Tips for not hitting the garage with your car

It’s late and you’re in a hurry. You jump in the car and start backing out. Suddenly, you hear a scrapping noise and realize you’ve rubbed the car against the garage door opening. You pull forward again and, with your heart in your throat, jump out to survey the damage.

There it is – a big scrape along the side of the car. Just when you’re thinking how bad this is – how much it will cost to fix your car – you notice that the you’ve also damaged the opening around the garage door.

Of course, this has happened many, many times before. Drivers have hit the side of the garage door opening, they’ve hit the garage door before it was all the way up, whether pulling in or out, they’ve hit objects in the garage and they’ve pulled too far forward running the car into the back wall of the garage. But, what can you do to avoid these kinds of problems?

Avoid pulling into the garage door. The best defense to avoid hitting the garage door before it is opened is patience. Of course, when you’re in a hurry, it’s sometimes difficult to remember to be patient. When leaving the garage, you can make a habit of waiting until the garage door is all the way up before you start the car.

You can also mount a small bump on the ground outside of the garage so you know when the front or back of the car is approaching the point where either bumper intersects with the path of the garage door. Park the car one way and hold a level upright at the point closest to the garage door but short of the path of the garage door. Mark that spot on the ground. Then turn the car around and do the same thing. Glue or mount the bump on the pavement at the furthest of these two points from the door.

To avoid scrapping the side of the door while coming in or out, you can mount a piece of pipe-insulation foam so that it extends into the garage from both sides. Mount a short piece of pipe off the wall beside the garage door opening perpendicular to the floor and facing the garage door opening but keep it back further than the opening. Then, pull the car into the garage door opening so that it is as close to centered as possible. Measure from both sides and attach a piece of foam insulation on the pipe on both sides so they just touch the car. You might even wrap some reflective tape on the insulation so you’ll see them easier in the dark.

To keep from hitting the back wall of the garage, pull the car in to the distance you usually park. On a piece of string, hang a tennis ball so that it just touches the windshield. You should then notice hitting the ball when pulling into the garage and know that it’s time to stop.

Another simple tip is to use your headlights when you’re in the garage or pulling into the garage. The better you can see around you the less chance you’ll hit something.