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The entrance to my driveway is too small and I scrapped my new car

F

Frostee

Well-Known Member
I got a new car a week ago. I’ve driven 600 miles without damaging it (down many narrow roads etc).

My driveway is REALLY narrow with two brick walls, side by side. Everyone in my household has hit their call on these walls at some stage. We have all requested that my father widen this wall significantly and he refuses to do so.

I have had and will always have great difficulty in getting into this drive.

As a driver you have to stop dead on a busy main road (60 mph) and quickly, under pressure drive in off the road at a specific angle to ensure that your car won’t get hit. A sequence something like this \....|.

This evening the front of my car got through, but the back left side hit the wall and has large scrapes beside the wheel/back door. As my car is quite wide and long, I hit it.

I’m at the end of my tether with this. This was wall causes me great anxiety. I’m always worrying about how i’m going to get into the drive without hitting the car.

I will now have to pay to get it fixed, knowing that I could immediately hit it again as soon as I drive in.

So, I am now parking my car on the road, and my mother will drive it in. I refuse to drive my car through this entrance.

I am sorry for the rant, but this is a brand new car and I just hit it! My father blames me and will not widen the wall at any point!

I am not rich and can not afford to just scrape a brand new car and act like it’s nothing! My father WILL NOT compromise on this.

I am beyond worried that I am going to hit my car again. I am not a “bad” driver. This is humiliating!
 
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I used to live in an apartment with two poles at the entrance to the driveway and I'd often scrape against those. It never really bothered me to have a few scrapes, but my car was old and ugly so I could see why you'd be bothered with it happening to a new car. And the part about getting off the road into the driveway sounds awfully stressful.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what does "widening the wall" mean? How exactly can it be made wider?
 
He can knock it down and build it further down, or replace it with a fence.

But yes a costly mistake that I worry will be repeated again. Not sure what to do as he won’t compromise.

(This is not a small scrape but a long “gash”).
 
So sorry this happened to you. Have you seen those rubber bumpers they put on corners and walls to cut down on this? Or ask handyman to attach rubber something to sides with screws on top of rubber so car just hits that. Not attractive but works. l have seen these on boats that carry cars on the sides because cars can bounce sometimes. Your dad may go for that because way cheaper then moving wall. Again. So Sorry.
 
Aspychata said:
So sorry this happened to you. Have you seen those rubber bumpers they put on corners and walls to cut down on this? Or ask handyman to attach rubber something to sides with screws on top of rubber so car just hits that. Not attractive but works. l have seen these on boats that carry cars on the sides because cars can bounce sometimes. Your dad may go for that because way cheaper then moving wall. Again. So Sorry.
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No, I didn’t but funny I was thinking of such a contraception. Wouldn’t it cause a scoring of sorts though?

Something like this will have to be installed because I cannot manoeuvre around that wall confidently!
 
It has to be attached on inside with rubber over screw, concrete screw if concrete l guess.
 
Reminds me of how narrow the garages are here that tenants can rent for an additional price. Makes me wonder how many people have probably decapitated their side mirrors just backing out or pulling in.

Sorry to hear. But yeah, such things can happen. Under the circumstances, it sounds like a smart idea to avoid the driveway altogether.

Over the years I've had any number of situations involving trying to squeeze past objects and other cars just to make a turn. Learned quickly to just be patient and wait rather than try to negotiate narrow passages of any kind.

Avoidance is often an excellent choice when faced with such exposures.
 
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Doesn't your car have sensors that beep at you when you are near a wall to help you guide it in? I guess not... I guess the rubber bumpers are the best option.
 
Judge said:
Reminds me of how narrow the garages are here that tenants can rent for an additional price. Makes me wonder how many people have probably decapitated their side mirrors just backing out or pulling in.

Sorry to hear. But yeah, such things can happen. Under the circumstances, it sounds like a smart idea to avoid the driveway altogether.

Over the years I've had any number of situations involving trying to squeeze past objects and other cars just to make a turn. Learned quickly to just be patient and wait rather than try to negotiate narrow passages of any kind.

Avoidance is often an excellent choice when faced with such exposures.
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you should see the space newbuild houses have now ! in the UK ,it’s just going back to the Victorian slums,there is barely any passage from the front of the house to the back The consensus appears to be build anything after 1980 you can barely pass by it .
 
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We live ( husband and me) next to a bar/tabac ( pub) and although now, we have a big drive way, through being stubborn, nethertheless, to get into the drive way, we have a main road and can you believe it, drivers flash us, because we want to drive into our drive way and also, people will stop right outside our home, to pop into the shop, and if we need to go out, we either have to wait, or my husband has to go into the bar and request for the person to move their car. It is OBVIOUS that it is a drive way, but people are so impatient and little regard for others, that they still behave obnoxiously.

It winds my husband up considerably and he is nt.
 
Yeah rubber bumpers are the way to go. And accept that your car will be scratched at some point. The house I grew up in had a 10m long drive between 2 walls which was very narrow and had 2 kinks in it, all the family's cars had a multitude of scratches and dents on them from those walls.

You do realise that rebuilding a wall is a big investment in time and money right? And that is even assuming that he owns the walls, the land beyond the walls, and has the right to change them without planning permissions.
 
Progster said:
Doesn't your car have sensors that beep at you when you are near a wall to help you guide it in?
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Interesting subject.

Reminds me of my cousin asking me about all the electronic and radar-driven features of my car. In terms of the detection of lateral objects ("Lane Change Assist"), it will gradually "right" the vehicle to remain within a lane if it detects crossing over a line as a part of the lane. However in making a turn, it seems to just "beep" if and when a vehicle is immediately parallel to me. Whether it truly keeps the car parallel within the lane during a turn, I'm not really sure! I can only speculate that my particular car would probably beep like hell attempting to go through such a tight and narrow passageway with its radar detecting walls on both sides. :confused:

Helpful safety functions, but in this instance I doubt it would keep my Mazda from avoiding physical contact with the walls themselves. Especially if the tolerances are so tight. Perhaps in the future such detection features may become better defined. Though if anyone here has a late model Nissan, I am curious if this car's safety functions could in fact successfully and automatically guide a car perfectly straight through a very narrow passageway without incident. Perhaps more like self-driving functions than mere safety functions?

Only yesterday I saw a network news story about such safety features being no absolute guarantee in avoiding collisions with pedestrians. That they are designed to assist drivers, but not literally take over operation of the vehicle itself. Whether some can or that their manufacturers are willing to assert such possibilities I cannot say.

Still it's both humorous and alarming to see some Tesla owners so comfortable with self-driving functions to be seen going down a freeway with the driver apparently asleep at the wheel. A feature my car does not have. o_O
 
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I don't blame your father for not moving the walls. This is more expensive and involved than it might seem to you.

In future, be sure to measure your driveway or parking space and the intended car, before making the purchase! I drive a compact, Honda Civic, which is too small to transport much beyond groceries, but is so easy to park due to its small size.

Perhaps this daily aggravation will be your motivation to get a place of your own, sooner rather than later.

Anyway, congratulations on having a new car and the freedom it can bring!
 
I used to get scratches and dents on my car regularly. I just painted a mural on the sides of the car making it into a waves/surfing scene.
 
I lived in New Orleans, LA for a number of years where I learned to parallel park a car if I have 6 inches of clearance on each end, and I'm not kidding! The parking space shortage there is extreme. You have to take your time and carefully maneuver. Don't get in a rush when you're in tight spaces.
 
Mary Terry said:
I lived in New Orleans, LA for a number of years where I learned to parallel park a car if I have 6 inches of clearance on each end, and I'm not kidding! The parking space shortage there is extreme. You have to take your time and carefully maneuver. Don't get in a rush when you're in tight spaces.
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Yeah. Something I learned in trying to park in San Francisco. Something for the the rich and crazy, and I was neither. So I learned to use public transportation (BART) instead. - Avoidance. Truth is, I don't even recall the last time I attempted to parallel park much of anywhere in the last 20 years. o_O
 
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