure we will squeeze in. It will be gand.

I agree. Most people don’t need an oversized monster car. Vehicle tax should be adjusted for vehicle size to charge more for the huge ones to try to encourage people to buy smaller as vehicle tax would be cheaper.

No. Autobesity causes so many issues. Cars take up more space than they should, crowd the roads and make them more dangerous for other road users, are heavier and cause more fatalities and more severe injuries, cause increased wear on roads, and are all over are anti social.

People need to buy smaller cars. We need to get back to more 70s and 80s size cars.

We shouldn’t make spaces wider, they need to stop making cars bigger and bigger! It’s ridiculous and they’ll have issues with narrow lanes and bollards too, not just parking spaces. Plus these monster cars are more dangerous to pedestrians especially children.

If you were parked correctly you should have said something to her!

Park anywhere you like if it's a legitimate space and you're within the lines. If people buy huge cars, that's on them.

Could there not be a limit on width for cars?
I know it's unlikely. But it's becoming really tricky driving down some streets of both sides are parked up.
Cyclists must get really nervous.
And parking is an issue as you point out.