Trucks And SUVs Are Getting Too Big For Home Garages And Public Parking Spaces

The trend of larger vehicles appears to be reaching a breaking point as more and more owners of the latest SUVs and pickup trucks have difficulties on fitting them in their home garages and public parking spaces.

Popular models like Ford’s Expedition and F-150 pickup truck, the Chevrolet Suburban or the Ram trucks have grown in size significantly through the years, testing physical limitations along the way USA Today reports.

For example, Kristen Trevino couldn’t fit her 2016 Ford F-150 into the garage of her new home in Dallas but that didn’t stop her from getting the newer 2019 model, which unsurprisingly also doesn’t fit. “It’s too tall. It’s too long,” she said, keeping her F-150 parked in the driveway.

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Home garages vary in size, with newly constructed ones offering a choice between different dimensions: 18 feet wide and 20 feet (5.5m x 6.1m) deep; 20 feet by 20 feet (6.1m x 6.1m), 22 feet by 22 feet (6.7m x 6.7m) and 20 feet by 22 feet (6.1m x 6.7m), according to garage builder Danley’s. Older garages however are smaller, as they were built in an era of smaller vehicles.

Tesla Cybertruck Too Big For Its Own Good?

While it’s okay for some to park their new pickup truck outside, leaving it exposed to the elements as well as potential damage from vandalism or theft, the same doesn’t apply to people interested in electric vehicles, like the upcoming Tesla Cybertruck.

Jim Griffin is one of the hundreds of thousands of people that placed a refundable $100 deposit for the Cybertruck, but since then, he’s not so sure that he’ll follow through with the purchase, mostly because of the model’s immense size.

“Nowadays, there’s people buying Dodge Rams, Ford pickups that don’t fit, and they’ll park them outside,” Griffin said. “The difference here is this is an electric vehicle and … you need to plug it in. I’m not gonna spend $50,000, $60,000, $70,000, $80,000 on a vehicle and then have to run an extension cord outside the garage or an outside outlet.”

Musk is aware of the worries on the Cybertruck’s size, saying on Twitter that Tesla is weighing some adjustments. “We can prob reduce width by an inch & maybe reduce length by 6+ inches without losing on utility or esthetics,” the Tesla boss said.

Parking Lots Charging Oversize Fees

Public parking spaces are also having trouble in hosting the latest and bigger-than-ever vehicles. Some lots have started charging oversize fees for large SUVs and trucks. SP Plus, a parking and transportation provider is one of them, but they may need to consider going further if vehicles continue their growth spurt.

“We would have to look at what our rates are and what we charge for those vehicles,” Jeff Eckerling, chief growth officer of SP Plus said. “If you’re at a surface lot, we could (say) that if you’re parking and your vehicle goes over two spaces, we could charge you for two spaces.”