<p>We will be handing my '06 car down to d. With my new car taking its space in the garage, we have 3 options for parking the old car. 1. It could be parked in the end of the driveway, but this will require jockeying vehicles to get in and out of the garage/drive. 2. It can be parked on the street. We live in a cul de sac, and it would need to be across the street, as we live on the fire lane side. The street is not crowded generally with parked cars. Don’t want to make the neighbors feel crowded by a car in front of their house, but really shouldn’t be an issue. 3. Our property abuts a local church, which has given us permission to park in their lot at the edge (close to our home, away from the church.) Car will be more or less “parked” until d gets home from college in a month or so, then she will be driving it (and parking at home at night) as she works locally. Any advantages/safety/legal/logistics issues that make one choice better than another?</p>
<p>Do you have a two-car garage? And do you have a spouse who has a car?</p>
<p>Obviously, you want your brand-new car to have the protection of being in the garage. But if your spouse has an older car, he/she may not care much about where it’s parked. </p>
<p>If that’s the case, the car that will be your daughter’s could sit in the garage for a month, and your spouse’s car could be parked in the driveway. All the cars would be on your property, and there would be no problem with moving cars around to get the right cars into the garage.</p>
<p>I don’t know the neighborhood but a lone car parked in the church parking lot all night and all day seems like it’d stick out to thieves and vandals and be a target. </p>
<p>It can be annoying to neighbors to have someone always park a car right in front of their house - especially a car that just sits there most of the time not driven. If you go this route make sure you go out of the way to keep the appearance of the car up so it doesn’t end up being an eyesore due to being unwashed and derelict looking (I’ve seen some of these cars around).</p>
<p>Also, since the car will just sit there you might want to consider getting a car cover for it. This will protect the finish of the car from the sun and debris and also maybe make it less of a theft target since one would have to go to the extra step of removing the cover (not hard but not as easy as stealing that other car down the street).</p>
<p>Agree about not parking in front of someone else’s house. That annoys people- not totally sure why, but it does (and I think it would annoy me as well).</p>
<p>Church lot might work but make sure that doesn’t negate any insurance coverage in case of theft. </p>
<p>This is what my kids would hashtag on twitter as #firstworldproblems</p>
<p>I encourage you not to park it on the street, and especially not in front of a neighbor’s home. That would make me insanely angry if someone did that to me. We are currently having a problem with a family parking on the street in our neighborhood which is against the HOA ordinance. Not only is it a safety hazard, it looks trashy (IMO). We are a three car family and we are able to easily park all cars in the garage and driveway. DH and I park in garage, DD in the driveway. I back my car in to the garage and DH pulls head first in to the garage. DD parks in the driveway (on my side) and leaves approximately eight feet of driveway space between her car and the garage door. This allows me to pull out of the garage at an angle and exit between DH’s and DD’s vehicles. Trust me, it is easily done. I am also able to back into my spot when DD’s car is in the driveway. Practice makes perfect. :)</p>
<p>How big is your yard? We’re a 4-car family at the moment, the kids’ cars get parked on the grass next to the driveway. At some point we will have to do some yard repair, but it is not a big deal.</p>
<p>You don’t get ownership of a public street just because it is front of your house, especially if you can’t legally park on your side of the street. Maybe park the car at the property line between two houses if possible so it is not right in front of the door.</p>
<p>
Complain to the HOA, there’s usually someone on the board who likes nothing more than writing up the residents for minor infractions of the rules.</p>
<p>
I spent quite some time this morning on the phone with the management company. I’d finally had enough when one of the two cars that constantly is parked there nearly hit me yesterday when the driver failed to look before pulling away from the curb. Sadly, I found out this morning that these are the same folks who are in arrears so much on HOA dues that the HOA association has placed a lien on their property. Additionally, they don’t maintain their lawn or house in the way it should be to live in a decent neighborhood. Some of the neighbors have asked them nicely to follow the HOA guidelines, but they thumb their noses at them. I’m all for writing residents up for minor infractions; otherwise, major ones begin and it’s too late. I’d like my house to retain value rather than losing it because someone who agreed to the rules when they moved in suddenly decides not to follow them.</p>
<p>Note that many places have a 72 hour or some such limit on parking on the street (without signs specific to that limit), though it is only likely to be enforced if someone complains about it.</p>
<p>You can park it at my house. Just hang the keys on the door knocker.</p>
<p>We shuffle the cars daily. Whenever I think about complaining about it I remember how much time I used to spend driving them around. This is MUCH easier. LOL!</p>
<p>Marian’s solution is a good one – park a car in use in the driveway, and an unused car in the garage. I also like parking the unused car just off the driveway on the grass.</p>
<p>Since I work in code enforcement … where I live you cannot park for more than 72 hours in the same spot on the street, same thing in the church parking lot although you would be less likely to be ticketed there. Also cannot park on the grass. You should check your local ordinances before you do any of these three. My vote is for the driveway :)</p>
<p>We dealt with a similar scenario when our son left to thru hike the Appalachian Trail for a few months. We ended up parking his car in our driveway, but down on the end (nearer to the street) with a car cover over it. That way, we could still use the garage for our own vehicles. We left enough room that we were able to maneuver with some practice. </p>
<p>I agree with everyone else on this–NOT to leave it on the street parked in front of someone else’s home. (We lived that nightmare once when our neighbors insisted in parking right in front of our For Sale sign with their huge van that had a “lively” paint job on it :))</p>
<p>And it’s true that a vehicle unattended will definitely be a target for thieves or vandals.</p>
<p>For awhile, we had 4 drivers and 4 vehicles when both kids were home. It was a constant game of musical cars, but we eventually settled into a rhythm based on everyone’s schedule. And as I’ve learned after raising two kids, the saying definitely applies: “this too shall pass”.</p>
<p>Somehow park all of the cars on YOUR property…whether on the grass, in the garage, or in the driveway. We also had four cars and it worked out somehow. No one ever got trapped in the house.</p>
<p>4 car family, 2 car garage - I feel your pain. </p>
<p>I think if the car will really sit unused for an entire month, you might have to go with end of the driveway and weird jockeying. </p>
<p>I had a neighbor who would park a derelict Corolla at the foot of my driveway and leave it there for months. Eventually, the cops would notice it or somebody would call it in (code says it has to move every 24 hours, but cops have better things to do than drive around looking for cars parked in one spot for too long). The neighbor, then, would have to PUSH the thing into his driveway for a couple of days and then he’d PUSH it right back out inot the street right at the foot of my driveway. It was hard to see around, and we live on a busy street. Anyhow, just wouldn’t recommend leaving it in the street for a month. Once D comes home and drives it daily (or almost daily), the street or the church lot would be ok.</p>
<p>Our town doesn’t allow street parking between 2am-6am every night. It keeps cars from stagnating on the street, however several neighbors get tickets when they fail to put a car back in the driveway overnight.</p>