Hertz has a premium line of rental cars. They might have an M5 or two. Decades ago, the Budget franchise in Marina Del Ray (near the Los Angeles airport) had all sort of exotic cars for rent: Porsches, R-R's, M's, Ferraris, you name it. Driving back and forth from LA to SF would be scenic and fun.
I'm militant about having all my cars in a garage. Back when we had three cars, the third one was a Chevy Cobalt (GM Delta platform), sort of the anti-BMW. The car only cost $18k new in 2007. I gladly spent $140/month to rent an off-site garage, and I rotated my BMW and the Cobalt. I sold the car in December 2021 for $2000. I was still paying $140/month for that rental garage, and it was still money well spent.
We're planning to build a new house next year. The planning started with the garage and then the house was designed around it. I'm tired of having a cramped garage. The new one will have three 9' wide doors 2' apart, with 3' between the doors and the garage side walls. The middle bay will have a drive-on lift for a fourth car. My goal is to never get a door ding in my garage, and to be able to scoot in between cars on my mechanic's stool to check and adjust tire pressures.... naked. (I have to check my tires in my driveway now, and doing that naked causes a lot of problems.)
I had a project that involved BAe back in the day, and had several trips over there. I noticed that garages in the UK are horribly small, far worse than here. If you have the space, go large on the garage.
Large sedans are just as wide as pick-up trucks and SUV's, just under two meters (~80"). Doors on large vehicle swings out about a meter (~40"). An X7's rear doors are huge, so they might swing out even more. You don't want Granny or a kid getting out of your X7 and whacking your Range Rover or M5. The 9' - 2' - 3' formula leaves a few inches of safety margin for vehicles not perfectly centered in the garage bays.
Having an uncluttered garage is a powerful visual effect. If you have the space, have separate storage rooms for most of the typical garage clutter. You still need at least one table or workbench in a garage, though.
I'm militant about having all my cars in a garage. Back when we had three cars, the third one was a Chevy Cobalt (GM Delta platform), sort of the anti-BMW. The car only cost $18k new in 2007. I gladly spent $140/month to rent an off-site garage, and I rotated my BMW and the Cobalt. I sold the car in December 2021 for $2000. I was still paying $140/month for that rental garage, and it was still money well spent.
We're planning to build a new house next year. The planning started with the garage and then the house was designed around it. I'm tired of having a cramped garage. The new one will have three 9' wide doors 2' apart, with 3' between the doors and the garage side walls. The middle bay will have a drive-on lift for a fourth car. My goal is to never get a door ding in my garage, and to be able to scoot in between cars on my mechanic's stool to check and adjust tire pressures.... naked. (I have to check my tires in my driveway now, and doing that naked causes a lot of problems.)
I had a project that involved BAe back in the day, and had several trips over there. I noticed that garages in the UK are horribly small, far worse than here. If you have the space, go large on the garage.
Large sedans are just as wide as pick-up trucks and SUV's, just under two meters (~80"). Doors on large vehicle swings out about a meter (~40"). An X7's rear doors are huge, so they might swing out even more. You don't want Granny or a kid getting out of your X7 and whacking your Range Rover or M5. The 9' - 2' - 3' formula leaves a few inches of safety margin for vehicles not perfectly centered in the garage bays.
Having an uncluttered garage is a powerful visual effect. If you have the space, have separate storage rooms for most of the typical garage clutter. You still need at least one table or workbench in a garage, though.
