To wonder why we allow the sale of so many cars that don't fit a standard space?

[Bussesrus]

We are looking for a new car that will fit all 6 of us plus our dogs. Having looked at many options just about everything with a third row and boot space will hang over into another space by anything from .2 to nearly a meter. Where exactly are you meant to park these SUVs and vans?

@FluffyBenji23 Where did you think they should have parked? This is precisely the problem. We need bigger spaces. To continue to sell these vehicle and continue to make tiny spaces isn't rational. You can shout at people all you like but people will continue to by cars that fit their whole family. Planning departments shouldn't allow new car parks to be built with spaces that will only accommodate the smallest cars. It's illogical to continue to build to spec that isn't even the average car anymore.

My walking speed is four miles an hour, 4.2 if I really push it so two miles would take me half an hour or slightly less.

Don't you find though, that other people come and park near you, even if the rest of the car park is empty. (Sorry off-topic).
I used to park as far away as possible when I had a very stressed dog, but by the time I'd done a bit of shopping, there was always at least 2 more cars parked near mine. Never understood it.

The average length of a Uk car is 4.4m. The standard car parking length is 4.8m. There is plenty of room for an average car. sUV’s are generally about 4.7m so a lot tighter (I expect the numbers are similar for width). So there is plenty of choice to find cars that fit happily into the spaces. If a person chooses to have an above average number of children and pets I’m still not sure why the world has to adapt to them because they need huge cars.

@Drfosters Then don't sell them. But as long as they're sold they'll be bought and parked and the issue carries on. It's far easier to make bigger spaces than get manufactures to stop selling cars.

Sorry I don’t agree. It is up to the car buyer to buy a car that they are happy to park in the spaces. . If you buy a car that you struggle to park then buy a smaller car. It is that simple. Just becuase manufacturers make the cars doesn’t mean you have to buy them. Parking is at such a premium now that reducing the amount of spaces would have a massive impact.

The fact still remains that I can get 4 large teenage boys into my Yaris. Luggage space is small but nothing a roof box can’t fix. If for any reason I needed a bigger car for a road trip then I could hire it. But for day to day driving I don’t think that cars need to be any bigger.

@Drfosters You're still going to have to park the rented one...

if I really had to hire a bigger car then I would squeeze it into a spot. I wouldn’t complain about it. They do fit. Just super tight. would rive me potty if I had to do it regularly so I don’t. I bought a car that fits easily.

as it happens that was purely hypothetical as I have never hired a bigger car as we have a roof box for luggage when needed when going to parents.

lots of people love SUVs and that is fine but when you buy and use one, you have have to accept they are big cars and so you might not be able to park them easily. Simple as that. Some car parks have even banned big cars completely.

I'm not complaining about it. I'm pondering why the UK seems to not be able to sort it out. Other countries have made bigger spaces in line with growing car dimensions. The UK has decided to tut at people a s put them against each other while doing nothing to actually address the infrastructure problem. Ban them or accommodate them. Meanwhile we continue to have some of the most shit housing in Europe while the plots and room size shrink and the pavements disappear because this makes the developers the most money. It makes for a million unhappy threads in neighbourly relations gone bad. We seem to accept everything being a ballache when it really doesn't have to be.

Which countries exactly have made their spaces bigger to accommodate new trends in larger vehicles?

I had a search and couldn’t find. Did get this though.

https://www.moneysupermarket.com/news/world-car-sizes/

I've had a zafira for years. Quite capable of transporting DDs netball team and everything else I've asked of it. I actually live in a really rural location where a 4x4 might be useful and if we had the money we might have got one. The zafira has been brilliant, I'll really miss it when it eventually dies

I miss mine!

Fantastic cars and very sadly underrated. I've used mine like it was a fancy SUV for the last decade and it's just only started complaining

Mine was a proper workhorse too! Super comfortable, would cruise all day on the motorway, coped surprisingly well with muddy flooded lanes, did 600+ miles on one tank. I really miss it!

I agree with you. It's annoying that more manufacturers don't do their best to squeeze more into the average car footprint, rather than building unrealistically large cars which are then a nightmare to park.

I say this as someone who had 3 or 4 zafiras while our family was young, because it was the only MPV on a normal wheel base.

I have to admit now my kids are adults I've succumbed to a slightly bigger SUV, but it's still only a very small version of it's genre.

I'm not disagreeing with the comments about parking spaces - the old ones are too small and it's annoying more or less whatever car you have.

But realistically that's not going to change, so car manufacturers should at least try. Not to mention that a lot of our roads are narrow and not ideal for wider cars, as opposed to the USA where everything is bigger.

I suggest that what is needed which limits vehicle size and weight

I used to have a Sharan and didn't have trouble parking it - more manoeuvring it around those pillars on the turns in underground lots! I did once get hemmed in when eight months pregnant - no way was I getting in the drivers side! Oddly I don't remember the length being an issue ever in terms of parking - and I live in London so have been to loads of parking lots.
But it's not selling of the cars, it's making the spaces a bit wider/linger and designing the car parks accordingly. I have a more normal sized car now and many spaces aren't wide enough if I need to open the doors on both sides so I tend to let passengers out and park drivers side to drivers side (this doesn't work if you have kids that need to be taken out by an adult of course).

@anon666 The uk isn't a big enough market to drive manufacturers to change their offerings. Realistically we need to flex to what is being made for the US/AUS/Canada

Isn't it more likely we're part of Europe than USA/AUS/Canada?

Europe has the same issues as us with shortage of space and smaller roads/parking.

@anon666 Sure but Germany/Lux/Aus/Swiss do infrastructure sensibly. The scandis all have decent parking in places that want people to park and good public transport where they don't. France has tiny car spaces but again that's not moving the needle for global manufacturers. It's ridiculous to think our lack of infrastructure would have any bearing on car design.

Isn't this giant sized family require giant sized car that is unlikely to fit in normal spaces ?

My guess is that this is a family sized at least 1 standard deviation above the mean.

What should we designed parking spaces around ? Families of 6 with 100 kg of dog ? Families of 10 ? Families of 30 and a pack of dogs in a large touring bus ?

It has to stop somewhere, because land is limited and costs money. Unless you either want to have 6 parking spaces per supermarket and end up waiting 4 hours for a space or concrete over the entire country.

If you want a large abnormally sized family and need a large abnormally sized car to truck them around in then yes, there is a price to be paid for that. And in my opinion that price should be paid by the people who want that, not the people that don't.

We really, really don't want to follow the US's lead on vehicle design. The best seller over there is the Ford F-150, the smallest version of which is 5.3m long and 2.1m wide with the mirrors folded. But that's only got single row seating so most people buy the longer versions. The next biggest seller is the Chevy Silverado, which is even bigger.

I agree. US/AUS/CANADA are huge countries. We are tiny in comparison. They drive much longer distances than we would consider practical. We don’t need US style vehicles here.

My DP wants to buy a Ford pickup truck from America. I am trying to talk him out of it but he is insistent.

@GasPanic What price exactly is there to pay and how do you pay it without inconveniencing other people and still getting your family from a to b. Needing to move 6 six people isn't all that rare. All it takes is a family of four with two older relatives that can no longer drive. Or do we just exclude them?