[anshuman_b]

A slightly off topic question.
What can be minimum acceptable dimension of parking space?
Considering this can fit a proper 5 seater car/suv.

[Chetan_Rao]

Previous rented apartment had no car parking space. I refused to park on the street, so rented a suitably sized slot in another building a 5 minute walk away. Most slots next door wouldn't fit a sedan if it was alive and could suck in its extremities like it was in a crowded elevator.

When my parking landlady sold her apartment and I couldn't find another spot, I actually sold my car. Won't park in the street, no siree, esp. not next to a school full of kids who played 'let's throw pebbles at the taillamps' in their lunch break. That phase coincided with a little 'let's go carless' brainwave, so we managed for a bit, as it was a good place otherwise.

When we moved to our current home, I checked the parking spot before I even looked at the apartment. The former was non-negotiable. I also got lucky as my parking spot is right beneath where my block's living room balconies are, so my covered spot is a few feet longer than the two either side of mine .

I'm a compact car person and drive a hatchback, but it's very heartening to be able to open the doors out wide on either side without risking a ding.

[adisan]

On further thought, after buying a car, I found the below also to be influenced by the availability of parking amenities.

Time of journey: My office used to be in an old building, where less than 10 cars could be parked inside the compound. Other had to park outside at their risk. To park inside, I had to start early from home.

Place of stay on trips: One of the major points influencing the choice of the stay is the parking facility and the approach road to the property. This becomes more pronounced when visiting old towns or pilgrimage centers. One learning over time has been that even basement parking might not be safe, in case it rains heavily.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by ashis89

One of the major reasons for vacating my previous rented flat was it's parking slot.

+1

Kind of one of the multiple reasons for my plans to vacate my current flat. I live in an apartment complex with multiple blocks and each block has this one parking slot similar to mine where only a small hatchback can fit in due to the turning radius.



For the first 4 months, I used to pay extra for another parking slot to park my car, while my slot remained mostly empty (other than the bike parked). Then I realized the parking slot next to mine also remained empty most of the time with only an Activa parked at times. Walked up to the flat tenant and had a chat with him asking if I parked my car in the above displayed spot, would it be a constraint to him, as my car rear would partially block his slot entrance (about ~20%). He had no plans of getting a car so he was pretty much fine with it.


My mostly unused parking slot with only my INT650 getting a grand space for parking

But that was always a temporary solution so I knew the writing was on the wall.

[Small Bot]

I have a similar situation in my house's parking and passage to the gate. If I get a car even a few cms longer than 4 metres, it will stick out of the covered slot and would be susceptible to rain, bird droppings on one side and scraping by neighbouring cars on the other side.
So I have no choice but to stick with a hatchback for now, because I don't want to change my house just to buy a longer car, lol.

[Arun_S]

Originally Posted by poloman

If you are buying a new apartment, beware of shrewd early movers who gobble up all the prime parking spots in collusion with the builder and his chamchas.

Its a pretty valid point. In my own flat, my neighbour even though has the smallest house in the building got the best parking lot.
Worst part when he gobbled up the slot, he didn't have a car.

[RunGaDa]

I recollected a humorous story related to parking in tight spots. Here it is.

Colloquially Right

It’s so funny to observe the changes and twists that come along with change of region. The changes in language and substituting English words for something totally unrelated is one big puzzle how it got stamped colloquially.

An old time friend relocated to Hyderabad and got a good sense of this on day-one. He got a tight parking spot at his apartment and the local security guard help him reverse his car to park.

As he started reversing he just checked the guard’s hand gesture to keep going. Then the guard stops his hand gestures and calls out “RIGHT”

My friend (poor guy) turned right and his tail light broke when the car hit the side of the wall.

Sahab aap stop karna tha, Maine bola bhi, lekin aap steering ghumaye.

Right = STOP :-)

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by anshuman_b

A slightly off topic question.
What can be minimum acceptable dimension of parking space?
Considering this can fit a proper 5 seater car/suv.

XUV700/Octavia/Nexon/Jazz are all 5-seaters but would have varying space requirements to park.

If you are deciding on a permanent residence, then think of the biggest car that you are likely to buy, add atleast 2 feet space on three sides of the car and that should be the ideal parking space.

In most of the apartments, the approach/turn into the parking spot is more of a pain than the size of the parking spot itself.

[sandeepsc]

Having well proportionate size parking space is deciding factor while purchasing a new flat in any apartment here in Mumbai. My current society has six buildings of seven floor with four flats on each floor. But due incorrect building design there is no parking space for each flat owner. Also inadequate parking size and oddly placed columns we cannot move our cars freely from backside to front side gate. I have to drive my Hexa from back gate to enter and reverse in similar direction to exit. The worse thing is that BMC has taken road work in our area and dugged up the road outside our back gate due to which i am unable to take out the car for last three weeks as I can’t drive the car to front main gate. So I have to face this problem for next few years as I have no immediate plans to shift from there due to fund shortage.

[harry10]

Nice read.

Folks living in NCR knows the value of space. Especially the ones in delhi. We live in an independent house and our parking space can accomodate 4 cars at a time. So, no issues there. However my office is in Karolbagh and there parking space is a huge issue. When we were changing our Honda City we had booked Creta first as we were always fond of it. But, after quite some deliberation I couldn't make the parking space work out for Creta at my office area. Hence, we changed the booking to Sonet which is still manageable to an extent. As life will move on I can see parking space becoming more premium and quite a big hassle. It won't matter if you can buy a Fortuner, what will matter is do you have the space to park it.

[ValarMorghulis]

Well, all this talk of parking space makes me wary.
We have one parking space in our society, which is good enough for an Innova too.

However, if you want a second parking space, it used to cost 2.75-3lakh at the time of buying the apartment in 2019. Now the same costs a whopping Rs.4-4.5 lakh if you buy from the builder!

It is cheaper to rent out a parking space from fellow owners @ Rs.2.5k per month, as of now. Who knows what'll be the cost in future.

[krishsreedharan]

In a very back-handed manner, lack of parking at my office is what got me my Z900. There is absolutely no way my Endeavour could be parked anywhere within 1/2 km from my office - so narrow are the roads and absolutely no space between gates. But yes, for all of us BHP'ians, when we buy a house/office, parking availability is the first priority.

[hagarthenormal]

Originally Posted by locusjag

Most of today's newly built homes will allow only sub 4m cars to be parked!

A lot of this must be obvious to most of us - but this hadn't really struck me until now. Real estate dictates our automotive choices, and how!

What coincidence! I just posted this (Tata Altroz DCT Automatic, now launched at Rs. 8.09 lakh) and stumbled upon your post, right after!!

It'd be quite nice to have a new 3-series or may be even a used 530d at home, but I hadn't plan for a proper garage when I built my house about 18yrs back. There's enough space to construct a garage even today, but it would clearly stick out like a sore thumb and spoil the whole look of the house. So, I have to settle for a lesser car, so to say.

The bottomline is this - my BIL is comfortably placed in life only because of his no-nonsense approach to life and his finances.

I tip my hat to Clint BIL Eastwood! Simplicity can't be argued with.

[yaleen]

Similar parking issues for me in my Bangalore apartments. I own 2 apartments in same building with 1 parking spot each. Both the spots have narrow parking, one of them having big pillars on both sides. I park my Baleno there, and most of the times end up scraping drivers side door on the pillars when getting in/out of the car if I am not careful.

I am looking to upgrade from my Baleno which leads me to think how the new car would fit. If I get a longer car and wider car, then the doors will absolutely line up against the pillar leaving even smaller space.

In the other space on a different basement level, I park my Grand i10 which has just enough space for all occupants to get out safely. However this is normally parked between Skoda Kodiak and a Creta which doesn't allow much room in case I go bigger and wider.

I am trying to exchange my spot with some other resident to see if I can get a wider spot. However, right now cannot upgrade until I get the test drive vehicle home and try and see how the parking fits.

Our building has a lot of apartments which were given to the Landowners, which are on rent. For some reason, these guys have got most of the best spots. I had one of the earliest booking in the apartment, so an early choice for a parking slot, but still didn't have a lot of good choices as they were already given to the land owners.

[NitSat]

Reading this quite interesting thread makes me think , how lucky I’m with the parking slot I got .

Ours is an apartment complex with two levels of parking, for a total of 550 flats - but the builder has provided such great parking facilities. Each of the three bhk owners got two parking slots .
Mine is even better that, both slots are adjacent to each other, with no pillars in between.



The icing on the top is that, the parking lot is next to the lift doors . It’s wide enough to accommodate three hatchbacks, or two big size SUVs.
In a city where a single (covered) parking lot gets sold for 7.5 to ten Lakhs , I think the Gods must have smiled on me , at the time of parking allotment.

As the wise BHPian said - when buying a house, think of twenty years in future. The income will increase, but not the size of the house ( in this discussion- size of the parking lot) .
Cheers.