On reflection, I think it's worth extracting this footnote from my post on the Jaguar thread, as it's a perennial item:
"Footnote: of the seven 300 SEs I saw, the 370k car was one of the youngest but had the most corroded bodywork by far -- it had always been kept in a garage."
I my recent search for a good MB 300 SE, I inspected and drove seven of them, ranging in age from E to J and in mileage from 54k to 370k. The 370k car drove superbly, having been serviced properly throughout its life, but in spite of being a G reg it had corrosion breaking out on most of the panels. The owner (a retired professional chauffeur) made a point of telling me that it had always been kept in a garage.
I've always been interested in discussions about where it's best to keep a car. This bit of evidence has pretty much convinced me that a garage is not necessarily a good thing. I guess the key factors are that both car and garage must be bone dry, which is what enabled my Capri to stay unblemished for the 13 years it was incarcerated.
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i have the central heating boiler in my garage,,,,,lovely and warm
and in the winter the car warms up so quick.....so less time on choke...
less fuel etc etc
but i have to admin,,,if its been raining on my car...i leave it outside because i dont want the condensation to eat into the car,id rather it dried naturally
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www.storme.co.uk
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i have the central heating boiler in my garage,,,,,lovely and warm
My garage has cavity insulated plastered walls c/w skirting boards, 6" of ceiling insulation, double glazed window and a radiator. I even fitted fibreglass insulation to the door until I found that it made the electric door opener struggle a bit! Add to that a dehumidifier when I put the car away wet and my car really gets pampered.
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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I never put the car in the garage, its too much like hard work fiddling around.
Its a long time since I've had an older car, but the Landcruiser has been outside for 2 or 3 years now and doesn't seem to be showing any ill effects.
Cars are built to be outside, so I can't really see the problem. Standing around is what cars are not made for, be that in or out of a garage. So I would have thought that a regularly used car is healthier outside whereas a rarely used car is safer in.
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the Landcruiser has been outside for 2 or 3 years now and doesn't seem to be showing any ill effects.
How can you see for the dirt? Or is that what's holding it together ;o)
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That's what puddles are for, to clean the mud off. Actually if you remember the electric aerial incident you will no doubt also remember that it has been washed.
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www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=14...3
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So thats why you gave up smoking...to avoid getting distracted at vital moments!
Ian
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>>So thats why you gave up smoking...
Around 8 months now. That would be around 12,000 cigarettes I haven't smoked.
Car smells better, but I still miss the cigarettes. A lot.
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Hmm, I know that smell....my father gave up smoking ciggies in the car after a car change a long time ago. Made long drives as a familiy a lot more pleasant. mind you none of us kids has ever been tempted!
well done, dont give in now!
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you will no doubt also remember that it has been washed.
Yes, but that was nearly 2 yrs ago. I do hope you wash yourself more regularly.
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Mine lives in a garage with dehumidifier but having spent near 20K on the 7 I'd expect it to....
The Alfa lives outside.
Jim
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We usually have several cars in the household at any given time but only 1 garage. The car that gets put in the garage is usually SWMBO's, mine normally have to fend for themselves on the drive or road.
Ironically, the car that rusted the most while we had it was SWMBO's Punto. None of the panels actually corroded but there was always a build up of white'ish powdery substance (oxcides?) on the surfaces of the engine and other components. When we took it in for servicing, the mechanics used to comment on this.
As a result we now don't keep any of the cars in the garage - Landcruiser's too tall, the Omega's too long anyway and SWMBO's Yaris now keeps them company.
Like many other people, we now just store junk in our garage!
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I can only look on in envy at you lucky people with garages who are in the position to worry about the oxidation risk. Clearly you all live in safer neighbourhoods than I do!
I owned an MX5 for two years and always garaged it overnight. Then I moved to a new place in south London with no off-street parking, and the roof got knifed within two weeks. Result: I now drive a Fiesta :-(
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Good point about the security - police advice etc is that you should always put your car in the garage if you have one (garage that is), think around 60% of theft/damage to vehicles happens whilst they are parked outside the owners house
obviously though the police don't care too much about your car corroding that much - dehumidifier sounds a good idea for the garage, might have to get one - alternative is to put loads of "air bricks" in the walls so that the wind blows through !!!
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>Good point about the security - police advice etc<.
Insurance companies seem to like customers saying their car is garaged overnight too - presumably it reduces the risk?
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Garages are for motorbikes surely? Also work benches, pillar drills, lathes etc.
Anyway, assuming I could get the Range Rover in the garage I would have to climb out through the tailgate!
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\"Nothing less than 8 cylinders will do\"
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I got caught a treat when I moved house a few months ago, I decided after years of on-road parking only, with regular replacing of drivers door mirror at £90 a go I must have off-road parking and garage. Fond the perect house, with drive, albeit at approx 45 degree slope with garage. Bought house, moved in, THEN FOUND CAR WON'T FIT IN GARAGE. My car is Rover 45 so not exactly large, I was [and still am] gutted. Measured garage to find it's only 6'10 wide so car would go in, but can't open the doors.
I've since asked around and found this to be a common problem with many garages. Why do builders build garages that you can only fit a micro-car in when the average car is a Mondeo/Rover 45 type. It all seems a bit of a con to me to save a few bricks.
Moral of this tale is, before you buy a house with a garage,
GET YOUR TAPE MEASURE OUT.
P.S. mine's now full of junk.
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It's not to save bricks. It's the cost of land that is the issue. This is why new houses have tiny gardens.
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\"Nothing less than 8 cylinders will do\"
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From what I've seen the garages on most new houses are a complete joke. Even if you get the car in, you can't open the door properly.
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And also it doesn't help that modern cars are so much bigger than older ones. Saw a "Farina"(?) Austin Cambridge/Morris Oxford the other day and couldn't believe how tiny and narrow this "family car" was (well they seemed big to me in the '60s). No wonder my old Dad, who always used to garage his cars, took to leaving his car on the drive in later years - it was only a 309 - if he put it in the garage, he probably couldn't get out of it.
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True, but not the whole story - planning rules mean much higher housing densities have to be put in now if the houses are to get permission. This leads to developers maximising the house:land ratio and putting in the smallest gardens and garages they can get away with.
In fairness to the builders and planners, I notice my Mondeo estate is easily as big as my Mk2 Granada estate was. And that even the smallest cars are much wider than they used to be.
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<< Measured garage to find it's only6'10 wide so car would go in, but can't open the doors.
I must admit that many garages are too small, and I wouldn't even go to view a house unless I knew beforehand that the garage was big enough. But I've never come across a modern garage with an up-and-over door where the door was less than 7' wide ~ 7' wide doors seem to be in the majority. I prefer a minimum door width of 8'. On the majority of small/medium cars the width across the door mirrors is only a fraction under 7' and it's a pain trying to line the car up centrally with a 7' door.
The other thing you have to be careful with when buying a house is whether you can get a straight run into the garage. I've seen houses where you had to turn so sharply to get to the garage that it was impossible to get the car in line with the garage ~ you need a very wide garage (and door) to be able to enter the garage at an angle.
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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Insurance companies seem to like customers saying their car is garaged overnight too - presumably it reduces the risk?
And, generally, reduces the premium.
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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Narrowness is one reason why cars aren't garaged, but I'm amazed at how many older, bigger garages are still carless - filled instead with junk. I can never see the logic of leaving thousands-of-pounds-worth of cars outside with worthless gubbins within.
Mind you, SWMBO sees the logic, and it's been a constant battle over 30 years of marriage, which I win because the insurance company asks the question (we possibly get a few pounds off the premiums).
Also in winter, when you have a modern car that will start in a second, why spend forever getting the frost off the windows? Or, even worse, don't, and drive off trying to see through a small hole of glass.
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Just to add to my earlier thread, I spoke to my estate agent about cars not fitting in garages and was told a little inside infomation. Round here where I live anyway. If it says on the house particulars "garage", car will usually not fit in it. If it says "parking garage" it will. Crafty use of words if you ask me.
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Where I live despite the tropical humidity cars don't seem to rust significantly. I don't have a garage just a large terraced car-port and front area. Security is dealt with by 8 foot high solid steel gates with a built in door so that maid etc can get in and out, double-locked with walls around topped with razor wire and security lights, along with a notice outside that the occupant carries firearms. Seems to deter the would-be villains.......
I could have got a couple of pit-bulls but they need at least half a cow once a week......
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Just to add to my earlier thread, I spoke to my estate agent about cars not fitting in garages and was told a little inside infomation. Round here where I live anyway. If it says on the house particulars "garage", car will usually not fit in it. If it says "parking garage" it will. Crafty use of words if you ask me.
Never come across that one. But I have seen (in Yorkshire) the descriptions "bungalow" and "true bungalow". Sometimes "bungalow" can mean "chalet house" which in my book is not a bungalow.
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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