If you park your car in the garage, do you put it away wet?

[Oricolt]

I have always parked on the street or in a driveway. I now keep my car in the garage under the house. But, when it's been raining and I put the car away wet, 1) it doesn't dry, which I think is bad for the paintwork? And 2) it makes the garage smell damp and carpet-y.

Am I supposed to dry it off?

What do you do?

I think you’re probably overthinking this.

I'm a bit confused as to how your car doesn't dry? Is the garage poorly ventilated?

Thanks.

Maybe it is poorly ventilated. I put it away covered in raindrops, and the following day the garage smells damp and the car still has raindrops on it.

Hmm, that's not normal. Can create humidity which is crap for corrosion. I think you either put your car in dry or you get someone to look over your garage to improve the ventilation. In fact do the latter regardless as it will impact on anything else stored in the garage - like tools, etc.

Weird thing to say - some of us like to try and prevent our cars from rusting before their time!

Will some raindrops rust your car as long as the paint work is in tact? What about my car out on the drive? If it rains for 24 hours, my car is wet for 24 hours. Will that cause it to rust?

I understand you don't want your garage to be wet. Could you keep a dehumidifier in there to help dry it off?

The best thing you can do to protect paintwork is regularly wax/polish the car…the water does sit on the car for longer but it’s sitting on top of the wax, not seeping into the porous paint.
a small heater/dehumidifier in the garage would help. Doesn’t need to be warm, just dry

Our car is 13y old. Always parked in garage. Never dried. No rust. That's all I know! It never occurred to me.

I'm just impressed that your garage isn't so full of crap like mine and pretty much everyone I know that you can fit your car in it.

I don't dry my car off before it goes in the garage, or even after it's in the garage. Can't say I've noticed any increase in rust/corrosion from all the years I kept it on the driveway and open to the elements.

Garages will smell fusty because ... how often do you hoover or dust them? (the garage)

Yes. It rains a lot where I live. My car gets muddy too. It gets cleaned regularly though.

my mother is the only person I know who still keeps her car in a garage. she never puts it away wet!!

Yet you’ve kept it outside in all weathers for years and its not rusty I assume.

I only commented yesterday how rare it is to see rust on cars nowadays. In the 70s most cars were 75% rust. Paint technology, manufacturing techniques and metallurgy have come on leaps and bounds.

The musty garage is a ventilation issue.

Just get one of those big car drying towels and wipe it off after you’ve parked it in there.

Is this the 1950s ? Morris Minor?

Also, the standard size of garages has stayed the same whilst cars have continued to get bigger and bigger. Even the same-named model of car will be significantly bigger than one from 15-25 years ago.

Not even just width-wise; even a lot of very standard cars are now sufficiently high that they wouldn't fit under an 'up and over' garage door.

I'm with you, though: now that modern cars very rarely rust, it seems a waste of a load of very useful storage space to keep a car in there, assuming you have a drive or elsewhere to park it. It's also potentially better for security if there's a car parked outside, as it will look like somebody is much more likely to be at home to burglars.

Even if the paintwork doesn’t rust, keeping it in a dry garage will massively help stop underneath the car rusting…lots of modern cars are absolute rust buckets underneath at 3/4 years old…but people don’t tend to keep them long anyway

I used to put it away wet, because the mews house where I lived at the time had a heated garage.