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Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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We have neither hot sun nor snow, and could put one of the 3 cars in the garage but why bother? It's easier to come and go quickly from the driveway, and ours will hold 4 cars. The other side of the garage is full of things like table saw, chipper, tiller, and riding mower, none of which is made to be left outside. A car is weatherproof. I don't see any of the neighbors parking in the garage either, and I would never live in a place where either the city or an HOA required cars to be garaged.
My folks have a two car garage. On one side sits my dad's '71 VW convertible (that he's had since '73). On the other sits his GoldWing, though before he was old enough for a GW, it was just general storage.
My folks have always had 2-3 other vehicles, none of which are ever garaged.
I have always garaged my vehicles whenever i had access to one.
$30k truck in the driveway and $45k worth of tools and vehicles in the garage. I'm not sure I'd want to live where people store that kind of stuff in the yard. I don't care if it's eXMark and Stihl, it's still going to look like Sanford & Son, or get stolen.
And to some people a car is nothing more than a means to travel. Cost is irrelevant since it is ultimately a disposable commodity. Or their cars just don't fit in the garage. I had a 7' door at my old house and my truck wouldn't fit because of the length AND the height. I guess it's not always a matter of worthless junk.
Yeah that's it! My car is always parked outside unless there is a really bad storm. Cars are made to survive outside, but expensive tools and mowers and stuff are not. These always stay in the garage.
I really do not understand this phenomenon. I look up and down the streets of my neighborhood, or any suburban area for that matter, and I see this: cars parked in the driveways. Houses with 2 or 3 car garages, and the majority of cars are left out in the driveways.
We had some snow last night, I was out shoveling the driveway this morning and my neighbor was out there grumbling and cursing at how they had to clean the snow off of both of their cars. They have a 2 car garage, and their 2 cars get parked in the driveway. Same issue when there was a rash of break-ins a few years ago, they grumbled about their cars being broken into but they have a perfectly secure garage they could both get parked in.
Why would anyone leave both cars outside, especially with bad weather coming? I can't think of the last time one of my vehicles was left out for the night.
Comes from the packrat mentality of keeping everything over years. Even things they know they don't need. On top of that they're too cheap to rent storage from the many thousands of storage places scattered all over - 99% of the junk you throw in your garage doesn't get touched - EVER - so put it in storage!!! But they don't want to pay that fee.
Every time I have moved, I have gotten rid of things. I do so because I will never buy a house where I cannot park my car in the garage AND have direct access to the interior of the house.
Funny story:
I live in a somewhat upscale community. The neighboring HOA sent out a broadcast alerting homeowners of a rash of car thefts; apparently the most recent was a Civic that was parked outside and the thieves just broke the glass and took it. The HOA asked residents to park their car inside the garage or they'd start levying fines.
As of today, people are still parking outside, meanwhile the neighbors actually asked me if I owned a car or not and some of them question whether my house has anyone living in it or not - the way it should be.
I grew up in the North, where we had basements and garages. Therefore, we had the basements to store our stuff and that left the garages open for our cars. But here in Florida the homes do not have basements, so the garage becomes the storage area, workshop, and the place where we keep the cars that are special to us. That leaves our daily drivers to sit outside.
It is also a pain to park and unpark your car from the garage every time you come home or leave, especially with the small sized garages homes have now. Most times you are squeezing between the washer and dryer and the other car parked there, and things get a little tight.
I have a 2 car garage with 2 vehicles in it plus other stuff. My wife's 2004 CRV and my 92 4Runner are parked in it every day and night. Both vehicles paint looks like it did when they were bought new. I always get compliments on the 4Runner and my wife gets the same on her CRV. I cannot imagine having so much junk that you cannot park your vehicle in the garage but I know people who do.
My subdivision of about 1200 home are all 2 car garage. I would approximate that about half of the garages are used to store junk. And I mean junk. 450 SF of junk. And some have junk stored above the garage in what we call our 'attic' space. Some even have 8x10 'storage' sheds for the junk that won't fit in the garage.
Basements... We have large basements here, plenty of room to store a lot of junk, have a workshop, and still have a man-cave. Definitely lots of hoarders and pack rats.
I have to say I was amazed as well this morning when I pulled into the parking garage at work. There are some high dollar cars that were still covered in snow. How can you spend close to $100k on a Tesla and leave it outside?!
As far as HOAs go, ours only requires that you do not park in the street to avoid congestion. You also cannot park commercial vehicles in your driveway or street, but that is just mirroring a city requirement. While on one hand it would be nice to have some nicer looking driveways without several cars in them all, I would not want to live in a neighborhood with such an overbearing HOA.
I guess I just don't understand it. Even if I wasn't keeping it out of the snow, I would still park inside. My car is over 10 years old and looks brand new. People are always amazed at how it looks and think I go out of my way to keep it nice. I wash it, wax it, and keep it in the garage out of the elements. Not rocket science.
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My car is always parked outside unless there is a really bad storm. Cars are made to survive outside, but expensive tools and mowers and stuff are not. These always stay in the garage.
