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Old 10-09-2020, 03:45 AM   #21
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Inversely, when buying a car, always drive it to where you would park it for your very first test drive.
Yes yes if at all possible.

Years ago my wife and I were looking to buy a full sized 4-door sedan. We really liked one model and the salesperson insisted we drive it home "to see what it looked in our garage". We found the car was too long to fit in the garage with all the other stuff we had, and ended up buying a different car.
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Old 10-09-2020, 06:30 AM   #22
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I spent all of about 25 minutes inside the home I just bought. No time for a 2nd look. The offer was accepted about 24 hours later.

Later I drove through the alley & noticed how cramped the cars were in the garage. I looked back at the listing to get the garage dimensions. My Volvo is 182.9 inches. I also noticed the HO Highlander fit in. The Highlander is longer than my car. So it "should" fit. It does explain why i see so many cars on the street. 2 cars don't fit in a 2 car garage

Literally no time to spend a lot of time horsing around with details
It could be worse. A friend bought a villa in our neighborhood in Florida remotely... based on pictures. After closing... on his first visit, he finally realized that what he thought was a 2-car garage was really only a one-car garage. At least we get to yank his chain about it every now and then.
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Old 10-09-2020, 06:34 AM   #23
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There is a lot to think about when you are trying to move to a new place. I can easily see that particular issue not being on the radar. Anyway, how about we help him solve his problem instead of just chastising him for having it?
And IIRC from the OP's prior thread, this was more than "get a new place" - this was move in to the existing place of their SO, changing both residence and relationship status, in a desirable location with rent control...so the "place" was non-negotiable in this move.
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Old 10-09-2020, 07:14 AM   #24
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There are cars you can park from outside the car. Check them out.
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Old 10-09-2020, 08:45 AM   #25
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Update:

Spoke to manager and there are no other spots available . Also spoke to the guy who owns the SUV and he was nice and also is aware it's a tight fit. Luckily his is an $$ new BMW so he's not looking to get it banged up .

I hear all the posters about investigating the space before I moved, but since I moved into SO's place there weren't many options!

I'm going to hang tight and see how it goes for the time being. Thanks for the door guard suggestion @rodi & for everyone else's thoughts as well!
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Old 10-09-2020, 09:50 AM   #26
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Hells bells...we bought our current (used) house from out-of-state, but walked through it twice first and paid to have it inspected, not just by the general house inspector, but by a roofer and a plumber. And we still got fooled, on various things that only became apparent after we moved in!

For example, the refrigerator doesn't have a freezer. Who buys a fridge with no freezer? There was an upright freezer in the garage, which the inspector said was working, because when plugged in, it started to hum. However, it never got really cold. I raised such a stink about this that the sellers actually bought a cheap chest freezer and left it in the living room. I had to pay someone to move it into the garage and get rid of the dysfunctional one.

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It could be worse. A friend bought a villa in our neighborhood in Florida remotely... based on pictures. After closing... on his first visit, he finally realized that what he thought was a 2-car garage was really only a one-car garage. At least we get to yank his chain about it every now and then.
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Old 10-09-2020, 01:37 PM   #27
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three steps I'd try before ever considering a different car:

Find the neighbor who owns the SUV and become their new best friend. Talk to them about your concerns (framed as "that one of us might ding the other")

Talk to building managers about another space assignment

Park in guest/other spots and consider the time walking worth the peace of mind
+1. Another option could be to rent a nearby parking spot from a "shared economy" site. There are several where people with unused parking spots rent them to others.
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Old 10-09-2020, 03:00 PM   #28
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Rent controled apartments in nice neighborhoods are golden. The OP can try to tough it out for a while but the solution would be to get another car or find another parking space to rent that fits the car. Personally I would opt for the latter.

He and his SO could split or their housing needs change. This apartment wouldn't be their forever home.
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Old 10-09-2020, 04:14 PM   #29
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My dad bought a new van for his small business. Upon entering the garage, it scraped on the open door. Cost a small fortune to raise the whole thing an inch and a half. Note to self: Trust but verify! YMMV
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Old 10-09-2020, 04:32 PM   #30
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Research and find a local paintless dent removal shop. Can fix most dents waaaay cheaper than a body shop.
Keep your research handy in case your parking neighbor needs it in the future.
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Old 10-09-2020, 10:47 PM   #31
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I saw a neighbor knock off their mirror while backing into their 2 car garage. The mirror didn't fold that way.

Myself I have to crawl over the passenger seat to get into my vehicle, as 2 in our garage take up all the space. My Van is wider than my old car by a bit.

When I park in the garage I line up the marker with a spot on the dash and drive in slowly, leaves about 4 inches between the vehicles.
Been doing it for over 5 years !!
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Old 10-10-2020, 05:58 AM   #32
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Myself I have to crawl over the passenger seat to get into my vehicle, as 2 in our garage take up all the space. When I park in the garage I line up the marker with a spot on the dash and drive in slowly, leaves about 4 inches between the vehicles. Been doing it for over 5 years !!
Have you checked out the cars that can park with the driver outside the vehicle? Just curious. I've seen a few being advertised lately.
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Old 10-10-2020, 06:12 AM   #33
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Have you checked out the cars that can park with the driver outside the vehicle? Just curious. I've seen a few being advertised lately.
Yeah but that only gets you in and out of the spot, doesn't do anything to prevent the ding from the door of the car next to yours which I think is the OPs main concern.

Since the building manager has said no other spots available, perhaps ask to be wait listed for the first one that opens up? But, hopefully, having spoken with your spot-neighbor, you've fended off any potential issues.
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Old 10-10-2020, 06:28 AM   #34
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Also, maybe pad the concrete pillar in case you scrape it.
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Old 10-10-2020, 09:24 AM   #35
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Yeah but that only gets you in and out of the spot, doesn't do anything to prevent the ding from the door of the car next to yours which I think is the OPs main concern.
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Myself I have to crawl over the passenger seat to get into my vehicle, as 2 in our garage take up all the space. Been doing it for over 5 years !!
No, the emphasis was on crawling over the passenger seat FOR OVER 5 YEARS. Not sure when externally parkable cars hit the market, but if I was crawling over a passenger seat every time I drove somewhere, I'd be looking into them seriously. On the surface, it seems to be a valid solution. Luckily, we are not faced with a narrow parking situation.
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Old 10-10-2020, 09:39 AM   #36
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As a special treat maybe get a Tesla Model X with falcon wing doors and self parking. Here's video of the X unloading passengers. There seems to be plenty of parking space, but the owner...

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Old 10-10-2020, 10:16 AM   #37
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As a special treat maybe get a Tesla Model X with falcon wing doors and self parking. Here's video of the X unloading passengers. There seems to be plenty of parking space, but the owner...
Oh sh...! That hurts!

Next video: someone lowers the classic Mustang onto the Mini.
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Old 10-10-2020, 10:41 AM   #38
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Also, maybe pad the concrete pillar in case you scrape it.
I have a 1-car garage that I park one of our cars during the winter months. I have a small piece of carpet scrap on the wall so I can open the door without scratching. OP: Carpet scrap is good because it takes up little room and does the job well.
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Old 10-10-2020, 10:56 AM   #39
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Have you checked out the cars that can park with the driver outside the vehicle? Just curious. I've seen a few being advertised lately.
I wanted a van, maybe in 10 years all vehicles will have autoparking included, but for now I'm just careful.

It's possible we will go to 1 vehicle, if DW decides to not get a new car as we rarely drive it anyways.

I did add a bumper strip to the van for about $15 vs dealer $150 version. It's been on 5 years now.
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Old 10-10-2020, 06:18 PM   #40
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Our first line of defense in the "scratch and dent" dilemma is to purchase older cars that "come" with the scratches and dents already. That way, it doesn't hurt so bad when we add our own parking damage. When we finally sell our cars (or junk them), one more or less ding doesn't change the value. YMMV
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