Pros and Cons of Parking in Your Garage

[Captain Ice]

Another pro - In the middle of summer, the garage keeps the interior of your car about 30 degrees cooler during the day. Besides being more pleasant to get into on a summer day, it also helps to protect the dash of the car from cracking due to heat.

 

[Kestra]

I've never understood someone owning a garage and not keeping their car in it. Surely the car is worth protecting far more than anything else you'd keep in the garage?

 

[Pingfah]

Well if you don't have a lot of storage space, the garage can be invaluable for keeping the house free of clutter.

I only keep a motorbike in my garage, but there'd be no room for a car if I had one.

 

[J.T.B.]

What is this "garage" of which you all speak?

Also known to Francophobes as a "car-hole."

I've never understood someone owning a garage and not keeping their car in it.

Me neither. Garages are for cars and sheds are for stuff. If your stuff has displaced your car from the garage you need to get more storage or get rid of some stuff.

 

[Pingfah]

Gosh yes, I should just get a bigger house or throw away all my things. Why didn't I think of that, it's so simple.

I'll just go prune my money tree and get right on that.

 

[J.T.B.]

Gosh yes, I should just get a bigger house or throw away all my things. Why didn't I think of that, it's so simple.

I'll just go prune my money tree and get right on that.

If the value of the stuff in the garage exceeds the value of the car, I suppose it would make sense for the stuff to displace the car. But for the majority of people, their car is their largest capital investment next to their home, and keeping it in the garage contributes significantly to the investment maintaining its value. Which is probably more beneficial to the "money tree" than housing the stuff. But I'm speaking generally, of course there will be exceptions.

 

[farmkid]

Gosh yes, I should just get a bigger house or throw away all my things. Why didn't I think of that, it's so simple.

I'll just go prune my money tree and get right on that.

If the value of the stuff in the garage exceeds the value of the car, I suppose it would make sense for the stuff to displace the car. But for the majority of people, their car is their largest capital investment next to their home, and keeping it in the garage contributes significantly to the investment maintaining its value. Which is probably more beneficial to the "money tree" than housing the stuff. But I'm speaking generally, of course there will be exceptions.

Your comparison isn't quite as simple as that. If you want to look at monetary value, you should be comparing the difference in value of the car stored in the garage vs. outside, and the same for the stuff (stored inside vs. outside). But there's much more to it than that. The stuff in likely have more value than just a dollar value. For example, many people I know use their garage as a workshop. They could park in the garage and lose their shop, but then they couldn't do certain activities. In those cases, the space is worth much more as a shop than as a place to store a car.

Also, a car typically isn't an investment. It's not bought as a place to store money with the expectation it will at the very least maintain value if not grow. It is transportation, not an investment. If you buy a car as an investment then you certainly should store it in the garage, but if it's for transportation, then the monetary consideration should center around differences in maintenance costs and possibly the difference in resale value, assuming you're someone who doesn't drive it till the wheels fall off. That value is certainly less than the value of the car, and in fact is probably no more than a few hundred dollars, considering that most of the damage from being outside will happen during the day when the sun is up and much of that time the car will usually be parked in the parking lot at work.

In short, the monetary argument will be a minor consideration in most cases, compared to convenience, other uses of the space, local ordinances, personal preference, etc.

 

[J.T.B.]

Also, a car typically isn't an investment. It's not bought as a place to store money with the expectation it will at the very least maintain value if not grow. It is transportation, not an investment. If you buy a car as an investment then you certainly should store it in the garage, but if it's for transportation, then the monetary consideration should center around differences in maintenance costs and possibly the difference in resale value, assuming you're someone who doesn't drive it till the wheels fall off. That value is certainly less than the value of the car, and in fact is probably no more than a few hundred dollars, considering that most of the damage from being outside will happen during the day when the sun is up and much of that time the car will usually be parked in the parking lot at work.

I meant "investment" in the sense that a person puts their money into the vehicle to get the value returned as transportation, not for a monetary gain. But the differences in maintenance and resale costs are only part of the calculation. Security is also a major consideration. Car thefts from private garages are less than 1% of the total according to some statistics. A stolen car not only has its own monetary value but can significantly impact a person's employment and day to day life. Car burglaries can also be quite disruptive and expensive once deductibles are met.

In short, the monetary argument will be a minor consideration in most cases, compared to convenience, other uses of the space, local ordinances, personal preference, etc.

Agreed, as I said there are exceptions. What I'm saying is it makes more sense for most people who have garages to use them to house their vehicles.

 

[Pingfah]

This isn't really what I meant, but I'm glad you two are enjoying yourselves

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Garages are for cars and sheds are for stuff. If your stuff has displaced your car from the garage you need to get more storage or get rid of some stuff.

I agree with the basic thrust of the gist. The first sentence, anyway.

 

[shivkala]

The house I lived in a few years ago got hit by lightning damaging the garage door opener (and other things not relevant to this thread). For some reason, we never replaced it and kept our cars on the street. Over the years we did this my ex-wife got her ipod and a few other things stolen from it. My car (which was locked, because, I, unlike the ex-wife, always lock the car when it's not in a garage, more on that in a moment) got its plate stolen. Apparently, car thieves will steal the plate off of a car with the same make and color to avoid being caught as quickly. Of course, once we found out, we filed a police report, but we never heard anything after that.

As for locking the car doors, that's something I don't do in the garage, which I guess makes it harder to lock your keys in your car. Not the strongest reason to keep it in the garage, sure, but it's another pro.

 

[Kestra]

Gosh yes, I should just get a bigger house or throw away all my things. Why didn't I think of that, it's so simple.

I'll just go prune my money tree and get right on that.

I don't think it's as simple as that but I do think in most cases it's reasonable to limit yourself to possessions that fit within your house. It gets a little dicey with seasonal stuff that can't stay outside the whole year. Or if someone had to downsize suddenly, that sort of thing. But I'm a bit brutal with myself when it comes to clutter.

 

[auntiehill]

Me, too. I make runs to Goodwill a few times a year. I have my mementos and keepsakes and such, but there has to be a limit. No room for it? Out it goes. The garage is for the cars and the lawnmower, not junk.

 

[B.J.]

It would be nice to have a garage. My house doesn't even have a carport.

 

[Bisz]

It would be nice to have a garage. My house doesn't even have a carport.

Never fear, where there is a will, there is a way.

How wide is your living room window?

 

[B.J.]

It would be nice to have a garage. My house doesn't even have a carport.

Never fear, where there is a will, there is a way.

How wide is your living room window?

That'd be a neat trick, considering the living room is on the back of my house.

I suppose we'll just need a good running start.....

 

[Pingfah]

Gosh yes, I should just get a bigger house or throw away all my things. Why didn't I think of that, it's so simple.

I'll just go prune my money tree and get right on that.

I don't think it's as simple as that but I do think in most cases it's reasonable to limit yourself to possessions that fit within your house. It gets a little dicey with seasonal stuff that can't stay outside the whole year. Or if someone had to downsize suddenly, that sort of thing. But I'm a bit brutal with myself when it comes to clutter.

I think many Americans are generally quite spoiled for space though. I don't know anybody with a driveway, there isn't a driveway to be seen for miles around in fact, and I am the only person I know with a garage, and I rent it off the guy upstairs because it didn't come with my flat

Space is at such a premium here it is crazy, my flat is one of the smallest and cheapest in town, and is still worth 5 times my reasonably generous salary, so it's not like I can just get a bigger house either. If I did have a car, you can bet your ass it would be on the road, along with everybody else's

 

[Kestra]

I agree that we generally have more space but I'm not just thinking from an American perspective. My dad's three brothers and their families all share one house in a large city in India. I just think there's something to be said for keeping your amount of possessions down, and a natural way to limit that is by what fits in your house.

Everyone doesn't have to live this way of course, and I certainly have far more things than I need. But I do think the average person could make do with just the space in their home. It takes some adjustment, but it's probably easier than people realize. You can fit a lot even into a studio apartment.

 

[B.J.]

Gosh yes, I should just get a bigger house or throw away all my things. Why didn't I think of that, it's so simple.

I'll just go prune my money tree and get right on that.

I don't think it's as simple as that but I do think in most cases it's reasonable to limit yourself to possessions that fit within your house. It gets a little dicey with seasonal stuff that can't stay outside the whole year. Or if someone had to downsize suddenly, that sort of thing. But I'm a bit brutal with myself when it comes to clutter.

I think many Americans are generally quite spoiled for space though. I don't know anybody with a driveway, there isn't a driveway to be seen for miles around in fact, and I am the only person I know with a garage, and I rent it off the guy upstairs because it didn't come with my flat

Space is at such a premium here it is crazy, my flat is one of the smallest and cheapest in town, and is still worth 5 times my reasonably generous salary, so it's not like I can just get a bigger house either. If I did have a car, you can bet your ass it would be on the road, along with everybody else's

I think that's also a side effect of your country having a decent public transportation system. If everyone here parked their cars on the street, likely in most US cities and suburbs there wouldn't be enough space for all of them.

 

[auntiehill]

Very true. I live in a very large suburban area outside Houston, the fourth largest city in the country. Public transportation? Well....there's one bus stop, about 10 miles away, that will take you into Houston if you get there before 10. That's it. You have to drive every where you want to go. Most of the roads don't even sidewalks and we don't have any bicycle lanes. You have to have a car. Most families here have two, so every house has a driveway and a garage or carport.