AMERICAN GARAGES ARE GETTING BIGGER
Truck, SUV boom means space is at a premium
DETROIT — Lorraine Dillon couldn’t fit her enormous GMC Yukon SUV into her tiny garage on St. Paul Street in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. So builder Al Shaheen made the entrance bigger. “The garage had to be usable,” said Dillon, 72, whose husband drives a Chevrolet Suburban. “We didn’t have enough length to the driveway to park a car without blocking the sidewalk.” And she’s not alone. Builders say garages are getting bigger than ever.
“American cars have never been bigger and never been taller. But they can’t get much wider,” said Eric Noble, a product development consultant and professor of vehicle technology at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California. “The only thing that has grown as fast as American vehicles are American waistlines.”
The consumer shift to pickups and large SUVs has created a niche business in garage remodeling as people try to make space for vehicles that may comfortably seat eight people and still have room for storage.
“We’ve moved from a 7-foot garage door height to 8-foot. It’s difficult to fit them not only into garages but into parking spaces,” Noble said. ❚ Vehicles become adult toys: Dustin Collier, a builder based in Traverse City, Michigan, said his garage project clients consist mostly of people in their 50s and 60s.
“Vehicles are just taller. You might be able to fit a Ford F-150 into a garage with nothing on its roof, but if you have lights or anything up there, it’s cutting things close,” he said. “I see a lot of four-door trucks. They just don’t fit.”
Collier sees people spend $3,000 to $12,000 “trying to make things right.” While the 8-foot height is the new standard on garages, he builds as high as 12 feet now to accommodate popular roof racks. “People are all about their toys now,” Collier said. “The trucks are jacked up with big tires.”
Improvements may run as high as $20,000.
“People are adding on to garages to make them wider, doing additions, adding rooms to the back and making garages longer,” said builder William Pachota, based in Livonia, Michigan.
“You need clearance and peace of mind. People are buying bigger vehicles. Families. All income levels. People really like a cathedral ceiling in the garage these days.”
Architect Jon Sarkesian of Royal Oak, Michigan, has been designing renovations for three decades and says the trend toward expansion has been steady and growing. Many families tear down a detached garage if they can’t add space as needed. “People always bring up car size during the design process now,” Sarkesian said.
Even Erich Merkle, U.S. sales analyst for Ford Motor Co., said his dad can’t fit his F-150 into the garage, so he parks it in the driveway.
❚ Truck, SUV sales boom: Families have taken an additional step to maximize space by turning to garage interior organizers.
“We had a client who could barely fit a car in their garage, they had so much stuff. We were able to organize it where now they could fit their GMC truck and Acadia SUV in there,” said Tom Francis, owner of West Michigan Garage Interiors based in Grand Rapids. “We used to see only people 55 years old and older. Now clients in their 40s are calling.”
In August, the F-series pickup, long the best-selling vehicle in America, grew 6.3 percent to 81,839 units for the month. Overall, Ford’s SUVs saw a 20 percent sales increase, while car sales declined 21 percent. Fiat Chrysler’s Ram truck and van brand enjoyed a 26.5 percent sales increase.
Passenger cars dropped below 30 percent of the market in August for the first month ever, according to Cox Automotive. A few years ago, they made up half of industry sales.