The car comparison tool allows users to compare the external dimensions and boot space of three models from different automobile makes. On average, a typical car is 175-190 inches in length, 65-75 inches in width, and 55-60 inches in height. Sedans generally have longer wheelbases and lengths for spacious interiors and smooth rides, while hatchbacks prioritize manoeuvrability with shorter lengths. SUVs and trucks feature taller heights and higher dimensions.
The car comparison displays up to three new cars with their photos, dimensions of length, width, and height. It also provides vehicle dimensions from 53 car manufacturers and 622 car models. Full-size cars have an average width of over 6 feet and a height of about 4.7 feet depending on the manufacturer. With their spacious interiors, full-size cars are ideal for those who are very tall and looking for a comfortable car.
Interior dimensions include headroom, legroom, and H-point, which measure the vertical space between the floor and the floor. Common interior floor heights are 38-40 centimeters (low-floor) and 90 centimeters (high-floor). The search tool lists new automobiles of any make sorted by their size according to dimensions of length, width, height, and boot capacity.
The average height of a car is 1.8 meters, averaging popular vehicle types across the Australian new car market. A sedan typically has five seats, allowing most sedans to comfortably seat four to five people inside.
📹 How to Judge the Width of your Car – Narrow spaces and staying in your lane
In this video I show you how to judge the width of your car to help you stay in your lane and deal with narrow spaces.
How high off the ground is the average car?
The average car in the U. S. is between five and six feet high, with compact cars being the starting range. SUVs and larger trucks are at the higher end of the spectrum. Most garages have good ground height, so getting the vehicle inside isn’t much of an issue. When driving a car with a higher overall frame, look for signs and consider the vehicle’s lifestyle. Popular city cars include the Volkswagen Up, Toyota Aygo, and Skoda Citigo e-IV.
Is 7 inch ground clearance good?
The text discusses the importance of ground clearance for various types of off-roading, including unpaved roads, soft-roading, unkempt trails, overlanding, light rock crawling, sand, snow, and shallow mud. For soft-roading, 6-8 inches of clearance is sufficient, while 8-10 inches provides better angles and clearance for small-to-midsize obstacles. For big rocks, mud, and big challenges, at least 10-inches of clearance is necessary.
ICON Vehicle Dynamics offers full system upgrades based on performance stages, such as the Stage 1 System for more ground clearance without breaking the bank or the Stage 8 packages for competitive off-roading builds. These options come with components perfectly tuned to work together with your vehicle model. For example, the Toyota Tacoma Stage 4 Suspension System offers front coilovers and rear shocks with remote reservoirs, an additional leaf spring, new UCAs, and up to 3. 5″ of lift over stock.
In summary, ground clearance is crucial for various types of off-roading, and upgrading your vehicle and driving skills can help you achieve the best possible performance.
How much car ground clearance?
Good ground clearance for cars in India depends on the type of car. Hatchbacks and sedans have a clearance above 165-170 mm, while SUVs have a clearance above 180 mm. The Mahindra Thar, Toyota Fortuner, and Kia Sonet have the highest ground clearance (226 mm, 220 mm, 211 mm), while the Renault Kwid, Tata Tiago NRG, and Maruti Suzuki S-Presso have the highest clearance (184 mm, 181 mm, and 180 mm).
How high should I sit in my car?
To ensure optimal visibility of the dashboard, adjust the seat height in a manner that allows five fingers to be placed between the head and the vehicle’s ceiling. It is recommended that the head restraints be positioned at a height just above the eyelids and as close to the head as possible (2-3 cm), as further distance has been demonstrated to increase the risk of whiplash. It is imperative that seatbelts be worn in a manner that ensures they are securely fastened around the waist, as this is a crucial safety measure that can potentially save lives.
What is the height of the Mercedes A Class sedan?
The dimensions of the Mercedes-Benz A Class Sedan Limousine are as follows: length, 1446 mm; height, 199 mm; wheelbase, 2790 mm; ground clearance, 170 mm; seating capacity, 5; boot space, 405 litres.
How much headroom do I need in my car?
Tall individuals should consider their torso or legs as longer than average when choosing a vehicle. A vehicle with at least 48 inches of legroom is ideal for long legs, and 38 inches for long torsos. Headroom and legroom specifications can be found through Google searches or using the Car Finder tool on AutoBlog. Short individuals can also consider using strategies to find the right vehicle based on their measurements.
What is the ground clearance of Mercedes sedan?
The Mercedes-Benz C-Class 2020-2022 has a 130 mm ground clearance, allowing it to handle various road conditions without scraping its underside. Its size is 4686 mm in length, 2020 mm in width, and 1409 mm in height, with a 2840 mm wheelbase. The Mercedes-Benz C200 Petrol review highlights the C-Class as the best luxury sedan for Delhi NCR. The car’s ground clearance ensures stability and safety in various road conditions.
How much headroom is enough?
Headroom for Mastering is the amount of space a mixing engineer leaves for a mastering engineer to process and alter an audio signal. It typically ranges from 3 to 6dB. Understanding headroom and its associated measurements is crucial for any engineer, as it helps create mixes and masters in the correct way. Although headroom may seem boring, it is essential for understanding dynamics, measurement types, and the medium a track is released on. Understanding headroom and its relation to dynamics is essential for creating mixes and masters effectively.
What are the inside dimensions of a Mercedes A-Class?
The vehicle has a ceiling height of 40 inches. The vehicle has a headroom of 40. 3/37. 2 inches, with a legroom of 41. 8/33 inches. The vehicle offers a shoulder room of 55 inches, with a width of 9 inches. The vehicle has a ground clearance of 1/54 inches, and a cargo capacity of 8. 6 cubic feet.
What is the average clearance of a sedan?
Ground clearance is the distance between a vehicle’s undercarriage and the road or trail beneath it. It is typically 4-6 inches for sedans, but 4x4s like Jeeps and Broncos have 6-8 inches and often offer additional upgrades for up to 10 inches. High ground clearance is preferred for off-roading activities and overlanding vehicles as it allows the vehicle to overcome obstacles like rocks, logs, and uneven surfaces without damaging the undercarriage.
This is especially important when navigating through rocky or forested trails. Ground clearance also impacts the vehicle’s approach, breakover, and departure angles, which are critical for off-road driving. The approach angle is the maximum slope or obstacle that a vehicle can climb without scraping the front bumper, the breakover angle is the maximum crest a vehicle can drive over without the chassis contacting the terrain, and the departure angle is the steepest gradient a vehicle can descend without the rear bumper contacting the ground. Higher ground clearance improves these angles, enhancing the vehicle’s off-road performance.
How high off the ground is a sedan?
Ride height, or ground clearance, is the space between the base of an automobile tire and the lowest point of the vehicle, typically the bottom exterior of the differential housing. It is a critical factor in several important characteristics of a vehicle, representing a trade-off between handling, ride quality, and practicality. A higher ride height and ground clearance allows the wheels more vertical room to travel and absorb road shocks, making the car more capable of being driven on non-level roads without scraping against surface obstacles and potentially damaging the chassis and underbody. Ground clearance is usually measured with standard vehicle equipment and is usually given with no cargo or passengers.
📹 Local builder fixes two car garage the wouldn’t fit two cars
Local builder fixes two car garage the wouldn’t fit two cars.
That GoPro on your head is so incredibly helpful!! When I first started practice driving, my mother would sit in the passenger seat and yell about how I was too close to the curb. Last week, she yelled about how I was too close to the midline. It left me feeling very confused about my placement, second-guessing myself, and that resulted in a lot of mini-zig-zags. No good. Getting to look at proper placement through your eyes is like a breath of fresh air! Thank you <3
1st rule of driving: slow down if you’re unsure. Narrow spaces/lanes, bad weather, light changing to amber, unexpected situations, etc. No test administrator will fail you because you slowed down in a difficult situation, that’s what you’re supposed to do. It gives you time to think and react appropriately, exactly what they want to see you doing.
Im south Africa and iam learning alot from you, im able to drive alone now 😊.. Clutch control and following with traffic…. I use to take roads where there’s no many cars because i was afraid of stopping and going but now i have learned a lot from you iam nolonger running away from busy Roads….. You are the best 🤗
i failed my test a few weeks ago on clearance from a car that was parked on the left hand side. i’m booked in for another test in a weeks time and your articles are massively helpful. thank you so much for taking the time and having the patience to make these articles. i have recommended your website to a lot of my friends that are learning to drive. you are a gem😊
I’m having Refresher driving lessons as I haven’t driven for 25+ years. I will be driving a Citroën Dispatch van, so this article is really beneficial to me!!. Your articles are being extremely helpful. I love your clear & concise instructions. Thank you SO much for all the work you have put into producing your articles – much appreciated.
if only I had known this in my lessons earlier on, it would have saved me months of extra anxiety on the road. In 50 lessons with 2 different instructors not once was I offered this excellent advice. Thank you so much. My first instructor did not explain that the chosen reference markers were only for certain circumstances and I was using them all the time which made driving feel dangerous because its hard to look at that, look ahead and look further down the road simultaneously. Your head cam footage really helps.
This man goes above and beyond. Really puts his soul into this, it’s safe to say I’ve never come across something like this in my entire life, from instructors to family cousins with cars who always give excuses when I wanna learn driving using their cars and talk about how their always late to go somewhere or how the car needs a fixing hence I wouldn’t get it!
I said something to my niece when she was learning, that she said helped her a lot. I said “you aren’t in a car. You aren’t driving a car. You ARE a car. Drive yourself through”. Meaning, you need to basically become one with the car. Get comfortable with the vehicle you’re in, and stop the separation of you versus the car. You are a car, and you gotta feel how big you are. The more you drive the same vehicle the easier it gets. I had her learn with a big pickup truck, and then when she got into the car her mother gave her, which was a small Subaru, she had zero issues with size. She knew if the wide truck could make it, she definitely didn’t have to worry. And now she’s got the hang of knowing how big she is in that vehicle too.
Brother, I am from India. To me this article is like a boon from the paradise. The only fear all I had about driving is judging the width. You’ve blown me with a simple technique. Well my driving coach did told me about this tip but to me it looked weird and logically didn’t fit anywhere. But after seeing your article I am grateful to him and to you. Thank you so much. Keep rocking!
I failed today on my first test due to a serious. Only had 8 minors but this was one of them. This is amazing how well you explained this!!!! This is the one thing I struggle with. Getting too close to the left. In fear I will hit oncoming cars! Which on a test isn’t good whe your so close to the left it can become a minor x
I got my license two years ago and hadn’t driven much since. Had to refresh my memory because I need to start driving to my new job soon. Was extremely anxious behind the wheel. After hours of binge perusal your content, finally did my first successful long drive. Thank you for what you do. Will keep perusal your articles to further refine my driving skills
Today I been forced for pull over a side of the road, because a truck was driving in middle of the road invading both lines. Lucky me, I drive a mini cooper, so is really easy see if the car fit because how it’s the boonet like. Of course I was sure I was not fit and pull left. But the car behind me, didn’t be smart and got the right side mirror broke. My trick is looking at the spot and compare with the front of the bonnet. If I se in a distance perception not fits, sure not will fit. A good training, in a empty parking place, train with some cones for no damage the car.
When I trained as a Lorry driver many years ago, I had a great instructor. Use your SIDE MIRRORS to check where your car is positioned. Seeing how close the rear of the car is on the opposite side using the side mirror, gives you a clearer indication how close the opposite front end is. I’ve used this technique to blast through tight width restriction bollards, with various vehicles, without a scratch. Your side mirrors are your best friends. As a lorry driver I will NOT even start the engine without BOTH functional side mirrors, because doing so would almost gaurantee you will crush someone or something.
I jumped here, because I was looking for some guide with engine braking and downshifting and stayed for every lesson. I have license for 10 years, but bought finally a car and your website helped a lot. Not only to do revision, but no one even ever told me those technical cases on my driving course. What I would add here – everything takes time. I passed test long time ago, took rides as passenger a lot, learned on other people mistakes and I am old enough to think more about risky situations than when I took driving lessons. However when I started to drive my own car it took, and it still takes! a lot of time to guess if I fit in or not. From my experience at the beginning I expected to take much more space than car really needs. It really takes practise and you have to allow yourself to that. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Check side mirrors, lean over the window, open the door to see where the curb is, get out of the car and see how far you are from another. And if the bus or garbage truck can fit in – you will too with ease. Once I miscalculated and scratched, luckily only, my bumper against column in underground parking which leads me to another conclusion – if have doubt’s – don’t do it 😀 It’s better to slow down or stop and get people yell at you, but that still better option than crash or scratch.
Yet again,another amazing tutorial for judging the narrow gaps in meeting situations and especially passing through width restrictions. Thank you for sharing your useful tip on how to imagine yourself for your car’s central road positioning.This really helps the new learners with their road positioning.
I ve got my driving test back in romania few years ago. I was okay and confident on the right side of the road somehow but here in england I stopped driving and when I tried I felt very unconfortable and could not determine the distances between the car and left side of the road. I want to start driving again cause I love it but I have a new car which makes me crazy and afraid of not doing something wrong. I am so nervous and my anxiety is 1000%😂😂 i scratched my wheel just tiny bit one night and I was crying like crazy just because of it. I hope your article will help me hit the road and make my husband proud 🤣
Thanks you so much for the article Lessons. I’m from India, rules are different here although technicality of the vehicle remains same I’ve got learn lot of things from you. Please make article on overtaking & steering wheel control. there are lot of articles on push pull technique but i want know your prospective on them. Thanks again ❤️
Commercial driver for 18+ yrs here. Interesting take. i like the leg trick to stay centered. How I learned lane control, and this will date me, was back in the day PacMan was a thing and while driving I would put the zipper (center line dividing the lanes) right in the crook of the wind shield where dash and side of the wind shield meet. To this 14 year old I imagined PacMan (wind shield corner) was eating his dots (zipper). Just another trick that may help.
I have searched for hours an explanation of how to know i’m in the middle of the lane (google, youtube, instagram, etc) and found no useful tip. However you have solved my problem completely. It is amazing your way of thinking and explaining. This has really helped me!!! Now I can focus my attention on other things than fitting my car in the middle of the lane 🤣🤣🤣 Your articles are pure gold. I am eternally grateful 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
I’ve been driving a van for 25 years, now I want to get a normal car I am daunted by the fact I can’t see the front of the car to judge things. I’ve driven cars before the van with no problems but it is a BIG change from a van to a car. Funny how I had far more confidence when I was younger than I have now with 40 years driving experience. I’m a better driver now but where’s the confidence in judging disappeared to 😂
Personally as a new driver i found that this came easier with time, if you can try and get your instructor to get a cone or something to help you practice the distance near an object, the knowledge you gain from that is amazing and in fact helped me stop scraping the wheels on the curb when parking as well as getting through tight gaps when on busy roads
Wow, the UK roads are mad! I’m used to ~3.5 car widths roads(an ambulance can pass between 2 lane traffic easily) and parking would definitely be prohibited if two cars can’t fit on two lanes. Seeing a bus on such a narrow road is insane! (I’m not from UK obviously) There are of course exceptions, but those are outskirts/back alley/local type of roads with little traffic. You wouldn’t see a bus or so many parked cars on one.
Have 22 years of experience driving on the left hand side and since I moved to the UK I’m struggling a lot especially when it comes to the size of the car. It’s depressing with all my experience driving and being a great driver feeling like a n00b in the UK, but it’s just a matter of getting used to it
It becomes an instinct at some point. To me it is so automatic that I just go with it and I doubt it later. After I get through a narrow area I start thinking “wow that was tight wasn’t it what if it was too tight” etc. but in reality it is like speaking a language, you don’t think about the formation or anything you just speak and it happens.
judging by how slow you need to go to show newbies i consider my self more than an advanced driver since I’d drive through there with 20-30km/h. example stands at 12:00 where you state you might need to clutch it. meh its obviously enough room for the car to go through easily, only danger there is kids dogs etc. but i guess it could prove really helpful for newbies.
I watched this article a few months ago when I was preparing to take my test (passed first time! 👏) I learned in a golf, and my first car is a vauxhall agila which I like because its narrow and I can squeeze through all the gaps 😉 but now I’ve been offered a fantastic deal on an audi convertible, and let me just say yikes, YIKES A LOT!! One of my main hold backs (I have a few worries with whether I should go for this amazing deal 😬) is the width; so came back for another viewing and I think it’s actually really helped to remind me to slow the F down 😅 I worry that in the new car, I’ll have trouble judging the gaps (I need to upgrade anyway) whatever car I get I should probably get a ‘normal’ sized car, can’t be doing 70+ in these little piggin cars plus I need my legs (I’ve been scared into buying a more substantial car for the crush factor if all hell breaks lose and I end up in a crash 😫) TLDR; great article!! 😀😀
Nice article. I’ve been riding motorbikes for around 14 years but only just started learning to drive. One of the things I was concerned about was this, so I brought this up with my instructor before we got on the road. He described pretty much like what you’ve mentioned. Don’t think so much about the car. Look at the gap, is it big enough, then look ahead through the gap. In the end, it actually came quite naturally as long as I remembered that. Seems to actually flow nicely from riding a bike. It’s a similar theory when riding a bike through tight gaps. You just look at the width first and then ride through the gap. If it’s super tight, you have to go at walking speed through. The looking where you want to go, not where you are is very deeply entrenched already.
Driving in a motorcycle majority road system like Indonesia forces you to judge gaps quickly. The plethora of motorcycles also helps you judge the size of your car better as they’d crowd around the front of your car in stoplights though this can be very intimidating for new drivers. I do also help to encourage drivers to pass gaps big enough for two by going left a bit and sometimes indicating right to say “I can’t go any further left” when passing on faster two lane country roads.
Create reference points by parking up on left and right side. Park against left curb, now sit in the car, find the middle bottom of windscreen and place a sticker right there on the dash just under the windscreen interior in the middle. This is the centre and exactly where your left tyres will be from your driving perspective. Call this sticker 0. Now place 3 more stickers equal distance between each other the left and centre of the windscreen, in other words you break up the left hand side of the windscreen into 4 quarters. Sticker A is closest to centre, then B, the C. Sticker A is now a reference for your left wing mirror plus a small gap. You can easily pass a small car/bike using this reference. Sticker B can be used for medium cars and sticker C for larger vehicles/vans/buses. You can also use sticker 0 to park forwards on the left while leaving a 4 finger gap against the curb. Perfect parking every time.
This is one of my biggest problem even after 10 yrs of driving. I never get in trouble tho. But when driving in narrow street with both side having parked cars. It still gets scary to past the street with another moving car coming on the opposite side. I always have to slow down a lot, but other drivers don’t seem to have problem and go zooom past. Same thing with parking on the curb. It is hard for me to get perfect curb park in 1 go with perfect space between car and curb. I always need to do tiny reverse to get closer to the curb. I just terrible spatial awareness.
Before moving to the UK from India (also right side driving) I always used to wonder where did my countrymen learn to be total jerks parking their cars on both side of the road, occupying a large chunk of the pavement as well as the road and making other drivers “squeeze through”, now I know the answer!
I have crashed my car six times in the first five years of my driving. Thankfully i needed body shop work only twice. The other crashes were very minor. I wish someone taught me these tips. Every time i crashed, however minor it was, it drained away my confidence. I am a driver with very mediocre skills. Driving cautiously has helped and in the last four years i have never crashed.
An amazing article. I will admit I did clip a wing mirror the other day despite having 50+ years experience. I didn’t damage the other car and my mirror suffered just a slight crack on the repeater flasher. After perusal this article, will take care not to do it again. I wish every driver who parks on a narrow road would turn in their mirrors. I replayed the article and counted. Less than 50% had done so. I believe some cars have mirrors which turn in automatically when the car is locked.
I have the worst spacial awareness in the world. Whenever I had a driving lesson, I was constantly full of anxiety, convinced that I was going to hit something. I just dreaded my lesson coming around every week. I just decided that the world was better off with one less idiot driving on UK roads and gave up trying to learn. I live in an urban area and public transport is good and frequent, so in reality there is no need for me to have my own car. Also, trains are awesome and never get caught up in traffic jams.
Hmm…. I don’t know how I’ve been doing this on autopilot since I started driving. No one told me anything about this, it’s like I just knew and sorta just drove and taught myself. Been about 4 or so years now since I started. Surprisingly enough, when I went with the driving school car, I failed even though it was a small hyundai. I used my own car, 2013 mazda 3 which is almost double the size of the learner car, I passed without any problem.
Nah, man… you can’t teach this skill. You either have it, or you don’t. I remember even in my first driving years I was squeezing through the most ridiculous gaps, ever so rarely touching the tip of my passenger side mirror (= I had a whole mirror’s length until I actually touched the car’s body). This thing comes with tons of practice and good spacial orientation!
The streets in the place where this article was made are very narrow! I am sure the people who park in these narrow streets must get their car hit at times! I have a large SUV. I would have a difficult time to go on those streets! I cannot imagine if I had to backup down one of those streets because it is blocked. Not enough room to turn the car around. As for my SUV, I learned its limitations for width and length. I can park it like a hand going in to a glove. I have no issues for knowing its width and length. It also has cameras for 360 degree view to see in the blind spots if I need them. I can park that SUV to within a few inches accuracy exactly how I want it.
I remember back in the day where our road is so narrow that mirror kissing is inevitable. The first time I experience mirror kissing with the opposing driver is quite funny because he and I know that we are both in the right lane and no one crossed the centerline. it’s just that the lane is so narrow where one lane just perfectly fits our vehicle. We are so confident that we forgot that our plastic mirrors is actually part of our the vehicle. We just brushed it off and laughed.
Just use reference points on your car to judge how much space you have. Of course with, parallel parking it doesn’t work as easily or may not apply, but for things like parking in regular spots, it can be helpful. On my Silverado I knew from the driver’s seat that from the driver’s edge of the hood to the ridge in the middle, meant I was within the lane (on a normal road). Also if you position your mirrors (exterior) in a way that yo ucan see next to you, but also part of the road, that can help too and you can use that as guide. On vehicles that I’ve driven (like trucks) that don’t have a windshield mounted mirror, I’ve done that too, to help keep me in the lane.
I been driving for few years and I still don’t feel comfortable driving in narrow road especially when both side of a road is full of parking car and there no white or yellow line. I usually looks at the other edge of the car to estimate between the parked car. It work but I alway hoping to never hear anything.
9:16 Putting here to remind myself this important tip. I drive here on very narrow roads (single-carriageway) of Indonesia and often times there’s going to be a car on those narrow road which is a little bit of an issue. The other car definitely would help me to clear the space, but what I need to know / learn is whether when it is safe to go forward when the other car clears a space for me, don’t wanna risk losing a bloody wing mirrors or trade paint with some big SUV on these roads. I put the timestamp there since when I watch this article at first, I didn’t really get it how those reference marker works, but after testing it for real in BeamNG drive, I finally understand how it work and helps with the driving. Also I didn’t realize that those wing mirrors actually help how far the car is with the other car, since you can actually see a part of your car because when I’m first time driving, I didn’t pay attention whatsoever with those wing mirrors and just going with the feeling from playing first-person driving games, since most of the time those cars are just supercars that has ridiculous wing mirrors placement purely for racing.
NGL top tier instructions. Love how you give an eye level POV too. And from the looks of the comments… alot more patient than others. Guys if ur instructior is shouting at you and making you anxious drop them and change over. The first thing on the road is to be calm and comfortable, If a passenger was freaking out like them i would drop them off there and then. Dont be scared to stand your ground
after perusal this vid and a month driving with my dad, he finally told me that i’m improving :”) i always have problem to judge the car size and always too afraid too judge the left side of the car. Your tips to imagine that we’re trying to walk in the middle with the left feet dan setting a reference mark really helps me. Also you telling that our car window so big while the street looks so narrow helps me rethink that it’s the way it is and give me better judgement
I really deciced to leave a comment on this article, even if it doesnt have anything to do with it, but i sincerely want to say how much i apreciate every lesson that you sir post on youtube. Im from romania, and i cant belive how much of a difference is there between the driving schools, most of the tips and the advices i see in the articles, i would wish that my driving instructor teached me, there are many things that i didnt even think about, and i can say i still have a lot to learn from every article you post. I want to thank you again sir, for every article you posted and for the ones that will be posted in future.
This begs the question : How do I judge the length of my car when parking ? For my first (failed) driving exam, I messed up my parallel parking and ended up with the back wheel against the curb and the front wheels very close to the car in front, so I didn’t know what to do and panicked, which was even worse because the serious fault ended up being not looking to the left enough (it’s in France so the road was on my left), or as they call it “insufficient information gathering leading to immediate danger”.
Having confidence of clearing small gaps and position your car in general comes with the driving you have with that car (the more, the better). That’s why you feel strange when you get to drive someone’s car, no matter how much experience as a driver you have – with time you almost “bake in” some sort of mixture between mental image and a muscle memory and you don’t even think about what you’re doing and everything feel natural. When this happens you feel you can drive faster around the cars or whatever obstacle there’s but you end up driving slower for safety reasons. I’d add that you can also use the mirrors and the marking on the road to have a little extra knowledge of where your wheels actually are. Imagine getting a car rental from an airport and getting straight on the highway or other busy road. If the distance between your car and the lane marks is the same in both mirrors, this means you’re in the middle of the lane – just see where your body is, relative to the road (similar to the beginning of the article) and you’re pretty much “calibrated” 🙂
I’ve just found this vdo. I’ve been driving for my whole life and I’m a confident driver. However, I moved to Europe where I have to drive on different lanes. I lost the sense of the boundaries of the car. The road in France also very narrow. My husband keep saying I’m driving very close to the footpath. I’m totally lost confidence of my driving skill. I will try your technique with my judgment for sure. Thank you 🙏
I swear I’ve never seen any traffic in your country every time we driving it’s like nobody’s awake and everyone’s inside still I watched his had a merge article and he just kept waiting and waiting and waiting and I was like dog you can’t wait that long in the stage you ain’t never going to get where you’re trying to go it’s a whole lot denser over here in the States especially the cities
I recently got my full licence and my problem is driving on countryroads at 45 mph where the speed limit is 50mph where there is no hardshoulder. My imagination tells me that my car will clip the car coming towards me so i move towards the hard shoulder everytime a car comes towards me. I have lane keeping assist and that pushes me back towards the center but i dont want to rely on that what should i do?
A bit late on this subject however my system for lane placement is to line up the centre line with certain parts of the vehicle. At 3.30 minutes in the article, when the vehicle moves off the front right corner is aligned with the centre line and doing that places the vehicle in the same position as described by the instructor………. On a highway the lanes are generally wider and the line would then meet the point where the windscreen and support pillar meet, and that puts the vehicle further to the left. I am in Australia and even major highways are only single lane for long distances and so when you are approaching a semi with three trailers you really need to be aware of where you are in regard to the centre line.
12:44 I agree that gauging will take a little time to master but with good reference points you should learn quickly. My two most concerned is to master the coordination between changing the gears and applying the clutch for smooth transition. And secondly to be able to gauge the narrow roads accurately and efficiently (reference points will help tremendously).
What the.. ppl with such problems drive the streets? I am afraid right now O.o Dont get me wrong, I am glad u do a tutorial on smth so basics as simple logic.. but driver licenes, as gun permission, is not for everybody… I guess if you gave no choice.. I also learnt to drive a car.. and having new car now I am again but if ppl will focus on keeping their “left leg on the line” in the middle of road.. they will kill a cycylist or childe that will enter the road. If you are new driver and you are afraid, best thing is to.. actually stop being afraid. Just stick in lanes. Its just that. U can go left and right in you lane dont worry. You dont have to be good at it from start but man dont focus on imaginary things. Focus on road amd surroundings.
When I used to worry that I was going to hit an oncoming car my instructor told me 3 things that really helped. 1) Don’t stare at the car or you’ll steer towards it. 2) Imagine a strip of carpet leading from the front of your car. They’re driving on their carpet and you’re driving on yours. Are the carpets going to touch? No? Then you won’t hit that car. 3) You have a brake. Use it to slow down!
6:46 the oncoming buses looks so scary. I understand that everyone on the road is being careful but my mind always races to the worst outcome. I’m taking my theory test soon and hope to be driving by next year. Your articles have helped me so much with feeling a bit more confident and excited to drive. Even if I do get very anxious especially with the head camera😔
That’s gold! Really helpful thank you. I’d also like to add that since I am (as learners, we are) more accustomed to being a passenger, so when I am in the driver’s seat my brain screams that I am much too far over to the right of the road all the time and therefore oncoming traffic is going to hit me, I must get out of the way. It’s instinctive and the way our perceptions have been trained – it takes time to unlearn that (as a learner at the age of 60, that’s quite a long time). Your articles are proving useful, well explained and very clear.
Great explanations. Lucky learners that get you as an instructor. I’ve been driving for decades and it took me years to feel confident about judging the gap. Discovered relatively recently that l’m claustrophobic. Dr asked me how l felt about crossing bridges and going through tunnels. Talk about a light bulb moment as l had never connected the two. Knowing the cause has unexpectedly made both of them easier, although l still have to sing myself through tunnels.
driving in a straight line is always easy. I always wondered if there is a trick for turning in very narrow streets. In my city there are very narrow cobbled streets with cars parked on both sides. I fit through it with my car with like 20cm of space left and right. Every time I need to turn I need to go back and forth like 3 times
I found this fascinating. At 16, I started working in a transport office in a quarry, and learned to drive all our lorries and machines before I was old enough to drive a car. By the time I started driving on the road, I had learned to reverse articulated lorries into narrow spaces, taking account of the length of the vehicle as well as its width. Cars looked tiny by comparison and I never had a problem judging width. Having had to park my sister-in-law’s car for her whenever she came to visit, I can see how this might be useful for some people. I enjoyed driving for more than 50 years, although I always felt slightly vulnerable in a car, and I was rather relieved when a neurologist told me to surrender my licence, because despite the increasing skills included in the driving test, driving standards have not improved.
I needed this article! I live in Shetland where we have a huge number of single track roads and small towns and villages with narrow streets which people park on in both directions making for pretty scary learning. My first instructor here gave me a hard time for being freaked out when faced with other vehicles on narrow streets. Thankfully my new instructor is a better communicator with more empathy! This has been helpful 👍
Hi, I am an amateur Driver and your article is like a boon to me ..You explained the things in very effective way which most driving instructor does not do . I always felt that car is too big from inside to fit in the gap but you covered this thing also in the article because no one has given me such a good tip regarding ..Thank you and you are awesome !!!
To judge space, I check both mirrors and look to the lines to the rear through them, when my car seems centralized I “transfer the memory” of the position to the position of my knees. Sometimes I drive a little car and sometimes a bigger one, so I usually do that when I begin to drive. The steering wheel itself might be a good reference, too…
Interesting, that you’re using reference markers. I thought I just did that kind of instinctively. My ‘marker’ for the driver’s side is more or less my shoulder. I just know/have a feeling, where it should be relatively to the road’s center. With the passenger side I figured out a few years back, that the view axis over the mounting point of the driver’s side windscreen wiper pretty much let’s me judge where that side of the car is relative to the curb. That’s one thing I check, when I am in an unfamiliar car. Look in the mirror how close I am and pick that view axis. From then on it’s pretty much instinctively. 🤷♂️
I always watch the kerb, and if the kerb is running down the center of my bonnet then that’s when the wheel is about a centimetre from the kerb,always checking wing mirrors aswell, I use that technique for anything not just kerbs, like the bottom of the wheels for a parked car, I know If the tires are running down the center of my bonnet then I’m gonna hit it so just leave abit more room
My test is this Friday and this is the area where I make most of my mistakes, I’m always squeezing in to spaces to try and keep making progress. I don’t take mirror-clipping gaps but I often leave less than a metre from parked cars (at 20/30mph) which always catches the attention of my instructor haha
Thank you so much for these articles …. I’ve looked for articles on driving 6, 7 years back ..never found many that I could understand..gave up on driving … I’m starting to learn again and your article’s are helping me so much…. Some of the advice in this article are golden … 8:50 .. I definitely need to take notes ..😊
As much as is charged to have a home built these days….. This should have been built correctly in the first place. Incompetence of the person who measured for the framing of the garage……come on now….these are basically ( unless custom measures are required) standard sizes for these spaces to house cars……as are sizes of cars……. I would like to bet that whoever did it either had some dislike or agro that day and just did the 🤬what he wanted….. I’ve been following this story from day one…..glad they have it resolved! 🤗🤗🤗
I grew up in a normal split level suburban home built in 1963. It fit a 1966 Chevy Impala and a 1969 Chevy Impala with a refrigerator in front of one of them that you could open with the car in the garage. Lawnmowers fit alongside one of the cars also. Candy bars, cereal boxes and now garages have all shrunk over the decades.
Newer homes are built on smaller lots because land prices are high and going higher. In order for developers to make money they need to squeeze more homes on a given tract of land. 50 years ago they built fewer on the same tract of land. With high land prices developers must build more land on the same size tract of land than before. All that said the garage space will suffer along with the size of the green space for kids to play. That’s why smaller garage space with homes being built closer and closer together. In order for your garage to actually fit two cars buy an older home or custom build one.
Home plan designers and builders have not adjusted the size of a two car garage since forever ago when people had smaller cars. Now we have SUV’s, Pick-ups with cars. They don’t leave any room for storage. Some subdivisions do not allow sheds in your yard. Where do you put the lawn mower? The only other option is to build a 3 stall. But, if your plan only has a two stall, the door is 16′ wide. Put two vehicles in there and some one can’t get out of their car! We had this issue at our last house. Door dings happened. We really need a 9’x18′ door! 20×20 should be 22×22. Come on designers, make it happen. Get rid of the service doors too, they are useless.
The only requirement that makes a garage a “2 car” garage is having a 16’ garage door. Garages have become smaller over the years because of lot sizes and lot prices. Something on a floor plan has to be sacrificed when trying to maximize living space on reduced lot sizes and garages usually take the hit.
Congradulations! Our house’s garage won’t fit two cars either. Just like you we back into our garage. It was advertised as a 2 car but it only fits one. My problem is the width not the depth. To make them fit. One has to be backed in almost touching the inside wall. Then fold the mirrors in. Back the second one in right next to the first & then they both fit. However we have to pull the first one out to get the second one out. The mirrors are practically touching. There is no room to store anything else in the garage except on a high shelf or on the ceiling. We had to build a shed for our yard equipment because the garage is soo small.
They DO NOT build houses the way they used too, especially by me in Ontario. They now make the houses so close together, small driveways, postage stamp back yard, literally all the houses are built together, like duplexes and overpriced. The houses from the 1950s-1970s are way better, nice ranch style suburban houses, with decent space between the houses, decent back yards etc… Now developers want to squeeze every last dollar and square foot into houses, that look like shit and literally just so close together… its so sad…
Unfortunately the term “# car garage” only refers to the size of the garage, not how many cars can actually fit in it. However, suppose the customer raises this concern with the builder or realtor. In that case, the buyer can measure their car or find the dimensions online and compare them to the dimensions of the garage while taking ingress and egress into consideration. The water heater location should be on the blueprint. If not, it is up to the builder to accommodate the needed space.
I guess two cars mean a couple of sub-compacts. My neighbor bought a home with a “2 car garage that had a 12′ wide door. The stairwell into the home from the garage was centered in the garage making it impossible to park even a mid- size . The solution suggested by the contractor was to build a detached garage…behind the house…with no access.
Either way, all it takes is one slip up when parking and the water heaters are ruined, and water is going everywhere. I would not place them in the garage. I’m sure the house has a basement, why not there? That’s what every home with a basement I’ve seen does… Still, if they’re going to be in the garage, why not place them this way from the start? I have so many questions for this home builder.
Customers always rtye….cuz they paying not u! Dont like it find a new job, how hard/ridiculous is that ur a big contractor that cant even build a decent 2 car garage! Most diy can build 1 in a few day yet they fail cause their ego! mr. Ik what I’m doing been doing this so for year az get that salt of yall
NOBODY needs two water heaters. NOBODY. That house isn’t even big enough to justify it. Ridiculous. My house has two and my house is double the size. You don’t have them next to each other. You would have one upstairs and one downstairs so that the water is not cold by the time it reaches the second or third floor. DUH.