My garage isn't that big, but it's sufficient. The biggest problem that I have with it is that it has a center support post right in the middle. I park the GS on the right hand side. If I pull it in straight forward, the post prevents me from being able to open the driver's door and get out, so I have to back it in. The Highlander goes on the left. It can be pulled in forward, but then the front passenger door cannot be opened, so if anyone is going to get in that seat, we have to pull it out of the garage first. Major pain. I got some quotes to have it removed but we're looking at over $20k.

Because it's a two car garage, I have to keep my Tundra outside. I pull it in on occasion to work on it, but I cannot pull it all of the way in. I would have to remove my workbench and shelves at the head of the garage if I wanted to pull it all of the way in and shut the door behind it. If we ever move, a 3 car garage is very high on the "must haves" list.

I built an 8' x 14' shed in the back yard for the lawn equipment and extra storage, so that has saved me by keeping that stuff out of the garage.

 

Ugh, center posts are the worst. We passed on a house just because of the center post

 

The people before us reneged at the last minute because their van wouldn't fit in the garage..

But then they decided they did want the house, but by then we already had a contract and we got it. :0). Snooze you lose. I wish I could fit both in but it's a shortcoming I'll live with, and back then both cars did fit. But I was always aware the garage is too small.

 

My parents built their own custom home in the 1980s. They made it anyway they wanted. It was in the country. I remember their garage was huge, had three individual windows inside, a door that led to stairs that descended into the garage. I remember it was really wide and really long. You could fit some very large vehicles inside the roof was two stories high. Somehow, they forgot to design in a "man" door so you could enter without using the garage doors.

I wonder if there is a municipal garage code now that stops owners from doing whatever they wanted to

 

No they can still do whatever they want to do, its just most houses are built in subdivisions and buyers have very little control over what is done to them outside of selecting from a few models and a few options. Very few people truly build custom homes. Even a tear down, "custom" home is really just semi-custom.

I have a client who is building a home right now and his 2 car is 20x20 and they are building a separate one car that is 10x20, thats all the builder will build. Thats a ground up new home and not a tract home

 

I think it was easier to build a custom home back them. Probably a PITA today.




so my friend here in Canada had enough. He sold his county home. Sold everything he had. And moved with his wife to Costa Rica. He now has a home near the ocean, with a pool. No furnace thus no gas needed to heat. No air conditioning either. He had to build a concrete safe room for safety

he just got a new truck. This is his new Frontier. 2.5l turbo diesel. 2450 pay load capacity. He wanted a Toyota Hilux but the cost was way too high as Toyota charged a BIG premium. This is world spec Frontier and not the US spec.

 

Well for the first time in nearly 25 years of driving my wife hit something. In all that time she's never been at fault in any accident, never gotten a speeding ticket, the only thing shes done is curbed a wheel here or there. She was pulling into a parking space and somehow swung wide and hit the back left corner of a Tahoe in the space to the right. As you can see, she was WAY off since the impact was nowhere near the corner. Also ironic is the impact is right on one of the parking sensors which never went off. Bumper cover isn't deformed but it will have to be painted. Eventually. Maybe lol.

She was really upset, kids were with her and the Tahoe had a kid and a dog in it and the driver had gone into the store, so she couldn't just leave a note she had to wait until they came out. Luckily the woman was very nice. I told her, it happens to all of us.

Her car:




The Tahoe:

 

Ouch. Guess it's spreading, my wife also had her first screwup and it was in our driveway. In fairness she was up for 30 hours or so due to a long shift and not getting sleep....

She ended up clipping a car (1998 Delsol) that was dropped off behind my Jeep since it was short and she was too tired to check properly/didn't register it was there. Was barely much of a hit but cost me over $5500 somehow, stupid LS paint and parts I guess.

She is still mad at herself about it, it's rare to see her shaken up at all but it really bothered her to fail like that. I'll go grab a picture since I haven't taken any since I hate looking at it. The body shop is still busy so we might not get a slot this year so till then it's parked as we don't drive dented up cars here.




Nothing makes me want to get rid of a car faster.

 

Everyone makes mistakes. I've made a couple myself behind the wheel. She's no different from anyone else.


Don't let it sit too long at a stretch without starting up the engine and/or driving it. Engines and transmissions were made to be run....not be Garage-Queens. Let them sit still too long, and you can get a number of different problems from lack of oil-lubrication and coolant-circulation....plus the battery going dead from weeks of parasite-current-discharge.

 

Oh I know, the Jeep sometimes sits for 2 months at a time and same with the Audi/460 (a week or two max for the LS, Audi sits all winter) depending on what I'm driving.

I have 4 battery tenders and the outside one is feeding the 430 right now. If I let something sit for more than a month I usually hand turn the engine a few times before starting if I'm concerned about seals. I keep fluids new enough and most stuff that I leave sit is inside so it never gets too cold (40 ish at the lowest) with the exception of the Jeep but it just doesn't seem to care about sitting a long time.

It's a chore at times to drive everything regularly and cycle all systems to ensure it all works!

 

Ouch! Yeah sad but true, a small hit like that can total an old LS…

Yeah my wife still is pretty upset about it. It’s like I told her, as careful as I am with cars I’ve screwed up several times in my life too, it happens to all of us. Only mistake she made was not getting the woman’s contact information, I would have called her and tried to take care of it outside of insurance. 25 years of driving and we’ve never had a collision claim and my deductible is $1,000 anyways. She was texting with me but didn’t get my text about that until after the woman had already driven off. it’ll be fine.

She keeps saying “I just don’t know how I did that”. Just lost focus for a split seconds with the kids probably carrying on about something and it was the wrong split second.

 

Yeah it does suck, I have made the joke so many times that a finder tap would kill my LSs since they have insane MSRPs and aren't worth much now. This came close to taking the car out since the place I am taking it actually fixes stuff correctly and that costs a good bit of money, you get what you pay for and all that........I'm still ahead insurance wise by not claiming this and keeping the payments as low as possible. I don't know, I am trying to be cool about it but I just don't look at a car the same way after it gets hit.

I did however lose all my margin I had in the car so now if I get rid of it I would only break even vs making some money, it is what it is I guess and I may just get rid of it anyway and replace it with the 460 and use this as an excuse to move up into an S8. There is actually one in state that appears to be a full stage 2 car so I would not need to buy hardware if I got it, plus I may be able to scare the dealer a little by seeming put off by modifications lol! There is also a D4 W12 in St Louis in my favorite colors/spec but I am not sure if it has enough power to at least tie my current car since I have never driven a W12 version, part of me wants to go with the W12 with a retune for 600hp but that would be a lateral move in a lot of ways.

Makes total sense that kids and chaos plus stress can do that, at least your hit was not into metal like ours was lol! Hopefully you can resolve that outside of insurance since they really hate paying out anything regardless of how long or good of a customer you have been. Be sure to update us once it's fixed up and keep the W222 safe!

 

Yeah I’m the same way, but that’s pretty minor. Honestly the hit on the trunk of the LS460L is why I didn’t keep it. A bumper or something is one thing, but but metal is different. I was out test driving cars while it was being repaired lol

It helps that I couldn’t possibly care less about the Pacifica lol

I don’t think the Mercedes would let that happen, I think it would slam on the brakes. Actually, The Pacifica should have too.

 

Funny we work the same way in that regard lol! You can't really see it in the pictures but the fender is trashed and it needs a full replacement, that's also the reason I'm very temped to get rid of it.

 

Oh I can see it!